Berlin-based, Singapore-born artist Ming Wong repurposes global cinema to explore issues of race, gender, and performance. He deliberately miscasts himself in iconic scenes from films by directors like Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Wong Kar-wai, Alain Resnais, and Roman Polanski, often in settings that evoke other places and histories (LA and San Francisco’s Chinatowns, Shanghai’s French Concession). At once uncanny, critical, and droll, the resulting videos highlight tropes of nationhood, other...
Berlin-based, Singapore-born artist Ming Wong repurposes global cinema to explore issues of race, gender, and performance. He deliberately miscasts himself in iconic scenes from films by directors like Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Wong Kar-wai, Alain Resnais, and Roman Polanski, often in settings that evoke other places and histories (LA and San Francisco’s Chinatowns, Shanghai’s French Concession). At once uncanny, critical, and droll, the resulting videos highlight tropes of nationhood, otherness, and the intertwined relationship of history and media. In his first Chicago appearance, Wong shows a selection of works from across his career and discusses his ideas around performance, cinema, and the space between laughing and crying.
2005–15, multiple countries, multiple formats, ca 70 min + discussion
Ming Wong (1971, Singapore) creates videos and performances that engage with the history of world cinema and popular forms of entertainment. His work has been exhibited internationally, including at Ullens Center for Contemporary Art, Beijing; Vitamin Creative Space, Guangzhou; carlier l gebauer, Berlin; Frye Art Museum, Seattle; Redcat, Los Angeles; Museum of Moving Image, Queens, New York, as part of Performa 11; the Hara Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo; and the Singapore Art Museum. His 2009 exhibition at Singaporean Pavilion for the 53rd Venice Biennale won a Special Jury Mention award. He currently lives and works in Berlin.
