Clare Hu

BIO

Clare Hu is an artist and weaver currently based in Brooklyn, NY. She completed her BFA with a focus in Fiber and Material Studies at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC), and has received additional training in textiles from the Gerrit Rietveld Academie in the Netherlands.

Clare has shown widely in Chicago, IL at No Nation Gallery, Gallery No One, Dfbrl8r, and Sullivan Gallery, and has recently shown at the Textile Arts Center in Brooklyn, NY and Dream Clinic Project Space in Columbus, OH. She is a past Hambidge Center fellow, and resident at the Textile Arts Center in Brooklyn. In 2022 Hu will be a visiting artist at the Gibbes Museum of Art in Charleston, South Carolina.

ARTIST STATEMENT

Haptic skips of woven textiles gone awry, the distortion of image dictated by the hand, and games of hide and seek, inform the use of weaving, mended imagery and installation, to examine false histories and notions of the South. By utilizing slow craft, Clare Hu draws from her own experience living in the Southern United States and her research documenting and archiving how Southern narratives are made and maintained throughout the history of Georgia. By exploring how Southern myths are acted and re-enacted in the stories and objects surrounding them, Hu iteratively pieces, mends and patches as a way to respond and dissect the physical and personal distances between cultural spaces - both set a far and rewritten one on top of the other.

Interview with Clare Hu

Can you tell us a bit about your background and how you became interested in becoming an artist? Who or what were some of your most important early influences?



I’m originally from Duluth, GA, a little outside of Atlanta. I grew up going to Chinese language schools every Saturday or Sunday and staying late at after school programs during the week while my mom was getting off of work. I remember being so bored I would constantly be whispering to friends and find myself drawing with them or by myself. I think because of this growing up art for me always grew out of the periphery- I would draw anything anywhere and it just became something like second nature. Later I think my mom caught on and I was then enrolled in one painting or drawing class or another. 



Any stories you can share about early memories of how an aspect of the arts impacted you?

Lately I’ve been thinking a lot about the first time a teacher introduced Magritte’s The Empire of Light series to my class in maybe elementary school- I remember feeling the impossibility of the image. This might have been the first time I ever thought about this idea of layering emotions, places and time within a frame. That push and pull has subconsciously wormed into my brain over the years.



Where are you currently based and what initially brought you there? Are there any aspects of this specific location or community that have inspired your work?



I’m currently based in Brooklyn, NY and actually moved here mid-pandemic for a residency at the Textile Arts Center. It ended up being a really fruitful time for me art-making wise. I decided to stay in Brooklyn afterwards because of the people I’ve met and generally it’s such a great place to be making art.



Can you describe your studio space? What are some of the most crucial aspects of a studio that make it functional? Do any of these specific aspects directly affect your work?



I currently share a studio space in Gowanus with a friend at the moment, so it’s cozy. My loom takes up a majority of my space and leaves room for some storage and a table for sewing. It’s tight, but it still gives me enough room to make large scale work. I really enjoy sharing a studio. Even if my studiomate isn’t there, having the residual energy coming from her side really makes it less lonely and a good push to keep making.

I would say that wall space is sparse in the studio and definitely an aspect I see as super crucial- something about being able to step back and look at work on a wall is really helpful. Because wall space is rare in our current set up, I find that I end up layering a lot of work on top of each other which in turn helps with my collaging process. 



What is a typical day like? If you don’t have a typical day, what is an ideal day?



Half of my week is mostly dedicated to my job and spending time with my partner and the other half is dedicated to working in the studio. Most of the time that 50/50 split gets jumbled together just from how life works. 

The weekends are usually when I can get long concentrated time in the studio, so I usually reserve those for long stretches of weaving. Those days usually mean waking up early, stocking up on snacks and coffee and heading to the studio around 10am. I usually weave until 6 or 7pm. 



What gets you in a creative groove or flow? Are snacks involved? 



