Presenting:
Art Must be Beautiful, Ming Wong, 2011, video documentation, 9’26”
About Artwork
Ming Wong was invited to a debate organised by Intelligence Squared, to debate if “Art Must Be Beautiful” at the Hong Kong Art Fair. The debate motion itself is derived from one of Marina Abramovic’s key works “Art Must Be Beautiful, Artist Must Be Beautiful” (1975), which challenges the notion of beauty, the limits of the body and the possibilities of the mind.
Without informing anybody beforehand, Ming turned up at the debate as the character played by Maggie Cheung in Wong Kar-Wai’s In the Mood for Love – a beautiful art object and a sex symbol of Hong Kong – and proceeded to deconstruct his alter ego…
Ming Wong: Art Doesn’t Have to Be “Beautiful”
text by Suchao Li
Born in Singapore, now works and lives in Berlin, artist Ming Wong (1971- ) explores issues on identity such as language, gender, race, society, and geopolitics by using the form of video and media installation within his art practices, through which he usually adapts given scripts, parodies and remakes old films and melodramas.
The conflicts and fusion between multi-cultures and oppositional identities often appear in Ming Wong’s works. Singapore, as his birth place and motherland, has gone through a complicated history of colonization and a struggling process of independence. Like other Singaporeans of his generation, Ming Wong somehow has his dilemma and confusion about his own ethnic background and identity. Hong Kong, for instance, shares a special significance for him. Wong was born and raised in an environment of Cantonese language and culture. His grandfather emigrated from southern China to Singapore, and then experienced the occupation by Japan in WWII. Wong was born several years after Singapore’s independence from Malaysia.
After graduated from Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts, Wong left Singapore and then received his Master’s degree on new media art in Slade School of Art in London. Since then, Wong has created various drama-esque video works, such as
HAM & CHEESOMELET (2001),
Whodunnit (2003/2004), which lay the foundation of his future absurdist and role-in-reverse melodrama and performance pieces.
In 2007, Wong relocated to Berlin and then once again, he has encountered a radical change within his life and his artistic creation, which can be seen from his work
Lerne Deutsch mit Petra Von Kant /Learn German with Petra von Kant (2007). He believes that one of the best ways to get insight into a foreign culture is through the films of that country, so he borrowed the structure and narrative from one of his favorite German films,
The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant (1972) by Rainer Werner Fassbinder. In this film, Ming Wong plays the female character Petra, who speaks in German, trying to articulate his strong feelings and emotions as displayed by the actress in the original film. With these words and the dramatic performance, Wong intends to express his desperate concerns of being anxious and marginalized after moving to Berlin as a “post-35-year-old, single, gay, ethnic-minority, mid-career artist”. The identity crisis, gender bending and dramatic role playing that presented in this work has been becoming a perennial theme in his latter works.
In 2009, Ming Wong represented Singapore at the 53rd Venice Biennale, which leads him to gain broad attention internationally. The video work he was presenting at the biennale Life of Imitation (2009) was awarded a Special Mention by the International Jury of the biennale. The video is also a parody to the classic Hollywood melodrama
Imitation of Life (1959) by Douglas Sirk, in which a mixed race girl Sarah Jane, who has been running away from her true ‘identity’, denied her kinship with her African American mother Annie in front of her face.
For this video, Ming Wong invited 3 male actors coming from the 3 main ethnic groups in Singapore (Chinese, Malay and Indian) to play Sarah Jane and the mother Annie. The Chinese actor who plays Sarah Jane is facing Annie played by the Indian actor; while on the other channel, Jane played by the Indian actor is facing Annie played by the Malaysian actor, saying repeatedly “I’m white. White!” Ironically, none of them are white or black or female. The costumes and the outlooks of these characters are also poor of quality and appear to be absurd. The displaced and subverted roles, which are generated from the identity anxiety and from the hidden racial dilemma and cultural contradictions, have been exposed and magnified via this work.
