Episode 16: How Strange it is to be Anything at All with Lexy Ho-Tai

Lexy Ho-Tai is an artist, educator and goopey human. Her practice is expansive and ever-changing, but often rooted in exploring human connection, otherness, our inner-child and world-building through craft, play, DIY, monsters and collaboration. Recent projects include: creating a collaborative giant textile cuddle monster with 500+ elementary students, building and burning a wearable heartbreak monster, and making her first stop motion animation featuring tiny puppets of her family. She’s currently dreaming of a surrealist All-Ages Kids TV show with puppetry, masking and more (stay tuned!). She’s bad at small talk, convinced that everything is made up, and uses art to explore alternative ways of being in this world. 

Lexy’s a core member of eco-theater groups Superhero Clubhouse and Agile Rascal Bicycle Touring Theatre. She’s had solo shows at the Museum of Arts and Design and Flux Factory, and has also shown work at the Abrons Art Center, The Highline, and the Museum of Modern Art. Past residencies include Watermill Center, Flux Factory, ARoS Museum, Everglades National Park, Art Farm, Elsewhere Museum, Wassaic Project, Vermont Studio Center and the Museum of Arts and Design, where she was a Van Lier Fellow. Recently, she was a part of the American Craft Council’s Emerging Artist Cohort.

Her exhibition with PlatteForum, “How Strange it is to be Anything at All” is lovingly crafted, and features slightly existential soft sculptures, puppets, wearables, and drawings which come to life in a new stop-motion animation and installation. Throughout Lexy’s residency, she has worked with our ArtLab interns to create mixed media wearable monster costumes and explored the following questions: 

What does it mean to be human? How can we free our minds? How can our bodies be home? 

Lexy invites viewers into a space where you can rest, create, and be amongst the many beings there, which are extensions and mirrors of ourselves. After all, everything is made up and we can be anything at all. So, loosen up your human suits – all parts of you are welcome here. This is a soft place to land.

www.lexymakesthings.com

Blog: https://lexymakesthings.substack.com 

Instagram: @lexymakesthings