Ming Wong's solo exhibition at Gallery 4A was an excellent opportunity to view his recent video works, Angst Essen/Eat Fear (2008) and Learn German with Petra von Kant (2007), screened alongside an older video work, Four Malay Stories(2005). These works are based on the concept of remaking classic films - but on Planet Ming Wong, virtually every role is played by himself.

Ming Wong Angst Essen/Eat Fear, 2008

In Four Malay Stories, Wong, who is Singaporean, reenacts scenes from the classic movies of P. Ramlee, a film icon of 1950s Malay cinema, playing multiple roles even though he is not versed in Malay. Wong's aping of a foreign language verges on the ham but his utter earnestness keeps pulling us away from this conclusion. I use the word 'aping' because he mouths the words without the correct inflections. The results are very funny and entertaining.

Ming Wong Four Malay Stories, 2005

With Four Malay Stories, Wong harks back to the nostalgia of 1950s Malay cinema, pairing the innocence of that era with the artist's own naivety in cheekily 'playing dress-up' with another culture. With Learn German and Eat Fear, however, he further complicates standard notions of Otherness by acting out all the German roles plus the role of a minority Moroccan character, rendering all the characters as Other.

In fact, watching Wong ape a culture is embarrassing yet comforting, in both cases because we recognize the practice in our own lives. Often in the context of globalization, we refer to cultures as objects of consumption, not realizing that we in turn inhabit the cultures that we consume. We reenact our cultural experiences as Wong does; we replay, mimic and simulate them in our daily lives.

Ming Wong Angst Essen/Eat Fear, 2008

Interestingly, Wong's Learn German with Petra von Kant, which is his remake of Rainer Werner Fassbinder's The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant (1972), was the artist's way of learning German in preparation for a residency in Berlin.

Wong allows a makeshift quality to his productions: baldcaps are comically apparent and a mannequin stands in during a make out scene. Even though Angst Essen/Eat Fear displays more sophisticated digital effects - most apparent in scenes where several Ming Wongs occupy the same frame and walk around each other - Wong chose to preserve a low-tech quality to the work. When he plays the German Emmi, he bulks up his body to fill it out into a hefty frau frame. He does so unconvincingly, but that is part of the charm.

Ming Wong Four Malay Stories, 2005

While the videos lack production polish, Wong fleshes them out with his strong, unique performance. This 'bare bones' simulation, involving only key props, resembles the way memory functions, picking out only the essential bits. Sometimes even the unlikeliest details seem essential. It is like how we build our understanding, well, of anything.

www.4a.com.au

Copyright © 2009 NZArtMonthly. All Rights Reserved