More from 2022 Inbreak Residents ↓
Young-Ly
Hong
Chandra
Read
Art
Let's (He)Art
Works
A Note From the Artist
The “Let’s (He)Art” initiative explores the possibilities of a healed and restored community through communal grief sharing in a form of art engagement and story sharing. By lamenting collectively, we move toward a renewal dance (Psalm 30:11, 12). As we put our hearts and hands together, we foster empathetic communities attuned to healing and restoration in times of great need.
"Let’s (He)Art" invites all forms of collaborative arts, though initially it began with cutting T-shirts.
Why T-shirts? T-shirts represent the materiality, physicality, and commonality of all people, regardless of their social, political, economic status, race, nationality, etc. An ordinary garment holds ordinary and unique paradoxes. This simple fabric also represents over-manufactured fast fashion in the global market. "Let’s (He)Art" repurposes used T-shirts as an accessible resource and as a shared part of life in a community.
Why do we cut the T-shirts? The ancient practice of tearing clothes in lament is a tangible expression of grief and anger in the face of death. Each cut evokes the pain of a wound; the fragmentation and detachment in our body, soul, spirit, as well as broken relationships between mankind and land, each other, and the Divine. By cutting our worn T-shirts, we can access unspoken and buried pain. By sharing and expressing, we give each other access to one another's interior life. As the cut shirts are stretched and connected and slit open, new pathways are formed. As they are layered, knotted and intertwined, maps and webs emerge to form new pathways to healing. ~Young-Ly Hong Chandra
2020An Open Letter to the Hijas de Inmigrantes
by Rocio Vasquez Cisneros
Contact for pricing "
Contact for pricing "
I'm writing to those of us who are terrified that we will be the ones to break the chain in histories of mestizaje
To the daughters who are scared that we can't roll our Erres hard enough.
For the women who carry generations of ancestral history on their backs.
To the daughters who are scared that we can't roll our Erres hard enough.
For the women who carry generations of ancestral history on their backs.
Ballpoint, Ink and Watercolor on Paper
4" x 6"
Contact for pricing
4" x 6"
Contact for pricing
Everybody who I've invited in on this project has had some kind of interest in community health. So, what are we doing here? How can we make things a little less shitty? [...] So the big, kind of central, idea of this was like: How do I get these people in the room? ~ William Wallace III
We are facing the whips of the "melting pot" that every day take further claim on the lands of our identities. A country who can't decide which new lands to colonize so it turns to its people… to us and robs us of our acentos and tradiciones. This country is hell bent on straightening every rizo and pushing out every last drop of pigment and leaving us for dead. We cannot let this happen.
Escribo para que span que mi abuela Toñis era reiki y mi abuela Maria era cocinera. Declaró sus nombres para que no se desvanezcan con la aurora.
Guadalupe, Eulalia, Pantaleona, Bacilia, Luisa, Margarita, Zeferina, Magdalena.
Guadalupe, Eulalia, Pantaleona, Bacilia, Luisa, Margarita, Zeferina, Magdalena.
Everybody needs to have a place where they're accepted; where they can just simply be who they are. Whatever that is. ~ Project Participant
And I was just like, in my house in Missouri, like, what, how, why am I here, like after being in Philadelphia, living in West Philadelphia, very large, very black city, very gay city. So it was a different experience coming back to Como. And it's like, okay, I have to get out, I have to get out. And I’m like walking around, and I see this place, I see the arch and I see the flag. I'm like, that place looks safe. I don't know. And I thought that I would just walk by, but one day I finally popped my head in. And like, it was a slow Monday night. And it was just Pitt and this regular, who was drawing on the bar and telling these ridiculous jokes, and I'm like, ‘You know what? I think this is good. I like it here.’ ~ William Wallace III
The rails of the bridge
Tremble when I walk by
I love you and you alone
You see me and don’t notice me
Tremble when I walk by
I love you and you alone
You see me and don’t notice me
Process
Mantón
[insert Mantón statement here]
Projects
Let's (He)Art: A Movement of Cultivating a Way of Life
Young-Ly's original idea for "Let's (He)Art" evolved over time and took on many variations as the project progressed. Below is Young-Ly's initial invitation to the first community she worked with. Many of her project participants were inspired by the project and subsequently created their own community-centered healing projects. Following the invitation, you will also find images and poetic reflections for a handful of the spin-off projects.
A "Let's (He)Art" Invitation:
Through artful engagements we will name and voice the things that are hidden and ignored to move towards the healing of broken relationships. By tending to one another, to earth, and to heaven we will renew our hearts, minds, and bodies.
