CDR collaborator Chong Boon Pok (Andrew) has contributed two pieces of installation for The Affluenza Exhibition in London.

The Affluenza Exhibition
http://www.theaffluenzaexhibition.org/
20 – 28 March, 10am to 6pm
187-211 St. John Street
Clerkenwell, London EC1

Artist statement

My art practice is based on a simple mindset where I see the necessity to devote attentiveness to the everyday objects and situations. The work may be seen as the result of my combined interest on the everyday and Eastern thoughts. Over the years, I have produced a body of cross-disciplinary work that explores the as-it-is-ness of things, and interconnectedness between objects and people where it allows viewer to take a renewal look at the mundane everyday. My own cultural background and life experience are often revisited, examined, and evidenced in the work within this journey of exploration.

The idea of a circle has a meaning of infinite in an Eastern context. Circumrotation consists a constellation of shoes hanging overhead in a large circle to explore a sense of ‘trapped’ in human living conditions. On one hand, the piece embodies the life of many who live in endless pursuit of power, wealth, or possession. They suffer from imprisoning themselves in competitions, making comparison, and in fear of falling behind; unaware that they trapped in the circle of no beginning and no end, no sense of first and last. On the other hand, it may also be seen as portraying life revolves in causality, what goes round comes around. People and things are interconnected and co-arising as suggested in the teaching of ‘Oneness’ in Eastern philosophy.

Labeling Tags Attached to a Clothe put our external world, clothing, and labeling tag into interaction and married their long term relationship to explore a sense of ‘attachment’ that submerges within our inner world. The intention was to allow the physical appearance of the piece to bewilder or mislead the viewer with the paradox of real and unreal, it interacts with the exhibition space in an attempt to present the sculpture close to the everyday. The piece also makes connection to a reality of life where negative aspects of things and human being could be intentionally buried under a blanket of attractive appearance.

Photo Credit: all photos are token by William Hailiang Chen