Isabella Tran

"How to Make Chrysanthemum Tea", Isabella Tran, 2023, ink and marker on watercolour and printmaking paper.

Disconnected from her culture due to family complications, Isabella Tran's practice is a continuous effort to retie the unravelled strings of her Chinese identity. In “How to Make Chrysanthemum Tea”, the bunny, a stylised representation of herself, traverses a fantasised realm of Chinese landscapes, symbols and mythical creatures, all anecdotes of childhood memories. The paintings, hosting Chinese subject matters, are all filtered through the lens of her Western pop-culture upbringing, even including a fake language Tran invented as a child, her own version of the Chinese language that she wanted to be a part of.  

Tran has found love in the “Third Culture” she has created for herself. Isabella Tran is departing with aspects of her Chinese childhood that she may never remember or ever have again. Both joy and grief exist within these paintings as she learns to love the unique ways she's collected and composed those memories into herself today.