Tag Archives: white stag

Still Smiling + Displace Installation Photos

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still smiling (final) from Alison Ho on Vimeo.



still smiling
Digital video
Height 5′ 3″

Still smiling is a video installation that captures a common phenomenon of social awkwardness – the polite smile – and focuses in on it, without extraneous factors.

Influenced by being in-between cultures, I often find myself in situations that I do not completely understand, but yet still must keep up appearances. Over the years, I have mastered this smile, and have successfully feigned full understanding to family members and other viewers alike. Although well-intentioned at first, Still Smiling exhibits the tension that inevitably appears as the muscle strain seeps through my face, and body language dissolves politeness into honesty.



DISPLACE
Sand paper, vinyl stencil
Variable

Displace is a text piece that visualizes my interior reaction to a moment or a situation of social awkwardness. Displace arises from the words, “space” and “place” and plays upon how language occupies both.

The most poignant example in my life is a family dinner. All at once, family members will talk to each other in Taiwanese, address the waiters in Cantonese, discuss money (and other private affairs) in Thai, and then attempt to include the kids in English, as a good-natured gesture. Despite the intentions, I often feel confused, awkward, and overwhelmed by the multitude of inaccessible conversation swirling around me.

I feel displaced a level below my family, unable to understand all the nuances because my Mandarin skills are not on par with the rest of my family.

‘Displace’ is the visual representative of those feelings – the word ‘Displace’ has been sanded into the wall – it does not appear on the same surface level as other pieces in the gallery, but must fend for itself, sanded into the wall.

If you haven’t already, our BFA show will be up today and tomorrow at the White Box. The show ends on June 25th and 6 PM.

Luminous Deer BFA Opening Tonight 6-9 pm

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luminous deer
University of Oregon
Department of Art, Digital Arts
Bachelor of Fine Arts Exhibition

First Thursday Opening
June 3, 6-9 p.m.

White Box, 24 NW First Avenue, Portland, OR
June 4-25, Tuesday-Saturday, noon-6 p.m.

About Luminous deer:
Download press statement here.
http://luminousdeer.com/

For more info:
whitebox@uoregon.edu
503-412-3689

I hope you can come and see our final BFA show. It will be awesome.
You might even get a smile sticker.

“Inspiration China” Opening at the White Box

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white orchid from Alison Ho on Vimeo.

first show ever. intense.

i’m so glad i survived the process. the show is a success and am so happy to be a part of this experience. i think this could be a start to a new addiction (salter, you were right).

the show will run from October 8th-Friday, November 20th.
the White Box is open noon-6pm, Tuesday-Saturday.
the address for the White Box is:
24 NW First Avenue
Portland, OR 97209
503-412-3696

here is a little bit that i wrote about my piece:

At the most basic level, handwriting and painting are man’s
most personalized forms of mark making. Each stroke or flick
of a pen or brush tells us something inherently unique about
the writer or artist. Many Chinese say that writing ultimately
shows a person’s innermost character.

Chinese writing, like brush painting, has structured methods
of creation with traits and techniques as distinctive as the
artists who create it.

In brush painting, there are no extra marks to indicate
shadows, and so each time a brush is loaded with paint,
there must be two colors – showing depth and dimension
without extra strokes. Brush painting is a quick art – most
paintings can be completed in ten minutes or less.
In Chinese writing (fantizi and jiantizi), each character’s
evolution from its origins to its present-day design is linked
to the democratization of the written language. Today’s
written language includes everything from complicated
pictograms to the simplified and traditional Chinese characters
– writing which becomes art, delicately formed the skillful
hand of a Chinese calligraphist.

This project is a macro view of the choreographed dance
between brush, ink, and paper. This video reveals a sensuous
flow and tempo as the ink is diffused onto the paper in the
most precise yet expressive way. The brush moves through
the frame in sweeping and staccato movements. There is a
give and take between the pressing and lifting of the brush
as the ink meets the paper. It gives a pervasive look into a
tactile process that is somewhat hidden – and nearly forgotten –
in an increasingly digital world.

Thank you to Ming Fen Lee for her permission to be filmed
and interviewed for this video.

if you’d like to check more out about the show, here is the press release for the school. unfortunately, my video wasn’t up and running so there is a picture of the mac screensaver…yes i know epic fail but the pictures of the white box are lovely.

i hope you all get a chance to check the show out! the artwork is amazing. woot.