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The artist's new work with Dashwood Books collects images made in the shadow of his father's cancer, where objects and illusions shift.
May 28. Poyen Chen's latest zine, I Am Not a Serious Person, lands via Dashwood Books. The title is a tell. After his father's cancer diagnosis, Chen's understanding of reality began to shift, and the work that followed plays with the objects and illusions of that changed state.
The zine is a collection of images. No essay, no manifesto. Just photographs that treat the everyday as slippery. The collaboration with Dashwood Books, a New York publisher known for quiet artist-book projects, suggests this isn't a loud statement. It's a small thing, printed and bound, meant to be held.
Chen's work has always leaned observational. This one adds weight. The diagnosis becomes the lens. What was solid becomes provisional. What was clear becomes open to interpretation. The zine doesn't explain this. It shows it.
Dashwood's catalog skews toward photographers and artists working in the in-between spaces. Nan Goldin, Ryan McGinley, Wolfgang Tillmans. Chen fits. The press around the release is minimal. No gallery opening, no launch party flagged. Just the book, available now.
The title reads as deflection. "I Am Not a Serious Person" is what you say when the work is about something serious and you don't want to lead with that. The images do the rest.
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