Biography

Wuon-Gean Ho graduated in History of Art from Cambridge University, before taking up a Japanese Government Scholarship in 1998 to study traditional woodblock printmaking in Kyoto. She has since held residencies in various countries, notably Caldera Arts Center, Crow’s Shadow Institute of the Arts and the Sitka Center for Arts and Ecology, all in the USA; the Bluecoat Arts Centre and Aberystwyth School of Art in the UK, and the castle of Montefiore Conca in Italy.

She is the recipient of awards including the John Purcell Paper prize in 2007; the Printmakers’ Council prize in 2009; and the Birgit Skiöld Memorial Trust Award of Excellence in 2010.

Exhibition 1

Unending Forest
This series of prints aims to capture the feeling of a magical forest, much like parts of the glorious forest in Oregon that I’ve visited. For me these forests are always warm with dappled light; fronds and branches gently swaying; bark exuding a delicious resiny scent and crystals of sap that sparkle like diamonds.

The prints are large, so that the viewer is engulfed by their scale. Each print measures 1.5 x 2m, and is silkscreened in sections by hand onto fabriano paper. There are four different prints, each of trees that are mirrored in themselves. This is partly to engender the unnerving feeling of being lost in a forest where the trees appeared to be familiar yet different. One minute you would think you’d know where you were going, the next you’d be passing by a world which you’d seen before, but in reverse. There is some music that has been specially composed for these prints, using a unique instrument called a magnetic resonating piano, and the eerie sound will surround the viewer as they enter the space.

Exhibition 2

Shift
Shift is an animation that is composed of around 800 frames that have been made from blended hybrids of 40 different linocut prints of a dancing dress. The prints were made as carvings on Japanese vinyl, and printed with ink on paper by hand before being photographed and transformed using photoshop to create the in- between poses.

The piece was made as a study on flight and weightlessness; the dress starts out as a piece of crumpled cloth but quickly unfolds and starts to dance in the wind. In places the dress seems to take on a life of its own. It is a virtual study of movement, as the choreography is a piece of fantasy.
The animation can be viewed on youtube
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LTyCksf-cCo
I would like to propose an installation with monoprints in colour of a selection of the dancing dresses, hung as a panel of fragile papers fluttering in the ambient air movements, in addition to showing the animation.
Specifications:
Each monoprint measures 40 cm high by 30 cm wide on Korean handmade paper dimensions 48 cm high by 40 cm wide. There are 64 prints in total and I would like to propose a panel of prints 4 high by 16 wide, but of course this may be adapted to the space available.
At the same time, I would like to show the printed animation which was made using the linocut prints, this lasts 3 minutes 18 seconds and has sound.