WHAT
For DE SARTHE’s 7th annual de Sarthe Artist Residency (deSAR), its resident artist, Chan Ka Kiu (b. 1995) has created new artworks using the gallery as her studio. She has transformed the gallery space into a captivating dialogue centred around the enigmatic ‘27 Club’ – a group of influential artists and celebrities who tragically died at the age of 27. Through poetic installations, videos, and wall works, the artist’s residency was also her introspective response to turning 27 herself.

WHY
DE SARTHE’s open-studio residency provides a large arena for artistic exploration and encouraging active participation, and its programme challenges conventional dynamics and transforms the notion of privacy in creation. By creating a surreal living room filled with fictional inhabitants consisting of toys of made-up scenarios, the artist explores her conflicting desires for fame, fortune, and the search for a deeper purpose beyond external recognition.