Heman Chong's The Silver Sessions features a new body of work signifying a
radical shift in the artist's
transdisciplinary practice. Seven objects comprise The Silver Sessions,
creating a dialogue that conveys
the temporality experienced by Chong in a year-long residency. The Silver
Sessions is Chong's first solo
show in Germany since exhibiting at Sparwasser HQ (1) and the In-Transit
Festival at Haus der Kulturen
der Welt (2).
In an interview with London-based art critic Dean Summers, Chong describes
The Silver Sessions as such:
"The fact of being a "resident" for a year in an institution such as The
Künstlerhaus Bethanien explictly
defines me as a character in a time-based situation. Working along this
idea, I have imagined myself as a
protagonist in Berlin, creating these seven objects that are, more or less,
what I've come to understand as
"cinema objects".... these objects play with the relationships between my
own identity and the identity of
my imagination, which I have come to see as different entities."
The experience of "Very bright Indeed" is one where visitors navigate a
white cube anchored on a massive
wall structure. The cube culminates with a locked door, transmitting white
light through a fusillade of
fluorescent tubes. The enigmatic non-passage of this work immediately
suggests the transient nature of an
artist residency while evoking the illuminating effect that often arises
from such an experience. It is a
physical enactment that alludes to a rite of passage for many artists, and
is a particularly significant
component of Chong's exhibit during the final stages of his residency at the
Bethanien.
The temporal structure "200 misused chairs from an institution" and the book
"500 blows" express the
notions of institutional abuse. 200 chairs are extracted from every corner
of the Künstlerhaus Bethanien,
leaving empty spaces next to tables and resulting in despair for many
people. The chairs are then stacked
from floor to ceiling in a corner in the space, rendering all of them
useless. A collection of abstract bitmaps
derived from pornographic images is put on view as "500 blows", the result
of overtime work by the laser
printers in the Bethanien. This collection is placed on a shelf which is
positioned at a height that can be
accessed with a chair, creating a performative situation out of the viewer's
interaction with the piece.
Also present in The Silver Sessions are two new video sculptures entitled
"Winners" and "Winter". These
multi-channel videos, extensions of Chong's work from the 50th Venice
Biennale (3), are displayed on
monitors positioned on top of black, wooden structures. The videos are
continuations of a long term
process of working with contemporary dance on video. The presence of the
body is suggested with
images, creating haunting personas within the space.
"Pop song chair" and "Extra Perfect Wash" can be best described as a
photographic sound diptych whereby
visitors sit on a chair, listen to a CD of pop songs, and view a photograph
of a neon sign in a automatic car
wash baring the words "Extra Perfect Wash" inscribed as a promise.
Based in Berlin and Singapore, Heman Chong is a transdisciplinary artist
working in video installations,
graphics, photography, sound, and text. Murmurmurmurmurmur, Chong's
installation piece commissioned
for the Singapore pavilion at the 2003 Venice Biennale, received rave
reviews, and is currently on global
tour. It has been exhibited at TAMA Art Gallery (Tokyo), Fukuoka Asian Art
Museum (Fukuoka), and the
Museum of Contemporary Art Denver (Denver); 2004 dates include the Chiang
Mai Museum (Chiang Mai),
National Gallery Bangkok (Bangkok), and Dahlem Museum (Berlin).
A new video-essay, "The Social Seduction", will be presented with Sparwasser
HQ in the Hamburger
Bahnhof, as part of the exhibition "Berlin-North" in January 2004.
IMAGE
Heman Chong
Murmurmurmurmurmur (Venezia/Accademia Remix), 2003
DVD installation, variable dimensions
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