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Tristan Cai

Photography

Awards Received

Independent Artist

2021

I constantly reflect on the possibilities, limits and failures that the medium of photography offers.

About the Artist

Tristan’s research-based art often involves digital compositing and appropriation of imagery to examine the veracities of our histories and the ways in which we socially construct knowledge in our image-saturated epoch. His works have been included in recent shows at Phoenix Art Museum, Arles Voies Off, France, Noorderlicht Photography Festival, Netherlands, the National Museum of Singapore, Kumho Museum of Art, Seoul, Jeonbuk Museum of Art, Jeonju, GoEun Museum of Photography, Pusan, Korea, RS Projects in Berlin, Germany and Shanghai World Exposition, China, amongst other. A passionate educator, Cai is also a Professor of Photography at St. Mary’s College of Maryland.  

Tristan Cai website Portfolio

Featured Work

Photos

Despite the abolition of slavery by the British Empire in 1855, the empire continued to the practices of slavery and in significant numbers in South Asia for over a century. The Aesthetics of Disappearance is a project about ‘Houseboys’, the predominant group of indentured servants in the British colonies of Hongkong, Singapore and Darwin from 1800s-1930 whose histories have been erased from mainstream consciousness. I The source images used in this series were originally commissioned by the Colonists so that they could send the photographs back to Europe showing off their newly found lifestyles. Many photographs feature their prized possessions such as the popular Waler pony imported from Australia, but along with livestock, many chose to showcase their servants as well. They were regarded as commodity and often traded as such. By compositing the archival images with artifacts of photography-based technologies such as moire, halftone color separation and various optical illusions, the artist alludes to how history can be censored and interpreted with bias by those in authority. It is also a counterstrategy to alter the intended functions of the original photographs in honor of the houseboys and to all who are resisting for freedom.
Despite the abolition of slavery by the British Empire in 1855, the empire continued to the practices of slavery and in significant numbers in South Asia for over a century. The Aesthetics of Disappearance is a project about ‘Houseboys’, the predominant group of indentured servants in the British colonies of Hongkong, Singapore and Darwin from 1800s-1930 whose histories have been erased from mainstream consciousness. I The source images used in this series were originally commissioned by the Colonists so that they could send the photographs back to Europe showing off their newly found lifestyles. Many photographs feature their prized possessions such as the popular Waler pony imported from Australia, but along with livestock, many chose to showcase their servants as well. They were regarded as commodity and often traded as such. By compositing the archival images with artifacts of photography-based technologies such as moire, halftone color separation and various optical illusions, the artist alludes to how history can be censored and interpreted with bias by those in authority. It is also a counterstrategy to alter the intended functions of the original photographs in honor of the houseboys and to all who are resisting for freedom.
Despite the abolition of slavery by the British Empire in 1855, the empire continued to the practices of slavery and in significant numbers in South Asia for over a century. The Aesthetics of Disappearance is a project about ‘Houseboys’, the predominant group of indentured servants in the British colonies of Hongkong, Singapore and Darwin from 1800s-1930 whose histories have been erased from mainstream consciousness. I The source images used in this series were originally commissioned by the Colonists so that they could send the photographs back to Europe showing off their newly found lifestyles. Many photographs feature their prized possessions such as the popular Waler pony imported from Australia, but along with livestock, many chose to showcase their servants as well. They were regarded as commodity and often traded as such. By compositing the archival images with artifacts of photography-based technologies such as moire, halftone color separation and various optical illusions, the artist alludes to how history can be censored and interpreted with bias by those in authority. It is also a counterstrategy to alter the intended functions of the original photographs in honor of the houseboys and to all who are resisting for freedom.
Despite the abolition of slavery by the British Empire in 1855, the empire continued to the practices of slavery and in significant numbers in South Asia for over a century. The Aesthetics of Disappearance is a project about ‘Houseboys’, the predominant group of indentured servants in the British colonies of Hongkong, Singapore and Darwin from 1800s-1930 whose histories have been erased from mainstream consciousness. I The source images used in this series were originally commissioned by the Colonists so that they could send the photographs back to Europe showing off their newly found lifestyles. Many photographs feature their prized possessions such as the popular Waler pony imported from Australia, but along with livestock, many chose to showcase their servants as well. They were regarded as commodity and often traded as such. By compositing the archival images with artifacts of photography-based technologies such as moire, halftone color separation and various optical illusions, the artist alludes to how history can be censored and interpreted with bias by those in authority. It is also a counterstrategy to alter the intended functions of the original photographs in honor of the houseboys and to all who are resisting for freedom.
Despite the abolition of slavery by the British Empire in 1855, the empire continued to the practices of slavery and in significant numbers in South Asia for over a century. The Aesthetics of Disappearance is a project about ‘Houseboys’, the predominant group of indentured servants in the British colonies of Hongkong, Singapore and Darwin from 1800s-1930 whose histories have been erased from mainstream consciousness. I The source images used in this series were originally commissioned by the Colonists so that they could send the photographs back to Europe showing off their newly found lifestyles. Many photographs feature their prized possessions such as the popular Waler pony imported from Australia, but along with livestock, many chose to showcase their servants as well. They were regarded as commodity and often traded as such. By compositing the archival images with artifacts of photography-based technologies such as moire, halftone color separation, and various optical illusions, the artist alludes to how history can be censored and interpreted with bias by those in authority. It is also a counterstrategy to alter the intended functions of the original photographs in honor of the houseboys and to all who are resisting for freedom.