Exhibited at Exit Strategies, H Queen’s, Hong Kong 1 March – 4 May 2018 Official satellite event’s of Art Basel Hong Kong 2018
Acrylic, stainless steel, vinyl 80 cm x 50 cm x 30 cm 2019
Art Recycle Bin, an acrylic box with a slit placed at the endpoint of the art experience on the 1st floor lobby. Visitors are invited to insert thin pieces of paper such as floor maps or exhibition leaflets, which many visitors will have in hand over the Arts Month in March. Fong sees this act as a means for visitors to clear their mind after an exhilarating experience and as a form of recuperation that injects new life to these sometimes overlooked materials.
Understanding your art professor is not easy, let alone the unpleasant atmosphere during a critique session. Art professors receive complaints from time to time that they are being too direct and traumatize the students. In order not to hurt the students’ feeling and receive a negative lecture evaluation, a few professors have developed a set of specific language to interact with the students and comment on their art projects.
When you peek through the window of an art college into the art world, you might wonder what else cannot be art. And you are already asked to create artwork. You want to make amazing work and get a high score. Therefore you consult your professor. Unfortunately, the advice you heard from your professor makes you more confused.
For the first time, with this pocketbook, you can explore the vocabulary and phrases that your professors often use. You will acquire the technique to understand your professor, better and faster. Hopefully, you will understand what your art professor means in the end.
Digital print on polyester, studio flash, camera, backdrop Stand 480 cm x 370 cm (size of the print) 2019
For a successful career as an artist, you need a good portrait. For a successful artist’s portrait, you need a perfect studio. What if you do not have a high ceiling and tall windows at your studio? What if you do not even have a studio? Artist Portrait Basics offers you a chance to get familiar with the essential ways to show off your potential, productivity and professionalism in a single photo backdrop. You will also learn several hands-on skills to project your ego and charisma through your posture. For better opportunities in your future career as an artist, take this course by SAD School of Artist Development, regardless of your discipline.
Silas Fong zeigt in seiner Ausstellung fünf Arbeiten, die sich mit Ineffektivität, Langeweile undIsolation beschäftigen. In einer Fotoinstallationist ein lebensgroßes Modell von Fongs eigenem leeren Schlafzimmer zu sehen, Besucher müssen in dem kahlen Zimmer 10 Minuten verweilen. In einer fotografischen Arbeit zeichnet Silas Fong das Licht auf, das sich auf einer leeren Wand im Laufe eines Tages suggestiv verändert.In drei weiteren Arbeiten dokumentiert der Künstler Situationen, in denen er sich selber sehr langweilt: eine Busfahrt, ein Seminar an der KHM und seine Tätigkeit als Aufsicht im Museum Ludwig. Silas Fong macht in diesen Situationen lapidare Fotos mit einer Kompaktkamera und schreibt seine Gedanken akribisch auf, ebenso die Handlungen seiner Mitmenschen. Ein Aspekt dieser Arbeiten mag ein institutionskritischer sein, denn es wird durchaus ironisch aus dem Betrieb einer Kunsthochschule oder eines Museums erzählt. Jedoch reicht Silas Fongs Anliegen über das Reflektieren dieser Gegebenheiten hinaus. Es ist ein Blick eines Fremden, der in alltäglichen Handlungen der anderen eine versteckte Ablehnung vermutet, der gewünschte Dialog findet nicht statt oder endet im Nichts. [BG]
———————————————————————————————————— In his exhibition, Silas Fong shows five works dealing with inefficiency, boredom and isolation. A life-size model of Fong’s own empty bedroom can be seen in a photo installation, and visitors must spend 10 minutes in the bare room. In a photographic work, Silas Fong records the light that changes suggestively on an empty wall in the course of a day. In three further works, the artist documents situations in which he is very bored: a bus ride, a seminar at the KHM and his activity as a supervisor in the Museum Ludwig. In these situations, Silas Fong makes succinct photos with a compact camera and painstakingly writes down his thoughts, as well as the actions of his fellows. One aspect of this work may be more institution critical because it is quite ironically told from the operation of an art school or a museum. However, Silas Fong’s concerns extend beyond reflecting on these realities. It is a look of a stranger who suspects a hidden rejection in the everyday actions of others, the desired dialogue does not take place or ends in nothingness. [BG]
