About the Exhibition

Jill Ho-You – exhibition essay by Jaron James Whittingham

“The physical body retains traces of memory at the tissue, cellular and molecular levels. My work draws insights from these visceral observations and attempts to express how our identities are linked to the often mysterious complexity of our bodies.”

As each cell of the individual is unique in its fleeting way, each of Ho-You’s drawings conveys a unique and undeniable mystery. From the vague renderings of organs and microscopic fauna, to the striking Rorschach blots, the work alludes to a deeper meaning. Much like a scar that can neither confirm, nor deny violence, Ho-You’s work relies on the viewer to fill in the gaps. The conundrum of the physical memory is that it is both concrete and fluid, and this is captured in the work through a dynamic range of mark making and media.

At times both abstract and technical, Ho-You’s body of work asks a straight forward, yet unanswerable question: “In what ways are personal memory, emotion and cognition expressed through the physicality of the body?”

Though science can dissect your body and infer elements of your life and behavior based on a near infinite number of factors, a human being’s thoughts, emotions and memories require computational power and storage space that eclipses the modern supercomputer. We can examine the heart and lungs and determine a life of cigarette smoking, but we may never know why this young person picked up such a destructive habit. Was the habit inherited from a family member, or was the habit picked up to impress a member of the opposite sex?

The physicality of the body is expressed in many ways, and Ho-You has captured her own physicality in her work. Does the delicate mark making reflect a fragile soul? Does the stark use of negative space reflect a longing for companionship, or perhaps a desire for solitude? Do the monochrome prints reflect an artist that is experimenting with the minimal, or rejecting the complexity of a full palette of colour?

Jill Ho-You’s work deals with the duality of the physical and cerebral. This duality is mirrored directly by art it’s self, both in the tactile tradition of art making and it’s ever evolving interpretation. Without interpretation, art becomes scenery, just as without memory or emotion, the human body becomes furniture. Without physicality, art is an idea, and without the body, the human being is a memory.

Through these questions, Jill Ho-You has been able to take subtle works of two dimensional art, and turn them in to a fully dimensional body of work. Simple and aesthetically pleasing in casual view, and increasingly complex with further inspection. 

AExploring transcendent themes of psychology and physicality of the body and mind, Jill Ho-You presents her most recent body of works “Viscid” and “Empire”. Currently working on a MFA in print making from the University of Alberta, the dynamic mixed media artist brings her work to the Alberta Printmakers Gallery.

Ho-You has shown her work worldwide, and returns to Calgary for her first solo show for the Alberta Printmakers Society. 

About the Artist

Exploring transcendent themes of psychology and physicality of the body and mind, Jill Ho-You presents her most recent body of works “Viscid” and “Empire”. Currently working on a MFA in print making from the University of Alberta, the dynamic mixed media artist brings her work to the Alberta Printmakers Gallery. Ho-You has shown her work worldwide, and returns to Calgary for her first solo show for the Alberta Printmakers Society.