Primavera 春
Primavera 春 is a digital simulation in which the artist depicts herself at multiple life stages, all coexisting within a blossoming spring landscape. Using artificial intelligence, Chen generated "aged" versions of herself and synthesized them with archival family images, 3D avatars, and motion capture technology to create digital selves that exist in alternate timelines and imagined histories. These avatars interact dynamically in a sprawling floral meadow, partaking in activities such as dancing, running, swimming, observing, and embracing—allegories of childhood, pleasure, beauty, and renewal.
By engaging with and recontextualizing visual pastiche found in Renaissance and Pre-Raphaelite period art, this work challenges and reorients established Western male-dominated, art-historical narratives. A body that has not been allowed to appear now owns the viewer's gaze.
As a meditation on time and existence, Primavera 春 invites viewers to engage with the notion of life as a cyclical journey with multiple, coexisting narratives permeated with ancestral echoes, both rooted in the past and extending into the future.
The work was exhibited in the Store Galleriet as part of the show Counterfeit Glitch at SKF/Konstnärshuset, curated by Ashik Raman and Alida Ivanov. Throughout June 2024, Primavera 春 was showcased on the largest LED facade on the west coast, the Circa DTLA platform across from Crypto Arena, in a public art program curated by Standard Vision.
SKF/Konstnärshuset, Counterfeit Glitch, curated by Ashik Zaman and Alida Ivanov.
Circa DTLA Public Arts, curated by Standard Vision
Documentation by Sofia Runarsdotter and Standard Vision