2023
In 2023, Chang Hsin came across a photograph on Instagram and was deeply captivated by the mysterious blonde woman in it.
That was her first encounter with Candy Darling, and she fell hopelessly in love with her. She began obsessively searching online for everything related to Candy, though there wasn’t much information to be found.
Candy Darling was a transgender actress from the 1960s, a member of Andy Warhol’s “The Factory,” and one of Warhol’s beloved Superstars.
Chasing her dream of stardom, Darling ventured alone into New York City, only to become a tragic casualty of Warhol’s artistic orbit. She passed away from lymphoma in 1974, at the age of just twenty-nine.
Hsin collected texts, images, and fragments of music to create handmade books and paintings dedicated to Candy.
Through the process of making these objects, she built a one-sided emotional memory, a private archive of affection. These intimate works, made as “gifts” for Candy, became tangible manifestations of an invisible connection between them.
Candy’s story is more than a sad accident; its historical context reflects the postwar American drive toward global capitalist commercialization, and the collective emptiness that lay beneath it.
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Dear Candy, printed artist’s book, 20 × 14 cm, 111 pages, 2023
Letter to Candy Darling, ink on letter paper with envelope, 21 × 29.7 cm, 2023
Dear Candy, Artist’s book, mixed media, 27 × 19 cm, 195 pages, 2023Flip-through video
Black Church, mix media, 16 × 9 × 2 cm, 2023
Some sketches and unfinished imaginations, 2024