The Neon Girl

The Neon Girl

Hi, I’m chankalun – a Hong Kong-born experimental neon artist based in Paris. In a field still dominated by men, I aim to bring a distinct voice shaped by craft, culture, and identity.

For me, neon is more than light—it is language, memory, and living craft. My work redefines neon beyond its commercial past, transforming it into a medium for storytelling, cultural preservation, and environmental reflection.

Raised in Hong Kong, once illuminated by vibrant neon signs that shaped its urban identity, I feel both an urgency and a responsibility to revive and reinterpret this fading tradition.
My work merges the technical precision of neon with the expressive spontaneity of Chinese calligraphy, where language becomes form. This dialogue between media explores the contrast of “seeking perfection within imperfection“: the strict discipline of glass-bending against the fluid release of ink on paper.

For me, imperfection is not failure but evidence of life: an honest record of the body’s negotiation with material. My ongoing research expands these ideas into a study of how making becomes thinking. I am currently developing doctoral research focused on how the neuroscience of Chinese language learning and calligraphy reveals embodied forms of perception. Using generative AI text-to-image models such as GPT Image 1, I question how humans and machines construct meaning — and what cognitive gestures remain uniquely human.

Since 2018, my installations have been exhibited internationally, from Art Basel Hong Kong (with UBS and La Prairie), Milan Design Week, M+ Museum, cultural institutions and events in New York, Paris, Brussels, Oxford and Pattaya.

My three major collections—Silhouette, Sustainability, and Blue & White—span themes of body image, ecology, and cultural memory, each inviting audiences into immersive encounters that question how we see, feel, and care.

My artistic practice is structured around three ongoing collections:

• Silhouette Collection
  Neon is often seen as a highly technical and scientific medium. Through my project The Neon Girl, I began embracing my own physicality (especially my “flaws”), learning to bend glass according to my body rather than against it. This collection explores body image, self-perception, and identity. Works like Every Body is a Beach Body celebrate bodyscape and diversity, using hand-bent neon forms to express personal and collective narratives of resilience and transformation.

• Sustainability Collection
  This series explores the tension between the precision of neon-making and the expressive spontaneity of traditional Chinese calligraphy. It reflects on natural elements, invisible forces, and the concept of “imperfect perfectionism” of Expressionism in Chinese calligraphy.
  Works like Courants, Light as Air and Haiijaii address ecological concerns through upcycled materials and interactive, large-scale installations that challenge the environmental impact of neon as a medium.

• Blue and White Collection – Rooted in cultural memory, this collection bridges Eastern and Western craftsmanship through the fusion of porcelain and neon—two handmade, delicate materials.
  Inspired by traditional Chinese blue-and-white porcelain and its historical global trade, this collection reinterprets ancient motifs with neon. Works like Neo(n)-Antique Art reinterpret historical motifs using cobalt blue glass and hand-painted ceramics.

Across these collections, my installations are immersive and interactive, inviting audiences to reflect on their role in shaping the world around them. Whether I am bending glass into calligraphic strokes, sculpting neon into symbols of movement and transformation, or reimagining neon’s relationship with other materials like stone, porcelain, and textiles, my goal remains the same: to inspire, provoke, and illuminate new ways of seeing the world.

At the heart of my practice is material inquiry: glass, noble gases, porcelain, stone, recycled neon. I continually ask: how can neon, a craft born in the 20th century, illuminate sustainable futures today?

Between Hong Kong and Paris, I see my work as a bridge—between East and West, past and future, tradition and reinvention.

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I’m also developing a series of NFT arts and collections based on my neon works. Join our Discord community here:
https://discord.gg/QRRDzDWFSb