Wing Po So
Invisible Island, 2021
Installation, mixed-media
182 x 15 x 63 cm
Wing Po So (b. 1985 Hong Kong) grew up in a family with generations of Chinese medicine practitioners, she has been acquainted with Chinese herbs since childhood. When nature turns...
Wing Po So (b. 1985 Hong Kong) grew up in a family with generations of Chinese medicine practitioners, she has been acquainted with Chinese herbs since childhood. When nature turns into medicinal ingredients, they are often cut in pieces, worm bitten, burnt, and incomplete. So's work deals with this kind of alienation towards nature and our living environment. By incorporating the medicinal herbs and daily objects into large-scale installations and sculptures, So weaves Chinese medical and philosophical thinking into celestial wonders that reconstruct the correlation of matter and being. So had a solo exhibition at Tai Kwun Contemporary, Hong Kong, entitled “Six-Part Practice” 2018. She published an artist book in 2018, titled “From Space to Space: An Illustrated Guide to an Infinite Something.”
About the work:
Rich in ecological resources, Hong Kong is home to a wide variety of flora and fauna. Wing Po So collects different species of algae, fungi, plants, and subjects them to decellularisation – a biomedical engineering process that can be used in tissue regeneration and organ implantation surgery. Having had their living cells and proteins removed, the organisms become nothing but an ‘empty’ matrix tissue that once used to hold the cells in place. Lying dormant in containers, the de-celled organisms have semi-translucent scaffolds of tissue, almost like ghosts for their paleness and translucent appearance. Seeming to be in hibernation, the empty shells can be perceived as voids that imply hollowness, and other possibilities. Humans and nature are facing unprecedented crises, completely shattering all structures that were once "normal". The cell discharge process provides the scaffold with the necessary conditions to facilitate the growth of something new, be it a new environment to seed or a new host. It is to open up our imagination towards the relationship between human beings and our surrounding nature.
Wing Po So received a Bachelor of Fine Arts 2007 at the Sam Fox School of Design and Visual Arts, Washington University of Saint Louis, USA and her Master of Fine Arts 2012 at the Chinese University of Hong Kong.
About the work:
Rich in ecological resources, Hong Kong is home to a wide variety of flora and fauna. Wing Po So collects different species of algae, fungi, plants, and subjects them to decellularisation – a biomedical engineering process that can be used in tissue regeneration and organ implantation surgery. Having had their living cells and proteins removed, the organisms become nothing but an ‘empty’ matrix tissue that once used to hold the cells in place. Lying dormant in containers, the de-celled organisms have semi-translucent scaffolds of tissue, almost like ghosts for their paleness and translucent appearance. Seeming to be in hibernation, the empty shells can be perceived as voids that imply hollowness, and other possibilities. Humans and nature are facing unprecedented crises, completely shattering all structures that were once "normal". The cell discharge process provides the scaffold with the necessary conditions to facilitate the growth of something new, be it a new environment to seed or a new host. It is to open up our imagination towards the relationship between human beings and our surrounding nature.
Wing Po So received a Bachelor of Fine Arts 2007 at the Sam Fox School of Design and Visual Arts, Washington University of Saint Louis, USA and her Master of Fine Arts 2012 at the Chinese University of Hong Kong.
