Wednesday 21 January 2015

10 Questions with | Wong Yeang Cherng

1. Tell us about yourself in one sentence.
I am obsessed with the passing of time; I dwell too much on the past; I remember too many redundant details.

2. How did you end up in Curating Lab?
I received an email from NUS Museum about Curating Lab; it had been two years since I received any news about the programme.
I have always fancied curating my very own exhibition.
I applied after my final paper ended.
I went for the interview and I got selected.
I turned up for the Curatorial Intensive.
There you go~!
But really, how does ever anyone know how they end up somewhere?

3. What has been your *sigh* moment of Curating Lab so far?
On the bumboat ride back to mainland Singapore after all that awesome that is Pulau Ubin and the seafood feast.

4. Tell us about Pictureshow.
It is simply an exhibition about the experience of looking at art. It questions exactly how does one make sense of works that mean nothing at first glance? I mean, what do you think of when you see a work? More than encouraging the audience to derive messages, meanings or lessons from the works on display, Pictureshow strives to be a space for spectators to be comfortable and honest with themselves — to take comfort in uncertainties and decide from themselves what they want the art work to mean or perhaps not to mean anything in the least.

5. Tell us about your curatorial journey.


I hadn’t had the words to explain my curatorial journey until I chanced upon this advertorial text for a construction firm while working in the office one day. It was printed on the back of a complimentary post-it pad. Very simply, the text documents quite straightforwardly (or maybe not) my journey with curating as a concept, methodology and a vocation, albeit in a very tongue-in-cheek manner; also, quite cheesy.

6. What is / has been the most exciting thing about your exhibition?
For sure, the trunking! Visitors, please take a moment to admire the (also) work of art that is the coated-in-silver-duct-tape trunking at our exhibition! We (Euginia, Selene, Jia Yun and I) and the Uncle Electricians are glad to have left our mark in the exhibition space alongside the spectacular artists on show. I’m assuming…

7. What’s next for you?
Off the top of my head, I’m working really hard on waking up at 7 am each morning so my day will seem and effectively be considerably longer. Just very mundane pursuits really.

8. Favourite book(s)
The Gift of Rain by Tan Twan Eng.

All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr.

These are my own personal copies (thus the bad lighting).

My favourite page from the book.

9. Favourite artwork.
Sorry, I haven’t found it yet.

10. Favourite local art space.
CoffeeExpress 2000.
Sells good bakchormee too.

1 comment:

  1. Finally, All the Light We Cannot See Audio Book is officially available on AudioBooksNow.

    ReplyDelete