Mengjie Mo

Bio

Mengjie Mo, originally from Yunnan, China, now resides and works in Detroit, U.S. She completed her Master's in Fine Art at Cranbrook Academy of Art in 2023 and was honored with the 2022 Maxwell-Hanrahan Foundation Materials Award and AJF 2024 Top 10 Young Artist Award. Currently Mo is a visiting artist in the metalsmithing department at Cranbrook Academy of Art. Her life experiences, from living in economically disadvantaged and ethnic minority areas to volunteering in African regions, coupled with extensive study and travel, have instilled in her a critical perspective on societal issues. Mo uses her art as a means to challenge patriarchal norms and blur the boundaries that separate individuals, advocating for a more interconnected and inclusive world.

Statement

In my art experience, I've portrayed my inner journey through performances, jewelry pieces, and sculptures. I examine the various values of the color and concept of red and use my voice and tactile sensations to describe my inner experience. The oddity of randomness and the beauty of mathematical logic occurring in the same piece represent that I am using my work as an outlet to explore a random woman's adventure in this world.

Textile and beading work throughout history have shackled women's lives but also contain women's magic. By using the tension of beads and thread, my practice calls back the memory of typical historical women's labor. But now women's traditional skills are my new weapon to fight patriarchy. While I am most familiar with such endeavors within feminism, my practice is also expanding into smoothing out self-other power struggles in other relationships, advocating for a more interconnected and inclusive world.
 

CV