Art and Design student awarded Judges Highly Commended prize at the Ones To Watch exhibition 2023

Alice Chen, BA Art and Design, has been commended for her animation work displayed at the Ones to Watch exhibition 2023 at Sunny Bank Mills.

School of Design student, Alice Chen, has received the Judges Highly Commended prize for her animation work displayed at the Ones to Watch exhibition 2023, which took place at Sunny Bank Mills.

As part of the prize, Alice will undertake a two month residency at Sunny Bank Mills Art Gallery. 

Alice Chen, a final year BA Art and Design student, is a Taiwanese multimedia visual communicator specialising in audio-visual work, illustration, and photography. She employs a range of mediums to explore abstraction with the mundane, playfulness against attempts to evoke emotions. Her work is driven by the diversity of humanity, social interactions, and experiences, exhibited clearly in her work ‘Have You Eaten?’

‘Have you Eaten?’ is a film inspired by the personal experience of being in a long-distance familial relationship, exploring the possibilities of bridging geographical, cultural, generational, and emotional distances together. By recreating a meal with her family through charcoal animation, objective and subjective perspectives of communication were depicted through visual and sound design. 

Alice is understandably delighted with her achievement and being recognised for her exhibition has helped her to have more confidence in her work.

I struggled to digest this commendation as I usually have a hard time owning my achievement. But being awarded with this prize has finally made me feel prouder in my own creativity and more trusting towards my creative process.