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Saturday, December 30, 2006
Dreaming of an Artist : Donna Ong Writer : Yang MingArtist Donna Ong needs no introduction after all the rounds of interviews on TV and print. Yang Ming met up with Donna at her studio at Mayo Street to talk about her works at the Singapore Biennale (SB) 2006 and her journey as a Christian in the arts. Donna is currently artistic director of TAGS -a Christian artists fellowship, teaching at NTU and LaSalle-SIA. Yang Ming: How did you feel being one of the youngest participants to participate in the SB 2006? Donna : I don't think I'm the youngest. To me, it doesn't matter how old you are. Whether I'm younger or older, I am still honoured to be in the biennale. Yang Ming : You titled your installation at the SB Secrets, interior: Chrysalis. What did this title mean? Donna : Well, "Secrets, interiors" came from a previous project collaborating with sound artist, George Chua. It was a sound collaboration called Secret Interiors. George did the sound and I did the visual. At that point, I wanted to make my work minimal. So I decided to make something plain in a different room. In that room, there was nothing inside except for the light that seeped through the window which lit up the entire space. Meantime, I thought about what I wanted to do for my next project and I thought perhaps I can do something dealing with the interior. The question I had was, "Who are these people inside the interior?" The interior is not just the inner layer of the building or room but it also represents the interior of a private person to the public - the facade which you don't show to the public. As for "Chrysalis", people often conceive that my works are morbid and I have a few comments from people that my works are like hope without hope. Yet my work is an extension. It isn't one part that tells a story but each of the part is a continuation that tells the whole story. So to me, there is a God at the end of the story. There is always a hope. It may appear hopeless now but whether it is this life or next life, it will be this hope that God will rescue you. So "Chrysalis" is that kind of hope. It symbolises that kind of hope that I have. It's like at that moment when you are like a caterpillar, hoping to emerge and you know that one day you will. Yang Ming : I see that the SB has been crucial in establishing your presence firmly in the arts, which is obviously a blessing. How has this journey, since Palace of Dreams (2004), spoken to you regarding your role or position as a Christian artist? Donna : The journey has been extremely good. God has blessed me tremendously. But one thing I learnt is to trust in God. I have always thought that art is really tough and I often struggled to find ideas for my work. To me, Palace of Dreams was a successful exhibition. I have accomplished what I hope I will accomplish. But after the exhibition, that is a certain fear that morphed over you when your exhibition received good critique. People begin to ask you, "What are you going to do next?" And all of the sudden, it becomes scary because you start to question yourself, "What if I would never come out with anything?" And that is it. For me, it's about letting go of that fear of coming out with a definite exhibition. And it went through a long process, struggling for a while and subsequently, I want to let go of these things -- getting out of the boxes and boundaries which people placed on me. When you first started out as a Christian artist, you would want to talk about God in your work, getting it right and the desire to change the world through your work. All these big goals and small dreams are what we want to accomplish in our work yet all these things hinder our work. Instead, it could only work by starting with a research progress. It's a gradual thing which is why I'm letting go of these things. I am going to see it in a way of Abel in the Bible. He gave his best to God. I don't have that much but out of all my gifts, the best I could offer is art. That is why I want to give it back to God and see my art as worship. Yang Ming : Were there any particular reasons as to why you chose the four judges' rooms at City Hall as your exhibition space? Donna : It was actually Eugene [one of the three curators in the curatorial team] who suggested the rooms. After thinking it through, I thought that was exactly what I wanted. It was partly due to the fact that all the rooms were secluded and hidden away - as a result, you actually have to find it. It's that kind of coming across something which you didn't expect. So when you look at the work differently, you will be surprised and that 'surprise' will tighten your awareness. Meantime, I used back the original furniture in the judges' chambers to portray the fact that the judges actually use these rooms. Behind the judging facade which the judges judged in these four private rooms, lies their desire, dreams and fears in a typical form. Yang Ming : "Secrets, interiors: Chrysalis 21" contained the flying table reminiscent of Palace of Dreams. Compared to that last exhibition, you've also added several larger objects including an old radio, consoles and a joystick on the table top. The two wheels at the bottom makes the 'flight' seem plausibly immediate, although the piece is clearly unable to take off. Why is that so? Donna : Actually, they wanted that installation from Palace of Dreams hence they suggested that I put up that piece in the biennale exhibition. Later, there were two things which I considered. The