Heman Chong

As one of the 5 participating artists in the BMW Young Asian Artists Series, Heman Chong challenged the STPI team with a series of complex and dynamic silkscreen prints. Primarily a conceptual artist, Chong transposed a series of film noir titles onto paper, creating works that are reminiscent of Hard-Edge, Minimal and Op Art. Each print bears the title and director of the film, prompting viewers to visualize and connect memorable scenes from the movies to the prints by the suggestive power of the words and geometric images. All four films deal with the central concept of Totalitarianism, whereby bureaucracy imposed on individual lives leads to untenable situations.
Born in 1977, Chong lives and works in New York and Singapore. He also returned as Chief Curator for the BMW Young Asian Artists Series III in 2011.
The BMW Young Asian Artist Series 2007 represents the successful partnership between corporate sponsor BMW Asia and Singapore Tyler Print Institute (STPI), with the aim of providing young and emerging artists to explore the artistic potential of print.
Under this series, 5 artists from Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand, each proficient in different disciplines, were invited to create 4 new works at STPI within a challenging 2-week time frame. Working in close collaboration with chief printer Eitaro Ogawa and his team of printers, the artists made use of all the printmaking techniques at their disposal, resulting in 21 works diverse in content and technique.