Hungry Ghosts Exhibit Statement by Paul Wong

We all die and experience death, this is the common thread that connects the subjects and the viewers. Many of the deaths represented have tragic endings through violence, suicide, drug overdoses, terminal illness and sudden departures. The work focuses not on the reasons for dying but what becomes of the body, the soul and the spirits. Paul Wong’s interests in death stems from first hand experiences. the loss of his father when he was 12 forced him to deal with issues of death and memory.

Death has been a recurring theme in Wong’s video, photography, writing and performances. Hungry Ghosts evolved from a curatorial inquiry to look at the death works together. Not interested in just looking at the past Wong was interested in updating the research, What has emerged is the new creation of an entirely new work, Paul has strung together selected fiction scenes and non fiction subjects and has used the structure of five channels to contextualize the materials into a scripted narrative.

Wong mixes the deaths of family and friends with that of strangers, a dozen subjects age 19 – 72 are featured. Feeding the Hungry Ghosts is a holiday set aside for tending to the graves of the forsaken. The most unsettled are the wandering spirits without graves and those untended., Looking after the spirit world ensures harmony, contentment in that world makes it more unlikely they will need to come and disrupt our world.

In making this work, the artist has considered the ethics of representation and freedom of expression. The method and time of death affects memory, often the right to remember is complicated, controversial. and denied. Not everyone wants to remember. This work accepts death, By making these subjects public, memory is shared.

HUNGRY GHOSTS views ways in which we see the dead and methods in which the dead continue to live in the present.

HUNGRY GHOSTS has provided a context for remixing previous works on the subject. Included are clips from Ordinary Shadows, intensity, Chinaman’s Peak, Dave and So Are You. Subjects dating back to 1978 to the present are edited together, specific acts of remembering are positioned and in so doing rexamined. This work presents another chapter.

Murder Research, Ordinary Shadows, intensity, Chinaman’s Peak: Walking The Mountain, Dave and So Are You. Subjects dating back to 1978 to the present are edited together, specific acts of remembering are positioned and in so doing rexamined.

Neutral Ground, Regina