Artist Statement

CORN SHUK MEI HO 何淑美 :

“Often psychological, my paintings delve into deeper levels of human innermost states of mind. I create atmospheric, melancholic paintings conjuring up feelings of dislocation. I wish to draw the viewer into an imaginative and uncanny world by applying layered paints on various flat objects to connect with memory-related subjects.

My paintings document my interest in the lost and the found, what is passing memory, and what is synthesised as a trace in the landscape. I study this in a micro-perceptive. I am especially focusing on one individual’s story. Exploring our multiple temperaments and capturing the essence of a fading moment has been part of my practice since my early work, interviewing people around me about their personal experiences in my Landscape-Memories Series (2013-2021).

I am an experimental oil painter. In Multi-layers Series (2014-2016), I painted on transparent acrylic boards to transfer paintings into memorable objects. Some of them are displayed in the country parks and some are installed with video installation. I believe that by using layers, elements, colours, and lines I can create touchable objects like mementos, which are strongly attached to depicting time and memory.

Dear Lily Project (2016) depicts unpleasant experiences from childhood. I use time-lapse as part of my research: some facts are hidden in our subconscious and the event timeline is faded, however the cause remains to affect us. German artist Rebecca Horn once mentioned her escape into freedom by making arts to suppress her anxiety from the despairing recovery in hospital. That is also the reason of beginning my art journey.

Night Swims Series (2017-2022), I present a body of work influenced by late-night swimming. The endless darkness with its subtly differing shades of blackness provided the initial inspiration for the series. The characters in the paintings are depicted as though they are nocturnal creatures, their postures invoking feelings of isolation, solitude, uncertainty, and fear. Their emotions are mirrored by the reflections cast on the surface of the dark waters, drawing a line of correlation between water as a physical element and as a symbol for the depths of the human psyche.

The Botanical Garden Series (2017 - onwards) is a personal visual diary I began during daily walks with my dog in the nearby woods and the parks, wherein I draw inspiration for the series. From these daily walks, I witness and experience the beautiful seasonal patterns of England's many varieties of flora and fauna. With every new season, every plant presents a unique experience as they cope with adverse and pleasant weather conditions alike.

In my new series Girls and Boys (2023), I wanted to depict young adults with their inner struggles and unlimited imaginations. They are all about youth, courage, ideology, loss, and finding their own stories. These groups of young individuals still possess the imagination of younger children. Still in pursuit of the ‘ideal world’, the ‘adult world’ causes them to lose out on opportunities countless times. Once they pass through the darkness, however, they find themselves emerging from the storm and seeing the world more clearly. ”