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Polluta Propaganda Woodcuts (Contradictoria) 
2018 - ongoing

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All prints are

hand-pulled woodcut prints(Oil-based ink on Cloud-dragon handmade paper)
2018 - ongoing

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Polluta Propaganda Woodcuts (2018 - ) are a collection of 99 woodcuts that portray the artist’s imaginary futuristic ecotopian artist colony “Polluta”. The body of work is composed in three phases. The point of departure for Phase I (2018 - 2023) is China’s New Woodcut Movement in the 1930s and 1940s, whereas Phase II (2023 - present) is heavily drawn from Japanese historic ukiyo-e prints. Phase III (future project) will be a collection of architectural wood carvings portraying Polluta’s ever-shifting appearance.

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Phase I: Welcome to Polluta! (2018-2023)

Phase II: Power to the Animals (2023 - ongoing)

Phase III (future project) 

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Fung, Michelle. “Polluta, the Floating Paradise.” 2019 CSP Journal: Printmaking, Politics and Society. The California Society of Printmakers. San Francisco, USA. 2019.

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"By using woodblock printing Michelle Fung has become a master of her art [...] That sharp intelligence like the tools she uses in making her woodblocks means her art is much more than an intellectual exercise. It comes from both head and heart.

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Full of soul and beautifully crafted with the addition of a jazz like sense of improvisation, her work is absolutely unique."

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Norman deBrackinghe, Photographer

"I am now coming to view your woodcuts not as JUST images to be looked at, but as works that must also be read/deciphered, consistent and appropriate with your ascribing them as being "compositions". Looking forward to viewing/reading more of the Polluta Propaganda, as conveyed via your growing Polluta Animal Woodcut Collection."

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James Yopp, Microbiologist

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read about the process

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"Michelle Kuen Suet Fung’s Polluta blurs the boundary between whimsy and dystopia, as familiar symbols of the interconnected global network we live in and its abundant resources are punctuated by surreal images of environmental degradation, and suggestive slogans hint at an uncertain future.

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Fung’s medium of choice—woodblock print in the form of propaganda poster—highlights the uneasy bond between seemingly disparate elements. Are cheerful mottoes used to uplift the masses, or do they serve a more sinister purpose, as the enigmatic visual elements of [1] [2] Polluta intimate?

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[...] Polluta reflects a universal, growing concern with the role of humans in the shaping of their environment, and heightened consciousness about the Anthropocene and planetary conditions. In its exploration of these themes, Polluta is reminiscent of modern and contemporary literature about lands real and unreal.
 

excerpt from “Imagining a New World in Michelle Kuen Suet Fung’s Polluta”

Angie Chau, Assistant Professor,

Department of Pacific and Asian Studies, University of Victoria​

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