Arts Thread

Wenshu Kan is a photographer with a Chinese background, currently based in Europe. Her work emerges from examining the complex and often contradictory relationship between identity and ideologies. Drawing from her Chinese heritage and her experiences living in Europe, she navigates both ‘insider’ and ‘outsider’ perspectives, allowing her to explore the hidden and unspoken pain that stems from power dynamics, identity fragmentation, cultural conflicts, and personal disconnection with dominant ideologies. Through themes like political control, nostalgia, and faith, she highlights the deep and intangible struggles faced by individuals and communities. By blending documentary photography with abstract and conceptual methods, she creates narratives that weave together human stories and philosophical insights, evoking a shared resonance with these unpresentable pains. Her work not only illustrates how ideology shapes emotions and identity, but also seeks to uncover a universal humanity that transcends cultural, historical, and political boundaries.