A good passage from a book, an album I’m especially enjoying, waking up early, cleaning my apartment, a whole day in the studio, or an appropriate amount of snacks and cold drinks to keep me company. I think it really just comes down to trying to find a new perspective.

I’ve recently started biking to my studio (and in general) and I’ve noticed that it’s given me more time to think and also to not think! I’ve really appreciated the time to work through new ideas or get me in a good headspace. 



Is there anything that interrupts and stagnates your creative energy?



Probably moments where I find myself getting too comfortable. Too comfortable in that I’m not trying something new or pushing myself further. When I get too much in a schedule or the work starts becoming repetitive I find I need to take a moment and start shifting how I’m working or thinking about something.



How do you select materials? How long have you worked with this particular media or method?



With weaving I’m really only interested in materials that have some sort of flexibility to them. Either they take up dye really well or I know they're pretty strong and can take a lot of stress and manipulation when on the loom. Because of this I end up sticking to just cotton warp threads in various gauges and textures. Recently I’ve really been loving winding different sizes of cotton together and kind of mixing them up on the warp, as well. It’s amazing the kind of opacity you can get 

I’ve recently started to introduce digitally printed images on cotton and chiffon into my work - I’ve enjoyed how they bounce off of the more handmade textiles and screenprinted images and the ability to digitally alter them on my computer before they’re printed. It’s something new that I’m working with, so I’m excited to see where they lead me in the future. 




Can you walk us through your overall process? How long has this approach been a part of your practice?



My practice has always been a little haphazard- I would say that my practice is a lot like the game of telephone or hide and seek- it involves a lot of riffing of images, objects, my own past work and weaving drafts. I would say that a lot of my work revolves around repetition. Repetition in the act of weaving, but repetition of images and symbols as well. 

At the moment, I really divide my practice into two parts. On one hand I’ve been weaving these sculptural “tarp” textiles that utilize a harness to hang and install them for the past few years or so. Weaving takes a good amount of time from dressing the loom to the actual weaving, so to kind of balance that out I’ve introduced these “prospective patches” in my work that take woven offcuts and digitally printed images that are then sewn and pieced together to create patches for future work. This push and pull between slow and fast craft has been super helpful in how the tarp and patches have started to work off each other. 



Can you talk about some of the ongoing interests, imagery, and concepts that have informed your process and body of work over time? How do you anticipate your work progressing in the future?

A good portion of my work revolves around the Chinese American communities in the American South and how they’ve shifted and moved over time. Looking at the strip malls, signage and different maps created specifically for those communities in the 80’s and 90’s have been heavily used in my work. The community was relatively small, but how they were able to take existing suburban infrastructure like a strip mall and transform it into something like a community center created an environment of constant change that I try to reflect in my work. By repeating and altering these specific locations and the retail signs designated for them ties to that action of remembering small experiences in time over and over and showing how that manifests physically. 

On the flip side of this, I’ve always been fascinated with how imagery and myths of the South have been propagated through stories and material culture to prolong itself and become mainstream. I’ve been looking at a lot of overshot drafts named after political events in the South, re-drafting them and using them in my own work. I think this capitalizing and normalization of the stereotypes of the “South” have always been a big part of my work - how these narratives become tied together through our ongoing consumption of them. Stone Mountain in Georgia, a state park, is such a great example of this. 



Do you pursue collaborations, projects or careers in addition to your studio practice? If so, can you tell us more about those projects, and are there connections between your studio practice and these endeavors?



I work in fundraising in the arts, but try to keep that and my art practice as separate as possible. I do try, but I think they end up blending together in the end. I’ve been able to learn so much about the art market and really get a peak behind the curtain- I don’t take it for granted. What feels like my true collaboration comes out of all the conversations I have with fellow weavers and textile artists, especially when it comes to troubleshooting problems and talking shop (or whatever that means when differentiating loom brands and other tips and tricks).

Have you had any epiphanies recently that have changed the course of your work or caused you to shift directions? 



