Wong hoy cheong biography template
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COMPLICIT CONSCIOUSNESS
By Andrew Maerkle
Still from Doghole (2009), HD Video, 22 min. All images: Unless otherwise noted courtesy Wong Hoy Cheong.
Born in Penang in 1960 and now based in Kuala Lumpur, Wong Hoy Cheong explores a diverse range of approaches and topics in his multi-disciplinary practice. His works often contain political undertones, regardless of whether they address Malaysia’s colonial legacy, its contemporary society or overlooked strands of international cultural history. Yet they also entertain, as in the project RE:Looking (2002), which imagines a 250-year-long diskret Malaysian imperial rule over Austria as seen through a fictional BBC-style self-regarding investigative TV schema, or in the photo series “Chronicles of Crime” (2006) and “Maid in Malaysia” (2008), both of which borrow the glossy sheen of Hollywood promotional campaigns. Such works critique not so much particular issues or agendas but rather the mechanis
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Art Radar Asia
CONTEMPORARY ASIAN ART ORGANIZATIONS
Metal Bull Year I, by Chang Fee Ming at STPI. Watercolor, acrylic, etching, gold leaf, on STPI handmade paper. 77 x 62 cm.
Art Radar remains devoted to sharing important and unique Asian arts institutions with readers, and few are as exciting as the Singapore Tyler Print Institute. Regular art fair goers may already be familiar with the institute, which is a fixture at many Asian art events. STPI is based (you guessed it) in Singapore, and stands alone in all of Asia as the only fully-equipped, artist’s printmaking and papermaking workshop. It was established in 2002 under the guidance of the American master printer Kenneth Tyler with support from the Singaporean government, and is a non-profit organization specializing in the publishing and dealing of fine art prints and remains dedicated to collaborating with extraordinary international artists. STPI boasts the foremost print and paper making facilities in the wor
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III. Theatre of Transformation
Wong Hoy Cheong discusses propaganda, politics and transparency in art.
Still from Doghole (2009), HD Video, 22 min. All images: Unless otherwise noted courtesy Wong Hoy Cheong.
ART iT: Earlier you mentioned that you often reference your interest in pedagogy in your works. Having studied education and worked as an educator – in addition to maintaining a career as an activist – can you elaborate on how your relationship to pedagogy continues to play out in your art projects?
WHC: I taught for about 18 years, and during that period there was a stronger relationship between my practice as an artist and my practice as an educator. As was the case with the third-world aesthetics course that I taught for around three years, classes often became arenas for me to explore ideas of transformation, of pedagogy, or even those related to a more complex issue like conscientization: how do you make students conscious of themselves and acqui