Ka-Man Tse Explained

Ka-Man Tse
Birth Place:Kowloon, Hong Kong
Nationality:American
Education:Bard College
Yale University

Ka-Man Tse (born 1981)[1] is a Hong Kong-born photographer, video artist, and educator based in New York.[2] Influenced by her Asian-American and queer identity,[3] Tse primarily uses portraiture to tell stories about the people, identity, visibility, and place in and around the queer community.[4] [5] [6]

Early life

Born in Kowloon, Hong Kong,[7] [8] Tse moved to the U.S. where she and her family worked in Schenectady, New York in Chinese restaurants. During the 1980s and 1990s, Tse made regular road trips to Chinatown, New York which served as a surrogate for her birthplace. Her relationship with these three cities - New York City, Schenectady, and Hong Kong - is an ongoing investigation in her work.

Education

In 2003 Tse received her B.A. in Photography from Bard College and in 2009 went on to receive an M.F.A. in Photography from Yale University.

Art

Ka-Man Tse's work deals with visibility and representation through photography and film. She strives to locate points of intersection between LGBT and Asian and Pacific Islander communities.[9] She mainly works with a large format view camera to take photographs that examine what is shared and negotiated between these two seemingly distant communities[10]

Portraits and Narratives of LGBTQ Asians and Asian Americans

In 2014 she received the Robert Giard Fellowship grant for her project, Portraits and Narratives of LGBTQ Asians and Asian Americans. The artist describes this body of work as an examination of community and human agency through photographs, both staged and organic, of her subjects in public spaces. Tse mixes personal memories, obsessions, stories and portraiture in order to conceptualize queer narratives and photograph them while they unfold in public space.

Narrow Distances

Ka Man-Tse's solo show, Narrow Distances, featured a series of photographs taken in Hong-Kong, and aimed to rework the world out of a desire to see it re-imagined with the queer narrative in mind. Tse used placement, foregrounding and the connection with her subjects, to recast the social landscape of Hong-Kong. The title of the show is an allusion to the over-populated streets of the city as well as the space between Asian and LGBT communities. The show features intimate portraits of queer Chinese city-goers set against a backdrop of the Hong-Kong landscape. The subjects and setting work harmoniously together to create poetic images that confront issues of identity and representation. The show was held at Lumenvisum gallery in 2016 and was the artist's first solo exhibition[11] in Hong Kong.

In Search of Miss Ruthless

Ka-Man Tse's photographs have been featured in the group show, In Search of Miss Ruthless, which examined the history of beauty pageants in Asia. Curated by Hera Chan and David Xu Borgonjon, the show was based on Canadian artist group, General Idea’s project titled, The 1971 Miss General Idea Pageant. In Search of Miss Ruthless, features two of Ka-Man Tse's photographs which were met with critical acclaim.[12]

The first photo featured in the show is titled Embrace (2015), and features a group of Asian-Pacific Islander women locked in an emotional hug after the conclusion of a beauty pageant in New York. The women wear expressions ranging from joy to relief as they frantically cling to one another in an overtly emotional and extravagant embrace, speaking to the forced, enhanced smiles and personas of beauty pageant contestants.[13]

The second photo included, Untitled, is a photograph of Rye Bautista, otherwise known as La Chiquitta,[14] one of Hong-Kong's preeminent drag queens, alone on a rooftop in Hong-Kong. The subject is seen slumped on the ground, wig-less, barefoot and smoking a cigarette. His gaze looks off past the photographer and into the night sky. His heavily made up face starkly contrasts with the baldness of his head and the undone nonchalance in his posture. Here, Ka-Man Tse captures La Chiquitta behind the scenes, taking a break, bringing a sense of normalcy to the highly exaggerated persona drag queens adopt. Ka-Man Tse actively includes an Asian drag queen in a group show about beauty pageants, starting a conversations about similarities between the two worlds and contributing to her larger goal of increasing visibility of the LGBT community.[15]

Tse has exhibited solo shows in the United States and Hong Kong.

Teaching

Ka-Man Tse has taught photography at Cooper Union, The City College of New York,[16] and at the Yale University School of Art. Tse is currently an Assistant Professor of Photography at Parsons School of Design.[17]

