Louise Hung
About
I am an interdisciplinary illustrator, print-maker and workshop facilitator based in London & Taiwan.
Studying and keeping caterpillars from a young age developed my fascination with ecology. I like to transform scientific information of living organisms and their environment into illustrations. My illustrations related to the theme have been commissioned by Unilever Four Acres, White Stuff, Canary Wharf Jubilee Place, Marie Claire Taiwan and Resurgence & Ecologist, etc.
Writing is an important process to pause, reflect, appreciate, digest and grow. It is another way for me to bravely whisper what I care about to this big world. Some of my writings in Mandarin could be read in my column on Marie Claire Taiwan website.
I graduated from Kingston University BA Illustration Animation in 2021. Being fascinated by the content of postmodern higher art education in the Western world, I have been working as a studio fellow at Kingston University BA illustration Animation since then.
Truly falling in love with community-based learning and museum education, I have been working as a Museum Creative & Youth Engagement Officer at Wimbledon Museum, an entirely volunteer-run museum.
Statement
I love learning about the communities through the lens of local history and archives.
I love building deep relationships with the communities by being part of them.
I love listening to stories told by intergenerational locals in the communities.
I love passing on the spirits of the communities through multiple types of publications.
I love making history with the communities.
In the communities,
I love the process of collective and interdisciplinary learning.
I love interpreting the findings into a bridge of narrative that facilitates the physical experience and interaction between the audience and their surroundings.
I love investigating how the interactions stimulate environmental actions.
I design and facilitate sustainable and affordable print-making, craft-making, storytelling and discussion workshops for museums, educational institutions, charities, members of the public and community groups exploring ideas around the natural environment, found objects and cultural stories of sites. These have included:
Wimbledon Museum, Bentall Centre Kingston, Kingston School of Art, Not My Beautiful House, Kingston Historic Market, AcrossRCA Royal College of Art, Xue Xue Foundation Taiwan and Yong-An Elementary School Taiwan, etc.
(This is a photo of me volunteering in the wild :)
Volunteering as Research Method
At Home, Our Magical Wimbledon: Volunteering as Research Method
What is the environmental significance of the site? Why do 1,140 acres of Wimbledon and Putney Commons exist? How is it protected in an organised way? What is the relationship between the commons, the government and its users? How does the community identity build?
Wanting to deeper understand the relationship of humans with ecology in the urban environment, this year, I revisit the site, and join 2 conservation volunteering groups.
Finally, the question comes back to me: what is my role as a newcomer to the local community, as a volunteer, as a user of the commons and as a visual communicator?
The books documented the digested information and poetic response to what I have learnt from volunteering, conversations with others, books about local natural history, and observations on the site. These messages are for every Commons user. I believe that only with understanding do we know how to love, and only with true love do we know how to conserve the site.
Wimbledon The Next 100 Years- Museum of the Future
At Home, Our Magical Wimbledon: Museum of the Future
After building comprehensive knowledge through the rich archive records contained in Wimbledon Museum, I had the opportunity to interpret my reflections in the workshop for Ursuline High School taking place at Wimbledon Museum as part of the ‘Restoration of Toynbee Fountain Event’ run by Heritage of London Trust and Merton Council.
‘We embrace that Wimbledon Museum is over 100 years old, championing the tangible and intangible history and people of Wimbledon village, town and Commons. If the people of Wimbledon had not preserved their heritage a hundred years ago; if no one had written, painted, collected the specimens and recorded what the common looked like, we might not know anything about our homes today. The Conservators would not know how to rehabilitate the commons to the most appropriate nature environments. What would Wimbledon look like with its history erased? Will we even be able to see each other here today?
Let's imagine that when another 100 years have passed, we have all become history. Everything we left behind became an archive that has been collected in the Wimbledon Museum. What messages and stories do we want to convey to those who visit the museum in the future, in the next 100 years?'
Museum Display- What is your Hope Medal, what do you want to keep safe?
At Home, Our Magical Wimbledon: Museum Display
I worked with the museum learning officer, Jean Shipton, in facilitating the Pelham School Year 4 children's activities, offering some suggestions on the crafting part of it.
After the workshop, I designed the outcome into a display as well as a process documentation book. As far as I know, this is the first time for the museum to exhibit children’s crafts made in the workshop in a professional way.
The book has become part of the archive collection of Wimbledon Museum.
At Home, Our Magical Wimbledon: The Memory Box
At Home, Our Magical Wimbledon: The Memory Box
The conversation about working with the Memory Box Foundation with Sarah Hawkins, the museum engagement officer, has inspired me to make my Memory Box on the publications of volunteering processes on the Commons and at the museum.
I noticed there are plenty of books about the history of Wimbledon that mention the formation of the museum. Still, none of them has yet properly told the stories of the selfless volunteers. It inspired me to start documenting the stories of us, at a museum that is entirely run by volunteers.
I would like to pass on the stories and spirit of the community to the next generation and a wider audience.
At Home, Our Magical Wimbledon Memory Box wouldn’t work well without being at the museum, engaging families, visitors and volunteers to share what they’ve read with one another and what they’ve resonated to. It aims to help Wimbledon Museum to bridge connections with the Commons in a more contemporary and visual way.
This not only tells how the local museum built the community identity, and how I use my practice as an art facilitator and illustrator to work with people here, but also represents my journey of finding out the meaning of the term ‘at home’ and sense of belonging in the community.
To me, the work demonstrates the trust-building process that leads to further relationships between the community and me. Therefore, this is not the end.
A massive thanks to Wimbledon Museum, Wimbledon & Putney Heath Commons- Sunday Scrub Bashing Group & London Wildlife Trust Farm Bog Team.
Without them, these precious memories wouldn’t have existed.
The story of At Home, Our Magical Wimbledon continues…