The seventh conversation in our exploration of "The Artist’s Muse" introduces us to the multidisciplinary world of Neryhs. For this Hong Kong-born, London and Melbourne-trained artist, the creative process is an act of profound vulnerability—a bridge built across the inevitable gap between individual minds.
Neryhs’s practice is rooted in a poignant contradiction: the human longing to be fully understood versus the inherent impossibility of total connection. After navigating a period of significant personal trauma and "survival mode," she has emerged with a renewed vision that treats art not merely as an aesthetic pursuit, but as a vital form of therapy and a vessel for "unconditional love." Her work serves as a quiet yet powerful reclamation of the self, transforming the weight of loneliness into the expansive freedom of self-discovery.
In this interview, Neryhs reflects on her recent evolution, specifically through her work 27th. This piece marks a pivotal transition—a "finish line" for an old season of life and a "starting line" for a new era. She describes her process as one of "noticing," where the artist must bravely dive into sparks of clarity to unveil hidden truths within the subconscious. For Neryhs, the canvas and the installation space are where wounds are seen with clarity and where "painterly metaphors" allow the unspeakable to finally find a form.
Her approach to the audience is equally evocative. Viewing art as something akin to love, she believes its meaning is completed only through the unique perception of the viewer. It is a dialogue that transcends the artist's original intent, inviting us to find our own stories within her fragments.
Edited with a deep respect for her honesty and resilience, this conversation invites you to witness an artist who stands her ground in authenticity. It is an invitation to explore how the most personal struggles can be distilled into a universal language of hope, proving that even in our deepest solitude, art can find a way to make us feel seen.
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Q. Thank you for joining us today—it's wonderful to meet you. I'd love to begin by hearing about you and your practice. How would you introduce yourself as an artist, and what work are you currently engaged with?
A. I am Neryhs, a multidisciplinary artist whose practice explores the contradiction of hoping to be found and understood but doubting the existence of total understanding between minds. I express through various media such as poetry, paintings, illustrations, public installations, and performances.
I was born in Hong Kong, continued my BA (Hons) in Fine Art at Chelsea College of Arts, University of the Arts London, and graduated with First Class Honours in 2020. I then completed my MA in Art in Public Space with distinction at RMIT University in 2024.
I see my art practice as my therapy, and I consider my works to be the story time for the audience. I’ve always been interested in human’s relationship with loneliness, which is an inevitability in life. I believe the deeper we connect to ourselves; the more it allows loneliness to become freedom.
I tell stories through my art. They are fragments of my life; whenever I encounter an emotion or idea that feels impossible to let slide or express in a daily conversation, I shape it into art. To me, art is very similar to love: if it is understood, it feels reasonable, beautiful, even inspiring. If not, it means absolutely nothing. So I present the work, and I let the audience do the rest.
I consider creating art a form of unconditional love I give to life.
sink, dream, die with me
Q. What is the main source of inspiration for your current work? When did this particular muse first become meaningful to you, and can you describe that initial encounter?
A. The past couple of years were quite difficult for me in most aspects. Some unexpected traumas happened both mentally and physically, and I had jumped into full survival mode before I even realized it. It took me a very long time to even begin accepting the situation.
As the old life falls, my old self dies with it. I had to learn how to build a whole new self for the unknown that lies ahead of me. It is a process of deconstruction and rebirth, and it will always be painful to do so. When dealing with pain, art is the only way I know that can help. And that’s what I did.
All the struggles, losses, and traumas that happened in my personal life have become my sources of inspiration. They have made my art more personal than ever. Everything that happened has opened a new path in my journey of art; some leads to experimenting with completely new methodology, while some take me back to revisit old practices with new perspectives. Either way, I grow and build myself along with my art practice.
Q. When you first discovered this source of inspiration, what emotions did you experience? How did it change your artistic direction or working methods afterward?
A. I think struggles have always been a source of inspiration for artists, and it is not something new. In fact, struggles have been a stimulation and motivation for changes and growth for human being since we exist. I think it is a natural response for development as we evolve throughout the difficulties we come across as a race in history.
So, to react to my pains and struggles, I believe it is a natural response to evolve and try to overcome them. Everyone has their unique way to respond, and my way to do so just happens to be via creating art, and for that, it just comes naturally since I was little.
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the play - trauma bond. (oh honey, it was never really love.) |
Q. How does your muse typically appear to you—as visual images, sounds, spatial feelings, or particular emotions? Could you describe its specific characteristics or qualities in detail?
A. I believe everything is feeling, and I try to capture the feelings in moments in life that I think have their weight in the creation of meaning for life.
In so many ways, life makes no sense to me. There are so many questions piling up in my head with no clue of finding the answers at all. But sometimes, there is this spark of clarity that I comes across, and it makes sense of something that maybe has been puzzling in the back of my head for a while or a very long while. I catch the spark, and it opens a portal of inspiration to me. My job is to be brave and dive deep into it and see where it leads me.
Q. Could you walk us through one specific work that you feel most powerfully embodies your muse? What was the journey from initial inspiration to finished piece, and what challenges or discoveries emerged along the way?
A. My work, from______to _____。,which is an interactive installation that I have talked about in the last interview that I still resonate with deeply, as I see it as the very beginning and the rawest form of the red tape series.
Other than that, there is a new work called 27th, which marks a new era in my art practice. 27th is named after my age; the work tells the story of the very personal journey of how to get to this new stage in life from the previous one. I believe everyone has their own pace in growing and transforming in life, and there are some times that are more unforgettable than the other ones. 27th is not only describing this particular year of mine but marking both the finish line of an old season in life as well as the starting line of a new one.
