My Surname is Ng
Visual Arts
Description
Description
“My Surname is Ng” (2016-17)
Photography in Southeast Asia (II): Ng Swan Ti (Jakarta, Indonesia)
“I don’t belong anywhere but, at the same time, I feel like I belong everywhere.”
“Where will you feel moved?”
“If the surname of my father is Huang, why is my surname Ng?”
Lumenvisum and Singaporean curator-writer Zhuang Wubin co-present “My Surname is Ng”, the second iteration of the Photography in Southeast Asia series, by Indonesian Chinese artist Ng Swan Ti.
Ng’s father left Quanzhou, China, and arrived in East Java during the turbulent post-WWII years to eke a living. Due to personal circumstances and the political situation then, he left behind two families–one in Quanzhou, the other in Malang. After his passing in 1979, the two families lost contact until recently, when they reconnected via social media. In this solo exhibition, Ng photographs her visit to Quanzhou and her half-sister’s return visit to Malang as a means to reconstruct her father’s biography. Through this personal work, the artist hopes to unravel the complexity of the Indonesian Chinese experiences, seen through her father’s life. At the same time, she aims to articulate her conflicted feelings towards “Chinese-ness”.
Note：This event record is compiled from "Hong Kong Visual Arts Yearbook 2018" published by Department of Fine Arts, The Chinese University of Hong Kong.
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Indoor