黄海昌

Days of Our Lives: ‘Reading’

source: universes-in-universe.rg

Art museums all over Europe in their architectural splendour have historically been the guardians and depository of this Europeanness. Their art collections of paintings and sculptures are to preserve for eternity iconic moments of European culture and history. But Europe has changed and is still changing. With large migrant populations from former colonies who have made Europe their homes, notions such as Frenchness or Britishness or Germaness are not only in constant flux but needs to be reenvisioned. What constitutes “Europeanness” now?

Named after a soap opera in U.S. which has been running practically everyday for over 40 years, Days Of Our Lives is a series of six photographs which explores this new Europeanness. These reenacted photographs or tableaux vivants (living pictures) are based on French paintings in the Museum of Fine Arts of Lyon (France) which depict domestic scenes: preparing food; relaxing, reading and playing music; giving charity to the poor or being evicted from home or going off to war. They are paintings of ordinary people and their everyday activities and problems.

While these paintings are of the past, their topicality and emotions are still as resonant and relevant today. While the characters inhabiting these paintings are of obvious European extraction, the reality has radically shifted. Using models from Europe’s former non Judeo-Christian colonies in Africa, Middle East and Asia, these photographs instead reprise these “days of our lives” with Muslim Nigerians, Iranians, Turkish and Buddhist Burmese minorities. The Judeo-Christian Europeanness of another epoch gives way to a new fluidity and diversity. The past lives in the present, and the present in past as domiciled and naturalized migrant minorities reconstructs a new Europeanness for this century.
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source: ocula

Wong Hoy Cheong’s art is dedicated to his passion for socio-political activism. He works in a wide range of media to address concerns and ideas about identity, location, globalization and colonialism, using popular genre conventions, as well as the allure of unusual materials. His has sought to disturb our sense of security, reminding us of the slipperiness that lies between fact and fiction, past and present, and the perpetual reinvention of our own histories. WONG was awarded by The Rockefeller Foundation with the Bellagio Creative Arts Fellows in 2011. In 2000, Newsweek (International) named him as one of the ten trailblazers of Asia under the title “Mavericks & Rebels.” In 1999, Asiaweek named him as one of the 10 art and culture “Leaders of the Next Millennium.” Deutsche Bank Headquarters in Frankfurt, Germany collects his work and has a floor named after him. Cornell University has a scholarship – “H. C. Wong Scholarship” – named after him for his work as “Outstanding Educator.”
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source: eslitegallery

WONG Hoy Cheong was born in 1960 in George Town in Penang, Malaysia. He studied literature, education and fine arts at Brandeis University, Harvard University and the University of Massachusetts (Amherst) in the USA. WONG is currently based in Kuala Lumpur and Kuala Kubu Baru, Selangor, Malaysia.

WONG’s intellectual and academic background began in the field of literature rather than fine art, which serves as an explanation for his continuous fascination for scholarship and rhetoric shown in his works.

Underlying WONG’s playfulness is a serious inquiry into Asian and world history, society and politics as seen through the lens of Malaysia’s colonial and post-colonial experience. His has sought to disturb our sense of security, reminding us of the slipperiness that lies between fact and fiction, past and present, and the perpetual reinvention of our own histories.

WONG is an artist unrestricted by style or medium, his diverse education background led to his inter-disciplinary works, involving areas such as drawing, installation, photography, theater/performance and video; and has explored the interrelationship of history, politics, culture and ethnicity.

WONG was awarded by The Rockefeller Foundation with the Bellagio Creative Arts Fellows in 2011. In 2000, Newsweek (International) named him as one of the 10 trailblazers of Asia under the title “Mavericks & Rebels”. In 1999, Asiaweek named him as one of the10 art and culture “Leaders of the Next Millennium”. Deutsche Bank Headquarters in Frankfurt, Germany collects his work and has a floor named after him. Cornell University even has a scholarship – “H. C. Wong Scholarship” – named after him for his work as “Outstanding Educator.”
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source: neogenovablogspot

馬來西亞藝術家黃海昌（Wong Hoy Cheong），曾在2006年台北當代藝術館「赤裸人」展以一部偽紀錄片《再：注視》（Re: looking）讓人印象深刻。今年他更受邀參加2008年「台北雙年展」，並於上個月在誠品畫廊開幕的「咖啡、菸、泰式炒河粉—— 東南亞當代藝術」展中，展出他早幾年前的作品系列「犯罪編年史」（Chronicles of Crime）。

黃海昌是移民馬來西亞的華人第五代，1980年代留學美國，曾學過兩年中文，但如今已忘得差不多了，倒是能以流利的英語、馬來語、菲律賓話，和台灣 移民工交談自如。他幾個月前來台北為雙年展做準備，透過台灣國際勞工協會（TIWA）的協助，與台灣的移民工有些接觸。他跑去參加菲律賓移工組織 「KASAPI」的活動，看他們唱歌跳舞，也聽他們談家鄉、談工作。黃海昌還拜訪了在輔大博物館學研究所任教的陳國偉，針對城市空間與殖民歷史的議題交換想法。

混血的文化認同是黃海昌時常被問及的問題。「如果你問我是誰，我真的說不上來。陳國偉跟我說，純血統的漢人手肘會有一條凹痕。但是我沒有！」黃海昌秀出手臂。「對於走到哪裡都是一個他者這回事，我已經感到很自在了。」他說。

黃海昌不是致力探尋「我是誰？」這種本源問題的藝術家，他感興趣的是文化混血後綻放出的繁花盛景。他的創作關注於社會中少數族群的故事，擅長重塑被 遺忘的歷史，甚至虛構新的文本來拆解主流文化的刻板印象，後殖民色彩強烈，語言卻充滿著慧黠的想像力，關乎幻想與現實之間似遠猶近的距離。如《再：注視》 杜撰了一個不存在的馬來西亞殖民政權統治奧地利超過200年；參加2005年「廣州三年展」時，他在美術館頂樓蓋了個伊斯蘭教清真寺的尖塔，要觀眾重新看 待中國的穆斯林（Muslim）社群。2007「伊斯坦堡雙年展」（Istanbul Biennial），黃海昌拍了一部關於土耳其境內吉普賽小孩的影片。今年他參加台北雙年展，將展出以台灣家庭外傭為對象的一系列攝影。在黃海昌的鏡頭前，她們將一個個變成明星，變成超級英