Aunt Lou (Copper), 2025
Phototransfer on Copper Plate
Edition of 10
24 x 17 1/2 in.
Collaborative Printer: Justine Ditto
Aunt Lou (Copper) tells the story of Chong's maternal grandmother, Aunt Lou, who was estranged from his mother as an infant and fled to British Honduras. For most of his life, Chong had no idea what his maternal grandmother looked like. During a visit to an aging aunt, he discovered a trove of photographs that had never been shared with the rest of the family. The image of Aunt Lou had always been a ghost in the family. During the pandemic, he enlarged the photograph in his sunlit bedroom and watched the light fall across her face. He photographed that moment, layered dandelions and wildflowers over it, and assembled the still life that became the basis for his PrintLab work.
The edition is split between paper and copper. Chong has worked with copper since graduate school, drawn to its softness and impressionability, which Chong describes as “poor man’s gold.” The copper introduces the highlights and the shadows must be minimal, or the surface loses its glow. The precision Chong demonstrates in his use of a delicate medium like copper reflects that of the fleeting nature and materiality of memory in his practice.
