It's My House!

Ellen Jong (b.1976) is a Chinese-American artist living and working in LA.

Jong states “In my art, I strive to inform reflections of my being, advocating for self-discovery and identity. I use personal experience, the vernacular and disruption to process and interpret life's trials.”

For the last seven years, she has been developing a material adapted from ancient Chinese ink-making methods that date back to 12th century BC. “The traditional ink-stick is of my heritage - one of the first writing tools I used in my childhood home in Queens, NY where I learned calligraphy and painting by imitating Chinese masters including Qi Baishi. After a site-specific performance installation in Shanghai following a trip to Guilin, China, I thought “If ink can be made into a stick (traditional Chinese ink-stick), can I be made into ink?” History is written in ink. I reclaim it to write myself into history – build my legacy - and create works that represent me. Ink both invites one into the tribe and alienates, is fact and fiction, connects us and tears us apart. Ink doesn't last forever. Above all, ink has the potential to transcend, even itself.”

Ellen Jong’s practice is rooted in conceptual performance and autobiographical themes. Jong is perhaps best known for her first major series, the infamous “Pees on Earth” photographs (1997-2005), featuring the artist urinating in a variety of public settings in the “pursuit of owning territory, body, rebellious antics, and the un-ownable.” Her subsequent photographic series feature scenes from her everyday life, including her surroundings, her marriage, and the intimacies of her husband’s body.

The Harlequin Sculptural Ink works on paper are made up of woven and patchworked ink sheets. This unique set of panties is ornamented with a protruding Chinese finger trap toy extruding from their custom acrylic box

“My work in sculptural ink takes an inventive approach to constructing new and fluid representations of language, form and identity using an ancient tradition ink from China and applying it to playful and provocative ink works on paper. The ink material is hand-made, animal-based and organic.”

@_____ellenjong

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