[English version translated by Google Translate.] ———————————————————————————————————–
For submission of Exhibition review journal (20% of the course). It would be checked on 18 October and 29 November 2018. Please at least have 2 new pieces of reviews ready on each due date (4 reviews in total). Minimum word count is 400 words. Please focus on writing your personal and critical perspective. Additionally include exhibition title, participating artists, photos and etc. Open your weblog account on one of those free platforms such as sites.google.com, wordpress.com or blogger.com. The list of blogs would be published in http://silasfong.com/2018/09/20/withoutphotography/
Exhibited at 12th Taehwa River International Eco Art Festival, Ulsan, Korea
30 Aug – 9 Sep 2018
LED Display Panel, Metal Stand
250 cm x 103 cm x 10 cm
2018
Ulsan One Minute is an athletic competition. On contrary to a typical sports game, one does not win by being the fastest, the highest nor the strongest. The slowest wins. This simple game asks anyone being in Ulsan to count faithfully one minute in their mind without looking at any clock. The counted duration is measured by a timer – a stopwatch, a smartphone or a digital watch. The measured duration should be accurate to two decimal places. The data of each participant are collected and ranked from the slowest to the fastest before the start of the festival. It would be made up to maximum 1440 personal minutes thus a different length of a day. A public clock is installed in the Taehwa River Park and presents these personal times and paces belonging to the people in Ulsan. It also works as a reminder to pay attention and reconsider the value of time and success.
In 1959, Mark Rothko accepted a commission from Four Seasons restaurant in New York City. “I hope to paint something that will ruin the appetite of every son of a bitch who ever eats in that room”. Sounds dramatic enough, but he failed and returned the money because he found that ‘people can stand anything these days’. I was curious about what I could do in a high-end restaurant, while contributing to the context of this exhibition.
On the House invites visitors to discover a drink menu on the bar table. Visitors choose from a list of dramatic instructions and perform to get a complimentary drink. Mystery Visitor is a commissioned report written by a professional mystery shopper. After discussion with the artist, a scenario is created and the mystery shopper pays a secret visit during the exhibition opening reception. The evaluation assesses the experience of the art exhibition held in the restaurant through common business concerns. Small Talk is a small coffee-table book that visitors can flip through while having a drink and chatting with their peers. Instead of beautiful and colorful pictures, this book collects pre-written dialogues ( offered for the visitors to act out when they run out of words. Enjoy Your Meal! is a scene recreated to depict the McRefugee phenomenon and related issues happening in Hong Kong.
Duddell’s, Hong Kong
2 Aug – 23 Sep 2018
On the House, 2018
Note tucked in drink menu at the bar
19 cm x 9 cm
Mystery Visitor, 2018
Digital print on paper
67 cm × 47 cm
Small Talk, 2018
Artist’s book
15 cm × 10 cm × 1.5 cm, 100 pages
Enjoy Your Meal!, 2018
Clothing, dummy, plastic food model
Dimension variable
(left): Small Talk | （左）：《對白設計書》
(right): On the House | （右）：《老細請》 Dining Table Book | 《對白設計書》 Dining Table Book | 《對白設計書》 Enjoy Your Meal! | 《請慢用！》 Enjoy Your Meal! | 《請慢用！》 Enjoy Your Meal! (detail) | 《請慢用！》（局部） Enjoy Your Meal! (Opening Reception) | 《請慢用！》（開幕酒會）
Photos courtesy of the artist and Duddell’s Hong Kong
Ye Hui, The Waiting Room,2018
Curator Yuan Fuca
