Hidden Power: Survivors of Modern Slavery

Hidden Power: Survivors of Modern Slavery presents Christina Chan’s hyperrealistic drawings of survivors of modern slavery, including forced labor and sex trafficking. Today an estimated 50 million people are held against their will, generating more than $236 billion each year from industries and products including smartphones, fashion, chocolate, sugar, bananas, hospitality, and commercial sex.

In this updated collection, Chan begins to focus on the beauty and power of hands caught in modern slavery, as a way of expanding the conversation around labor, manufacturing and consumption.  These pieces complement her ongoing portrait series of survivors, where Chan personally connects with each individual to learn their story through conversation and research, and then create their portrait over the course of between 20 to 90 hours. 

The beauty and intricacy of the portraits reveal both the quiet dignity and resilience of those who have endured. These people carry unseen histories of exploitation and survival. 

Visitors are encouraged to question the hidden cost behind familiar products and to explore what awareness means: What tradeoffs we are willing to make between our own physical comfort and desires and the wellbeing of others? Do we continue life as usual, or find ways to change?