二犬十一咪Twodogs+11cats(SeemanHo)
A Multidisciplinary artist. 二犬十一咪 (Twodogs+11cats) is SeemanHo’s artist name, a London-based artist, activist focusing on environmental, ecological and mindful issues. Her practice involves installation art, painting, performance art, text, sculpture, video and music therapy.
Apart from her career as a visual artist and writer, 二犬十一咪 (Twodogs) is also a music artist and theatre director. In 2017 she composed, performed and curated the music performance "walking on the lake" (music + video + poem). Since 2017 she has started a series of music performances, created the soundtracks for a film and the theatres.
二犬十一咪 (Twodogs) has performed her handpan music in London from 2020 until now, she composes handpan music with her poems for the art events and the fashion show. 二犬十一咪 (Twodogs) performed handpan mucis at the Latitude festival 2022 (Suffolk), she created an installation art with handpan performance in the forest in 2022( London), playing handpan music and sound healing sessions on The ZEN Bus and the everts in London.
二犬十一咪 (Twodogs+11cats) likes the microscopic universe, her work always incorporates nature and life. With her understanding of the natural and human worlds, her works of art are inspiring and influential, they attempt to depict the conflict between mankind and the environment through artistic expression.
二犬十一咪 (Twodogs+11cats) set up a community collaborative gallery "Twodogs Backyard", in Peel Street of Central. She experimented with a year of exhibitions and cultural events there as well as promoted original Hong Kong creations and the concept of environmental conservation. Her art studio《 'backyard》was set up in Tai Po Arts Centre and a venue for contemporary and performing art in 2019.
Other than commissions from commercial companies like Chanel, LUSH, the United Colors of Benetton, Avalon Organics, Watson's Group, Vita and Mass Transit Railway(MTR), Twodogs Ho has been invited by organisations such as Oxfam, GreenPeace, The Arts with the Disabled Association, Association Concerning Sexual Violence against Women, the Association for the Advancement of Feminism, and more, to create artworks for presenting project concepts. Most of the themes of these works are about the natural environment, love, mindfulness and equality.
二犬十一咪 (Twodogs) introduced the art form "eco art" to Hong Kong in 2010. Her work "reclamation exercise Eco Art Exhibition" aimed to promote "art diversity" in Hong Kong. She was the radio and webcast host of two animal rights programmes, "Animal panic" and "Circle Round, Animal and Plants". She formed and is chairman of Friends of Mui Wo Cattle (FOMC) to promote the conservation of local cattle.
Her book "They are the eyes of equals" was published in 2013 and is the first book about animal rights and welfare in Hong Kong. Her book "Circle Round the Universe" was published in 2012 and is a pioneer for local reading on animal liberation.
Her installation exhibition "A Tree To Be Found" was awarded a prize in the Hong Kong Art Biennial. This work was subsequently purchased and collected by the Hong Kong Museum of Art. Other than in Hong Kong, her works have been exhibited in Spain, Portugal, Switzerland, France, Taiwan, Singapore, the UK, the USA and other countries.
"Twodogs. Making clothes. Making Herbal Soup" was awarded Bronze Prize in Book Design at the Hong Kong Designers Association Awards 2005. Her animation work titled 'the circus of n_n,v-v" was invited to participate in the Hong Kong International Film Festival and the France Short Film Festival.
She was invited as a residential artist in the UK (Orkney, Scotland), New York City (Art Omi), Vermont, the USA (Vermont International artist fellowship), Hong Kong and France (France International Short Film Festival) for an international artist exchange program.
二犬十一咪 (Twodogs) is making her music therapy journey after her study in music therapy in the UK.
portrait photographed by andrew tang
The Art Made with Life
(Mingpao Weekly Magazine)
Underneath the sweet surface of her works, there is a world of blood and chaos, much like her attempts to sugar-coat the cruel reality. Her light yet heavy works offer a glimpse of her compassion and concerns for the world. More than just experimenting with various art forms, she uses herself as a medium to survive the obscure world of sufferings, in the hope of telling the unbearable truth to all and tearing off the fake skin and flesh – with goodwill.
Her artistic journey could perhaps be described in one line: if she loses her creative freedom one day, she will not be able to live.
Creating is her basic need of life. She has never stopped – since her debut publication When Girl Meets Raindrop which she deliberately painted with her left hand, her thought-provoking works have been drawing readers into a bitter-sweet dream world. Also a local pioneer of installation art, she created sculptures made of paper and natural materials, including A Tree to be Found. It featured a vivid and dazzling fairytale-like space filled with nightmares of the adult world and won the Hong Kong Art Biennial Award.
At the age of 17, she adopted her first dog – Ho Siu Bo – her loved one and companion for years, before going on to adopt more than ten cats and dogs (the origin of her Chinese pseudonym – two dogs and eleven cats). In her college days, she enjoyed philosophy classes, hiding in a tucked corner on campus for contemplation and creation alone, skipping classes to read books and watch movies in the library, including Peter Singer's Animal Liberation, one of her favourite titles. She has also gone vegetarian and tapped into issues related to nature, the environment and living.
She has long been doing her best to protect the environment. In view of the material wastes generated by art productions (large-scale sculptures are oftentimes made of plastic and disposed to landfills after the exhibition), she makes use of natural and discarded materials such as scrap paper and wastes for her works. In 2010, she introduced “eco art” to Hong Kong and held the Reclamation Exercise Eco Art Installation, in which she created an installation with thousands of thrown-away glass bottles.
Having lived on Lantau Island for more than ten years, her care for nature and animals goes beyond art creations. In 2012, when the government was to relocate cattle for the urban development on the outlying island, she put aside her artistic pursuit and organised the FOMC (Friends of Mui Wo Cattle) to promote cattle conservation in the area. From feeding the geckos at home every day to sheltering the marsh frogs evicted by her neighbours, to rescuing a community cat nearly choked by a neck rope, all these seemingly insignificant acts are some of her daily practices that call for equality and respect for all lives.