Hello fellow dreamer,
I dream a dream of a healed and restored world. Do you too?
If ‘yes’, this is an invitation to join us in this humble and playful movement of ‘Let’s (He)Art’ to put our heart, mind, and body back together through artful community engagements. Hopefully it will start from you and I, and our ‘we-ness’ will grow wider and deeper in thoughts and acts with time.
Let me share part of my story. It began simply with a pair of my old and well loved T-shirts and my curiosity about what I could create with these shirts. When I created a little sculpture using wire and straps cut out of a T-shirt, a new process began to speak to me. I suspended the sculpture from the living room ceiling, but part of the strap fell to the floor. I gazed at the strap everyday, listening in anticipation as if an idea was fermenting like Kim Chi in the making. The idea required the right amount of waiting before it reached maturity.
One quiet morning, my first born commented, “Mom, what’s that? I like it. It looks like a bamboo tree yet I know that it’s soft.” That made me desire to explore the shirt’s complex physicality more. Since then, I’ve been cutting more and more T-shirts and learning something new from every cut and stretch. Within each shirt’s unique color, material, and shape is an unseen story. Each carries the story of where and how it was made and hints at the journey it has traveled until finding its way to me.
As I entered deeper into the making process, I realized that I was mourning. Each cut evoked pain and wounds, some personal and others relating to society. I mourned broken relationships between my body, soul and spirit, broken relationships between cultural groups, and the broken relationship between God and humanity.
As I thought about the broken relationships between people, T-shirts began to represent a connection point for all of humanity. Whether a millionaire or homeless, we all have T-shirts. We wear them almost everyday. The flip side of this is that T-shirts are overly produced and consumed. They make traces on the earth, filling the land with waste.
As I cut more T-shirts and installed them in different spaces, they displayed possibilities for healing and hope. I saw hope appear as slits opened and formed new pathways. Layered and intertwined, webs and maps emerged. These forms showed me that Hope can only be found through cuts and wounds and that healing comes through communal sharing and connectivity.
2020They will call you things you could never imagine for yourself, some good, some bad; the only thing that matters, is what you call yourself in your loneliest moments.
They will call you things you could never imagine for yourself, some good, some bad. The only thing that matters is what you call yourself, in your loneliest moments. They will call you things you could never believe for yourself, knowing yourself, and seeing yourself as you are. I wish I had the wisdom here to tell you something, anything, that would shield you from that fate.
Charcoal, Graphite, Ink, and Watercolor on Mounted Paper | 9” x 12” | 2020Contact for pricing "
Ballpoint, Ink and Watercolor on Paper
4" x 6"
Contact for pricing
4" x 6"
Contact for pricing
2020Annie Mae
I have nothing to give. Neither did my Momma. Neither did her Mother, and her Mother before her. But in every instance of maternal love, they gave the next in line something. Is that a paradox, yes. Material wealth is not a pre-scripted line in the narrative of my ebony skin. Nevertheless, I wish to give you the resistance, joy, and victory that is possible in throes of pain.
Ballpoint, Ink and Watercolor on Paper
4" x 6"
Contact for pricing
4" x 6"
Contact for pricing
2020Weeping May Endureth For a Night
--
Charcoal, Graphite, Ink, and Watercolor on Mounted Paper | 9” x 12” | 2021Contact for pricing "
Ballpoint, Ink and Watercolor on Paper
4" x 6"
Contact for pricing
4" x 6"
Contact for pricing
Events
- Some Studio Name
— Designer, Head of Design2019—Present - Some Studio Name
— Partner, Lead Designer, Art Director2015—2019 - Freelance
— Graphic Designer, Web Designer2012—2015 - Some Studio Name
— Designer, Co-founder2012—2015
Young-Ly Hong Chandra
Steven Johnson
about"Into the Deep, Unto the New" is an exhibition that navigates the continuum of collective healing from racial trauma.
Hosted by Inbreak and Dea Studios is the culminating exhibition of the 2021 Inbreak Residency. This exhibition is a virtual showcase featuring works by Inbreak residents Andrew Nemr, Steve Anthony Johnson, Liberty Worth, and Arneshia Williams. Into the Deep, Unto the New provides a lens through which we see the impassioned overflow from art as practice to art as community-building in an effort to bravely uncover racialized trauma and to reimagine a post-racialized society. The reception will feature a brief introduction to the exhibition, interactive activities, and a toast to the artists.
