A Seat At The Table: Jennifer Ling Datchuk
In the 47th episode of Perceived Value, host Sarah Rachel Brown continues her recording on-site at the American Craft Council conference which took place in Philadelphia this past October. Sarah sits down Jennifer Ling Datchuk who was the ACC Emerging Voices Award winner in 2017.
Even though they had never met previously, the two women took no time warming up to each other in conversation and enthusiastically jump into topic after topic. The two artists discuss how Ling paid her way for her education, how she has taken control of managing her student loan debt through educating herself and staying informed, and what it means to be named ACC’s Emerging Voices Award winner.
Jennifer Ling Datchuk is an artist born in Warren, Ohio and raised in Brooklyn, New York. Her mother came to this country in the early 1970s from China; her father born and raised in Ohio to Russian and Irish immigrant parents. Beyond initial appearances, the layers of her parents’ past and present histories are extremely overwhelming and complicated – a history of conflict she has inherited and a perpetual source for her work. Trained in ceramics, the artist works with porcelain and other materials often associated with traditional women’s work, such as textiles and hair, to discuss fragility, beauty, femininity, intersectionality, identity and personal history.
She holds an MFA in Artisanry from the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth and a BFA in Crafts from Kent State University. She has received grants from the Artist Foundation of San Antonio, travel grant from Artpace, and the Linda Lighton International Artist Exchange Program to research the global migrations of porcelain and blue and white pattern decoration. She was awarded a residency through the Blue Star Contemporary Art Museum to conduct her studio practice at the Künstlerhaus Bethanien in Berlin, Germany and has participated in residencies at the Pottery Workshop in Jingdezhen, China, Vermont Studio Center, European Ceramic Work Center in the Netherlands and Artpace in San Antonio, Texas. In 2017, she received the Emerging Voices award from the American Craft Council. She is Assistant Professor of Ceramics at Texas State University in San Marcos, Texas and lives and maintains a studio practice in San Antonio, Texas.
website: https://jenniferlingdatchuk.com/
instagram: @jenniferlingdatchuk
