Chee Wang Ng 吴子云
Eaten Your Fill of Rice ? 食饱饭未呀? is a vernacular Chinese greeting similar to “How are you?” or “What’s up?” The questions with which I am concerned are: What is Chinese? What does it mean to be Chinese? What is a Chinese identity in today’s global society?
To this end, I use rice, a bowl, and chopsticks to embody the spirituality, symbolism, and mannerism of the culture. I ask the viewer to “read” these images beyond the mere surface aesthetic and to see the visual resonating with the literal to form a richer understanding.
Thus, modernity and contemporary are challenged by the revitalizing of ancient visual icons, characteristics, puns, rebus, and homophones unique to the Chinese.
Each installation in this continuing series is a reevaluated and modernized allegory that draws upon traditional Chinese literature, metaphor, and mythology in today’s context.
In our society we consume what we inspire. Is this Bowl of Rice our elixir? Is the enigma found in these larger than life photographs a reflection of humanity, or a prophecy? How do you nourish your inner hunger?
Do you understand the Chinese, or inversely, yourself? Does it matter? Are my hopes any different from yours?
Chinese consciousness dignifies, magnifies, and perpetuates itself in a new paradigm.
My greetings to you.
