Joanne Ning (She / Her)
Joanne Ning (b.2000): Artist, sculptor, based in Hong Kong and Glasgow. Studio and research topics includes Birth, Transformation, and Spirituality.
I see Birth as the moment of breakthrough. Transformation is the process of formation, preparing one to voyage towards birth. My art practise records the alchemical process of material transformation, realising the materials’ potential to move, breathe, bleed, kiss — just like human being. Embodying materials with humanity, I aim to visualise the elements, struggles and challenges encountered throughout my spiritual transformation of exploring who I really am. Through the process of making, I interact with my work as both the creator and the creation. Through cooking, casting, shedding, and breaking, I consider the participation in the transformation and birth of my work as the participation of my own. Displayed as the product of the experiment, the transformed materials are not the end point of the journey, but they continue to transform organically.
Kiss
Kissing, fertilising, lovemaking – the movements of coming-together is a negotiated journey in search for the other half, for completeness. A new life has already blossomed at the start of this journey…
Tapioca Genitals
Stabbing, burying (an egg), boiling, breaking, consuming… This destructive process is the formation of the (female) tapioca genital.
Uterus Guns
The shape of gun looks like a halved uterus. An incomplete uterus represents an incomplete identity. If incompleteness remains unchanged, it becomes a dangerous weapon, the seeds it contains lead to bitterness and death. Only through deconstructing the destructive can the potential of new life be unleashed…
Uterus Guns (in Series)
In Embryo
The tapioca fetus sits peacefully in the womb, waiting for (deterioration / renewal)…
To / Be Contained
Tears, sweat, senses, gender – our lives and identities are woven by so many elements. It is placed between the tension of being contained and being not contained. Incarnated in flesh and blood, our ephemeral being have to constantly move from state to state in order to avoid deterioration…
Spiritual Journey
In between womb and tomb, bitterness and freedom, there is that wee scissor that cuts the cord…
Life Giver
The flesh of the life giver is broken, its blood sheds. Through the suffering of flesh and blood, the life giver delivers life…
“A woman giving birth to a child has pain because her time has come; but when her baby is born she forgets the anguish because of her joy that a child is born into the world.” – Holy Bible (John 16:17)
Flesh and Blood
Healing is reconnecting…
Cast
In casting and mould-making, the cast has to break out from the mould to stand as a finished work. The presence of a broken shell is the evidence of life here no longer, but beyond constraints…
Silhouette
Ecdysis
Snakes shed their skin, butterflies break out from their chrysalis. We, human, sheds our skins and cells bit by bit everyday. Constant renewal has been working before we ever noticed…
Alchemy
Through the process of making, I interact with my work as both the creator and the creation. The making of new life is the making of new relationships; it is an ever-renewing dialogue with the self, and with the origin where the self came from…
