Ming Wong Life of Imitation 2009, video still. Courtesy of the Artist and Vitamin Creative Space
8 rooms in Media Networks
This artist explores the global impact of cinema in shaping identity
Ming Wong makes artworks that imagine alternative histories of cinema. In Life of Imitation Wong inverts the title of Douglas Sirk’s 1959 Hollywood melodrama Imitation of Life. The film examines racial identity and notions of ‘passing.’* In Wong’s version, he restages an emotionally charged scene between a Black maid and her daughter, who is light-skinned and able to ‘pass’ as white. Wong employs male actors from the three dominant ethnic groups of Singapore: Chinese, Malay and Indian. By casting men in these female roles, Wong draws a connection between the exaggerated movements and expressions of melodrama with that of drag, while also complicating notions of national, ethnic and gender identity.
Life of Imitation is a multimedia artwork comprising a video installation and billboard paintings, which are on display in these rooms.
*‘Passing’ is a term used to describe the act of giving the outward appearance of a different racial identity to one’s own, usually to access social and economic benefits conventionally enjoyed by the more privileged majority.