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Artist Heman Chong Finds Meaning In The Unfinished

Forbes

20-07-2025

Entertainment
Forbes

Artist Heman Chong Finds Meaning In The Unfinished

Heman Chong, The Library of Unread Books, 2016-Present. Installation view of Serpentine Pavilion 2024, Archipelagic Void, designed by Minsuk Cho, Mass Studies Photo Heman Chong Singaporean artist Heman Chong has built a compelling, unconventional practice that spans painting, writing, performance, installation and what he calls 'situations'. Known for his sharp wit, conceptual rigor and fascination with systems of language, politics and infrastructure, his work often explores the gaps between information and interpretation, presence and absence. He represented Singapore at the 2003 Venice Biennale and recently exhibited 'The Library of Unread Books', a roving public reference library composed entirely of unread books donated by individuals that reflects the surplus of knowledge in contemporary life, at the Serpentine Pavilion in London in 2024. With his first major survey show, 'This is a dynamic list and may never be able to satisfy particular standards for completeness', now on view at the Singapore Art Museum until August 17, 2025, he reflects on over two decades of restless experimentation and invites us to embrace the incomplete, the overlooked and the unresolved. Your Singapore Art Museum exhibition title 'This is a dynamic list and may never be able to satisfy particular standards for completeness' is taken from Wikipedia's terms and conditions. What about the impermanence and incompleteness of digital information resonates with your practice? The title of this survey is itself an artwork. I borrowed the phrase from Wikipedia, where it appears on list pages. I feel a connection to it because many of the objects that interest me seem to constantly shift in meaning. Whether we like to accept it or not, the fact is everything around us is constantly changing on an atomic level. Every moment is different from the next. We can never recreate a moment in time because it is just physically impossible. I think we like to think about stability and consistency and how we all like to feel safe in that cocoon of fiction, but unfortunately, life is often made up of all these different things thrown at us and I've always felt, quoting a beautiful title from a book by Joan Didion, to 'play it as it lays'. Installation view of Heman Chong's Monument to the people we've conveniently forgotten (I hate you), 2008, as part of the exhibition "This is a dynamic list and may never be able to satisfy particular standards for completeness" at Singapore Art Museum at Tanjong Pagar Distripark Photo courtesy of Singapore Art Museum Your exhibition is framed around nine thematic rooms. How did you decide on these themes, and what kind of journey do you hope visitors will experience as they move through the space? The nine parts of this exhibition form a constellation of a large part of myself, so in fact, the exhibition layout is somewhat autobiographical. The parts are: Words, Whispers, Ghosts, Journeys, Futures, Findings, Infrastructures, Surfaces and Endings. To be honest, I've never expected anything from the audience and they are free to experience whatever they would when they encounter my work. For your six new commissions in this exhibition, what was the starting point for them? Were they conceptually linked to your earlier projects or did they represent a new departure? Everything that I've ever made has a formal or sometimes emotional relationship to each other. One project spills into the other. Everything is a mess and I like this messy way of working. It is difficult to think of imaginary beginnings or ends for each of my works because, as the title of the exhibition would suggest, I am very invested in open-endedness and incomplete things. Installation view of Heman Chong's Calendars (2020-2096), 2004-2010, as part of the exhibition "This is a dynamic list and may never be able to satisfy particular standards for completeness" at Singapore Art Museum at Tanjong Pagar Distripark Photo courtesy of Singapore Art Museum What do you feel is the role of the artist in society? What do you hope to achieve or what message do you hope to convey through your art at the end of the day? I view my role as an artist as a privileged individual whose job is to, hopefully, think differently from the norm. By offering alternative perspectives, I hope to create more open and meaningful spaces in our society to engage with complex topics such as inequality, identity, esthetics, existential questions and community. After this survey exhibition, what new projects or exhibitions are you working on? Are there new directions or themes you're eager to explore next? I am working on many projects at the moment. The first is a book that will be published by the wonderful Ivory Press in Madrid. The second is a new temporary sculpture for the Middelheim Museum in Antwerp that will be installed for a year in their beautiful outdoor gardens. I am also the artist in residence this summer at the Asia Art Archive in Hong Kong, where I will dedicate my time to thinking about a show curated by Hou Hanru at Tai Kwun Contemporary about my favorite artist, On Kawara. I am also working on a long-term publishing project with a bookshop called Page Not Found in The Hague that will become a dispersed exhibition in The Netherlands. Finally, my work is included in the 30th anniversary show at the Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo this autumn. I am working on many other solo shows, but I am not allowed to discuss any details about them right now, so stay tuned!

Banana artwork eaten again: Visitor bites into US$6.2m ‘Comedian'

Malay Mail

19-07-2025

Entertainment
Malay Mail

Banana artwork eaten again: Visitor bites into US$6.2m ‘Comedian'

