#abstractsfromthestraitstimes

[hemanchong]

I love that my work is in the secret lair of @michaelalistairfindlay on the Upper East Side. Almost, always surprised when I encounter my own work outside the context of my studio or my shows. But almost, always glad to know that they are in good hands. #HemanChong #AbstractsFromTheStraitsTimes #MichaelFindlay (at Acquavella Galleries Inc) https://www.instagram.com/p/CcHLbHiMLPb/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[hemanchong]

Heman Chong perhaps reads the Straits Times closer than anyone else. Abstracts From The Straits Times is a series of repetitive abstractions from Singapore’s primary daily newspaper. The artist’s abstracts are based on a cache of print-ready PDFs of the newspaper that he found online. Reading has always been a performance of a text and a remaking through instantiation. In Chong’s abstraction of a page from the Straits Times, an edition from the series about a broken down lift in a public housing estate, it becomes impossible to read the newspaper rather the repetition of the image illustrating the story ‘blacks’ out the text and cuts through it, insisting on the image as a self-evident statement. In a media landscape policed by the expanded understandings of political correctness, POFMAs (Protection from Online Falsehoods and Manipulation Act), accusations of ‘fake news’, trials of public opinion and ‘deep-fake’ technology, Chong’s emphasis on the newspaper image critically points to the persuasiveness of the breakdown as envisioned in an elevator, a fireman and darkness at the expense of its context. Abstracts From The Straits Times are exceptional images in that they are impossible images. It is almost impossible to believe that Chong is able to create such an ‘alternative’ image of the newspaper because of the overt legal parameters that govern and define the newspaper business in Singapore. Beyond interrogating the modalities of news and the creation of public discourse based on marshalling compelling images, Abstracts From The Straits Times as conceptual object effects alarm in how it manifests the very literal limits of how we can read a newspaper. Text by @kat_ditzig #KathleenDitzig #StpiGallery #AbstractsFromTheStraitsTimes #HemanChong (at STPI - Creative Workshop & Gallery) https://www.instagram.com/p/CNpLheqlx5e/?igshid=1iim3gym4vq4o

[hemanchong]

Sneak preview of a work I’m donating to this year’s gala @swissinstitute. #AbstractsFromTheStraitsTimes #USOpen #RafaelNadal #HemanChong (at Swiss Institute / Contemporary Art New York) https://www.instagram.com/p/B24Vx6jF_H9/?igshid=teeed68jrbf6

[hemanchong]

I can honestly tell you that I'm fucking good at installing my own work in really tough non white cube spaces. #HemanChong #StateofMotion #FearOfMonsters #AbstractsFromTheStraitsTimes #ArchivingSg #TheStraitsTimes #Singapore (at Kampong Bugis, Singapore) https://www.instagram.com/p/BwzY6iTlCjZ/?igshid=hmyrw3rgesmb

[hemanchong]

I'm showing these at #ABHK2019 with @rossiandrossi (Level 1, 1B07). Come by and see it (and collect them now already wth!) #HemanChong #ForeignAffairs #AbstractsFromTheStraitsTimes #ABHK (at Art Basel Hong Kong) https://www.instagram.com/p/BvdKcaRloFX/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=15t87w1dgks7v

[hemanchong]

#AbstractsFromTheStraitsTimes installed in #StateOfMotionSg @asianfilmarchive #Singapore #ArchivingSg #HemanChong (at Kampong Bugis) https://www.instagram.com/p/BuBLlbil419/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=mje6bq9chxw7

[hemanchong]

Please head over to #stateofmotion2019 at 11 #KampongBugis to view works from 2 different series #AbstractsFromTheStraitsTimes and #ForeignAffairs! Thanks #KathleenDitzig for including my work in the show! @asianfilmarchive #HemanChong #Singapore #ArchivingSg (at Kampong Bugis) https://www.instagram.com/p/BtET8QYlVps/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=8dzon4f0xo2q

[hemanchong]

A stray #photo (starring many #Swiss woman and men) from #ArtBaselHongKong #madnessweek. #HongKong #AbstractsFromTheStraitsTimes @rossiandrossi #HemanChong (at Rossi & Rossi Gallery)