Born in Indonesia to a Chinese family and now based in Crestone, Colorado, Christian Tan (Chris Manfield) is an artist whose work inhabits the in-between—between cultures, between people, and between humanity and nature. As an Asian photographer and installation artist, his creative journey reflects an ongoing search for connection, sustainability, and a sense of belonging through visual storytelling.
Holding degrees in Photography and Studio Art from the San Francisco Art Institute, Chris draws on his lived experience to create installations and community-based projects that map the emotional terrain of identity and place. In this conversation, he reflects on how growing up within cultural dualities shaped his worldview—and how his current work continues to bridge fine art and collective care.
Can you tell us a bit about your background – where did you grow up, and how did your early environment shape your interest in the arts?
I was born to a Chinese family in Indonesia in 1994 and grew up in an environment adorned with traditional crafts and cultures that existed in tandem with the pervasive presence and distinct aesthetics of global franchises. Like a lot of kids who grew up in the ’90s, I had my fair share of unhealthy and unfiltered internet exposure. The internet wasn’t entirely bad, but it felt like we were collectively sinking into a different plane where we feed our devices the attention we seek to give to other people and ourselves. It seems that the closer technology brings us together, the more apparent our distance becomes. I felt a profound yearning for a meaningful existence. For me, art offered that tangible and visceral connection that seemed absent elsewhere.
You hold both a BFA and an MFA from the San Francisco Art Institute. How did your experience there shape you creatively and conceptually?
My time at the San Francisco Art Institute, while valuable, also sparked fundamental and sometimes difficult questions about art school and my identity as an artist. Ultimately, it deepened my relationship with my work and opened my eyes to a relationship with the world I had never imagined before. It showed me what a creative community looks and feels like. We were always encouraging each other to think and feel deeper, to reconstruct and deconstruct ideas. It was the first school I fell in love with and the school where I felt at home.
In 2022, you founded the Crestone Community Art Benefit Project. What inspired you to start this initiative, and what are some of the challenges and rewards of working as a contemporary artist in Crestone?
The purpose of the Crestone Community Art Benefit Project is to provide artistic support for community-oriented nonprofit programs as well as fair working opportunities for local artists. The challenge is that integrating creative work into existing organizations often involves significantly more paperwork than creative work itself. Additionally, rural communities often inherently have limited creative opportunities.
You’re currently involved with the Crestone Energy Fair, where you’re leading graphic design and working on an art installation. How does this project align with your creative values?
I resonate with the Crestone Energy Fair, the longest-running free “sustainability” fair in the United States, through a mutual interest in promoting harmonious communal relationships between what the people call home and their ecosystems.
How do you see the relationship between art and sustainability?
The irony of exploring sustainability—in technology, energy, or culture—is that its very concept seems paradoxical, considering the fact that nothing lasts forever. It’s within this subjectivity that I think of sustainability like art, as often being relational and circumstantial. It’s a cultural homage to what’s important in consideration of what’s thriving and suffering, what is gained and lost. At the bottom of it all, the science of sustainability is more often art than science, and I share this mirroring sentiment with my art practice. Oftentimes, the root of my creative practice stems from a utilitarian or pragmatic sentiment.
What plans or projects are you excited to explore in 2025?
I’m excited to see both the Crestone Energy Fair and the Community Art Benefit Project expand their reach, and I hope to have more free time to explore new personal projects—maybe something along the lines of living and co-creating in harmony.
Interviewed by Eric Park
