Self Portrait: The evening when I was beaten up by a stranger with a glass bottle, 2015

Self Portrait: The evening when I was beaten up by a stranger with a glass bottle, 2015
Isaac Chong Wai
Archival inkjet print
48 x 32 cm

Isaac Chong Wai was attacked in November 2015 on the street of Berlin, the city he lives in. A stranger started a conversation with him, but abruptly hurled racial insults and then bludgeoned his head with a glass bottle. The artist took this self-portrait as evidence of his injuries. A friend later cautioned him that “the world is not your friend.” In resistance to the definitive pessimism in his friend’s advice, the artist turns the negation into an inquisitive question.