Sin-ying Ho – Past Forward @ Hood Museum in Dartmouth

by | Mar 29, 2018 | Uncategorized

Sin-ying Ho, World Garden No. 1 (detail), 2014, porcelain, high-fired reduction, hand-painted cobalt pigment, high-fired under-glaze decal transfer, clear glaze. Courtesy of the artist and Ferrin Contemporary.

March 30, 2018, through May 27, 2018

If Chinese ceramic art has a heart, it beats in Jingdezhen. For centuries, artisans there have made vessels that traveled far and wide. Their fluid forms and recognizable decorations have inspired celebratory prose and devoted followers around the world. Today, Sin-ying Ho works in these same ceramics factories. Though Jingdezhen potters have long defined tradition, Sin-ying has expanded both their forms and their imagery in contemporary ceramics that are thoroughly of the twenty-first century. She makes her works—whether they are monumental vases or smaller, more clearly assembled sculptures—from multiple parts. She emphasizes the many parts by glazing each of the pieces differently. Together they form a whole that maintains the legacy of being created from myriad fragments.

Sin-ying’s process of building is an essential metaphor for her artistic practice. With it, she implies an optimism for our society’s continued ability to construct a unified world. As reflected in her technique, and in the themes addressed by her surface imagery, this world will necessarily be an amalgam of new and old, here and there, greed and generosity, men and women, faith and despair. Through these combinations, Sin-ying shares a worldview that acknowledges the inherent contradictions and challenges of global culture while also anticipating the uncanny beauty emerging all around us.

This exhibition was organized by the Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth, and generously supported by the Philip Fowler 1927 Memorial Fund.

http://hoodmuseum.dartmouth.edu/explore/exhibitions/sin-ying-ho