Hopeful Phenomena with Angela Ho September 29 2024

Angela Ho is a visual artist working under the moniker ‘Ahoy’. She creates her work digitally, with paint, animation and augmented reality for commercial projects and exhibitions. Hong Kong and Melbourne are the cities she calls home.

Angela's work is influenced by storytelling within popular culture particularly fantasy and science fiction to reflect societal concerns. An interest in modes of communication on social media to express emotions and concepts also inspires her work. Her aesthetic reflects mid-century paraphernalia as well as the animations of Fleischer Studios and early Disney.

Angela's commercial clients have included The New York Times For Kids, Adobe, Slurpee 7-Eleven, Vans, GQ, Fast Company magazine and Beat Bites amongst others. She was named one of Adobe’s Global Creators in 2021.

Her paintings have been exhibited with the following galleries: Outré, Beinart, Corey Helford, Dorothy Circus, the Wassaic Project and BSMT Space in Melbourne, LA, Rome, New York and London respectively. Angela's work was featured in the April 2019 print edition of Hi-Fructose New Contemporary Art magazine.

Artist statement:

On April 8 of this year (2024) there was a total solar eclipse visible from Mexico and parts of North America. At that time I read an LA Times article in which a professor of psychology and social behaviour spoke about how the sense of awe felt from the eclipse could result in “a sense of feeling connected to something bigger than yourself, like your community, your society or your world. Getting people to feel that way is totally vital to our species’ survival and longevity.”

This sentiment struck a chord with me.

Watching the escalating polarisation within societies and across international borders developing from the time of the years of the pandemic had increasingly left me uneasy and I felt a cynicism creeping into the way I perceived the world and life. Over the last few years I’ve been trying to remedy this through playing with concepts which took some details of the inflection points we’ve been living through and turning them into my form of a static fairytale. Heavy on joy, inverting the darkness. I’ve included some of these works in this body of work. Some were conceived just after I left Hong Kong to travel in 2022 and are deeply personal to me. They also lead into the more recently created works.

A few days before the total eclipse I saw on social media volcanic vortex rings being blown into a bright blue sky by Mount Etna in Sicily, Italy. I found the sight completely enchanting and wondrous. Then in May of this year intense Northern and Southern auroras shone over parts of the world unaccustomed to seeing these curtains of light. In July a triple rainbow arched over Tai Lam Chung, Hong Kong. These rare phenomena brought me a sense of hope as I saw other people captivated by them. The work in this exhibition evolved from this feeling.

Angela's show Phenomena of Hope opens October 4.

Interview by Bernadette Butterworth. images supplied by Angela Ho. Artist portrait by Lusher Photography.

Hello Angela! We're thrilled to have you back. How has your work evolved since your last show with us in 2019, especially in terms of the techniques and mediums you now use, including painting?

I'm very happy to be back! So much has happened in the last few years globally since my last show with you – it's definitely informed the themes of my work as well as prompted exploration of other mediums.

Over the quietness of the pandemic I taught myself a little more about animation and played with making my characters move a bit more. I was watching Adventure Time religiously then and it really influenced my work and also made me smile a lot. I took part in group shows in galleries in LA, Rome, London, Hong Kong, Biarritz and Melbourne with acrylic paintings and also worked on a collaboration with embroidery artist Richard Saja which exhibited in Hudson, New York. He printed my digital work onto textiles and then embroidered over it, adding another layer of meaning.

Some of the paintings I painted as I travelled across London and Europe, I had the freedom of time to paint. But I feel painting may be a medium I immerse myself in more deeply at another point in time. For now I've found that my energy and concepts flow more easily when I work with a stylus and pixels. Sometimes I wonder if I drank less coffee that my energy would suit painting more.

After spending 15 years in Hong Kong, what aspects of your experience there are still influencing your work today? Are there specific themes, techniques, or cultural narratives that continue to shape your art now that you're back in Melbourne?

I feel my experience of Hong Kong will always inform my work in some way as my art practice was developed there in my little apartment in Sheung Wan.

