ELLEN JONG

NEW WORK IN INK, 2015 - Present Continued anxiety around my identity, body and mortality are being re-examined using the traditional Chinese ink stick as a portal into personal, cultural, and future history. Starting with raw material and primitive and alchemic methods, I arrive at various stages of the ink material from liquid, drying into solid, and reverse, while making it over a steaming double boiler in my studio. I am motivated by its fundamental integrity to be water soluable which enables it to transform in state and shape, and to give color with the addition of water. I am able to manipulate the organic material using moisture and heat as if an extention of my own meat and memory, with sentiment, but nature will ultimately reveal the finality of each piece over time.

The Chinese ink stick is from my earliest memories; an "object," a smell, a routine, of home and a measure of values that exist in every cell of my body. It is also the point at which my ideas of self are conflicted, alienated and unresolved. 

To escape, and control, my pathological obsession "to transcend", I de/reconstruct the traditional ink stick into a multi-dimensional language I know. The material is alive and has the potential to bleed, liquify, crack and decay. The material speaks for itself.

All ink works are lightly treated for protection and recommended to keep cool, dry and out of direct sunlight.

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INK CAUTION TAPE RIBBON - In 2020 I commensed this body of work. I simulate caution tape using my "ink" material. First mixing pigments to differentiate the yellow and black. Then, pouring it into sheets, drying, cutting and using water and heat to fuse cut pieces back together alternating in color. The ink caution tape ribbon mimics a plastic but is actually organic. It urges for critical attention.

Selected words are traced using the ribbon in my own handwriting and paired with digital snippets of sunsets printed on fabric. Some have been intentionally altered with water and steam, but they all have the potential to turn over time. These juxtopositions are pushed to contemplate matters of the self, and the conditions that surround us.

CHASING THE DRAGON - Making the ink material to create works requires heat, alchemy and time travel. I use small trays of foil to melt down ink pieces onto eachother over heat and steam which can leave a burnt residue. These are remnants of the process.

GIRL IN A BOX - A series of capsules of my growing up in NYC, western and eastern influences that continue to shape me. The center of each composition presents an intimate (panty) made with handmade pigmented, cut, woven and patchworked "ink." Each intimate has a Chinese finger trap toy attached to the front that protrudes past the face of its box. I use language, art history, vernacular signifiers and dimension on traditional Chinese rice paper to express a complex, fluid and vulnerable self. Ragazza Moderna in Italian translates to Modern Girl. Click on the image to see the full translation of each piece.

MOTHER'S ROOT CHAKRA - 100% handmade "ink" intimates, some inset with "messages from my grandmother." The last image demonstrates that these will give color if wet.

ETIQUETTA, SHE'S A BITCH - A custom gas powered cannon projects gelatinous ink 'flesh' slugs, 3 inches in diameter, to target and shoot at images of my own body parts. The process of rediscovering the traditional Chinese ink stick as my own involves stepping into it, deconstructing it, commanding it, and injecting all that the ink represents into me; history, heritage, roots, childhood, family, body, identity. It's messy, it hurts, it awakens, it forms. It's a time-based performance. 

On-going developments are underway using the ink material for a full life sized body cast. Cubed, (pictured below) is an ink cast of my frontal half folded into a box to dry. It is presented with the box in a box. Untitled, (pictured below) is a work in progress. In Ink, (pictured below) is a two part model of a heart organ cast in ink. It reads, In Blood, In Stone, In Ink.

First experiments in body casting in ink material. The images show different tests, with different accounts of shrinking, cracking and mold. I've added preservatives so later tests are stable but still organic. 

In 2018, I visited one of the last Chinese ink stick factories in Huang Shan (Yellow Mountain) is a mountain region in China depicted in paintings for hundreds of years and home to the original makers of paper, brushes, ink stones and ink. Ink, while in larger quantities, is still hand-made and restricted to a few artisans that help keep the 'traditional' culture alive. Traditionally in stick or slab form, carvings of images and verses distinguish their origin, maker and quality. While I've had to adapt this method to suit my studio and accessible equipment, the process is the same.