The notion of identity existing on continuums is central to Chella Man’s practice.

Myriad and fluid conceptions of the self inform their painting, sculpture, writing, performance, film, curating and advocacy work, drawing on Man’s lived experience as Deaf, transmasculine, genderqueer, Chinese, and Jewish. Man weighs the empowerment and disenfranchisement he has experienced immersed in a hearing and heteronormative culture.

Man emphasizes language, highlighting its critical ability to shift mainstream narratives. With careful interrogation, they analyze how society systematically uses words to disempower marginalized individuals, exposing its deficiencies to dismantle myths that dominate discourses on ableism, gender, sexuality, and race.

Across a multidisciplinary practice, Man emphasizes joy as a tool of activism, a defense against harmful discourses and exploitative practices imposed on disabled and trans communities. Rather than centering struggle or trauma (though not for lack of intimate experience with these things), they foreground pleasure, abundance, curiosity, and care as a radical path forward. Much of Man’s work is shared through publicly accessible social-media channels, allowing them to circumvent the typical tradeoffs and buy-ins of mass media to reach a broad audience. Man populates the media landscape with abundant depictions of an empowered self, proudly fluid and deeply rooted in resilient communities.