Wallace Chan explores interconnectedness of spirituality in Venice

Chinese multidisciplinary artist's latest exhibition Transcendence features four large titanium sculptures exploring themes of renewal and enlightenment

Chinese multidisciplinary artist Wallace Chan is marking his third exhibition in the Italian city. Photo: Giacomo Cosua

Wallace Chan – a venerated jewellery designer and the creative who pioneered the unprecedented use of titanium for large-scale sculptures – opened his latest exhibition Transcendence in the Floating City, coinciding with the start of the Venice Art Biennale.

Curated by James Putnam and staged at the Chapel of Santa Maria della Pietaa, the show features four large titanium sculptures hanging from the chapel’s ceiling, exploring themes of spirituality, renewal and the ability to overcome limitations, leading to enlightenment.

“For Transcendence, I want to invite the viewers to contemplate the relationship between humans and nature,” the Chinese multidisciplinary artist says. “I called it Transcendence because I want to move beyond the physical limitations and go to the higher realm of art, in a spiritual sense that explores the meditative state."

“Then the four sculptures are kind of inspired by Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons, because this church is where Vivaldi lived and performed,” he adds. “At the same time, this chapel is very sacred and historic, but we’re having this very contemporary, space-age material displayed here in this historical setting, and I like this contrast.”

Chan began his career as a gemstone carver in 1973 at 16, founding his own workshop within a year of his apprenticeship in Hong Kong. He revolutionised the use of titanium in jewellery-making – a difficult material and thought to be ill-suited to jewellery – and would later apply the same knowledge to large-scale art sculptures.

Many of his works feature in the permanent collections of institutions such as Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts, the British Museum, Beijing’s Capital Museum and the Ningbo Museum in China.

Transcendence marks his third showcase in Venice and is a continuation of the two previous exhibitions. In 2021, Chan’s first large-scale sculpture and installation art exhibition, Titans: A Dialogue between Materials, Space and Time, was held at Fondaco Marcello. He returned to the same venue in 2022 for Totem, with a 10-metre titanium sculpture dismantled into pieces and scattered across the floor space addressing the idea of uncertainty.

Tying the three shows together is Chan’s exploration of titanium’s materiality, which he tries to challenge. Owing to its durability, he associates the metal with perpetuity and transformation through challenge.

“Titanium is a stubborn and rigid material, one which must be understood before it can be tamed. I regard it as the material closest to eternity, and its use in Transcendence emphasises that the desire to achieve an enlightened state is an eternal one,” the artist says. “Ever since the very beginning of my career, I felt that everything is constantly evolving, so why not titanium?

“I wanted to present the endless possibility of this medium by giving a new perspective. Titanium is very special – it’s durable, bio-friendly and has a melting point of 1,700°C,” he adds.

“All these elements fascinated me, and I wanted to prove that I could tame titanium, as whenever I persevere in bending the material to my vision, I feel that I’m doing something valuable with my existence, making progress with a material most people don’t want to work with for art. I’ve managed to produce and create something that can outlive me when I am no longer on this earth.”

Chan crafts the pieces through a process involving sculpting, smelting and carving. He is unable to use molten casting or hammering for titanium, which are the methods used for more conventional metals.

With such a high melting point, he had to find a way to move the liquid metal without melting the vessels. After some experimentation, ceramic was the only solution. Due to the size of the sculptures, they are often assembled from smaller parts, as it would be almost impossible to form them from one piece.

“If you bend it or use a hammer, it bounces back,” he shares. “When you heat it up to its melting point, it stands square until you give it the slightest push, then it falls apart and turns into powder. I carve on titanium using diamond tools, which lose their sharpness very quickly because the metal is so hard.”

The sculptures are styled after human faces with different expressions, with the fourth being a large tulip – a symbol of eternity and rebirth. The faces begin very distorted and gradually reach a calmer state. They are followed by two smaller statues of Jesus and Buddha on the altar.

As viewers move through the small chapel, the sculptures transition from a state of conflict to one of peace and tranquillity as the facial expressions change. The experience is enhanced with a soundscape by musician and composer Brian Eno.

The show seeks to open dialogue about the building’s Catholic setting while drawing inspiration from Chinese Buddhism and Chan’s own experience of being raised between both religions. The artist explains that religions are ultimately the same at their core, and we should seek our similarities rather than our differences.

“On the altar, you will see that Jesus and Buddha actually swapped their bodies. So while Jesus is in lotus pose, the Buddha has a cross in front of him, and it actually shows an interconnectedness of spirituality,” he says. “When I was about eight or nine years old, I went to church, but only because I wanted the free bread and milk. I was from a very humble family, and we didn’t have much money for food, so I started going to church. However, when I returned home, my grandmother would usually ask me to burn some incense for my ancestors or for Buddha.

“It was a bit conflicting to have both religions in my upbringing, but in the end, I realised that all religions are interconnected by love, unity and teaching us to be kind,” he adds. “These sculptures were a way to represent this moment in my life, by also overcoming the confusion and reaching a higher understanding, where I see religions as part of the same spirituality.

“I translate this idea into my artwork. When you go beyond forms and materials, it’s a higher kind of art,” Chan says.

Transcendence is on show at Santa Maria della Pieta, Venice, until September 30