Kwok, Mang Ho

Other Names: 郭孟浩; Man; FROG KING

"The plastic bag is a new form and is of the 20th Century. The plastic material has a character which can be used in a way which is easy and free. As a sculptor, I have solved the problem of the transportation of material by using the plastic bag as it is easily accessible, useful in the right moment, then useless and disposable in the next. Inside opaque plastic bags we put our garbage, our problems, anxiety and what is not to be seen. The use of plastic bags to create 'air sculpture' becomes a meaningful act not only as an assertion against the senseless action of concealment but finally as a new form altogether. Air is everywhere and as such is like the most fundamental friendship between the artist and environment. By using air inside plastic bags as well as textile material the new form becomes a gift to each different place. The costume design for the dancers in this case would also have the shape of a plastic bag. Its transparency would contain yet reveal the human world within it."

Kwok Mang Ho, Artist Statement, 1982

Gallery of Selected Works

Body Environment (1985) Kwok installation at Asian American Arts Centre (1985) Frog Images II (1984) Froggies (1983) Human with Plastic Bags (1983) Poster for Happenings (1980) Kwok and his Plastic Bags events (1979) Kwok's art in Brooklyn