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Artist and the Muse: Elizabeth Barden talking with Jenevieve Chang

Updated: Jul 14, 2020

Elizabeth: I was driving my car, and heard you in conversation with Richard Fidler on the ABC radio, from the Brisbane Powerhouse. You were speaking about your autobiographical book , ‘The Good Girl of Chinatown’. Listening to you talk about 3 generations of your family’s history, and your own path, compelled me to reach out to you, to ask to paint a portrait of you.


Was that an outcome, of your book, that you were expecting?


Jenevieve: Not at all. Writing for me is such an introspective journey, particularly a memoir- where you’re challenged to dig so deeply and truthfully. I’ve always found vulnerability a difficult space to sit in, so all of my energies were directed into that during the writing process. I think even entertaining the notion of what the public interface should be on the other side of publication would’ve crippled me into inertia. The Richard Fidler interview was one of my earliest interviews after the book came out, so I was really only finding my feet of how to speak about my story in front of an audience. To have that lead to an artist requesting to paint my portrait was surprising, and flattering.

'The Good Girl'

I was delighted that you agreed to sit for me, and welcome me into your home.

I am quite a private person myself, so I am always so appreciative that people trust me enough to invade their spaces, and also to allow me to examine them in what really becomes an intimate way. As you have experienced, I do like the process to be a little collaborative, as I often choose creative muses.

As you are a performer, was posing for me something that you were comfortable doing?

Yes, a performance background certainly offers up tools for being seen! So it is something I have a fair bit of experience with. However, what I wasn’t interested in was working with a gaze that might be reductive or fetishistic in any way. My performance journey ended up taking me to some dark places where I succumbed to exploitative ways of working with my body and identity, so I’ve been wary ever since of how I’m portrayed, and to be able to exercise agency within that. It’s tricky because when my story is described as being about a “burlesque dancer in China”, people often expect a certain type of story, and not the story that I ended up writing which is a complicated family history woven into a woman trying to carve out a living from her passions, in a patriarchal and racist system. 

So when you contacted me – it mattered that you’re a fellow female artist. And when I researched your work, I was impressed by the breadth, detail and empathy you give to it.

Please tell me a bit about the dress you are wearing in my portrait, and how you see it in the context of my portrait of you.


The dress belonged to my grandmother. It’s a keepsake from the past, passed down family lines….and therefore symptomatic of the family stories within The Good Girl of Chinatown.

I can reveal to you that when you chose to wear that dress, I had several reactions happening inside me! I completely embraced the relevance of it, in the story that was being told, I loved the history, and connecting the old with the new. My heart also sunk as I realised the challenge ahead of me, in painting the intricate floral pattern. I actually gave myself a repetitive stress injury in my shoulder, who would have thought, from painting tiny flowers! I am very happy with the result, though. You had a response about the contrast of the dress and your bare foot, which I liked very much, do you remember what you said?

Ha…I don’t actually remember what I said. Was it to do with something about the juxtaposition between the formal and the spontaneous? The fiction and the real? I can imagine me saying something to that effect. Sorry to hear about your shoulder injury! Oh dear, I could’ve been more considerate…(*facepalm*)

This painting took me many months to accomplish. I had, forming in my head, the idea of a wallpaper behind you, but rather than just a pattern for the sake of it, the background became a build up of layer upon layer of symbolism relating to your family’s story. I would paint symbols, then I would paint over them with a new image, again and again until some of the earlier items were lost, or they became indistinct. I did this because to me as new generations come about, some things are lost – whether it is language, or memories, or traditions, culture, and so on. I saw this loss and renewal in your family story. When I shared that with you, we also collaborated on some written Chinese characters to fit in with the storytelling. You enlisted some special help with the wording and meaning, would you please share some details about that?

I loved hearing about your painting process, the way it springs from your interpretation of my story – it’s so resonant. 

You asked me for some words in Chinese to be written into the background of the portrait. At first, we tried a straight translation of my book title, but that didn’t work as much of the poetry was lost. I enlisted the help of other Mandarin speakers in my circle (my own Mandarin is woefully inadequate). In the end, it was my mother who came up with the most compelling suggestion: Po jian cheng die, which roughly translates to breaking through, spreading wings like a butterfly. In other words: metamorphosis and freedom.

Has your Mother seen an image of the painting?  If so, what was her response?


Yes, she has. And can I also say, it was very surprising that she offered those words to accompany the picture as she’s often been a difficult and antagonistic force in my life. But this moment was a realisation that she understands me more than she lets on.  

Her initial response to the portrait was laughable and typical of her though: “You look too old! You need to put a filter on it!”

This portrait stretched and challenged me, at times I struggled-thought I was defeated, and in the end, I enjoyed painting it. Is your creative process, of writing, a similar rollercoaster?


Make no mistake…I find writing HARD! Whereas my other creative disciplines (dancing, acting) preface spontaneity and collaboration, writing is a mostly solitary occupation that pulls you out of the present. It’s a modus operandi that doesn’t come easily to me. However, the autonomy and freedom within it is vast…and that has been liberating. To carve out a voice independent from the sphere of others, that draws its strength from such a personal source- has been such an affirmation and revelation. 

Jenevieve Chang, you are a dancer, a writer, an actor, and now a mum!

What is next for you, creatively?


I honestly don’t know. My son has just turned 7 months, and I’m just starting to recover from the shock of having created a new human. Parenthood is amazing, I feel like everyday is about populating a blank canvas with the palette of everything I have to give, and then some. ‘Creativity’ has started seeping back into my life in unexpected ways…like donning an apron and baking! My husband calls it my “kitchen cosplay” moment.


'The Good Girl', oil on linen, 84 X 107 cm, is was selected for an internationally curated on-line exhibition through Flinders Lane Gallery, Melbourne. 31st March - 24th April, 2020.

"Storytellers is an exhibition that celebrates artworks with narrative, that allow for a dialogue between artist and viewer, highlighting the seen and unseen. These artworks include subtle references to artist's personal lives, culture, current political or social issues. curated based on technical skill, conceptual strength and executed with realist precision, this exhibition brings together artists from around the globe including from the USA, India, Ireland and Australia.

C-curated by Dr Elaine Schmidt (USA) of the Bennet Collection of Women Figurative Realists, independent curator Didi Menendez (USA) and Claire Harris, Storytellers tells the story of us, in all our diversity." From FLG: click here.


Follow Jenevieve!

@jenevievechang


Follow Elizabeth!

@elizabeth_barden_artist

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