[rohrpost] PRESS COMMUNIQUE : HEMAN CHONG <THE END DEPENDS ON THE BEGINNING. THE BEGINNING DEPENDS ON THE END.>

[Sparwasser HQ]

hey people,

can you forward to anyone who might be vaguely interested in this???  
not that anyone's going to come to singapore to review a show... oh  
well... greetings from the end of the world...

x heman

HEMAN CHONG
THE END DEPENDS ON THE BEGINNING.
THE BEGINNING DEPENDS ON THE END.

Exhibition from May 22nd to July 13th, 2008
10:30am to 7:30pm daily, free admission
Third Floor-Hermès, 541 Orchard Road, Liat Towers

Inspired by the last paragraphs found in a selection of novels read in  
the past year, international conceptual artist and curator, Heman  
Chong continues with his investigation into the reasons and methods  
where individuals imagine the future and how it can be represented as  
a series of conceptually generated objects, situations and texts.

Here, he is fascinated with the idea of the end of things (in this  
case, the end of a novel), utilizing both the form and content of  
these "book ends" to compose the series of objects on display at the  
Hermès space in Singapore.

These books include Written on the Body (Jeanette Winterson), The Wind- 
Up Bird Chronicle (Haruki Murakami), Woman in the Dunes (Kobo Abe),  
Foe (J.M. Coetzee), Star Maker (Olaf Stapledon), Roadside Picnic  
(Arkady & Boris Strugatsky), The Possibility of An Island (Michel  
Houellebecq) and Correction (Thomas Bernhard).

The End Depends On the Beginning. The Beginning Depends on the End.  
One will encounter a landscape of things, seemingly individual in  
their existence and yet highly interconnected with each other. These  
things are entirely devoid of any other colors except black, grey and  
white: a stark expression of Chong's inner world of science fiction,  
endless narratives and the failure of romance.

3000 self-adhesive stickers resembling location markers found on maps  
spread sporadically over a long wall. One can imagine each of these to  
represent a city, a person or even a point in time. A forest of  
artificial plants dripped over in thick black paint conjures an image  
of walking along a beach on a lush tropical night against the  
moonlight, watching the silhouettes of trees swaying in the wind. A  
corridor, intensely lit in white light leads to a mysterious door...

...somewhere else in the space, a dark star explodes.

This is the first solo presentation of Chong's work in Singapore since  
2004. He was awarded the President's Young Talent Exhibition at the  
Singapore Art Museum in 2003 and the Young Artist Award by the  
National Arts Council in 2005. Chong represented Singapore at the  
Venice Biennale in 2003.

To date, he has held solo exhibitions at Vitamin Creative Space  
(Guangzhou, 2007), Art In General (New York, 2007), Project Arts  
Centre (Dublin, 2006), Ellen de Bruijne Projects (Amsterdam, 2005),  
Kunstbank (Berlin, 2004), Kuenstlerhaus Bethanien (Berlin, 2003),  
Sparwasser HQ (Berlin, 2003).

Heman Chong is represented by Vitamin Creative Space.

This is where the story starts, in this threadbare room. The walls are  
exploding. The windows have turned into telescopes. Moon and stars are  
magnified in this room. The sun hangs over the mantelpiece. I stretch  
out my hand and reach the corners of the world. The world is bundled  
up in this room. Beyond the door, where the river is, where the roads  
are, we shall be. We can take the world with us when we go and sling  
the sun under your arm. Hurry now, it's getting late. I don't know if  
this is a happy ending but here we are let loose in open fields.

Jeanette Winterson, from "Written on the Body"


(See attached file: Teardrop (Inversed).jpg)
Teardrop (Inversed)
3000 self-adhesive off-set prints on paper
installed directly on existing wall
2008
Courtesy of the artist


Press contact :
Madeleine Ho
Marketing Director
Hermès Singapore (Retail) Pte Ltd
Tel 6833 4710 Fax 6732 0647
email madeleine.ho at sg.hermes.com


==========================

Heman Chong

Mobile Phone:
+49 (0) 179 9700 531	(Germany)
+65 97540 720	(Singapore)
skype : singsleepless

Mariannenplatz 1, 10997 Berlin Germany

http://www.hemanchong.com
http://www.philipville.com
http://www.rhizome.org/art/exhibition/real_estate
http://www.frieze.com/issue/print_back/philip/

Heman Chong is represented by Vitamin Creative Space

http://www.vitamincreativespace.com