Talking with HSURAE, artist, educator, bio-researcher on embodied questions, the art of making glass phantom limbs, mirror box therapy as speculative philosophy, and why the body is already a site of perpetual augmentation. On weaving high heels out of softened bone, gut microbiome colonialism, intergenerational sequencing with her grandmother, karaoke as mistranslation engines, and the limits of empathy as pedagogical virtue. On scar tissue as kintsugi, feces as a portal to human agency, and fibroblasts growing on glass not as object but as time-bound collaborator. Exploring tongue-based sight devices, bone extracts spun into jewelry, human ears grown on arms, and why all bodies are partially disabled, already entangled in the flows of medical devices, nationhood, and post-human speculation. On the ecological horrors of processing ultra-purified water, the irreducibility of artificial intelligence as an aesthetic quality, prayer rituals for semiconductor droughts, and what it means to make “Taiwanese art” in the age of AI. Also: on collecting rocks, deep time, and the slow, sacred practice of stitching of identity and memory into human hair.
On Spectrums
This dichotomy between abled bodies and disabled bodies is not necessary or a helpful differentiation - all of our bodies are essentially disabled or disability is something that all of us would have to come to terms with earlier or later. I see it really as a flow instead of distinct categorizations
On Art for Generating Questions
I studied occupational therapy and I worked as a therapist… but during that time I would visit art museums by myself. And in those visits I found that there was a sort of opening or space within art that seemed to be like inviting curiosity, inviting questions, and experimentation that I, I had not encountered in my previous studies… But there were moments during my education to study to be a therapist where I found myself asking questions that were unanswerable or coming up to the limits of empirical reasoning... I wasn't trying to look for answers, really. I was looking for a space where I could ask more questions…
On Ultra Pure Water
TSMC alone accounts for 38% of the country's daily water usage.
And it's not even enough. They still like purchase water from construction sites, for example, because the creation of AI chips requires like thousands of washing with what's called ultra pure water. So it's like water that is a thousand times pure than tap water.
On the Spiritual
I collect rocks wherever I go, and I wouldn't say I worship the rocks, but that seems to be the closest spiritual practice in my life.
Visit hsurae.com/ for more information.
Postscript from Rae:
Regarding the Phantom Limb Series: It came together with the help of many: TAs, classmates, faculty at RISD. In glassblowing, especially with large or experimental forms, it’s almost never a solo effort. There's an improvised choreography in the hot shop, and I leaned heavily on that. At the time, I didn’t always know how to properly credit that kind of fluid, mutual support. But over the years, I’ve become more intentional about acknowledging those contributions.
That ethos continues in my current work. Two of my ongoing projects are being developed under a loose, evolving collective called Lythologies. It’s not a fixed group, but rather a dispersed, flexible way of holding collaboration, one that shifts and grows with each project.
Also, I wanted to highlight two upcoming exhibitions:
Stories Written by the Sky, NTMoFA, Taiwan (10/25–12/14) (
Human Machine, EWERK Luckenwalde, Germany (9/20–12/14)
Selections and images of some of Hsurae’s pieces discussed during interview
All photos credit: hsurae.com/
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