Madison Chow
Surrey, BC
ARTIST BIO
Madison Chow is a visual artist and photographer whose work primarily focuses on the natural world around us and our connections to it. Working in digital, analogue, and alternative processes, Madison's work takes on a variety of forms, emphasizing the tangibility of photographic objects. Within these mediums, she has thoroughly explored the notion of the landscape image, seeking to extend our vision of nature spaces by elongating the photographic moment in Organic Soul and focusing on photographic collaboration with the water in Overflow.
As an artist, Madison seeks to use both lens-based and cameraless mediums as a conduit for thorough reflection, healing, and empowerment. Most notably, she has produced artwork interrogating her upbringing in a religious community with projects such as Works of the Flesh, which has been collected by Toronto Metropolitan University’s Special Collections Library. Her work has been exhibited in group shows at galleries such as Artspace TMU, IMA Gallery 310, and the Grimsby Public Art Gallery, and has participated in multiple public art exhibitions such as Maximum Exposure.
The recipient of multiple awards, Madison's work has also been featured in numerous publications such as Blur Magazine, Petal Projections, Necktie Universe, and Function Magazine.
PROJECT STATEMENT
“The water has a body and so do I. A body as old as time itself, one that has ebbed and fl owed for longer than I can comprehend. Yet, within the tradition of photography, we have often restrained bodies of water and other natural elements to a romantic fragment within their time. I am fortunate to know well the ever-shifting face of the nearshore, a knowledge that has compelled me to seek out an alternative way to image the water- one that takes into account its perpetual state of becoming and denies the photographic theft we have become well-accustomed to enacting.
Overflow seeks to recognize picture as privilege by inviting water to be a collaborator in the photographic process. By using a cameraless medium, the traditional gaze of the lens is removed, allowing the water to take a leading role in its own imaging. Meeting the water at the shoreline, often in the quiet of morning, I arranged a composition with nearby flora and natural objects or my own body. As the water rushed to meet the paper it slowly carved its features into the material, aided by natural light or artificial UV. What emerged were vibrant self-portraits of one of the earth’s most dynamic elements, both an abstract documentation of an uncontrollable force and a tangible record of the connection between myself and water forged over the passage of time. Overflow exists as part of a pursuit to image the natural world in a truthful, respectful, and reciprocal manner, placing importance on learning to revere the oceans and lakes that surround us.” – Madison Chow
LAND ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
In the spirit of reconciliation, we acknowledge that the Exposure Photography Festival is situated on land adjacent to where the Bow River meets the Elbow River. The traditional Blackfoot name of this place is “Moh’kins’tsis”, which we now call the City of Calgary. This is the traditional Treaty 7 territory of the Blackfoot confederacy: Siksika, Kainai, Piikani as well as the Îyâxe Nakoda and Tsuut’ina nations. It is home to the Métis Nation of Alberta, Region 3 within the historical Northwest Métis homeland. We honour and acknowledge all Nations, who live, work and play in Moh’kins’tsis, help steward this land, and honour and celebrate this territory.