Wong Ping: Digital Fables
Posted by | Amy Beste | Posted on | April 12, 2021
Monday, April 12–Sunday, April 18
Gene Siskel Film Center Virtual Cinema
Six films by the Hong Kong based artist and animator Wong Ping. Presented in partnership with the Open Practice Committee in the Department of Visual Arts at the University of Chicago.
Wong Ping, Jungle of Desire, 2016. Wong Ping. Courtesy the artist and Edouard Malingue Gallery, Hong Kong – Shanghai; Tanya Bonakdar Gallery, New York /Los Angeles
Self-described as “low-tech, stand-up comedies,” Wong Ping’s animations and installations combine ribald humor with nuanced social commentary. Wong’s singular digital-pop imagery, scintillating sexual themes, and lucid depictions of contemporary social relations have garnered both international acclaim and honors like the Ammodo Tiger Short Award at the 2019 International Film Festival Rotterdam. When once asked about the explicit nature of his work, Wong replied, “most of my works are in fact not about sexual desires; they are more like parables exploring the suppressed emotions of people living in Hong Kong, a city facing serious population and land issues.”
In these six films, Wong Ping holds an acid-hued mirror to contemporary life in Hong Kong and the world beyond. His assorted characters, including a player who cares for the offspring of a hookup gone awry; a sex worker who entertains a corrupt cop; and a tree with an insect phobia, face trials and tribulations ranging from the erotic to the existential. Program includes International Film Festival Rotterdam Ammado Tiger winner Wong Ping’s Fables 1 (2018) as well as Wong Ping’s Fables 2 (2019), The Modern Way to Shower (2020), Who’s the Daddy (2017), Jungle of Desire (2016), and An Emo Nose (2014).
Wong Ping, 2014-2018, Hong Kong, ca 63 minutes, Cantonese with English subtitles
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RELATED EVENT
Wong Ping Lecture and Conversation
Thursday, April 15, 7:00 p.m. CT
Gene Siskel Film Center Virtual Cinema
Live captions available.
Join Hong Kong artist and animator Wong Ping and Orianna Cacchione, curator of global contemporary art at the Smart Museum of Art, for a wide-ranging look at the ideas and approaches that inform Wong’s practice.
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ABOUT
Wong Ping was born in Hong Kong and received his BA from Curtin University in Perth, Australia in 2005. In 2018, he was the recipient of the inaugural Camden Art Centre’s Emerging Artist 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 Centre for Chinese Contemporary Art (2015). Solo exhibitions include Heart Digger, Camden Arts Centre, London (2019); Golden Shower, Kunsthalle Basel, Switzerland (2019); Who’s the Daddy, CAPRI, Germany; and Jungle of Desire, Things That Can Happen, Hong Kong. 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+: Moving Images, M+, Hong Kong (2015); and Essential Matters, Borusan Contemporary, Istanbul (2015). Wong’s animation films have been presented at numerous international festivals in Belgium, the United Kingdom, Mexico, and Australia. Wong’s work is held in several permanent collections including the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York; M+, Hong Kong; KADIST, Paris/San Francisco; and Fosun Foundation, Shanghai, among others.
About
Conversations at the Edge is a weekly series of screenings, performances, and talks by groundbreaking media artists.
CATE is organized by SAIC's Department of Film, Video, New Media, and Animation in collaboration with the Gene Siskel Film Center and SAIC's Video Data Bank.
Programs take place at the Gene Siskel Film Center (164 N. State / Chicago, IL / 312.846.2600), unless otherwise noted.
