SumBodyArt Home Exhibition | Hamburg DE

Eight hours ago I was shivering outside in Brussels as I waited for my overnight bus. It is 9:46AM now and I have arrived in Hamburg feeling a film of dirt on my skin from the carpet-like bus seats. I take stiff steps off the vehicle and feel the stale hunger in my stomach as I stare at the McDonald's that stands greeting me. I fight off the desperation and think "I can relieve my bladder and eat, soon." I take the Bahnhof to Sternscanze and my tired aura is suddenly awaken by the endless pop of graffiti that surrounds me. The colours and grit that decorate every wall and door floors me and my hunger turns into one of sight. I become your stereotypical Asian tourist and start snapping photos with every other step I take. Finally, opposite to some graffiti by OZ, I find the artfully vandalized door to Diana Chan's apartment.

Diana Chan (陳頴心) is like me and was born in Hong Kong but raised in a Western environment - Australia. She is now an inhabitant of Hamburg, pursuing the scarce art of body painting. I've come to meet and collaborate with her on some ultraviolet painting which uses fluorescent paints that appear under black lights.

With a two-year-old daughter named Luna, her mother-like hospitality pours out as she starts to prepare perfectly boiled eggs for breakfast and constantly asks if I've got enough to eat (a gesture that was well appreciated.) Now two hours behind schedule due to our immediate bonding sesh... We finally get to work.

Diana stations us in Luna's room that is heavily occupied by toy kitchen appliances, a baby's baby stroller, fake money, more two-year-old knick knacks, and the child's own masterpieces decorating the walls. Once the lights are off, the cluttered space becomes a large black hole with the one UV-light that pronounces only the neon paints.

For the next five hours Diana strokes every ticklish nook of my naked body with her brush, contouring it with curves of neon that depict abstract feathers of a phoenix. After recently witnessing a fire with her family, Diana was inspired by the bigger idea of fighting to overcome a struggle; and the beauty of this conquer. And so the "Rising Phoenix" was her choice of concept for this collaboration.

Throughout the session Luna, who is a tiny fireball full of expression and demand, was watching Peppa Pig and eventually comes over with the desire to help paint me. Diana showed resistance at first but finally gives her a brush and designating my left calf as her area to freely paint. If you look closely, that slight blob of fluorescent orange on my calf is courtesy of two-year-old Luna.

By five o'clock Diana's husband, Karsten, comes home to join the family affair. A full-time engineer with photography as a hobby, Karsten curls himself up in the small space between the toy kitchen and toddler bed to take shots of me.

We also filmed some improvisation to Ravel (starts at 4 minutes 40 seconds.) If you can't tell, I am dancing on Luna's 1.5 foot-wide toy box. #hashtagillusions

Seven hours later we wrap things up. I wash the paint off my face before we go out to the Japanese restaurant around the corner. I can't help but snicker at the thought that everyone who is laying eyes on me has no idea that the skin underneath my clothing is completely tattooed by paint.

My original plan was to take the bus to Berlin that night and enjoy my fluorescent skin under some real party lights. But, I decided it was best to just crash at Diana's instead... The incredible three kindly showed me around Hamburg the next day with absolutely amazing weather circumstances (the greyest of skies, pouring rain... mmm.) It had been a wild 30 hours and I am very happy I got to see a little bit of this sweet city. And of course, it was an absolute pleasure to get dirty with Diana.

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Diana Chan (陳頴心) has been working as a BodyPainter for 6 years, and 10 years as a graphic designer, production and costume designer. She is also a cosplayer. She is currently 18th in the world for Amateur Brush and Sponge for Hong Kong and Australia for the World BodyPainting Festival 2014 and 2015. She is 7th in Open Category for the Helsinki Bodypainting Festival 2015, and 12th in Professional Brush and Sponge for the De Masquerade (Dutch Bodypainting Competition). At the moment, Diana is busy with her first European bodypainting exhibition called Home. The Home BodyPainting Exhibition was first inspired by Diana's three homes - Hong Kong, Australia, and Germany - the project now continues exploring the greater idea of Home for all of humanity. Opening in June 2016 in Hamburg, the exhibition will consist of a mix of bodypainting photography, bodypainting dance video and live bodypainting performances. It will also be presented at the World BodyPainting Festival in Austria, July 2016.

2016: Year of the Nomad

nomad

The first month of the year is coming to a close and I have been traveling Europe for the last four weeks. "Where do you live? Where are you based? What do you do?" they ask. I shrug my shoulders and smile the smug smile of a proud, uncertain nomad. Four months ago I found myself having to decide where I wanted to geographically continue my life. As a Canadian citizen who has spent the last five years studying and networking her career in the U.S., but not so convinced as to exert copious amounts of effort, money, and commitment to acquire the right to stay working in America (yet...) I decided I needed to see more and experience more, before marrying myself to a country. And so, by December 2015, I chose to invest in a relationship with a 20-pound backpack branded by Gregory, and bought a one-way ticket to Paris in time to greet the first of January, 2016.

With a pack strapped to my back and changing locations every three or four days, I am in constant ponder of the idea of "home." So much, that it has become a sort of research. I do not have an apartment, or even a childhood room, waiting for me to return and bask in its physical home-ness. I have no bed and memory foam to dream of, or walls of photos and UO decor to anticipate greeting. No where in the world do I own my own pots and pans, or a garbage can anymore. The thought can become a downward spiral towards a self-indulgent, sob night of wine and ice-cream. But, in actuality, the lack of these things don't matter. The place where I've found the most comfort, and this sense of "home" these last few months, is in people. Not only in the friends and family most dear to me, but also in generous strangers who have welcomed me into their foreign homes. "Home is where the heart is;" and that heart can go anywhere. Home, to me, has been feelings of trust, gratitude, and the communal connection of human beings.

On most days I feel generally fatigued and wrung out like a wet towel. It has been a gritty, and sometimes chaotic adventure. But, I can always taste the sweet notes at the end of each day. The sweet feeling that I am surviving something; that there is a challenge to survive through. It is this work to survive that is so rewarding.