Crying Streetlight in Tiananmen Square, 2022
Isaac Chong Wai
Metal and cable chains
ca. 310 x 200 x 200cm
Crying Streetlight in Kumsusan Palace of the Sun, 2022
Isaac Chong Wai
Metal and cable chains
ca. 310 x 330 x 330cm
Chong’s motive to bring public space into the gallery is embodied by his large-scale installation Crying Streetlight (2022) in the heart of the exhibition. The hollow metal street lamps “cry”—as conceptualized by the artist—and evoke the perceptions of emptiness and transparency, referencing the public lights in the squares of the mausoleums in Tiananmen in Beijing, China, and the Kumsusan Palace of the Sun in Pyongyang, North Korea. Standing as silent witnesses of historical events and public mournings for historical figures such as Kim Il-Sung, Kim Jong-Il, and Mao Zedong, the lamps are incapable of weeping for the public or the deceased. Conjuring up a crying street lamp, Chong affixes cable chain necklaces onto the installation in which every delicate ring of the chain resembles a teardrop. As if the chains attempt to hold and trace every single drop of tears that evaporates in time leaving no mark behind, the contours of the “tears” remerge on the structure of the monumental lamps.