Selected exhibitions

Selected awards and residencies

Publications and exhibition catalogues

References

  1. Web site: Ka-Man Tse Biography . ArtNet . 1 August 2021.
  2. Web site: how ka-man tse's 'narrow distances' contemplates what it means to be seen. White. Ryan. 2019-01-07. i-D. en. 2020-04-13.
  3. News: How Asian Families Learn to Welcome a LGBTQ Child's Partner. 2014-07-29. Slate. 2018-03-21. en-US. 1091-2339.
  4. Web site: Fantasy and Reality Collide in Ka-Man Tse's Queer Photography. 2019-01-10. Hyperallergic. en-US. 2020-04-13.
  5. Web site: Beautiful photographs of queer Asian communities in Hong Kong and NYC. Dazed. 2019-01-31. Dazed. en. 2020-04-13.
  6. News: Ka-man Tse on the power of portraits. Time Out Hong Kong. 2018-03-21. en.
  7. Web site: Book Review: Ka-Man Tse. Strange Fire. en-US. 2020-04-13.
  8. Web site: ArtAsiaPacific: Narrow Distances. artasiapacific.com. 2020-04-13.
  9. Web site: Humble Booklist: 32 Photobooks That Dropped Our Jaws in 2018. Humble Arts Foundation. 20 November 2018 . en-US. 2020-04-13.
  10. Web site: Ka-Man Tse Photography. The New York Public Library. 2018-03-21.
  11. Web site: Narrow Distances・Ka-Man Tse Lumenvisum. www.lumenvisum.org. en-US. 2018-03-21.
  12. Web site: Critic's Guide: Hong Kong. Chan. Michele. Frieze. 27 July 2017 . en. 2020-04-13.
  13. Web site: ArtAsiaPacific: In Search Of Miss Ruthless. artasiapacific.com. en. 2018-03-21.
  14. News: Hong Kong 'no gay paradise' for drag queen La Chiquitta. South China Morning Post. 2018-03-21.
  15. Web site: Critic's Guide: Hong Kong. frieze.com. 27 July 2017 . en. 2018-03-21.
  16. Web site: Ka-Man Tse Photography. tsewhat.com. 2018-03-21.
  17. Web site: Yale University School of Art: Ka Man Tse. art.yale.edu. en. 2018-03-21.
  18. Web site: WMA Masters – Photography Vision Change. en-US. 2019-03-27.
  19. Web site: Alfred University : Fosdick-Nelson Gallery : 2017 - 2018 Exhibits : Queering Space. fosdicknelson.alfred.edu. 2019-03-27.
  20. Web site: Ka-Man Tse: 2018 Portfolio Prize Winner, December 8 - February 2, 2019. Aperture Foundation NY. en-US. 2019-03-27.
  21. Web site: Eaton Workshop. www.eatonworkshop.com. en. 2019-03-27.
  22. Web site: In Search of Miss Ruthless - Para Site. www.para-site.org.hk. 2018-03-21.
  23. Web site: Hudson County Community College New Exhibition, 'A World Where We Belong,' Celebrates Self-Understanding and Belonging. admin. 2017-03-06. River View Observer. en-US. 2019-03-27.
  24. Web site: LIANZHOU FOTO FESTIVAL 2015Expanded Geographies-PHOTOINTER. www.photoint.net. 2019-03-27.
  25. Web site: ZC. www.zoecrosher.com. 2019-03-27.
  26. Web site: Our Portraits, Our Families. asianprideproject.org. 2018-03-21.
  27. Web site: Bronx Calling: - Exhibitions - The Bronx Museum of the Arts. exhibit-e.com. www.bronxmuseum.org. 2018-03-21.
  28. Web site: America through a Chinese Lens Museum of Chinese in America (MOCA). www.mocanyc.org. en. 2018-03-21.
  29. Announcing the 2019 Light Work Artists-in-Residence . 30 December 2021 . Light Work . 13 September 2018.
  30. Web site: MOCATalks: Photographer Ka-Man Tse - narrow distances Museum of Chinese in America (MOCA). www.mocanyc.org. 2019-03-27.
  31. Web site: Fellowship 16: Ka-Man Tse & Aaron Blum. Silver Eye Center for Photography. en-US. 2018-03-21.
  32. Web site: John Gutmann Photography Fellowship. www.johngutmann.org. 2019-03-27.
  33. Web site: The Robert Giard Foundation - Ka-Man Tse. robertgiardfoundation.org. en-US. 2018-03-21.
  34. Web site: Times Square Arts: Ka-Man Tse. arts.timessquarenyc.org. en. 2018-03-21.
  35. Web site: Opening Reception: Ka-Man Tse and the PhotoBook Awards Shortlist. Aperture Foundation NY. en-US. 2019-03-27.
  36. Web site: Nueva Luz. enfoco.org. 2019-03-27. 2018-12-13.
  37. Web site: L.E.S.P.I. presents "Chinatown: Lens on the Lower East Side" A Contemporary Photography Exhibit. A Gathering of the Tribes Magazine. 27 February 2019 . en-US. 2019-03-27.
  38. Web site: Launch of GR-02092017. Fotogalleriet. no. 2020-03-09.
  39. Web site: PAPERSAFE. PAPERSAFE. 2019-03-27.
  40. Web site: Newspaper. Newspaper. en-US. 2020-03-09.
  41. Web site: our portraits, our families. asianprideproject.org. 2019-03-27.
  42. Web site: Oakland Asian Cultural Center. Oakland Asian Cultural Center. en-US. 2019-03-27.
  43. Web site: Bronx Calling: - Exhibitions - The Bronx Museum of the Arts. www.bronxmuseum.org. 2019-03-27.
  44. Web site: Daydream Nation: 1st Annual Contemporary Photography Exhibition – CRANE ARTS – A Community of Art & Culture in Philadelphia. en-US. 2019-03-27.

External links

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