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Edward FuChen Juan, Artist – Vancouver

Edward FuChen Juan 阮福辰 identifies as a queer Taiwanese-Canadian visual artist working primarily in printmaking, papermaking, and inkmaking. His art focuses on the impact of human rights activism and decolonization within the Taiwanese community in Canada and Taiwan. It involves collecting oral histories, gathering knowledge, and visually documenting people and places. He is also a curator for the Queer Arts Festival in Vancouver. His exhibition 記憶犯罪 | Memory Crimes | Les Crimes de Mémoire is on display at the ODD Gallery until September 19.

  1. Pottery 

In the past four years, I’ve picked up throwing ceramics as an art practice without a career intention. During the slowdown due to pandemic restrictions, my friend signed me up for a pottery workshop so we could see each other. Ever since, I have been hooked on the entire process, from clay collecting to glaze mixing. I love it because I am away from my phone and there are no professional expectations. Just the mud et moi.

  1. Swimming in the open water

I have been an avid surfer since university, but with age I have to be careful about my bones. In place of it, I love to swim or float in any open water, especially the ocean. I had the pleasure to nude swim to my heart’s content during my artist residency at Projet Borgitte in New Brunswick. A great way to meditate.

  1. Pasta Grannies & chitarra

As a Taiwanese person, I think about food all the time. During Covid, I became obsessed with the YouTube channel Pasta Grannies. I purchased a chitarra (pasta guitar) from Abruzzo, Italy, to cut the pasta after rolling out my noodles with a rolling pin. Buon appetito.

  1. Cèilidhs

My husband is from Cape Breton, and his family are big folk music fans. On every trip out there, I make a point of attending a cèilidh. My favourite is at the Blue Mist Tavern in Little Bras d’Or.

  1. Community gardens

I live next to an alleyway guerilla garden that is active amongst several neighbours. In Vancouver, where vacant land is a rarity, I understand the privilege of this green space. I will keep growing food from it until the day a condo is built, and the city paves the alleyway into a driveway. In the meantime, the apples are sweet and the zucchinis are flowering.

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