Making Chinatown, 2012
Mixed media video installation
Commissioned by Redcast, Los Angeles
After Chinatown, 2012

Growing up in Singapore, shortly after its independence, Wong witnessed a struggle to establish a national identity and became personally concerned with what it meant to be Singaporean. His most recent work explores the Hollywood tradition, and has involved deconstructing some of cinema’s most notable productions. Often becoming several characters within a single work, Wong subverts the relationship between language, identity and performance.

For the 2012 Biennial, Wong will build on his work exploring identity in relation to geographic location. Adding to his existing work Making Chinatown, in which Wong drew on Polanski’s iconic film Chinatown (1974), Wong will here adopt the role of the ‘detective’.

The work focuses on the stereotypical role of the ‘Chinese detective’ who has taken on so many forms in cinema’s history. Wong’s ‘investigation’ takes him on a journey through the world’s Chinatowns – uncovering the constructs of identity and place – and leading him, eventually, to Liverpool.


Ming Wong, b. 1971, Singapore, is an artist who lives and works in Berlin, Germany. Recent exhibitions include A trip to the Moon. Before and after Cinema (Bonniers Konsthall, Stockholm, Sweden, 2012), Persona Performa (Performa 11 at the Museum of Moving Image, New York, U.S.A., 2011) and Devo partire. Domani (Villa Romana, Florence, Italy, 2011).


Photo: Carlos Vasquez. Publicity still, "After Chinatown" (Ming Wong, 2012)