작품 상세

The Self is under siege, what with rapid urbanisation, dehumanising technology and the proliferation of social media with the advent of the Internet in 1990. To a woman sensitive to changes, these are detrimental to self and family. In her slew of series like The Poem, Nostalgie and Urban Life, Chong Siew Ying, known for her androgynous figures, reflects on what is real and unreal, the substance and the shadows, the void and the illusions, and the complexities of an increasingly obdurate world. The Self can be wistful like a wraith, an undecipherable blob or a mere silhouette against the blue yonder. What animates the self is humanism, thoughts and emotions, inhibitions and dare, hopes and fears. Chong Siew Ying’s art-career path is one of grit, determination and serendipity. Many would have stayed put after a Graphic Design diploma at the Petaling Jaya College of Art and Design. Instead Chong hightailed to Paris, where she worked as an au pair, to support her art studies at the L’Ecole des Beaux-Arts, Versailles (1991-1994) and L’Atelier 63 (1994-1996), and with solos at the Maison Tch’A, Atelier d’Maravel and Gallery Café Panique, to boot. On her return, she won an artist’s residency at Rimbun Dahan, and later the Fremont Fellowship at Vermont Studio Centre, United States. In 2002, she won the Special Award in the Young Contemporary Artists (BMS) competition and in 2009, was a finalist in the Hong Kong Sovereign Art Prize.