VAST-400-F092T: Previous art works
Michelle Hong
Hong, Michelle, “SPAM”, 2023.
Colour decal printing, Gold lustre on Ceramics
“Movement” experiment transforming into the material
Hong, Michelle, “Movement 2” 2024. Ceramics
Won a prize from “The 44th International Contemporary Art Contest” in Korea
I captured the moment of enjoyment using the wheel.
In the process of wheel throwing, twister forms are often considered a mistake. However, intentionally making the twister forms, the unique shape from the wheel throwing signifies my amusement of learning and dancing. As I kept track of my ceramic learning, I focused on more three-dimensional shapes than tile painting “Movement”2023.
“Movement” experiment with my actual body part
ARTIST STATEMENT
The Colour “Yellow” was sensitive when I heard the language yellow because yellow signified discrimination against Asian people that are more pigment in skin colour compared to White people. When I heard the term “banana”, it was an offensive term for me as an Asian that lost track of a sense of belonging to neither a born and raised group nor a family generation group. Therefore, I chose to play with the colour yellow as expressing the strong conversation with Asian discrimination happening in Canada. Using the female body as performance work, I maximize femininity by representing the stereotype of Asian girls due to the effect of orientalism. The female representation of the body signifies the weakness of Asian discrimination. The makeup of femininity represents less strength in gender discrimination. I also want to talk about not only the banana racist word but also “yellow fever” which typically calls the people who have racism towards Asian girls that stereotype submissive, obedient Asian girls due to the effect of orientalism. In the process of learning a new language, English, I was embarrassed to talk to Asian people who were called bananas because I felt the cultural gap between two different cultures, Canadian and Korean. Thus, I felt weak human existence for surviving in Canada, not knowing English so I spoke with the body language of “weakness” through my dynamic body language of performance art.
The material choice was the food wrap covering all of my body that traces my body as a body portrait, and I chose the food wrap material because it was easy to transform and play with tracing the three-dimensional material in a sculptural way. The reason that I chose acrylic paint was the best way to represent my hand paint marks distinctively in the food wrap. I used a dark background to capture my movement and colour well and used only flashlights from the camera in terms of capturing my body wrap.
KEYWORDS
Yellow, Banana, Racism, Asian, Feminism, Orientalism
Hong, Michelle, “Speaking with the Land: Metro Vancouver”, 2023. zine.
El-Sayed, Habiba. Untitled.
Cave, Nick. Sound Suits
“Cave originally made his Soundsuits as metaphorical suits of armor originally made in response to racial violence and police brutality against Black people in America (Medium).”
Video link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BpNcmh3rxko&t=23s
Retrieved from https:// neighborhoodartcenter.medium.com/performance-art-nick-cave-oliver-herring-marina-abramovic-355e3c5b64cf
Retrieved from https://mvslim.com/habiba-el-sayed-the-ceramic-artist-moulding-the-pain-of-muslims/
Selected
artworks that I want to talk about in this class
I, concentrate on my feelings, expressing my emotion through “movement”. My works explore new experiments with direct or translated body movement to the artwork. Using the material of clay or food wraps represents my exploration of trying new canvas outside of my comfort zone. Speaking with my mental and body movement, sometimes I deal with some critical issues “racism”, and “feminism” arising sarcastically.
I would like to focus on “Gender inequality” as the oldest daughter in Korea in the VAST-400 class.