John Clang is a Singaporean visual artist that finds himself in-between dual realities of two global cities being New York and Singapore,
unrestricted by time and geography.
Despite earning his MFA in London and living in New York, his work is mainly recognized in Singapore.
Since Singapore gained its independence, the city-state’s
economic, social and educational progress has stood out, but its national and cultural identity often comes into question.
Singapore has a diverse cultural history and the young population is unsurprisingly mixed, therefore different artists deal with the situated complexities of identities
the country inhabits.
John Clang's work contributes to the ongoing conversation about Singaporean culture, focusing on the way families are seen as the foundation of the community, society, and the nation.
Focusing the challenges of a new-wave diaspora, it shows Singaporean families from various races and ethnicities facing separations; as Singapore increasingly embraces globalization,
he highlights how this shift leads to displacement in many ways.
Being torn in between Singapore and New York, memory, time and deconstruction of the idea of family are recurring themes in his work,
especially in his “Being Together” series where he projects a Skype image onto a family member standing next to it. The images are unsettling, but comforting, in many ways. From how the figure next to the
projected image casts a shadow disrupting the projection, to how the different levels of blurriness implies a visual hierarchy within the photographs.
Courtesy of the artist