Artist: Wong Ping
Exhibition title: ༼;´༎ຶ ༎ຶ༽ ~♡
Curated by: Hanne Mugaas
Venue: Kunsthall Stavanger, Stavanger, Norway
Date: June 16 – September 18, 2022
Photography: all images copyright and courtesy of the artist and Kunsthall Stavanger
Kunsthall Stavanger is proud to present the first solo exhibition in Scandinavia by the Hong Kong-based artist Wong Ping. The exhibition continues Kunsthall Stavanger’s focus in 2021–22 on artists working with digital and screen-based art, which will culminate in the launch of a new digital platform in September 2022.
Through animations, sculptures and installations, Wong Ping tells stories that challenge our habitual ideas of human desire, loneliness, shame and repressed sexuality.
Wong’s animations are rendered in a bright aesthetic reminiscent of early video games. This light-hearted, humorous, and accessible visual language helps to diffuse lewd and offbeat stories that explore dark corners of human nature, in which protagonists often experience deep psychological issues, as well as simultaneously disguising meditations on larger societal structures such as immigration, social relations, economic anxieties, and morality.
As a Hong Kong native, Wong’s observations of the city’s residents’ daily lives and mindsets are a central element in his works, where he presents reflections on the changing social and economic environment in the region, with emphasis on Hong Kong’s tense relations with mainland China. In the context of a community under siege, specifically wherein political dissent has become tantamount to criminal behaviour, the artist’s playfully subversive practice is as important, powerful and progressive as any.
Wong’s work creates a hallucinatory, surreal, and frightening image of contemporary life. In describing his practice, he points to his favourite song by The Velvet Underground and its lines, “I’ll be your mirror/Reflect what you are, in case you don’t know”.
Wong Ping was born in Hong Kong in 1984, and received his BA from Curtin University, Perth, Australia in 2005. In 2018, he was the recipient of the inaugural Camden Arts Emerging Arts Prize, and in 2019, he was one of the winners of The Ammodo Tiger Short Competition at the 48th International Film Festival Rotterdam. Wong has completed a residency at the Chinese Centre for Contemporary Art (2015).
Solo exhibitions by Wong Ping include Your Silent Neighbor, New Museum, New York (2021); Heart Digger, Cam-den Arts Centre, London (2019); Golden Shower, Kunsthalle Basel, Switzerland (2019); Who’s the Daddy, CAPRI, Düsseldorf, Germany (2018); and Jungle of Desire, Things that can happen, Hong Kong (2015). His work has been featured in important group exhibitions such as One Hand Clapping, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York (2018); 2018 Triennial: Songs for Sabotage, New Museum,New York (2018); XO State Dark: Aristophanes, Arts Centre Melbourne (2017); RareKind China, Centre for Chinese Contemporary Art, Manchester (2016); Mobile M+: MovingImages, M+, Hong Kong (2015); and Essential Matters, Borusan Contemporary, Istanbul (2015).
Wong’s animation films have been presented at numerous international festivals, in Belgium, United Kingdom, Mexico and Australia.
Wong’s work is held in several permanent collections including Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York; M+, Hong Kong; KADIST, Paris/San Francisco; Fosun Art Foundation, Shanghai, among others.
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On the heels of Kunsthall Stavanger’s multimedia and moving image exhibitions LEAN (group show curated by Legacy Russell), Bárbara Wagner and Benjamin de Bur-ca’s large-scale presentation of Swinguerra, and PeggyAhwesh’s survey exhibition Vision Machines, is exemplary of the institution’s heightened focus on screen-based works and video art. This series of exhibitions will culminate in the forthcoming debut of the Kunsthall’s new website and online-only exhibition platform in September 2022.
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The exhibition is curated by Hanne Mugaas, Director and Chief Curator.
Production team: Jessica Morris, Deputy Director; Matt Bryans, Production and Technical Manager; Maria Råkil, Coordinator and Communications Manager; Leif Ole Stampa, Technician; Francis Krauss, Technician; Bjørnar Hesby, Technician; Stian Forgaard, Technician.
Technical support: Asgeir Løland / TekniskMultimedia.
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The exhibition has received generous support from Fritt Ord.
Kunsthall Stavanger would like to thank Tanya Bonakdar Gallery for their support with the exhibition, and StavangerArt Museum for equipment support.
