Donna J. Wan

Bio

I was born in Taipei and grew up in New York City. I moved to the San Francisco Bay Area years ago to attend college at Stanford University and have stayed here ever since. After a brief career in marketing, I left the corporate world to make art. I am currently enrolled in the MFA program at the San Francisco Art Institute. My work has been exhibited at the Diego Rivera Gallery, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts Resource Room, Root Division Gallery and the Modernbook Gallery. In 2007, I was awarded an Honorable Mention by PX3 Prix De La Photographie Paris and was selected as one of the year's Emerging Photographers by the Magenta Foundation. A selection of my work is available through the SFMOMA Artists' Gallery.

Statement

Can one really speak for another? Yes and no. One can, with the best intentions and efforts, attempt to do so by drawing upon one's own similar experiences and observations. One may even do such an admirable job that the “other,” in this case, may wholeheartedly agree with the perspective expressed in one's endeavor. However, I strongly believe that any attempt to represent another will ultimately fall short on some level because the result will always be, to an extent, self-referential. I do not think it possible to speak for another without also talking about ourselves.

For example, the work I am submitting (which is part of a larger series, titled “Dream Homes”) is my attempt to explore the psychological underpinnings and effects of the high-end real estate market on society. These photographs of newly built, multi-million dollar homes for sale in 2006 highlight the fantastical and illusory nature of what these homes represent to both those people who own them and those who covet but cannot afford them. They are the ultimate status symbols and, for many, they are vehicles through which individual identities are formed and projected.

But, as much as I believe that this work speaks to a larger social phenomenon, I also recognize that it is a reflection of my own personal experiences and perspective. Having grown up in a struggling immigrant family, I have been sensitized to class differences and what material possessions may or may not reveal about myself. Therefore, in order to be able to begin to talk about the symbolic meaning of these homes for others I had to first look within myself, interpreting my own past and current situation. This work, then, is as much as about others as it is about myself.