All the Light in a Vivid Dream Comes to Wellesley College

From Wellesley College: All the Light in a Vivid Dream, selections from Everlasting Ephemera features handmade paper artwork by Connecticut-based artist Hong Hong. Too large to be poured indoors, Hong's pieces must be created in temporary frames outside, where they are subject to the influence of sun, wind, and water. The resulting large-scale sheets of paper contain evidence of these natural forces, in addition to the colors, shapes, and textures over which Hong exercises more deliberate control. Her works do not directly depict landscapes, but through the traces that weather conditions leave on them they refer to the landscapes in which they are created, giving them a measure of site-specificity.

The formation of personal landscapes in light of the sociological and scientific conditions that surround them-- such as migration, exile, myth, time, meteorology, and topography-- has been an thread connecting the ongoing multidisciplinary project that Hong has titled Everlasting Ephemera. The pieces in this exhibition are made from kozo (long plant fibers traditionally used in papermaking) and recycled paper pulp from earlier iterations of Everlasting Ephemera. Works in the series are made from the art that came before in a cycle of transience and rebirth that mimics many natural processes.

Born in Hefei China, Hong Hong earned her MFA in 2014 from the University of Georgia and her BFA in 2011 from the State University of New York at Potsdam. Her work has been exhibited throughout the United States, including shows at Real Art Ways, Harford CT; the Madison Museum of Art; the Pittsburgh Center for the Arts; the New Mexico History Museum; and the Georgia Museum of Art. She has receieved numerous grants and commissions, and has been an artist-in-residence at PLAYA, the Morgan Conservatory, and Artspace New Haven.

This exhibition will be on view in the Jewett Art Gallery from March 22 through April 27, 2018. The Gallery is open 10:00 am - 4:00 pm, 7 days a week, on the 2nd floor of the Jewett Arts Center at Wellesley College. The Gallery is free to visit and open to the public.

For more information about the exhibition, contact Gallery Director Samara Pearlstein at 781-283- 2043 or spearls2@wellesley.edu.

In addition to the exhibition, Hong Hong will be running an all-day papermaking workshop on Sunday, April 22. The workshop is free and open to the public, but because space is limited, registration is required. If you are interested in participating in this workshop, please contact Wellesley's Book Arts Lab Director Katherine Ruffin, kruffin@wellesley.edu, for registration details.

Images courtesy of Wellesley College