Huo Hong

“Strange Dwelling”

ink on paper

11 x 17

2020

Bio:

Hong Huo is a Beijing-born artist who has lived in the U.S. for many  years. In between two cultures, sometime feeling fragmented, but with  gratitude and hope, Huo is interested in bringing her authentic cultural  experiences and stories to life through animation and mix-media  installation. Huo got her BFA from Virginia Commonwealth University, and currently in  her second year in University of Wisconsin in Madison’s MFA program.

Artist Statement:

Since the pandemic has started in March, I started an ongoing project Strange Dwelling, which is a  process of experimentation of blowing bubbles out of the mix of Chinese ink and soap water onto  paper to meditate the current anxiety of self-sanitizing and breathing. After the bubbles burst and the  ink is dry, I hand-draw onto the existing patterns left from the previous process, to create spontaneous  images that are abstract shapes and patterns yet reflect my inner motives to organize the chaos and  randomness during the time of self-isolation.    This experimentation began with many of my personal fears, insecurities, homesickness and stress  during the time of pandemic. The material uses of Chinese ink, brush work on rice paper is a reflection to  my own cultural root, which serves a way to explore tradition and authenticity, but also finding ways to  create something new and strange.    Without  a  plan  of  how  this  process  will  end,  I’m  simply  enjoying  the  uncertainty  of  the  process  of  making, by embracing the fact of having a lack of tools, space and equipment. So far my experiments have taken me to some ideas for three-dimensional work and site-specific installation.