Wallace Chan: Totem

Chinese multidisciplinary artist Wallace Chan presents, on the occasion of the 59th Venice Biennale, the exhibition “Totem“, hosted by the Fondaco Marcello in Venice. Chan is a pioneer of titanium’s large-scale sculptures. The title of the exhibition refers to an esteemed ancestral spirit, interconnecting the philosophical aspects of Wallace Chan’s Buddhist faith, including his reverence for the natural world and the innate qualities of the materials he uses in his sculptural work. The exhibition features an installation work composed of multiple unassembled parts of Chan’s 10-metre titanium sculpture (“A Dialogue Between Materials and Time, Titans XIV”) positioned across the floorspace of Fondaco Marcello.

Chan’s installation produces energy by the relationship between its multiple parts. Once disassembled, the integrity of the sculpture as a unified form is removed, suggesting the fragility and imminent collapse of a previous order. It symbolizes the social fragmentation and uncertainty experienced around the world today in global issues such as polarized politics and climate change.