Why book on how to be a better writer changed an artist's life
The Writing Life (1989), by American author Annie Dillard, describes the day-to-day processes, challenges and routines of her work as a writer, a profession she characterises as mostly laborious and alienating. United States-born, Hong Kong-based contemporary artist Christopher K. Ho, who in 2021 took over as executive director of the Asia Art Archive, explains how it changed his life.
I read the book in the fall of 1993, when I’d just graduated from high school. I remember writing to my high school English teacher for recommendations. This one really hit the nail on the head. Its lessons continue to inform my artistic practice – and, now, my work at Asia Art Archive.
It was an unusual book to recommend to someone relatively young. But it was very useful in that moment of youthful impatience, wanting to be an artist in college. Its message was to take a step back, and view making a work of art – for her it was a book, for me an artwork – as a process.
Hong Kong-based US contemporary artist Christopher K. Ho, who in 2021 took over as executive director of the Asia Art Archive, explains how it changed his life. Read More...