The Inbreak Residency is an incubator for artists of any discipline, writers, curators and preachers to foster a brave space that facilitates a raw exploration of art, faith, and race in the United States. Over the course of three months, residents engage in texts, open dialogue, and somatic practice to metabolize themes surrounding racial trauma in the U.S. Each resident is encouraged to reimagine their individual role in generating social healing through self-led community projects using their practice and tools provided by the residency.
artists The work of Marcus is immediately identifiable in it’s ability to tell a narrative that is at once evocative, gripping, and uncommonly romantic.
2018
Grand Prize Lux → Consumed
Grand Prize Lux → Terroir
Lux → Travel Design Awards
2017
Applied Arts → Make-Up
Applied Arts → Interior design
Lux → Interior design
2016
Grand Prize Lux → Agnus Dei
Lux → Food Carving
Applied Arts → Food Carving
Lux → Pur Vodka
Lux → Formes et Réflexions
Applied Arts → Shapes
Lux → Le Beurre allume vos aliments
Lux → Les fromages d’ici
Applied Arts → Les fromages d’ici
Grand Prize Lux → Consumed
Grand Prize Lux → Terroir
Lux → Travel Design Awards
2017
Applied Arts → Make-Up
Applied Arts → Interior design
Lux → Interior design
2016
Grand Prize Lux → Agnus Dei
Lux → Food Carving
Applied Arts → Food Carving
Lux → Pur Vodka
Lux → Formes et Réflexions
Applied Arts → Shapes
Lux → Le Beurre allume vos aliments
Lux → Les fromages d’ici
Applied Arts → Les fromages d’ici
Events
- Some Studio Name
— Designer, Head of Design2019—Present - Some Studio Name
— Partner, Lead Designer, Art Director2015—2019 - Freelance
— Graphic Designer, Web Designer2012—2015 - Some Studio Name
— Designer, Co-founder2012—2015
About"
Residency Year: 2022
Young-Ly earned BA in secondary art education and BFA in fine art with concentration in art installations from Korea University, Seoul. Young-Ly Hong Chandra was born and raised in Seoul, South Korea, and has lived in four different countries including the United States. Young-Ly's father, who is originally from the Pyung-an province of North Korea, became an orphan during the Korean War when he was young, and was never able to go back to his hometown since the country was separated by the DMZ into north and south for 77 years. Young-Ly inherits the pain and sorrow of separated land, separated people, and differing ideologies. Currently, she is experiencing and learning about similar occurrences of separation between land and people in the United States due to racism, which is deeply rooted in its history.
Young-Ly makes both crafted and found/captured images such as small sculptures made with found objects, recycled materials, 한지 (Korean traditional papers), photographs, and short video clips as "documenting moments." She approaches her art as a medium for contemplating questions on water, roots, home, borderline and dreams. Her work often grows to become outdoor and indoor installation pieces as she explores the possibilities of space.
Her current project, Let’s (He)Art: A Movement of Cultivating a Way of Life, embodies the simplicity of its materials and the complexity of difficult issues that the project participants are facing: pain, wounds, lament, and grief. During Let's (He)Art gatherings, Young-Ly invites all to come, acknowledge, and share their grief by cutting t-shirts in a group setting. As both used t-shirts and sorrowful emotions are commonalities of being human, in this participatory art project, she desires to bring relief and healing to the traumatic effects of the pandemic and racial injustice.
Even while she is constantly crossing boarder lines, Young-Ly's work evidences an inner journey of finding belonging and roots. She, stretches, layers, knots , suspends, connects, and shares her journey with others along the way. “Each cut represents different pain and it reveals a new path as we acknowledge it. Layers and connections of different pieces of t-shirts come together lead to new shapes. They become new songs and dances. Stretched and connected shirts are like strengthening roots of community." As she makes, she builds a sacred home wherever she dwells and invites others to enter a messy yet intimate space of an ever-growing family that follows the way of Christ the wounded healer.
In addition to the tensions of living in the in-between space of momentary and permanent, homelessness and home-ness, alien and citizen, nomad and settler, sacred and secular. She senses the way that the separation of land leads to isolation and segregation of individuals and groups.
Young-Ly lives a transient life with constant moves between several different countries with her Chinese Indonesian husband. Let’s (He)Art is an open invitation to come and create embodied art together, acknowledging wounds and laments, be seen and heard, moving towards healing and renewal of heaven and earth and everything in it. By sharing her art, Young-Ly extends hospitality with the hope of healing and renewal of the individual and of culture.