In terms of the artistic process, 27th is a trip of revisiting the red tape series that I had been left untouched for some years as I moved on to experiment with new art format such as poetry, screenplay, and painting. Revisiting the red tape series with new stories and perspectives was a weird but exciting process. As I started making, I realized the style of storytelling, the way I use metaphors, or even my brushstrokes were so different from before. I had to learn to accept and embrace the changes instead of trying to go back and “copy” my old style. But as I continue to work on the piece, I realized I had become was more detailed about the message I want to convey and was more certain about how to put each of the pieces in the best place to form a clear collective visual outcome.
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| 27th |
Q. Has your relationship with your muse evolved over time? Are there aspects that have deepened or new dimensions you've discovered that you'd like to share?
A. I think I am more confident in trusting my way of working with my inspirations now.
I used to be quite tense when ideas and sparks first appeared. I would be somewhat nervous about my ability to work with the ideas, and if I were able to perfect them, so I would not waste them. And after each works’ completion, I also worried a lot if I could be inspired and come up with a better work next time.
As I grow as an artist, I realize the anxiety is only a shadow of mine, and I was fighting something that is meaningless unless I give it the power to haunt me. So, I focus on making art, improving during the process, and allowing myself to fail, instead of having to perfect every detail of each idea as soon as they pop up. I have also learned that it is okay to give the time and space that some ideas need. Instead of letting the need to complete the work only for the sake of it, let them be unfinished and stay incomplete for now. Revisiting later at a better time might yield a better result. This also applies to life in general.
Q. Do you have any intentional activities or routines for connecting with inspiration? Conversely, when inspiration doesn't come easily, how do you handle those periods?
A. I think connecting with inspiration is a practice of noticing.
Not only noticing things or happenings around you, but more importantly, noticing yourself as a constantly changing being, as in how you are and what you are feeling, what the feeling is made of etc.
I practice being always aware of what is happening on the inside of my mind. I dissect my feelings into pieces that are easier to understand for myself, and this happens simultaneously as I make art. This is why I see my art practice as my therapy, as I see living is a continuing process of healing and evolving, till death arrives.
Q. Can you tell us about a moment when your muse led you somewhere unexpected or challenging? What did you discover about yourself or your practice through that experience?
A. I believe there are a lot of hidden and neglected truths about ourselves submerging deep within our subconsciousness. The process of making art while allowing the muse leading the mind to unveil the part of self that is yet to be discovered is not only one of the greatest gifts for the further development of an artist, but also an essential part of growth as a person.
Most of my art practice is about unveiling traumas that I could not locate nor understand and heal from via other methods. The process of making art puts me in a position to see the wounds with clarity. Without reaching a certain point of depth and clarity, making art remains bland and somewhat meaningless to me.
I believe one’s art practice should always be on some level of challenge and is creating on the route of the unknown to maximise the potentials of the artwork and the artist. At the end of the day, it is what practice means.
Q. How does your audience's response to your work affect your relationship with your muse? Have viewers ever helped you see new aspects of your inspiration that you hadn't noticed before?
A. I believe when an audience sees a work of mine, a completely new and unique concept of the same work is born instantly.
As I mentioned before, I see art very similar to love: if it is understood, it feels reasonable, beautiful, and even inspiring. If not, it means absolutely nothing. I understand that every pair of eyes sees and perceives differently. I consider my job of making the work entirely derive from a specific concept or a message I try to convey is done as I complete the work. As the work is shown to the audience, new angles and divergent forms of the same work are created by each individual mind that has put thought into the work while observing it.
I used to feel disappointed when the audience did not perceive the message I tried to transmit through an artwork. Although seeking the magical moments of being understood and feel connected through art is still the motivation and the reason I make art, I later on learned to respect the dissimilarities and the independence of each mind. I especially embraced the times when the audience surprised me with their unexpected views inspired by my art. It is another form of communicating and connecting.
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善惡有報 |
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yeah i saw what you have and i don't want it. |
Q. How do you balance staying true to your core inspiration while also allowing room for growth and change? Have there been times when you've had to choose between following your muse and meeting external expectations?
A. As a constantly changing and growing being, staying true to my core inspiration is allowing and accepting that to happen naturally.
Given that being said, I am an extremely stubborn mind, that I might be forcing myself to hold on to a certain style of making art or linger on a certain idea even though I have already outgrown them. And I think this is the most dangerous trap for artist, which is to be stuck in a place that the true self no longer belongs to. That is why being aware, checking in, and allowing oneself to be completely honest with one’s art practice are the essential factors to me as an artist.
I think being authentic is not only the first and foremost characteristic to be an artist, but also the most indispensable one along the journey. There can be expectations that the external situations require an artwork to meet, but it is crucial for an artist to know their identity at heart, and to decide if it was too much that it bends or take away the meaning of the work, or even the artist’s authenticity in the art. An artist should know when to stand their ground.
Q. Thank you so much for sharing such thoughtful insights with us today. As we conclude our conversation, Looking ahead, in what direction do you think your muse will develop or expand? Are there new territories of inspiration you're eager to explore, and what draws you to them?
A. Thank you for bringing me on a journey of in-depth brainstorm and investigation. I truly enjoyed the conversation with you!
I plan to continue my exploration in the red tape series. There are still plenty of rooms to improve on the accuracy of expressing a particular thought and the ability to tell a good story, and there are still a lot more to unveil with the continuous spark of inspirations appear during the process of making the works.
On the other hand, I am trying to increase the exposure for my work and receive funding and other supports from galleries, museums, creative organizations and different platforms to upscale my work. I have many ideas that I believe would be best expressed in the form of large installations, which require external help to achieve their best results. So, I am trying to make them come to life.
Contact
Artist : Neryhs Wo
Instagram : @neryhs_wo
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