Kevin B. Chen

12-6-15

On December 3^rd I attended an artist lecture given by the artist Kevin B. Chen in the Wells Fargo Theater in the Knowledge Center at the University of Reno.  Kevin Chen is an artist, and curator based out of San Francisco.  He began his lecture by showing the works of other artists and explained how he has recently had a fascination with maps, and is obsessed with the growth of the human population.  The maps by other artists were of different content, ranging from most used social sites such as, flicker vs tumbler, to  the different races of people that in a particular area and the different modes of transportation that are used the least and most.  One map even showed where the most police reported incidents occurred in San Francisco, and Mr. Chen explained that these were the more rural places of San Francisco, which is why it made sense for some of the points on the map to be so heavily colored.  While the maps themselves were simple it was interesting to see the different colors for each thing being represented. The cities shown were some of the bigger ones such as New York, San Francisco, and others that I cannot remember.  Each map had certain “hotspots” of each color that showed as having the most of whichever thing was being represented by that color.  For example, one map showed that different races of people that live throughout San Francisco.  If you know the area of San Francisco well then it can become clear just wear China Town and Pier 39 are, for it is the Asians that mostly populate China Town and it is the Caucasians who are often seen at the piers.  Other main attractions could also been seen on other maps that represented the races of people living there. Some of the map artists that Mr. Chen talked about and showed their work include Eric Fisher, Jenny Odell, as well as many others.  Much of Mr. Fishers work was shown, including his project of See Something or Say Something, which tracks when something is posted to Flickr or Twitter.  Ms. Odell’s work is of maps that remove everything but the people, which would often clearly outline a specific place, such as Baker’s Beach, or making it look almost like they were placed at random.  Mr. Chen also talked about the Magic Story Table, which I think seemed pretty cool.  It is a table that allows people to interact with it by sort of spinning it and can be moving/tilting it in order to zoom in and out of Google Maps.  Depending on where it is zoomed into, one can read stories about things that have happened at that particular place.

After introducing us to other people’s work due to his current fascination with maps, he then began to tell us of his own work and what he has been currently working on when he isn’t curating a show.  Because of his fascination with maps and his current obsession with the growth of the human population, he showed us a couple of his own graphs and maps that showed the amount of people per square kilometer in America, Europe, and the entire world.  He has been drawing these small graphite drawings of city buildings that are literally a penny’s height, even though the canvas is still a pretty large canvas.  These drawings are so small that a magnifying glass is placed out in front of the drawings when being displayed in order to see just the amount of detail that is in these drawings.  In addition to drawing these small buildings on large canvases, he would also to wallet sized drawings of his small fictional cityscapes.  A pop-up museum that displays pocket art called the John Erickson Museum of Art discovered him and his small drawings.  After a while the amount of precision and that of a steady hand began to take its toll on Mr. Chen, causing him to have pain in his arm, and neck.  This caused him to stop doing these drawings for a while and instead he began to scan his drawings into the computer and used Photoshop to create even larger cityscapes in a small amount of time.  He even began making magnets for other people to create their own cityscapes, and got some interesting results. 
I enjoyed Mr. Chen’s lecture because of the artwork that he showed of his and others.  I can sort of relate to him in the sense of how painful it can be to draw something and that sometimes you just need a break. I too draw my pictures using graphite pencils and colored pencils, which can begin to hurt after a while because you are bent over your work, most likely for a long period of time, and for me when using colored pencils my hand begins to cramp from trying to get the color and texture that I want to show in my drawing.   Even though he used Photoshop for his mega cityscapes, they were still just as detailed and looked great as if he had spent hours drawing each building.  I also liked his magnets and what people would do with them when they were put out on display for people to play with.