Artist and researcher Zhen Chen: 'The Röling Building feels like a mini-museum'

Throughout the Röling Building, you’ll find the brightly coloured artworks of researcher Zhen Chen. She herself is currently working on her MSCA postdoctoral research project at the University of Edinburgh, but her art remains in Groningen.

When did you start painting?

During the coronavirus pandemic in 2021, as a new hobby. Museums and galleries were closed so I coudn't see art in person. Instead I tried to create art myself. Painting has become an essential part of my life. It allows me to give free rein to my imagination, a lovely contrast to the strict requirements of legal writing, with correct citations and footnotes. It feels like a kind of meditation. When I’m painting, I often lose track of time and enjoy mixing colours and creating new shapes and figures. Over the past few years, I’ve produced around 150 paintings. My passion for art remains, so I will create more paintings with different styles and themes.

Much of your artwork is on display in the Röling Building. How did that come about?

In February 2022, I had my very first exhibition at the departement of Transboundary Legal Studies in the Harmonie Building, prior to the move to the Röling Building. Thanks to the art committee, many of my paintings were given a place there. Twenty-six of my paintings from the Name Initials (Who am I) series are still on display in the Language Centre, and you can also find my artwork in the canteen, communal areas and corridors of the Röling Building. One of my fondest memories is that colleagues from different departements of the faculty dressed up as the Girl with a Pearl Earring when one of my paintings, inspired by Vermeer and Van Gogh, was exhibited in digital form for two weeks at the Mauritshuis Museum in the Hague.

Why did you decide to leave your artworks in Groningen?

I know that many colleagues at the faculty are really passionate about art. Just look at all the diverse artworks you see in the offices. Thanks to the art committee, the Röling Building feels like a mini-museum or gallery. I’m leaving my artworks behind with the feeling that they’ll be looked after and that people appreciate them. And I hope to hold another exhibition in Groningen in the future.

You bring up the idea of ‘The Art Exchange Programme’ or ‘Art Office Airbnb’ – what exactly do you mean by that?

To me, my paintings are kind of like my children. I sometimes imagine that the figures in my paintings come to life at night, like in the film Night at the Museum. So I see the office rooms where my artworks hang as a temporary home for my paintings and my colleagues as the guardians who look after them in my absence. But art is a matter of taste, so if a colleague leaves and a new colleague would like to hang a different piece, that should be allowed. As long as my paintings stays within the Röling Building. Hence the name The Art Exchange Programme or Art Office Airbnb. I’m leaving a list of all my artworks so people can indicate which ones they’d like to exchange among colleagues in different offices and can easily track the locations of all artworks.

What are you going to do in Edinburgh?

I am going to conduct a two-year postdoctoral research at the Law School of Edinburgh University, funded by the EU Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions Postdoctoral Fellowship (MSCA PF). My research focuses on the repatriation of human remains stolen, looted or removed during the colonial period and on how private international law can be reformed to facilitate the return of such remains to their countries of origin. More information about my project can be seen here.

For more art in the Röling Building, look here or mail to art.law rug.nl.