PICKER PRINT GALLERY @ VCP
January 2025 Featured Artist: Marco Yat Chun Chan: Savannah – 531A
Opening Reception: Friday January 4th, 2024, 5-8PM
Savannah welcomed me with her magnificent bridge, connecting Georgia and South Carolina in 2021. The view from my apartment window was breathtaking, and I found myself captivated by it each day. I began photographing the scene, documenting each moment when the light or atmosphere struck me with awe. It soon became a daily ritual for 2022, a visual diary of the changing sky.
Just a few months into the ritual, construction began directly in front of my apartment.
Day by day, the building grew, steadily obstructing my once-open view of the Talmadge Memorial Bridge and Alexander Hall, where I spent countless hours studying photography and making prints other than the apartment. By mid-May, the bridge was completely obscured, replaced by the concrete facade of the new SCAD parking garage.
What began as an inspiring view of Savannah’s skyline turned into a grey, oppressive wall. Over 50 apartments shared this once stunning view, but it became nothing more than a collective memory by mid-2022. The experience prompted me to leave, as the rent kept rising and my sense of place turned from hopeful to suffocating.
This project, a hand-drawn fabric calendar featuring daily cyanotypes of the evolving view, represents more than just a blocked landscape-this is a reflection on the real estate hegemony I first experienced in Hong Kong. There, it’s common for a new building to appear seemingly overnight, robbing you of your connection to the outside world. Ironically, in this case, I was paying to block my own view-SCAD’s new parking garage was for students like me, yet it came at the cost of something priceless.
While the car park solved the parking problem for nearby academic buildings, it left me wondering —what did we truly sacrifice? The experience, the mental health of residents, the sense of connection to the city? As Savannah grows, I hope we can ask these questions and explore better solutions for urban planning that balance growth with preserving the unique and personal aspects of our shared spaces.
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Marco Chan is an artist who thinks a lot about the daily encounter of life. He incorporates personal experience with the subject matter, thoughts on the topic, and observation in the working process. His works speak with the viewer’s perception and strive for conversations besides enjoying the visual.
Hong Kong, where he grows has influenced him heavily. Within the rapid development of this global metropolis, the mixed contrast of buildings, cultures, and objects attracts him to focus on local heritage and culture in his work. He has created a series of projects with different photographic formats and printing methods. From his experience producing prints, he understands the importance of resonance between image and substrate. Marco specializes in historic and digital photo printmaking. He has a vision on the choice of the printing method, paper, and possible techniques to enhance the presentation of the image. He will bring the most out of the image with printing and the best visual enjoyment for the artist and the audience. Let the print be one of the best forms for the image.
Marco is currently in Hanover, NH. He is open to collaboration or any art related opportunities. Don’t hesitate to connect with him to talk about prints, art, photography, and more!
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How To Have Your Work Featured:
To have a featured 1-month exhibition in VCP’s Print Gallery, participants must be a current VCP member and fill out the online exhibition proposal form (please choose the “VCP’s Print Gallery” option within the form) here: https://vcphoto.org/exhibits/propose-an-exhibit/ If you would like us to consider your work for a show and are not currently a member, we invite you to join today! You can sign up to be a VCP member online HERE.
There is no cost or fee to show your work in the Print Gallery. If you need your work printed for your exhibition, VCP would be happy to offer you our fine-art printing services at a discounted rate.
Work is encouraged to be available for purchase. VCP retains 40% of any artwork sales during the exhibition.