Ming Wong’s art practice goes against the traditional notion of “beauty”, not only the visual presentation, but also the contents conveyed by his works are certainly not about “beauty” or “beautiful”. On the contrary, he often exposes and brings out our hidden anxiety and insecurity right under the spotlight on his stage. The performance work Hong Kong Diary (2011) documents his speech and performance at a debate on the motion “Art Must Be Beautiful” during Art Basel Hong Kong (former Hong Kong Art Fair). The year of 2011 marks a turning point for the art industry in Hong Kong, as Art Basel bought over HK Art Fair, new art spaces and galleries were booming, which is very similar to the situation in Singapore. Both Hong Kong and Singapore play important roles in global art market, however, the study and exploration of art per se, as well as the identity issues and the anxiety derived from it that faced by many local artists in the post-colonial era within the context of rapid globalization have rarely been brought up. Thus, to debate if “art must be beautiful” has had its special meaning at the time. The debate/panel invited Lars Nittve, former executive director of the M+ Museum, Hong Kong, artist David LaChappelle, auctioneer Simon de Pury and cultural critic Stephen Bayley. Ming Wong describes them as “four middle-aged white men”. Without informing anyone in advance, Wong dragged up, dressing as Maggie Cheung in the movie of In the Mood for Love by Wong Kar Wai, seen as a famous sex symbol and a beautiful art piece.
At the debate, Wong discussed about Marina Abramovic’s performance work
Art Must Be Beautiful, Artist Must Be Beautiful (1975), through which Marina questions the notion of “beauty”, challenges the limits of the body and the possibilities of the mind. Wong appears in a performative way to present his response to this topic. He turned up in a turquoise blue Qipao and walked onto the platform, serving the audience his Maggie Cheung look. His speech begins with one of his friends’ saying: “Hong Kong is totally captivating, she is like a woman in an expensive fur coat, but underneath she wears dirty knickers.” Then he states: “I will try to show you how that woman is a work of art, not because of her beautiful, expensive fur coat, but the truth.” Ming Wong concluded his speech as “beautiful or not beautiful is not important, art have to be true. So, what is true?” As he asked the question, he began to strip, removed the Qipao and then all the accessories, presenting an almost naked, ordinary male body–the “truth”, to the audience. This performance has nothing to do with the notion of “beauty”, but it represents something that Ming Wong has always been looking for throughout his art practices: true identity, true belonging, and true self.
About Artist
Ming Wong re-interprets iconic moments from world cinema and popular culture in his videos, photographs, installations and performances, often portraying multiple key characters irrespective of language, gender, ethnicity, nationality or historical period.
Through imperfect translations and re-enactments, the artist uncovers the gaps and slippages that haunt the notions of “authenticity” and “originality” in self and society, and reveals how one´s identity is constructed, reproduced and circulated.
The Singapore-born, Berlin-based artist represented Singapore at the 53rd Venice Biennale in 2009 with his solo presentation Life of Imitation, which was awarded a Special Mention. He has had solo exhibitions at leading institutions worldwide, including Ullens Centre for Contemporary Art, Beijing (2015); Shiseido Gallery, Tokyo (2013); REDCAT, Los Angeles (2012); and Neuer Berliner Kunstverein, Berlin (2010). Wong has been included in numerous international biennials, including Sydney Biennale (2016 & 2010); Shanghai Biennale (2014); Lyon Biennale (2013); Liverpool Biennial (2012); Gwangju Biennale (2010); Performa 11, New York (2010).
About Writer
Suchao Li, graduated from Christie’s Education London, University of Glasgow in 2013 with Master’s degree on History of Art, is currently based in Shanghai, working for Artco China Journal, a China’s renowned art publication with the headquarter located in Taipei, as an editor. Suchao has been writing continually on a wide range of art related subjects, including critical reviews, artist profiles, commentaries, etc. Her recent research is especially focused on the interdisciplinary study on the contemporaneity of visual arts, which includes the crossover between art and technology, art and politics, and questioning the prevailing chronological, lineal method on the study of art history.
