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Visionary art
harder than steel. The interest of the Taiwanese art collector, Yih Shun Lin, has represented a turning point in the artist’s career. Recognising the exceptional artistic creativity, Lin became his patron and mentor, commissioning him the realisation of the Great Stupa, a one-metre-tall reliquary, in gold, crystals and rubies, to host Buddha’s tooth for a temple in Taiwan. Thanks
to the financial support of his patron, Chan dedicated himself to experimentation, focusing on metallurgy, principally mastering titanium, to be able to use the strength, lightness and possibilities of colour of the metal. After eight years
of experiments with melting and mixing metal Chan succeeded in
“taming” titanium. Thanks to mastering the precious metal, the artist was also facilitated in designing jewels, being able to create strong and light jewels and sculptures in miniature, which would have been difficult, if not impossible, to wear, in any other metal.
In 2021, the first art exhibition of large-scale sculpture and installation by the multi-disciplinary
artist, “TITANS: a dialogue between materials, space and time”, curated by James Putnam, former
curator of the British Museum, ran at the Fondaco
Marcello of Venice. In early 2022, “TITANS: a dialogue between materials, space
and time” was on show at the Canary Wharf in London, as part of their programme of public sculptures. In April 2022, Chan returned to the Fondaco Marcello of Venice for another solo exhibition, TOTEM, whose spectacular nature is not due to a single work, but to the interdependent relationship between its multiple parts: once decomposed, the integrity of the sculpture as one shape falls short, suggesting the fragility and
imminent collapse of a pre-constituted order.
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Tutti i gioielli illustrati in questo servizio sono firmati Wallace Chan.
All the jewels illustrated in this article are signed Wallace Chan.
© Photos by: www.sothebys.com www.wallace-chan.com