first was if I should execute the exact same work as before. The second was thinking that I should rework my older piece into a better piece. As for my drawings, I felt that it was practical to hang them on the ceiling especially when the air-conditioning air ducts contributed to the effects of the rustling noise. The paper that I used was thin and the images were drawn using a ballpoint pen. To me, the ballpoint pen is a humble instrument and using ballpoint pen is a very detailed and elaborate process, which [one could link to the qualities of] people's dreams. I decided to make the plane into a flying machine. When you look at it, you can imagine that the person behind this dream badly to fly. The wheels give the dream a sense of urgency and the room is almost too small to hold the plane. Another symbolism is that we have such big dreams yet we are so weak... many people died while trying to fulfill their dream of flying, including great aviators. [The bible says we are] treasures in jars of clay. We are people made of dust, who dream big. We are in a [spiritual] battle [against evil] and we are so weak. How do we overcome this? That is the question I want to ask. Yang Ming : Roland Chia (Sights and Sounds, 2006) said, "Art is thus located in a world caught in the profound tension of the 'already' and 'not yet', a world which already has the foretaste of salvation but which awaits the revelation of the fullness of that salvation." My work is all about having in parts but not having it in full. You are waiting for that moment. To me, the wings and the planes represent not what it is about itself but dreams which you have. It can be any dream. To get married, be an artist, invent a vaccine for cancer and so forth. It is having this uncompleted thing in parts and knowing that the creator of whatever it is wants to achieve something, so they draw things, create things and name them. Although they may lack an engineer and the skills to fulfill their wishes, the maker is not idle. He is doing something. He does not have every piece but he is hoping for the rest to come along and finish it. Yang Ming : I heard that 'Secrets, interiors: Chrysalis 19' constituted your oldest works. In that case, these jars of dolls and drawings could have stood alone as its own exhibition. Why was it necessary to include them in the Biennale, as a quarter contributions? When I talk about my work, I often use the word, 'personas'. Each of those four judges' chambers has a character. The character helps me to get away from myself and I would think about it objectively. "19" was a personal part of my journey in life. Because of my illness (lupus), I experienced what it is like to ponder on the effects of infertility. That grew into a metaphor of creation. Barrenness for me included a lack of emotionality, spirituality and creativity. I use that premise as a desire to create something meaningful. That's why I use it in my work. During Palace of Dreams I had thought that I was done with the morbid stuff and to move onto something positive. However the biennale is a big work. I wanted to commemorate some milestones in my life of sadness, the hard times and the future. It needs to be part of my journey. Yang Ming : Was there anyone else helping you in the set up and in the process, inspired something in the whole installation Secret, Interiors: Chrysalis that were unknown to us? There are lots of people helping me. You can't do build big installations alone. The excellent team was made up of Warren Khong, Urich Lau, my mother and my auntie. One of my friends, Dennis, was there as well. I think he helped out in the designing of the base of the plane. I love working in a team. It's good to have a team to help to put things together. The team was with me from the beginning - when I started with the installation till the end of the installation. For example, they felt that the first propeller I had chosen was too small so I went out to buy a bigger propeller for the plane. On the other hand, I really want to be organised so when the team first came in, there was already a list of tasks for them to do. Everything was planned out as I won't want them to stand around doing nothing. Yang Ming : Were there any funny moments? When we were doing the installation of "Secrets, interior: Chrysalis 19" it was quite creepy as many weird things happened. The first incident was when we were filling up the water for the dolls, we found out that the water of one particular doll kept on disappearing. Subsequently, we kept on pouring pails of water into that jar. Due to the fact that we left it overnight, my mum was like, "The dolls are drinking the water!" I wasn't that superstitious but I think it was a bit strange. My mother was telling my auntie that the doll was drinking the water. Then we realised that I had connected some pipes from container to container and the level of the water is higher than the other. As a result, it actually pumped from one container to the other. But I felt it was quite funny. The second incident happened to the same doll which caused a lot of problems. When we left it and returned the next day, we saw the water was red in colour. I asked myself, "Why does it keep on turning red?" Of course, there was a reason for that. We realised that the thread which we used to sew the inside of that doll was red. As a result, the water kept on turning red. Visit TAGS at tagseries.blogspot.com. For more information on Donna Ong, check out donnaong.com in the next few months.
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