Justine Chang is an artist interested in the gaps between history and memory. Through photography, she seeks a shared language among the Korean American diaspora. Her latest project began with her grandmother’s death and the increase in anti-Asian violence at the height of the pandemic. She sifted through her photographic archive, searching for her grandmother and the women she had overlooked in the past.Her work has been featured in various publications including The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Architectural Digest, Der Greif, and Aint-Bad. She has exhibited at the RISD Museum, Walford Art Gallery, Molly Harding Nye Gallery, Pawtucket Arts Collaborative, and Red Eye Gallery. She was also the Boston Literary District’s Writer-in-Residence in partnership with Emerson College. She earned a BFA in Photography at the Rhode Island School of Design.
Mother named us after birds 2023
Archival pigment print on hanji 26″ x 60″
Artist Statement
I was born with my mother buried inside of me — disappeared by many violences, but especially the violence of my birth.
A daughter is sometimes a thief. In the Korean dictionary, there are multiple idioms that say this. She is a beautiful thief. She steals from her mother. Her mother encourages this. She knows what violences her daughter has ahead of her.
Poet Kim Hyesoon writes, a Korean woman is full of holes. Each hole buries a woman disappeared by violence. As a Korean American woman, I too carry these women in holes of my own.
My grandmother disappeared in the midst of the pandemic. To process my grief, I searched for her in my photographs. I was shocked by how few I had. This absence helped me start to notice the figures in the margins.
The movements of these women are controlled by the hungers around her — working, cleaning, carrying food. They are dancing, laughing, poised, bored. I became obsessed with finding them all, unsettled that despite what I was finding now, my lens had been focused elsewhere. I had embarrassingly waited for so many of them to leave the frame.
These images were originally cut from a collection of my own photographs. All prints are on hanji — Korean handmade paper made with the fibers of the paper mulberry tree,
Additional Info
Artist Website: justine-chang.com
Part of Growing the NetWorks
This artist was selected by a past NetWorks Rhode Island participant as part of Growing the NetWorks — a 2025 exhibition presented by WaterFire Providence, at the WaterFire Arts Center, celebrating peer-nominated artists from across Rhode Island. Learn more at waterfire.org/growingthenetworks
Highlighting the work of selected artists who have played vital roles in shaping the contemporary visual arts community in Rhode Island. This collection of brief video portraits provides a window into the lives, practices, and cultural contributions of professional artists.