Recently I’ve been reading a lot about immigration patterns through the South by Chinese Americans as well as re-reading On Trails by Robert Moor, Ursula K Leguin’s A Non-Euclidean View of California As A Cold Place to Be and thinking about my own families history of how they immigrated to the States. It’s kind of corny but it really did feel like an epiphany thinking about all these trails, maps, impressions and routes that were happening all around and even before me. 

I’ve started to think about my own speculative journey through the United States and what that might look like. At the moment I’ve been thinking about a new body of work that slowly snakes back in time to construct this imagined landscape that honors the many ways we remember and re-remember these journeys. 

I definitely feel a shift starting to happen and am excited to continue experimenting in the studio and follow my instincts to what it ends up manifesting itself as.

As a result of the pandemic, many artists have experienced limited access to their studios or loss of exhibitions, income, or other opportunities. Has you way of working (or not working) shifted significantly during this time? Are there unexpected insights or particular challenges you’ve experienced? 



Right before the pandemic I found myself working a job I wasn’t too fond of and felt super stuck when it came to making work. I had rented a studio and bought a small four harness loom out of undergrad, but wasn’t making anything that I was super excited about. I’m still not sure if it was the burn out from school or not being around other artists that I could have community with, but there was this uncertainty of not being able to know if I was mentally able to make work anymore. The beginning of the pandemic (while I was furloughed) really helped me think about what I wanted long term and from that I decided to apply for a long term residency and really invest in making and seeing where it might go. In the last half of 2020 I ended up moving to Brooklyn and started to really take stock of what I was doing. It was such a blessing because through the turbulence of 2020 and 2021 I had a studio to go back to and a good community in the residency to lean on.

I was super lucky in that I was kind of in the new “beginning” of my practice so whatever opportunities or exhibitions that I was able to get was a big win.


Can you share some of your recent influences? Are there specific works - from visual art, literature, film, or music - that are important to you?

Chinese ge ba textiles, Rebecca Solnit, Ethel Cain, Blockchain Chicken Farm by Xiaowei Wang, How Much of These Hills Is Gold by C Pam Zhang, Sam Gilliam’s “A” And The Capital I, Duane Linklater, getting lost, I re-read Maggie Nelson’s Jane once every year and feel like I always learn something new. I take a lot of influence from literature, but every time I get to go home I just drive around and look at the collage of signage everywhere around metro-Atlanta and take a lot of inspiration from that too.


Who are some contemporary artists you’re excited about? What are the best exhibitions you’ve seen in recent memory and why do they stand out?



I recently saw the Igshaan Adams show Desire Lines at the Art Institute of Chicago. I’ve been such a fan for a long time, it was great seeing the textile pieces in person. I’ve always been drawn to how he depicts history and memory to lived spaces. I also always refer back and think about Zhang Peil’s Record. Repeat. at the Art Institute, as well. I’m obsessed with repetition and it's always been great to refer back to this show.

It’s so hard to name contemporary artists I’m excited about, I feel that it includes so many friends, colleagues and people I’ve met through shows and residencies. I think I get excited whenever I get to talk to someone about their practice and hear what they’re excited about in the studio. Would it be fine to name everyone? Right now I find myself looking back to work from artists like Pauline Shaw, Hong Hong, Justin Chance, Genesis Jerez, Catalina Ouyang, and Robin F Williams.



Do you have any tips or advice that someone has shared with you that you have found particularly helpful?

I had a professor tell me that I should never settle with any work of art I make - if there’s something I’m not happy about, keep trying until I’m satisfied with it even if it means scrapping it and starting all over again. I think over the years it’s really just taught me to always hold myself and my work to a standard that I’m proud of whether that applies to the actual construction of work or what I’m making the work about.


What are you working on in the studio right now? What’s coming up next for you?

Right now I’m prepping for a Visiting Artist residency at the Gibbes Museum in Charleston and really just excited to devote some solid time to the loom and the sewing machine.

To find out more about Clare Hu check out her Instagram and website.