Sammy Chong
[un]visibles
September 10 – September 15, 2018
Opening reception: Thurs, September 13; 5:30-8:30 pm
Through drawing and painting I explore issues related to social identity in a time when cultural bias is not only informing political discourse but, more damagingly, affecting people’s views of others, especially vulnerable ones.
Tapping into surrealist aesthetics, my work juxtaposes the conventional and the grotesque, the banal and the mysterious, and the real and the imagined. In my drawings, I depict the Minotaur – a Greek mythical creature that features the head of a bull and the body of a man. I use it as a leitmotif to address those who do not fit into the societal status quo, who are silenced and forgotten as a result. The Minotaur’s alienation is rooted in the fact that he is reviled by others. In my paintings, the juxtaposition of a spiritual, folkloric, or ritualistic beings taking human forms reflects a deeper contrast, one in which people’s rich cultural past clashes against their often-menial existence. Collaged backgrounds connote the richness of different ethnic traditions, which stands for the very fabric of individual self-respect and pride. To sum up, in both drawings and paintings, I make visible those that society insists in glossing over. I want to portray those who are not visible—unvisible ¹—because of their humble jobs, confined placements, social status, or skin color.
By analyzing the instability implicit in these juxtapositions in my work, viewers are invited to question societal paradigms. This entails imagining a world that embraces what is different on cultural, political, racial, economic, and sexual levels. Delving deeper than outward looks, we can discover that people are endowed with a human wealth that could be a source of enrichment for all. At a time when social tension based on ignorance and prejudice is running amok, my goal is to bring forth a perspective that invites us to view the other in a different light.
¹ The prefix un is used as ‘not’ for elements that come from Anglo-Saxon, or which were assumed into English long enough ago that they were no longer recognized as having originated in Latin.
