Ming Wong
25 June - 28 August 2011
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| Video still from Ming Wong, In Love For The Mood, video audio installation, 2009 |
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MING WONG
Life of Imitation
25 June – 28 August, 2011
The Hara Museum of Contemporary Art is pleased to present Ming Wong:
Life of Imitation, an exhibition by the Berlin-based Singaporean artist
Ming Wong (b. 1971), which won the Special Jury Mention Award at the
53rd Venice Biennale in 2009. This much lauded installation was restaged
by the Singapore Art Museum with a new design and additional exhibits
for Singaporean audiences and subsequently traveled the show to Seattle
and Tasmania to much acclaim.
To be reconfigured to suit the unique space of the Hara Museum, the
exhibition consists of three video installations that reenact scenes
inspired by world cinema. These include films by P. Ramlee (1929-73),
the father of Malay cinema and entertainment industry icon; Imitation
of Life (1959) by Douglas Sirk (1897-1987), known for his Hollywood
melodramas; and the Hong Kong film In the Mood for Love (2000) by Wong
Kar Wai (1958-). Through the use of miscasting, mimicry and comical
elements, Wong draws attention to such issues as race, cultural
identity, gender and language.
Also included in the exhibition are billboards by Neo Chon Teck,
Singapore‘s last cinema billboard painter, cinema memorabilia belonging
to Singaporean collector Wong Han Min and images of classic cinema
architecture captured by the artist in a series of Polaroid snapshots.
In looking back on the Golden Era of Singaporean cinema (of the 1950s
and 1960s), these works invite the viewer to ponder Singapore‘s
multiracial, multilingual, and multicultural nature and the state of
people living in a society undergoing rapid globalization.
*This exhibition first appeared at the 53rd Venice Biennale in 2009
(curated by Tang Fu Kuen). Its presentation at the Hara Museum is
co-organized with the Singapore Art Museum.
Ming Wong was born in Singapore in 1971. After being involved in the
theater scene, he went on to study at Nanyang Academy of Fine Art and
received a Diploma in Fine Arts (Chinese Art) from in 1995 and an MFA
(Fine Arts/ Media) at the Slade School of Art, University College London
in 1999. In 2008, Ming undertook a one year artist residency at the
Kunstlerhaus Bethanien in Berlin, Germany. Ming has made significant
in-roads internationally with his participation in numerous group and
solo visual arts exhibitions in Europe, North America and Asia. He is
scheduled to exhibit work at the 2011 Singapore Biennale. He currently
resides in Berlin and Singapore. http://www.mingwong.org
www.haramuseum.or.jp
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