Chris Siu
b.2001, Hong Kong.
“As an artist born overseas and practicing in Australia, I respectfully acknowledge the Wurundjeri Woi-wurrung and Bunurong peoples and their Elders past and present, who are the custodians of the lands on which I live, learn, and work. I extend that acknowledgment and respect to all Aboriginal people who are present with us today. Always was, always will be, Aboriginal land.”
Chris Siu is an artist and photographer living and working in Narrm Melbourne. Chris works primarily in medium format analogue photography. He is drawn to this photographic process because it is produced and cared for entirely by hand; from capturing and developing, to printing and digitising the analogue images. Informed by the traditions of documentary photography, Chris’s work investigates and chronicles the intricate relationships that lie within his surrounding social landscapes. His practice is profoundly influenced by the flux of sociopolitical happenings in his homeland Hong Kong and his ever-changing place within it. Through exploring notions of layered histories and geopolitics, Chris’s work seeks to offer a reflection on personal and communal experience, pivoting around representations of civil unrest, diasporic experience, cultural displacement and marginality within contemporary existence.
Chris has exhibited throughout Australia, beginning with his feature at the 2019 Head On Photo Festival. Subsequently, he has exhibited at venues including Adelaide Contemporary Experimental, Centre for Contemporary Photography, Nexus Arts, and Perth Institute of Contemporary Arts. His ongoing project 'Then We Keep Living' was included in Helpmann Academy's cross-institutional graduate exhibition and Hatched: National Graduate Show in 2023.
Solo Exhibitions
2024 Riot on an Empty Street, The Mill Adelaide (SA)
2023 Then We Keep Living, Nexus Arts Gallery, Adelaide (SA)
Selected Group Exhibitions
2024 Navigating Histories, curated by Gabrielle Hall-Lomax, PhotoAccess, Canberra (ACT)
2023 Hatched: National Graduate Show, Perth Institute of Contemporary Art (WA)
2023 Helpmann Academy Graduate Exhibition, Adelaide Contemporary Experimental (SA)
2022 Summer Salon, Centre for Contemporary Photography, Melbourne (VIC)
2019 Head On Photo Festival, Sydney (NSW)
Residencies and Awards
2024 City of Adelaide Arts & Cultural Grants
2023 City of Adelaide Arts & Cultural Grants
2023 Helpmann Academy Creative Development Grants
2023 Mahmood Martin Foundation Sponsored Studio, The Mill Adelaide
2020 International Merit Scholarship, University of South Australia
2019 Finalist, Head On Student Awards
Media
2024 ‘Navigating Histories’, Exhibition review by Brian Rope
2024 ‘Histories navigated with freedom’, Canberra CityNews
2024 ‘Development grants cultivate creative potential’, by Aryani Singh, InReview
2024 ‘Then We Keep Living’, Exhibition review by Rayleen Forester, Memo Review, Issue No.1
2023 ‘Then We Keep Living’, Exhibition Essay by Louisa Lim
2023 ‘Hatched Dispatched’ by Sam Beard and Aimee Dodds, Dispatch Review
For inquiries and commissions please contact Chris directly: