Ming Wong, videostill "Me in Me", 2013. Courtesy the artist, Vitamin Creative Space and carlier | gebauer
19 June – 2 August 2015
Opening: Thursday, 18 June 2015, 7 pm
In his film and photography project “Me in Me”, Ming Wong isolates the figure of the idealistic Japanese woman from three recurring archetypes in Japanese cinema. Ming Wong takes the roles of the Geisha, the Manga-hero and the traditional housewife and slips them into the role of the woman as a lonely creature, misplaced in a patriarchal context looking for fulfillment and belonging. As a result of this search, the protagonist in the end defines her notion of self and finds her will to survive.
Foundation and metamorphosis of identity are Wong’s central themes. He traces phenomena such as alienation, medial visual worlds and stereotypes and sets them cinematically, partly enhanced by installations, into scenes. In this way, the work “Me in Me” asks the question: to what extent do gender-specific role images from the medial visual worlds over the last century mold our self-concept or our societal understanding. It is this key question going beyond what is purely medial that links his work with the RAY Fotografieprojekte Frankfurt/RheinMain. This is the first site-specific installation of his video piece “Me in Me”.
Curator: Elke Gruhn
The NKV Nassauischer Kunstverein Wiesbaden was founded in 1847 by the citizens of Herzogtum Nassau as the “Society of Friends for Fine Arts” and has hence since 167 years counted as one of the most traditional Art and Cultural institutions in the capital city of Hesse. Since that time, the NKV has been committed and consistent in showing and procuring contemporary art and offering young and not yet established artists and cultural producers an experimental site and spring board into their professional career. The focus of the exhibition activities is cultivating the promotion and advancement of young emerging experimental art from Germany and other countries. Conscious of the cultural history of Wiesbaden, they promote young artists with an annual international grant “Follow Fluxus – after Fluxus”, whose works suggest ideas inherent to the Fluxus art movement in order to keep the art current alive.
Nassauischer Kunstverein Wiesbaden
Wilhelmstraße 15, 65185 Wiesbaden
