Jasmine Chock is a Chinese American artist based in Austin, TX. Chock works in a wide range of 3D materials, photography and video, including, but not limited to, sewing, ceramics, noodles, and plastic bags. In making art, she playfully explores the relationships between humans and the public, private and personal objects and spaces they interact with. Chock takes inspiration from observing everyday routines and traditions and subverts their usual purposes, creating humorous, uncanny relationships.
Chock graduated from The University of Texas at Austin with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Studio Art. She has shown work at the City of Austin Asian American Resource Center, The Museum of Human Achievement and the Visual Arts Center. She is an artist educator and administrator. She has facilitated art-making workshops for youth, seniors, and adults of all abilities in Austin, TX, with printmaking, clay, paper mache, and fiber arts.
August 3 – November 2, 2024
Round 22: Plastic Bag Lion Dance combines the Chinese tradition of Lion Dance with the ritual of saving plastic shopping bags to create a new Chinese American Lion species. Collected plastic shopping bags surround the cage, combined with fringed plastic grocery twine, transforming the caged trailer into the lion’s body. This lion has many heads adorned with plastic bags and crocheted plastic yarn to ward off evil from all directions.
The Lion Dance originated during the Han Dynasty in Guangdong, China, where Chock’s ancestors are from. While the Lions are traditionally red, a lucky color, Lions today come in many different colors and appear at various celebrations, including weddings, birthdays, grand openings, and even sports halftimes. Plastic Bag Lion Dance reimagines the traditions of Chock’s ancestors, translating them with the consumable physical materials and rituals of the United States in the 21st century.