Pallet in Repose (marine), 2019 consists of a scavenged black plastic pallet framed by polystyrene car bumper packaging and concrete. The packaging and pallet were found piled up on the street outside Chan’s studio building in Hong Kong. Here, Chan recomposes and reanimates these industrial ephemera into a monumental totem that evokes a feeling of a deep sea natural phenomena. The pallet is turned upright and filled with blocks of translucent resin in various shades of blue. Its glassy surface, thereby, generates prisms of light and shadow which mimic the effect of a stained-glass window or percolating through underwater human remnants. Multiple stacks of metal hex nuts were embedded in the concrete, some punctured through to resemble peepholes and some filled with resin to transform into a tinted telescope upon close inspection. Within the pallet, hex nuts intermixed with cable ties, are rhythmically arranged within the rigid structure of the pallet reminiscing strange mechanical sea urchins. Chan continues to explore her interest in how the simple change of her objects’ placement can open up associated meanings and, at times, convey psychological endeavours.
For Chan’s solo exhibition ‘Core Sample’ in Capsule Shanghai, she placed Barnacles and Pallet in Repose (marine) together in one room to create one coherent installation.