CLARA CHU

What objects DO you associate with the idea of home?

I feel like I have so many things, maybe that says a lot about me. I just have a lot of different trinkets, like this little collection of objects that I have from when I went travelling to Thailand. There was this woman on the street selling lots of tiny little handmade burgers, beer cans, etc., that she makes by hand and paints. They are like little sculptures, but they are literally miniatures. I'm super obsessed with them, and they remind me of school and those little erasers we used to use in Hong Kong when I was growing up. Do you know those little erasers? You could deconstruct and reassemble them. Imagine a sushi eraser, and you could take its top part off, leaving just the rice bit.
I'm just super into that sort of object. I found so many different versions of those when I was travelling, like the woman I came across this summer on the street and her whole store full of miniatures ranging from beer cans to different kinds of food. It even had skewers, chicken wings, and stuff. She had a big table with lots of things sticking out, and she was just there painting, and that's the ultimate craft for me.
I’m really into collecting tiny objects…they are so mundane, but there are versions of them that are so crafty and precious. People have collections of rare books, collections of cars, magazines, models and stuff, but not many people have collections of miniatures and weird little objects. I feel like you have to be so niche to be into that…Not many people are sentimental about objects also, which is quite interesting to think about.
I like to colour code my flat as well, so I have an orange corner, a green corner and it’s kind of like my work, as I colour code all the things I find. The boxes in my studio are also colour coded, so I have a pink box, a green box, etc. In my work as well, you see the colours. Some of them might be clashing, but with most of my bags, if it’s a green bag, it’s different shades of green. If it’s a red bag, often it’s different shades of red.

What does home mean to you?

I was born and raised in Hong Kong but I moved to Canada when I was 15 for high school and came to London 10 years ago, so I've lived in three different places in my life, and they're all cities. I guess that's also why I just have such a big collection of little objects because I'm just everywhere. But I guess home to me means mostly the connections that I make everywhere I go. I will just find little spaces and things to do that would make me feel good, in a way where I can present myself as a character.
Everywhere I go, I don't feel at home until I have that body of connection with people. Because I don't really stop - in a sense that sounds very strange, but as I'm constantly running around, I'm constantly striving for conversations and for things to be inspired by around the city. Until I have that connection and until I have that moment of being inspired, I don't feel at home.
When I go to events or parties, etc., that's when I feel like, “oh yeah, I'm being present in the space”.
I guess an element of feeling at home, rather than the notion of feeling cosy and comfortable, is almost kind of the opposite, in that I need that energy and I need connection with other people.

What about home in a more traditional way, such as family or roots?

I go to Hong Kong every year, so that's when I see my family, which becomes a really precious time for me as family's really important to me. That was the case growing up as well. My dad is also a designer, so we chat a lot, and we inspire each other a lot. We could just be sitting down in a restaurant or having a drink and just be looking at how tape is made—just a conversation about what we do as professionals, but also as just friends speaking. He's inspired me so much, and I think that's also why I took this route, as I grew up being really inspired by him. He would just be making tools and stuff at home all the time, so that's also a part of my whole creative journey, feeling supported in taking this direction and having that support from home, even though I'm so far away from home, but just knowing that they get it. I think that's really important.

But it’s not just my family; it’s also where I come from, and I speak a lot about it when I get asked about my work. Hong Kong is a place with lots of markets, and the mass production of plastic originated massively there. I grew up walking through markets of mass produced plastic chairs, a little bit like walking down Bethnal Green with all the homeware shops, but very centred around markets instead. The landscape in Hong Kong is really crazy too, almost dystopian: you have all the skyscrapers, the financial district, and next to it you have all of these buildings that look like they’re about to collapse. Next to that, you have the merging of the old and the new, the very futuristic but also that nostalgic element of plastic toys, tables and chairs. I think that’s just why I’m super drawn to all these saturated colours of plastic goods or rubber weird objects that I saw a lot growing up and walking through the markets and just the city. It’s super quirky, the buildings and the architecture are just very dense.

Then there is the idea of everything being so efficient and accessible, which kind of created that community of closeness that you consume. I kind of live like that with my lifestyle here in London, although in Hong Kong, with everything being so dense and super efficient, you could be going to 10 different places a night because everything is so close together. Whereas here in London, I might go to dinner here in Central London and then if I want to go to a party in North London, I'm like “okay, I'll be there in two hours”. In Hong Kong, you're constantly doing so many things, and I love that vibrant lifestyle of constantly just having things around me.
I think that collage and that build-up element of things from different places reflects hugely in my work.

What role does home play in your work?

I moved to Canada when I was like 15 and I lived there for three and a half years before moving to London, so there was a gap between Hong Kong and London. I was taking a lot of art courses at the time, of course, but thinking about the contrast in terms of landscape (so, Canada), I miss a lot of the winter camping, the nature, the lakes, or the open spaces. I had so much fun there, but when I think about the years that I felt most inspired by, they were in Hong Kong and London. All the things I just said about walking through the city, through markets, finding things, etc., kind of tied together.
With Canada, I appreciate the landscape and the things that I could do there, but it doesn’t fill my creative brain as much as Hong Kong and London, just because of that similarity in terms of the architecture and objects around us. I guess the feeling of home is to have developed my own community and network of people around me.