Meng Han is afibre artist working with embroidery. She constructs fragile yet quietly resilient objects and sculptures. She uses poetic metaphor to tell imaginative stories that touch on trauma.
Meng's work is marked by an awakening of consciousness and philosophical reflection in the face of trauma. Based on her research into human psychology, she explores the poetic expression of trauma and resilience theory in traditional fibre artworks and the use of intelligent textiles in dance therapy.
Meng builds on her previous experience as a documentary filmmaker and sensitively uses sound and video in her work. At the start of her MA study she was exploring making smart textiles with sound and video. She developed an intelligent wool knitting stretch sensor system. This work was a series of wearable smart costume pieces that triggered sound when worn and danced in. Through the experience of creating smart textiles Meng developed her ideas about the application of technology in textiles more rationally. Instead of pursuing the cool effects of technology, she constantly asks whether the application of cross-border technology is used for the needs of expression.
Meng explores in her work the relationship between materiality itself and human perception and emotional expression. Most recently this exploration focused on the tactility of yarn and fibre and mixed materials for emotional expression and its potential for metaphorical narrative. Through the development of hand and machine embroidery techniques Meng has become obsessed with challenging traditional embroidery techniques in new dimensions and perspectives. Developing soft embroidered sculptural forms that convey a combined feeling of strength and vulnerability.