I think there's an underlying joyousness in Hong Kong culture which underpins the city's elegance and gritty toughness; I think that has helped shape who I am as well as my work. A friend once described HK as having "a warm underbelly" – when I think about this, I see this in my work too. I have a lion character and other characters which come from Hong Kong life. There's a term in the city about a "Lion Rock Spirit" - it refers to an attitude of determination and strength and comes from a mountain in Sha Tin shaped like a lion. Also, the landscapes in my Phenomena Of Hope exhibition reflect Hong Kong's islands hills and mountains. My friends and I would regularly go hiking; the nature there is our playground.

I think my colour palette is still informed by the long summers and bright colours found in Hong Kong too. I considered trying to tone down my palette for this show, but it didn't feel right when I saw the first results. Maybe I need this palette to warm me up during the long Melbourne winters!

How has the move from Hong Kong back to Melbourne affected your sense of identity as an artist? Do you feel that your sense of "home" has changed, and how does this influence your work?

In Hong Kong I am considered more Australian; here I am seen as from Hong Kong by people who don't know me so well. I think I am in between the two and I don't mind that; I am greedy for cultural experiences and learning about different perspectives, sometimes it can be challenging though. But in terms of my identity as an artist, it doesn't change how I perceive myself as an artist, it may change for other people though.

I have definitely been thinking about what "home" means. I think home is where your people are, where you create strong bonds. I think you can have many homes. In Hong Kong, it's a really tight art scene; people are very supportive of each other. I feel without that I might not have developed my art practice. I will forever be grateful to the people and entities in HK who encouraged me and are so supportive, I do miss that in person but am so glad video calls exist and I'll be back there for a few weeks in November.

What excites you most about the Melbourne art scene today, especially in comparison to the dynamics in Hong Kong? Are there any trends or movements here that you find particularly inspiring or challenging?

I've only scratched the surface of what is happening here in Melbourne, I have so much more to see and explore! But of the little I've seen, the quality of the work is so high and mind-blowing, and there's street art everywhere, on almost every surface. I see extremely detailed realistic-type paintings here. I haven't seen so much of that in HK, I think that may be due to the frenetic pace of life there and perhaps trends. I think there's a lot more governmental support for the arts in Melbourne and established bodies attempting to protect the rights of artists but I need to learn more about this.

Your use of colour is quite distinctive. Can you share more about how you choose your palette and whether there are specific colours that have become signatures in your work?

I love yellow! I love pink. I also love green. And orange and red and blue. I usually start with yellow and pink and develop an artwork's palette from there. I can spend hours or days changing a work's palette and then eventually it will feel right, and I'll move on to shading.

Can you tell us about your journey to becoming a creator? What has been one of the most rewarding responses to your work?

My journey to becoming a creator is like a scribbly line that crosses back and forth over itself and does a few loop-the-loops. I started my working life as a graphic designer and illustrator. In 2014/2015 I took time out to develop my art practice. Now, I do all of the above as well as animate.

One of the most rewarding responses to my work was a DM I received on Instagram about a commissioned artwork I did for New York Times For Kids. It was a poop slipping on a banana peel.

The DM said this:

"Just wanted to message you because my toddler is in love with the little poop character in the NYT kids section this weekend. He calls him 'little guy' and keeps playing peekaboo with him. Thanks for the delightful weekend treat!"

What does a successful studio day look like for you? Do you have any personal remedies for overcoming creative block?

A dream day in my studio is when I have clear day and night to focus purely on my work. I become lost in it, nothing else matters, all the noise of the day and the outer
world melts away. I find when I'm in this state that I'm not thinking about process, it's just what I'm meant to be doing in that moment. I love being in this state although it may be annoying to people who are trying to contact me, but I do check my emails and messages regularly.

What is a dream project that you have yet to bring to life? What are some of your goals and ambitions for your future work?

I am feeling shy about answering this question as it's usually the question at the end of an interview. I think I've had the same answer for the last few years and I still haven't done it. So for now I will say: I will see how the future unfolds and I will try my best to create the path I hope for.

Well we can't wait to see what you do next! Thanks for chatting with us!