Billion-year-old slime mold meets the hyperconsumerist logic of vaping devices. How do they negotiate?

My works are material systems where cosmological, industrial, and organic orders are forced into contact, the outcome often exceeding my control. They enact propositions against the divisions (matter/form, nature/culture, nonhuman/human, subjectivity/objectivity) that Aristotle and Descartes left us, and that still structure how we extract from the world.

My practice is rooted in non-Western ways of knowing, particularly Daoist philosophy, as a way of relating to the material world. I work with the ephemerality, cyclicality, and transformation of bioplastic, rust, and other found urban debris (street microbes, discarded vapes, sensors, electronics, etc.). I collaborate with live Physarum polycephalum slime molds to create silk works that explore conceptions of wuwei, agency, and constraint.

Bio

X.S. Hou (b. Beijing) is an artist based in NYC. Hou holds a BA in Architecture from Wellesley College, with a Minor in Design from MIT.

Their work has been presented at ONX (Onassis Foundation), Initial Research, Ghostmachine Gallery, Jewett Art Center, Plexus Projects, Fourth World Festival, and _p_a_l_l_a_s, and featured in Artnet, ArtNews, Whitehot Magazine, and more.

CV available upon request.

Inquiries: houxsheng@gmail.com