Witness To Growth

In 1999, Hong began to work on ‘Witness to Growth’; a series of paintings created for each year of her life. Each painting is a one-meter square canvas with an image of herself based on the photograph taken at the time. She does not pay special attention to keeping a similar image; instead, some of the paintings seemed posed while others are spontaneous. Hong uses compositions and colors to capture important ideas or experiences/moods to commemorate that time. For her 29th year/painting, she painted two portraits; in one, she is pregnant and in the next she has given birth. From there, Hong began to paint her young daughter in attempts to chronicle her life as well. Upon exhibiting ‘Witness to Growth’ for the first time, Hong placed a newspaper or magazine article to complement each image. ‘Witness to Growth’ is a ubiquitous series of works because it is a self-examination of the artist and her surroundings. By linking herself to events that happened around her or around the world, Hong puts herself and her life on critical display. The juxtaposition of social and political events against personal moments creates a tension and highlights the disparity between inner and outer events.

“I show that my life and China changes: from a cultural revolution to right now.”