STRASBOURG, July 19 — A visitor to a French museum bit into a fresh banana worth millions of dollars taped to a wall last week, exhibitors said yesterday, in the latest such consumption of the conceptual artwork. Italian artist Maurizio Cattelan — whose provocative creation entitled 'Comedian' was bought for US$6.2 million (RM26.3 million) in New York last year — said he was disappointed the person did not also eat the skin and the tape. After the hungry visitor struck on Saturday last week, 'security staff rapidly and calmly intervened,' the Pompidou-Metz museum in eastern France said. The work was 'reinstalled within minutes', it added. 'As the fruit is perishable, it is regularly replaced according to instructions from the artist.' Cattelan noted the banana-eater had 'confused the fruit for the work of art'. 'Instead of eating the banana with its skin and duct tape, the visitor just consumed the fruit,' he said. Cattelan's edible creation has sparked controversy ever since it made its debut at the 2019 Art Basel show in Miami Beach. He has explained the banana work as a commentary on the art market, which he has criticised in the past for being speculative and failing to help artists. The New York Post said the asking price of US$120,000 for 'Comedian' in 2019 was evidence that the market was 'bananas' and the art world had 'gone mad'. It has been eaten before. Performance artist David Datuna ate 'Comedian' in 2019, saying he felt 'hungry' while inspecting it at the Miami show. Chinese-born crypto founder Justin Sun last year forked out US$6.2 million for the work, then ate it in front of cameras. As well as his banana work, Cattelan is also known for producing an 18-carat, fully functioning gold toilet called 'America' that was offered to Donald Trump during his first term in the White House. A British court in March found two men guilty of stealing it during an exhibition in 2020 in the United Kingdom, from an 18th-century stately home that was the birthplace of wartime prime minister Winston Churchill. It was split up into parts and none of the gold was ever recovered. — AFP

France museum-goer eats million-dollar banana taped to wall

South China Morning Post

18-07-2025

Entertainment
South China Morning Post

France museum-goer eats million-dollar banana taped to wall

Visitor eats $6.2 million banana artwork at French museum

France 24

18-07-2025

Entertainment
France 24

Visitor eats $6.2 million banana artwork at French museum

A visitor to a French museum bit into a fresh banana worth millions of dollars taped to a wall last week, exhibitors said on Friday, in the latest such consumption of the conceptual artwork. Italian artist Maurizio Cattelan – whose provocative creation entitled "Comedian" was bought for $6.2 million in New York last year – said he was disappointed the person did not also eat the skin and the tape. After the hungry visitor struck on Saturday last week, "security staff rapidly and calmly intervened," the Pompidou-Metz museum in eastern France said. The work was "reinstalled within minutes", it added. "As the fruit is perishable, it is regularly replaced according to instructions from the artist." Cattelan noted the banana-eater had "confused the fruit for the work of art". "Instead of eating the banana with its skin and duct tape, the visitor just consumed the fruit," he said. Cattelan's edible creation has sparked controversy ever since it made its debut at the 2019 Art Basel show in Miami Beach. He has explained the banana work as a commentary on the art market, which he has criticised in the past for being speculative and failing to help artists. The New York Post said the asking price of $120,000 for "Comedian" in 2019 was evidence that the market was "bananas" and the art world had "gone mad". It has been eaten before. Performance artist David Datuna ate "Comedian" in 2019, saying he felt "hungry" while inspecting it at the Miami show. Chinese-born crypto founder Justin Sun last year forked out $6.2 million for the work, then ate it in front of cameras. As well as his banana work, Cattelan is also known for producing an 18-carat, fully functioning gold toilet called "America" that was offered to Donald Trump during his first term in the White House. A British court in March found two men guilty of stealing it during an exhibition in 2020 in the United Kingdom, from an 18th-century stately home that was the birthplace of wartime prime minister Winston Churchill. It was split up into parts and none of the gold was ever recovered.

The Guardian

08-06-2025

General
The Guardian

Gerard Wilson obituary

My former tutor, friend and colleague Gerard Wilson, who has died aged 81, quietly but profoundly reshaped British sculpture education, which had been bound by patriarchal traditions and narrow definitions of artistic value. As a lecturer at Brighton and Chelsea art colleges, and other institutions including the Royal College of Art, the Slade, Central St Martins and Falmouth, Gerard stood apart – not loudly, but unwaveringly – in his support for broader, more conceptual understandings of sculpture. He embraced performance, installation, non-traditional materials and interdisciplinary thinking long before these were widely accepted. He recognised that sculpture was not only objects, but was also preoccupied with ideas, space and presence. Born in Balsham, Cambridgeshire, Gerard was the second of the three children of and Teresa (nee Hobart), an auditor, and her husband, William Wilson. Gerard's early life was shaped by independence and absence – he met his father only once, briefly. He gained a place at St Joseph's college in Upper Norwood, south London, run by the De La Salle Brothers; Gerard's abilities were quickly recognised and he skipped an academic year. He recalled the Brothers' intellectual openness as pivotal. Their encouragement for him to explore philosophy, literature and art independently with emotional sensitivity shaped Gerard's approach to teaching. On leaving school, he took a foundation year at Norwich, then a degree at Brighton Art College. He was known for his advocacy of female artists, many of whom found in his studio a rare and vital source of encouragement in an otherwise dismissive or exclusionary environment. Students and colleagues recall a man of quiet intellect, generosity, deep attentiveness and a self-mocking wit. He opened doors, rather than prescribed paths, enabling each artist to articulate their own preoccupations. Artists such as Helen Chadwick, Thomas J Price, Simon Perry and Gerard de Thame, whom he taught, site him as a pivotal influence. De Thame recalls that 'his tutorials were never didactic, but were more like an invitation – to think boldly, to question deeply'. After his retirement in 2008, Gerard joined a pottery group where he explored the interplay of moving image and clay. As with his earlier work, seen in shows at the Serpentine and ICA in London and the Ikon gallery in Birmingham, he found the playing with conceptual concerns exhilarating. And he rekindled his love for tennis. Gerard is survived by his partner, Jennie Read, whom he met in Brighton in 1973 and married in 2017, their daughter, Therica, his brother, William, and sister, Marie.