What Are You Working On Now? Hue Chen
Embroidered poetry on casino blackjack dealer uniform. 2019. Image credit Hue Chen.
What are you working on now? is a Couch in the Desert series where we ask artists what they are making and thinking about in and outside the studio.
Hue Chen
For the past 3 years, I’ve been dreaming about this collection of garments that dress casino workers, like my mother, in extravagant couture. Since immigrating here with her 2 decades ago, I’ve seen how this city has changed, and how much of this change is built on the labor of BIPOC and immigrant communities. With clothing, I want to shine a light on these service workers within the casino industry here in Las Vegas. Originally this collection was created as part of my thesis work at Parsons School of Design. However, no one expected that the year my classmates and I were set to graduate was also the year our world experienced the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic. My life, like many others’, and this collection was put on hold and only this year I felt able to bring this project to fruition. In early 2020 I also began my community-based project called the Cloud House, where I painted my suburban home into a picture replica of the sky, and shared my space as a free maker space and library to my physical and virtual neighbors. I’ve just been so lucky to heal, within my community here, the grief of leaving my life behind in New York City, and to focus my energy on supporting the growth of mutual aid efforts and art spaces here in Vegas.
The images I share with you were all part of my visual research for this collection. All of the materials, people, and conversations I’ve had and learned from are now informing this collection of 6 garments. What I’d love to do is dress 6 people of varying ages and sizes who work within the casino environment, because I’m so inspired by them everyday. The first look I’m designing is for my mother, who for the past 25 years has worked at a local casino to support our family as a single mother. Her look will be made entirely of beaded flowers, a skill I learned from Roberta Garcia, an indigenous artist, during the many beading workshops we hosted at the Cloud House this past spring. Since then, I’ve been meticulously beading away this dress in hopes to fund my mother’s retirement once this whole collection is completed. I’m excited to share my journey here and on the internet, and to show how I work with salvaged materials like gambling table mats, old sequin dresses, and casino promotional shirts.
Assortment of beaded flowers learned from Roberta’s beading classes. 2023. Image credit Hue Chen.
Hue is a cultural worker and multidisciplinary artist based in Las Vegas, NV making places, spaces, and objects for love to flourish. Through this combination of participatory and observatory mediums, they engage with co-creating love through community by facilitating modular spaces, performances, and sculptures through the lens of finding home for the soul. Concepts explored range from emergent behaviors amongst animals and humans within urban spaces, as well as contemplations on the relationship between nature, soul, and space. They were selected for the Desert Companion’s “2022 Ones to Watch” and have received grants from the NV Arts Council.
See more of Hue’s work on their website and on Instagram.
All images courtesy of the artist.
Posted and published by Ellie Rush on November 29, 2023