Interview(s) is a collaboration by Heman Chong & Anthony Marcellini that begins with a series of assumptions about the social life of objects.
1. Objects can represent words or sentences in a conversation.
2. An object moves from insignificance to significance (and vice-versa) when transferred from one person to another.
3. All objects have power by way of their relationships with other objects, ourselves included.
4. There are other levels of value to objects, on top of the values certain systems attach to it, personal, monetary, symbolic, nostalgic, which shift and change over time, sometimes quickly and sometimes very slowly.
5. Time slows down and speeds up due to our relationships with objects.
6. Objects tell stories.
7. Stories are also objects.
The two artists have each produced a collection of 100 objects over a period of four months without discussing what these objects are with each other. One week before the exhibition begins they will meet and arrange these objects onto tables with mirrored tops. The exhibition is a reflection of the ways in which two individuals enter into a dialogue with each other. These compositions are entitled Interview(s) and perform the word’s etymology, from the French entrevue, or s'entrevoir: to see each other.
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Heman Chong & Anthony Marcellini met at Art-in-General, New York in 2005. They have since collaborated on writing and producing a radio play entitled Public Allergies for Resonance 104.4 FM in London. Interview(s) represents a new chapter in their collaborative practice.
Heman Chong is an artist, curator and writer. His art practice involves an investigation into the philosophies, reasons and methods of individuals and communities imagining the future. Charged with a conceptual drive, this research is then adapted into objects, images, installations, situations or texts. In 2006, he produced a writing workshop with Leif Magne Tangen at Project Arts Center in Dublin where they co-authored "PHILIP", a science fiction novel, with Mark Aerial Waller, Cosmin Costinas, Rosemary Heather, Francis McKee, David Reinfurt and Steve Rushton. The artist has developed solo exhibitions at Rossi & Rossi (London), SOTA Gallery (Singapore), NUS Museum (Singapore), Kunstverein Milano (Milan), Motive Gallery (Amsterdam), Hermes Third Floor (Singapore), Vitamin Creative Space (Guangzhou), Art In General (New York), Project Arts Centre (Dublin), Ellen de Bruijne Projects (Amsterdam), The Substation (Singapore), Kuenstlerhaus Bethanien (Berlin), Sparwasser HQ (Berlin). His work has also been shown extensively in group exhibitions including San Francisco Asian Art Museum, Kumho Museum of Art, Museu d'Art Contemporani de Barcelona, Kroeller- Muller Museum, Stedelijk Museum Bureau, Nam June Paik Art Center, Gertrude Contemporary, Arnolfini, Thyssen- Bornemisza Art Contemporary, Museum of Contemporary Art Denver, Museum of Contemporary Art North Miami, Hamburger Bahnhof, Fukuoka Asian Art Museum, Kadist Art Foundation, Daejeon Museum of Art. He has participated in numerous international biennales including Asia Pacific Triennale 7 (2012), Performa 11 (2011), Momentum 6 (2011), Manifesta 8 (2010), 2nd Singapore Biennale (2008), SCAPE Christchurch Biennale (2006), Busan Biennale (2004), 10th India Triennale( 2000) and represented Singapore in the 50th Venice Biennale (2003). His work has been featured prominently in A Prior, ArtAsiaPacific, Artforum International, ArtInfo, Art-iT, Art Lies, Frieze, LEAP, SITE and Visionaire.
Anthony Marcellini is an artist and writer. His practice examines the social relationships of seemingly disparate things: objects, artworks, individuals, historical events or natural phenomena. Through absurdist acts, suspensions of belief or metaphysical postulations, he levels the divisions between the natural and constructed world by creating a more horizontal space where these entities can communicate with each other. He co-founded and directed the collaborative art group It Can Change (2000-2004) with John Hoppin, a collective that produced art, interventions and performances in public space and in art institutions. From 2004-2007, Anthony worked alongside curator Sofia Hernandez Chong Cuy as the Curatorial Assistant at Art in General in New York City. He received his MFA in Social Practice from California College of the Arts, San Francisco in 2009. His work has been exhibited internationally at museums, galleries and art institutions, including Apex Art, New York City; Kunsthall Fridericianum, Kassel; Gavin Brown’s Enterprise, New York City; Deitch Projects, New York City; The Soap Factory, Minneapolis; San Francisco Arts Commission Gallery: Sequences Art Festival, Reykjavik; Etc. Gallerie, Prague; Gagnef Festival, Sweden; Skulpturengarten Strombad Kritzendorf, Vienna, amongst others. Upcoming in 2012/2013, he will exhibit at Galerie Edouard Manet, Centre d'art contemporain de Gennevilliers, Paris, and Witte De With, Rotterdam, as well as have solo exhibitions at Wilkinson Gallery, London (with collaborator Heman Chong) and Göteborgs Konsthall, Gothenburg. He has received grants from Southern Exposure, San Francisco, Göteborgs Stads kulturförvaltning/Kulturstöd Projektstöd, and The Board for Artistic Development, Faculty of Fine Arts, University of Gothenburg. His writing has been published in Paletten Art Journal, the web-based publication Nowiswere, and he is a featured contributor to the online journal Art Practical, San Francisco. He is currently an Adjunct Professor at Valand Academy, MA Program in the Fine Arts Department, University of Gothenburg, Sweden.
