Zoe Wu

About

My work explores the creation of landscapes and assemblages that reflect on the home; the domestic and the extension of home into an entire world. I consider how our ‘first home’ establishes how we experience the future far-away places we go, and I am curious about what becomes of the places we leave behind.

Phoning home came about from a call from Min (mum) after her first trip back home in some time. Crabs are hand-built in unglazed porcelain, and lain on a wooden bedframe. The work places Min’s tales of ‘home’ next to our actual ‘home’ (all of us in the home-bed listening), blurring the distinction between the two. It pairs familiarity with the foreignness and unbelonging that seep into the places I am most comfortable. The title works bi-directionally and recalls a distance both physical and generational. We are both phoning home and we are from each other’s homes, and they don’t quite fit together.

Húlu explores the idea of motherhood and birth; the moment and thereafter. The húlù (gourds) grow from a grid and are birthed from each other; one body is split into two whilst simultaneously forging a permanent connection between them. The downwards weight suggests an inevitability and destiny in the sacrifice of birth and motherhood, whilst echoing  generations and the passing of time.