Young-Ly earned BA in secondary art education and BFA in fine art with concentration in art installations from Korea University, Seoul. Young-Ly Hong Chandra was born and raised in Seoul, South Korea, and has lived in four different countries including the United States. Young-Ly's father, who is originally from the Pyung-an province of North Korea, became an orphan during the Korean War when he was young, and was never able to go back to his hometown since the country was separated by the DMZ into north and south for 77 years. Young-Ly inherits the pain and sorrow of separated land, separated people, and differing ideologies. Currently, she is experiencing and learning about similar occurrences of separation between land and people in the United States due to racism, which is deeply rooted in its history.
Young-Ly makes both crafted and found/captured images such as small sculptures made with found objects, recycled materials, 한지 (Korean traditional papers), photographs, and short video clips as "documenting moments." She approaches her art as a medium for contemplating questions on water, roots, home, borderline and dreams. Her work often grows to become outdoor and indoor installation pieces as she explores the possibilities of space.
Her current project, Let’s (He)Art: A Movement of Cultivating a Way of Life, embodies the simplicity of its materials and the complexity of difficult issues that the project participants are facing: pain, wounds, lament, and grief. During Let's (He)Art gatherings, Young-Ly invites all to come, acknowledge, and share their grief by cutting t-shirts in a group setting. As both used t-shirts and sorrowful emotions are commonalities of being human, in this participatory art project, she desires to bring relief and healing to the traumatic effects of the pandemic and racial injustice.
Even while she is constantly crossing boarder lines, Young-Ly's work evidences an inner journey of finding belonging and roots. She, stretches, layers, knots , suspends, connects, and shares her journey with others along the way. “Each cut represents different pain and it reveals a new path as we acknowledge it. Layers and connections of different pieces of t-shirts come together lead to new shapes. They become new songs and dances. Stretched and connected shirts are like strengthening roots of community." As she makes, she builds a sacred home wherever she dwells and invites others to enter a messy yet intimate space of an ever-growing family that follows the way of Christ the wounded healer.
In addition to the tensions of living in the in-between space of momentary and permanent, homelessness and home-ness, alien and citizen, nomad and settler, sacred and secular. She senses the way that the separation of land leads to isolation and segregation of individuals and groups.
Young-Ly lives a transient life with constant moves between several different countries with her Chinese Indonesian husband. Let’s (He)Art is an open invitation to come and create embodied art together, acknowledging wounds and laments, be seen and heard, moving towards healing and renewal of heaven and earth and everything in it. By sharing her art, Young-Ly extends hospitality with the hope of healing and renewal of the individual and of culture.
Participants "
(name)
(name)
(name)
(name)
(name)
Project"
I draw intimate scenes in an effort to reframe the way we talk about Blackness. Through strokes of charcoal and graphite, I make Blackness and darkness the protagonist. In this manner I shift the paradigm which considers whiteness/ light the dominant formal aspect across paper. Working from memory, interviews, verbal histories, and family keepsakes, I navigate a cross-generational, cross-cultural, and cross-diasporic hypothesis of what I would say to a biological child of mine—unbesmirched by the colonized imagination. Some of these materials are fragmented or damaged, told secondhand, or else gleaned from painful memories half-remembered; others are passed down by elders to metabolize inherited trauma. I then transmogrify these artifacts into a visual love letter to possible inheritors of that trauma . Channeling intergenerational resistance, wisdom, and resilience, my drawings and activities explore the counter-narrative necessary to eclipse the burden of inherited and bestowed trauma central to Black and Othered bodies. In other words, my drawings transform histories, artifacts, spatially dependent histories, and biographical fragments into tactile, metabolic renderings of an inward reflective state.
Participants "
(name)
(name)
(name)
(name)
(name)
Participants"
Rachel Bliss
Denise Scott
Shelby Guizar
Jonathan & Taylor
Samuel Joseph Kim
Denise Scott
Shelby Guizar
Jonathan & Taylor
Samuel Joseph Kim
Participants "
(name)
(name)
(name)
(name)
(name)
Events With Young-Ly
- Some Studio Name
— Partner, Lead Designer, Art Director2015—2019 - Freelance
— Graphic Designer, Web Designer2012—2015 - Some Studio Name
— Designer, Co-founder2012—2015
Be the first hear about Inbreak residencies and events!
Thank you! Look out for an email from Dea Studios confirming your subscription.
Oops! Something went wrong while submitting the form.
