Are you curious for the taste of invasive species? And would you like to meet the artists of the exhibition Host(ile) Lands and listen to their stories? Coming Sunday 17th of May from 15.00-18.00 Hangfeng Chen and Pan Vanitcharoenthum will prepare Japanese Knotweed and Crayfish and serve their culinary results while engaging in dialogue about the questions posed by the exhibition Host(ile) Lands. Feel welcome to join the Tasting and please order a ticket (free) via the link in bio.
My short film Start with the Legs is exhibiting at Host(ile)Lands @zone2source from 19 April to 14 June 2026.
The film presents the complete process of an East Asian woman preparing, cooking, and consuming a Chinese mitten crab. As she carefully extracts the crab meat, a screen continuously displays news reports and short videos about its proliferation as an invasive species in the Low Countries, interspersed with algorithmically generated advertisements. Through cross-cutting, the work juxtaposes the crab’s divergent identities within two cultural contexts: in the Netherlands, it is framed as an invasive species threatening ecological order; in China, it is embedded within culinary tradition and affective memory as a seasonal delicacy. The work thus examines the complex entanglements between migration, species mobility, and cultural value in a globalized context. It further asks: in an era increasingly shaped by algorithm-driven cognition, who determines the boundaries between the “local” and the “foreign”? How do geographic displacement and cultural identity together shape our judgments of what is deemed “invasive” and what is considered worthy of desire?
The installation is composed together with a series of paper cutouts The New Exotics, pls see my previous post for more info about the works.
#mittencrab
#wolhandkrab
#papercutart
#chinoiserie
#shanzhai
#invasivespeices
#edibleart
#zone2source
The New Exotics
A series of paper-cut installations juxtapose quintessentially Dutch imagery—such as canal houses, windmills, colonists, warships, and heraldic shields—with various invasive or introduced species—like tulips, Japanese knotweed, crayfish, and Chinese mitten crabs—blending them into stylized, two-dimensional compositions. This fusion gives rise to a new hybrid aesthetic—at once whimsical, uncanny, yet strangely harmonious—much like the way species continuously evolve and coexist through contact and displacement. The work further explores the new aesthetics emerging from cultural encounters between East and West. It draws a parallel with the influence of 18th-century Chinoiserie on Baroque and Rococo art, and how, in turn, that influence has boomeranged back to shape contemporary shanzhai (copycat) culture in China today.
The work can be viewed during the show Hostile(lands) @zone2source
#papercut
#voc
#chinoiserie
#shanzhai
#invasivespecies
We proudly announce the next opening at Het Glazen Huis of the exhibition Host(ile) Lands. Sunday the 19th of April from 15.00-17.00 you are welcome to join us for a festive afternoon, stay tuned for more info!
Some of the moments from the research trip in Jingdezhen, Ganzhou and Guangzhou, by following the VOC’s first trip in China in 1655, thanks to Nieuhof’s drawings for my imagination from that period…
#hetgezantschap
#voc
#chinoise
🎥 Meet Hangfeng Chen (@chenhangfeng )
Hangfeng Chen is a visual artist and filmmaker working between Amsterdam and Shanghai. His practice centers on the reappropriation and juxtaposition of archival materials to create a dynamic dialogue between personal memory and historical narrative. This interdisciplinary approach has led him to move fluidly between fine arts and cinema, particularly in the realms of papercut, collage, drawing, and animation. Through this process, Chen explores layered connections that transcend time and geography, reflecting on hybridity and entanglement in the anthropocentric era. Chen studied painting and art history at the Shanghai Fine Art College (BA) and holds a master’s degree from the Netherlands Film Academy. He is currently an artist and researcher in residence at the University of Amsterdam, within the Faculty of Humanities.
Chen’s works have been exhibited and collected internationally, including by the Rockbund Museum (Shanghai), Today Art Museum (Beijing), Palais de Tokyo (Paris), Collective Gallery (Edinburgh), Chinese Arts Center (Manchester), Casino Luxembourg, Cable Gallery (Helsinki), SinArts Gallery, Lissa Art Museum, Tropenmuseum (Amsterdam), and the White Rabbit Museum (Sydney). His films have been shown at CinemAsia (Amsterdam), MADATAC Festival (Madrid), N-Minutes Video Art Festival (Helsinki), and the 57th International Short Film Festival Oberhausen (MIACA program).
Making Christmas
@chenhangfeng
30:00
2024
Making Christmas is a hybrid film blending documentary and fiction, it explores the economic transformation of a Chinese village through the global Christmas ornament trade, while weaving in local folklore, supernatural beliefs, and personal reflections on history, religion, and loss.
Chen Hangfeng is a visual artist and filmmaker working between Amsterdam and Shanghai. His practice reappropriates archival materials to create dialogues between personal memory and historical narrative. Working across papercut, collage, and animation, he explores connections transcending time and geography. He holds an MA from the Netherlands Film Academy and is currently an artist-researcher at the University of Amsterdam. His work is exhibited and screened internationally.
🎄Part of JULFESTEN av Hägerstensåsens Medborgarhus on Short Film Day, December 21 🎄
Short Film Day is carried out with support from the Swedish Film Institute and Folkets Bio
I’m excited to share that I’ve started a new position as an Artist and Researcher at the University of Amsterdam, within the Faculty of Humanities, the Department of Media Studies, and the CAFP research group! This opportunity allows me to further explore the intersections of art, moving images, cultural histories, and ecological narratives—threads that have long shaped my practice. I look forward to continuing to bridge research and artistic experimentation in a vibrant academic environment.
#chinaafricafashionpower
#UvA
The solo project The Gift by artist Chen Hangfeng humorously pieces together a surreal story of “Asian Carp invading America” through collages of found images. It tells of the beautiful intentions and real-life misunderstandings, awkwardness, and absurdities that emerge in cultural exchange. The works include video, painting, papercut, and installation, extending from his long-term project The Asian Carp Project. They reflect the artist’s personal observations and reflections on cultural difference and the globalized condition, shaped by his life between China and Europe. (Curated by Shi Hantao)
Dongxi
No 23, 1280 Yuyuan Lu, Shanghai
Nov 5 2025 - Jan 5 2026
#invasivespecies
