©Chloé.A, Performing with a Shark Jaw

Congratulations to Chloé.A for being selected for CENTER’s Project Development Grant recognizing her project, Yellow tiger on blue background. This documentary project explores the coming-of-age of Taiwanese youth grappling with their dreams, the construction of their identity and geopolitical events. The Project Development Grant provides financial support to fine art, documentary, or photojournalistic works in progress. Assisting a photographer to help complete their project, the grant provides platforms for professional development in the work’s final stages. The Grant includes a $5,000 cash award,Winners Exhibition at CENTER, Complimentary participation and presentation at Review Santa Fe, Public Project Presentation, Publication in LENSCRATCH, Professional Development Seminars access, inclusion in the printed Program Guide, and inclusion in the CENTER Winners Gallery & Archive.

JUROR:Kristen Gaylord • Herzfeld Curator of Photography and Media Arts, Milwaukee Art Museum shares her thoughts on this selection:

Reviewing the submissions to CENTER’s Project Development Grant, I was both inspired by the range and ingenuity of contemporary photography and sobered by the ever-increasing importance of awards like these that offer material support to artists. Dozens of strong projects have stayed with me, including the poignant archival excavations of Eri Morita’s Unknown Flame, the sharp humor and cinematic sweep of Jeremy Dennis’s Rise, and the innovative portrait of a historically Black neighborhood portrayed in Jamil Baldwin’s ongoing Fieldnotes. 

Ultimately, I selected Chloé.A’s Yellow tiger on blue background, a thoughtful project on Taiwanese in-betweenness reflecting the political state of the island. I valued the clarity of her plan to complete the project and thorough understanding of the challenges of doing so. But even more, I was struck by the casual beauty and intimacy of her images, which communicate the strangeness and mundanity of daily existence for her cousins, whose lives move forward within what the artist calls Taiwan’s state of “continual suspension.” I eagerly anticipate her completion of this project, and its sensitive portrayal of young men working their way into their own uncertain future, as well as that of their home.

JUROR BIO: Kristen Gaylord is the Herzfeld Curator of Photography and Media Arts at the Milwaukee Art Museum, where she is organizing forthcoming exhibitions with Erin Shirreff and Widline Cadet. In her prior role as a curator at the Amon Carter Museum of American Art, her recent projects included exhibitions Stephanie Syjuco: Double Vision (2022) and Moving Pictures: Karl Struss and the Rise of Hollywood (2024), whose catalogue won a Deutscher Fotobuchpreis. Gaylord previously held multiple curatorial roles at The Museum of Modern Art, New York, where she contributed to over ten exhibitions and publications, including Stephen Shore (2017); Arbus Friedlander Winogrand: New Documents, 1967 (2017); and Ocean of Images: New Photography 2015 (2015). She earned a PhD from the Institute of Fine Arts at NYU.

Portait of Chloé.A

Yellow tiger on blue background

This documentary project explores coming-of-age for Taiwanese grappling with their dreams, the construction of their identity, and geopolitical events.

I visited my cousins in the aftermath of the earthquake of 2 April, 2024. In the space of a month, the island had experienced more than 1,000 aftershocks. This unusual instability of the earth echoed the diplomatic blurring of internationals relations.

This long-term project highlights the nuances and complexities of the Taiwanese situation. It follows people of different regions into adulthood including my cousin who will soon be serving in the military. I am interested in how the current political situation influences their sensibilities and the construction of identities.

MEDIUM: Photography, performance, installation. Size varying from 15x20cm to 80x120cm. Exhibition will include objects installation

© Chloé.A, Performing under a durian. Fruit considered as a weapon

© Chloé.A, Playing with a 30 year-old rocket

© Chloé.A, Four hands, red paper, turtle stone. The title of this project, ‘Yellow Tiger on Blue Background’, refers to Taiwan’s only independence flag, that of the ‘Republic of Formosa’, proclaimed in 1895. Taiwan’s current flag is still that of the Republic of China, created in 1917.

© Chloé.A, Playing Mahjong

©Chloé.A, Untitled