Elmira Ng (1999)
Designed in Hong Kong
Made in Naarm
My life is embedded into my art, glaze layer under glaze layer, kiln firing after kiln firing, paint layers on thin paper. I resist writing bios from divulgence fatigue. I usually start with "Elmira Ng is a second-generation Hong Kong-Australian". But after graduating from a BFA (Honours) at the VCA (2018 - 2023) and surviving my degree as a part-time dole bludger (:L), I have been re-released into the "Nee houw marr?", “Where do you come from?” world, where no one know what this statement means. It means I don't speak Mandarin. Moreso, it means I have grown up watching how White systems and people treat those who are unable to access their tools of assimilation, and thus, have assimilated myself. In my art practice, I utilise humour, craftsmanship, repetition, consumerist symbology, and childhood imagery to forge bi-cultural art objects. I am interested in interrogating the convoluted racism surrounding CALD labour in so called Australia.