Watch a video introduction here :

Ellen Jong - Another Mother, inside the studio 2024

Filmed and Produced by Creative Class Agency

"Making sculptures in ink defies what I think I already know - to push the boundaries of form, body and place - and to create a fluid space where potential, wonder and transformation can happen.

Ink is not just applied to the body. It IS the body." Ellen Jong

Introduction : Ink Sculptures 2017 - present

I am motivated by self-discovery and self-mythologizing; I create narratives that conjure impressions of ancient past, belonging, migration, desire, and the fluid and often fraught conditions of our time. In 2015 I used a traditional Chinese ink stick for a site-specific performance/installation in Shanghai. I went on to learn Chinese ink-making techniques to explore its potential. The medium is animal-based - organic - and is impermanent and transformative. Over seven years I developed an ink for sculpture, applying these traditional methods and characteristics before completing my first life-size body cast of myself in my own ink.

Ink is a founding tool in our global civilizations, history and understanding of one another. Though colonized for centuries and slowly being lost to digital technology, ink is still as ubiquitous as water and air, and is a powerful implement for change.

That my ink is of my heritage and transformative is a fundamental principle and is building a language that represents me.

For more, please connect with me here. Follow me on Instagram @_____ellenjong

 

From left to right: traditional Chinese ink disc, traditional Chinese ink stick, traditional Chinese ink stick in a stylized bamboo shape

On the right: HEART IN TWO, my own hand-made ink in the shape of a human heart in two parts. 

Ellen Jong © 2020