The extent that she cares about the subtleties of life offers a sneak peek of the immense energy and power in her works. For her, as long as she has a piece of paper and a pen, she can spill the ideas that pop up in her head at any time, writing poetry and painting day after day.
In 2012, she published Circle Round the Universe – a nod to the modernist masterpiece Paintings for the Preservation of Life by Hongyi and Feng Zikai while weaving in issues regarding modern factory-farmed animals, experimental animals and shark mutilation. In 2013, she published They Are the Eyes of Equals, the first pioneering book on animal rights and policies in Hong Kong which can now be found in university libraries across Taiwan.
And one day, she finally found her "another pair of hands", an instrument that suits her well: the handpan. When playing percussion with this flat, round, UFO-like musical instrument, she can express the deepest world within. To her, handpan seems to be a sound the earth has never had before, opening the door to a vast space between raw percussion and the universe where an ample variety of tones is possible. This instrument, with qualities similar to her worldview, completes her artistic vision.
At the start of 2017, she created her first musical work Walking on the Lake (music x video x poetry). In the same year, she also started a series of multimedia music performances to develop creative possibilities in different art forms. Her works, like interlaced yarns weaving into an art world of her own, are inextricably linked to each other – one must read her whole repertoire altogether to understand the artist.
Ceaselessly creating installations, paintings, writings, music and sculptures, she would not be able to live on if, one day, her creative freedom is taken from her.
Written by Siaw Hew-Wah
(Senior editor writing on cultural and arts for Mingpao Weekly Magazine)
2020
用生命去創作的甜美恐怖藝術
她的作品儼然糖衣包裹殘酷世情，甜美表象下盡是腥血狼藉。那麼輕快，那麼沉重。讓人窺見她對人間的悲憫與關切——與其說以不同藝術媒介創作，倒不如說她盡其一生以自身作為媒介，當存活於苦樂無明的五濁惡世，希望用道出一點叫人難以直面的真相，善意地撕下一切虛假的皮肉。
關於她的藝術生涯，也許可以用一句說話來形容：如果一天她失去創作自由，她可活不下去了。
於她，創作就是生存基本需要。她一直沒有停下腳步。從初出道、刻意以左手繪畫的出版物《當大舊頭遇上雨點》開始，其作品便令人跌進夢幻，悲喜交集，沉思良久。她是本地運用裝置藝術形式的先軀者，並獨創以紙紮和天然物料創作紙雕塑，獲得香港藝術雙年獎的《有棵沒人種的樹》，將整個空間化作鮮明得令人眩暉的童畫世界，內裡卻是成人世界的夢魘。
十七歲那年， 她收養的第一頭小狗何小波，是生命中對她不離不棄的至親，及至先後收養了十多頭貓犬(筆名由來)；大學時代，她最愛選修的哲學科，躲在校園一角獨自沉思創作，和蹺課到圖書館閱讀大量書籍和電影，如對Peter Singer的《動物解放》愛不釋手，更開始吃素，一直關注自然、環境、生命議題。
對環境保護，她早在身體力行。有見藝術作品往往使用大量物料(甚至坊間不時用上塑膠做大型雕塑，展覽完畢就送往堆田區)，故她常取材天然、廢棄物料(如無用紙張、被丟棄的物件)做創作。2010年，她更把生態藝術引入香港，舉行《回收作業》公共藝術展覽，其中，便用上數千個廢棄玻璃樽創作裝置作品。
島居十多年，她對大自然、動物的關注，更是超越創作領域。2012年，政府發展大嶼山要逼走黃牛，她曾放下畫筆，全力策劃組織FOMC(梅窩牛牛之友)推動地區黃牛保育。日常生活，由每天餵飼家中的壁虎、給因被鄰居趕絕的沼蛙製造庇護所、到拯救一頭被頸繩綁得透不過氣的社區貓，這些關顧看似微不足道，卻是在在見證生命平等與可貴。
你可想像，當藝術家著重生命細微之處至此，其作品的能量會是如何。而她只要手中有一張紙，一支筆，便可隨時寫畫在腦海湧現的想法，日復日地寫詩、作畫。
2012年，她將弘一大師與豐子愷的《護生畫集》賦予現代性，以重畫方式，出版著作《宇宙氹氹轉》，把近代的工廠化動物、實驗動物、殘害鯊魚等問題呈現讀者面前。2013年出版的《動物權益誌》，更是首本探討香港動物權益和政策的先驅讀物，並成為台灣一些大學圖書館的參考書籍。
而某天，她終找到自己的「另一對手」，一個非常適合她的樂器：handpan（手碟）。 抱着這個扁扁圓圓，像極太空飛碟的樂器在敲擊演奏，將內在最深沉的世界表達出來。於她，handpan似乎是地球不曾有過的聲音，像介乎原始敲擊和宇宙之間的遼闊空間，有着千變萬化的音調。這樂器的特質與她的世界觀相近，並完整了她的藝術創作。
2017年初，她創作第一個音樂作品《在湖上散步》（音樂＋錄像＋詩），同年亦開始了一連串混合媒體結合音樂的演出，發展更多元素的創作可能。她的創作本來就像織布，紗線橫直交錯，一條一條地織成她整個藝術世界。每一件作品，都與她其他作品牽連及相關，密不可分。閱讀這個藝術家，必須把她的所有作品一起解構。
她一直孜孜不倦，做裝置藝術、畫畫、書寫、音樂、雕塑。如果一天她失去創作自由，她可活不下去了。
撰文：蕭曉華（明周編輯）