Nina Yuen is a young artist who travelled from New York to Amsterdam witch a exchange program, and she decided to stay. Besides being an artist herself, she was a teacher for a couple of years at an Art Academy in New York. She tried to get another job as an art teacher here in Amsterdam, but until now, she hasn’t had any luck on that point. Luckily for her, her art exhibits have been going on all over the world.
Nina Yuen became an artist because through a camera, she was able to tell things about her personal life that she couldn’t express in writing or in speech. She learned that this was her way to speak her mind by making her first movie, which contained a series of apologies to one of her ex-boyfriends. It is what started her interest in art, even though her parents are still having trouble with accepting her choice of life. ’They have a hard time with me being an artist since their both really into helping society.’
Childhood
Nina grew up in Hawaii, and her mother taught her and her sister every Saturday about different kinds of art by showing them books full of paintings and pictures. Although Nina didn’t understand all the paintings her mother showed her, she did develop some kind of taste in them, she knew what she did and didn’t like.
But her parents aren’t that happy with Nina’s choice to be an artist. Both of them are activist for society and the environment, and her sister is buying land to make it into forest. ‘My movies, like I’m dancing around in a funny costume, I’ll show it to my father and he’ll just be like: What, what is the point? Why are you doing this?’ She knows it wouldn’t be that hard for them if she had decided to become a political artist, but that just isn’t how she is.
Her own way
Although her parents don’t understand her choice, they do play a big role in Nina’s personal and artistic life. And a lot of movies are filmed in her parents’ house. ‘My sister made a rule that I’m not allowed to videotape her anymore.’ It turns out that her sister was annoyed by Nina directing her while making the movie. Luckily, she can laugh about it.
Nina chose film a long time ago as her way of art because she could combine the images and the sounds in every way she like. No one would or could control her during the progress when she creates something. It was her way to create order in the chaos of her own thoughts and mind.
Her movies don’t only show a piece of her mind and thoughts, she also makes movies about how she makes her art. At the end, that movie will be the final piece in the puzzle of her exhibit. In that way, she wants to get people involved in her art. It is a very important thing to her and it was the reason that she became an art teacher.
Till this day on Nina travelled from New York to Amsterdam, to Spain and Denmark, to Brazil and Romania and all for her own exhibits, in a week she will have a solo exhibit opening in New York and in April starts another in Utrecht. And as for her future she hopes she can stay here in Amsterdam and she wants to make a feature link film and show it on international movie festivals or movie contests as well as in art contests.
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