Readings of Days of our Lives

 This paper attempts to look at the photo series Days of our Lives (2009) by Wong Hoy Cheong  with  two classic essays by Frantz Fanon from the field of post-colonial studies: The Wretched of the Earth (1961) and Black Skin, white Masks (1952). While the corpus of secondary texts on the latter is vast and an easily accessible, because they have been translated into other European languages, the texts on Wong Hoy Cheong are only frequent in non European languages. Due to my lack of knowledge of any of these languages (mainly Japanese and Chinese) these texts are considered only in part for this paper.

Wong Hoy Cheong[1] in his statement on Days Of Our Lives[2] refers to some concepts or at least ideas or terms that I wish to focus on in order to grasp some of his intentions and to contrast these with ideas by Fanon mentioned in The Wretched of the Earth.[3] These ideas are about the role that the intellectual and the artist  should have and the consequences they have for the political project of decolonisation. Fanon is well known for his essay Black Skin, white Masks[4] in which he reflects on colonial identity and the ongoing alienation of the colonized. Even if the place, the time and the historical context of Wong Hoy Cheong and Fanon are different, both are concerned about living in a world determined by  colonial warfare, colonial trade and politics and share an awareness of their role as an intellectual and as an artist involved in a process of negociation. A relationship between their approaches shall be provided in chapter four on Wong and Fanon, The Artist and the revolutionary Essayist. But first the artist’s position and the group of art pieces we are dealing with shall be described. Re:Looking (2002), Sook Ching (1991) and Doghole (2010) are useful to consider Wong's oeuvre in an identity forging –or  even nation building– project through introspection. However, the body of this paper deals with  Days Of Our Lives, its possible readings, its receptions and its exhibitions at the 10^th  Biennale d'art contemporaine de Lyon in 2009, at the Retrospective Show at the Eslite Gallery in 2010 and the Hongkong International Art Fair in 2011.

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[1]   黄海昌, also transcribed as Huang or Weng Hoy Cheung or Chang, born in 1960 in Penang, Malaysia. Trained at Brandeis University, Harvard University and University of Massachusetts. Stated in an interview done for the Fukuoka Triennale 2009, that he has an academicly enriched approach towards arts since his aim had been studying Islamic Studies in Egypt. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h78GG1q-96U accessed February 22, 2012.

[2]    Wong Hoy Cheong, “Wong Hoy Cheong: Days Of Our Lives - Statement by the artist,” Last modified September 2009, Accessed 20-02-2012  http://universes-in-universe.org/eng/nafas/articles/2009/wong_hoy_cheong.

[3]    Fanon, Frantz, The Wretched of the Earth (London: MacGibbon & Kee. 1965) 170-199. First published in 1961, Les damnés de la terre, François Maspero éditeur S.A.R.L.

[4]    Fanon, Frantz, Black Skin, white Masks; NY: Grove Press. 2008. First published in 1952 as Peau noire, masques blancs Éditions du Seuil, Paris.