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Paul Wong picked up a portapak video camera in the 1970’s as a rebel against the world around him. He created portraits of his generation’s lives of sex, drugs and rock n’roll. He has created hundreds of works, never stopping production, always pushing boundaries, always questioning The Establishment. His work is as relevent in 2009 as it was in the mid-70’s when it was made. His seminal work 60 Unit Bruise is in many ways more upsetting to view today than it was when it was made in 1976. He is a rare artist, able to continually produce innovative work for over 30 years.
“Paul Wong has used video as mirror and probe, both to discover his own identity and to interact with the world at large. Based in Vancouver, he is a self-invented video pioneer and award-winning artist, curator, organizer of public interventions since the mid-1970s. His work is varied and eclectic, ranging from conceptual performances to complex narratives. He is known particularly for his tough engagement with issues of race, sex, and death.” (Vancouver Art Galley, 2009)
“I come from a place where we purposely made “anti-art” and said it’s also art. This is time-based stuff - it’s art - its references just happen to be much broader. It’s not just based strictly on visual art history and history of painting and Eurocentricity. It’s not just about commercial culture and television. It’s not just about pop . . .” (Paul Wong, 2007)
“The éminence grise of the show is the video artist Paul Wong. However you may view his work (and it can at times come across as enfant-terrible affectation), there's no denying that - when it comes to singing the body electric - he's the go-to guy, for more than three decades making works that explore, among other things, race, human sexuality and the occasional foray into drug abuse. (One work here, titled Perfect Day, extols the pleasures of ice cream, heroin and cigarettes.)” Sarah Milroy, Globe + Mail (Feb. 14/09)
“Wong's mastery of the video camera is unparalleled in Vancouver art, making him to video what Emily Carr and Jack Shadbolt were to painting, or Ian Wallace and Jeff Wall to photomontage. That he is rarely considered among these artists - nor mentioned when discussing the development of a Vancouver art - owes something to video's historically uneven relationship with the museum, but also to Wong's desire to reach beyond the constraints of gallery display, as evidenced by his use of titles and credits, a device which owes more to broadcast media than the installation work of contemporaries Stan Douglas and Rodney Graham.” Michael Turner (essay for V/tape, 2008)
A pioneer of video art in Canada, Wong’s command of the medium has influenced generations of artists. As one of the first in Canada to use video to examine his own identity, he uses the camera to explore performance, conceptual video, experimental narrative and documentary. Through his work, Wong has created a voice for non-exclusive video practices that distinctly put ordinary people behind and in front of the camera. Intentionally rejecting mainstream cinematic tropes, Wong’s new video work includes revealing titles such as SALLY, CHELSEA HOTEL ROOM 207 and PERFECT DAY. (Reel Asian Festival 2008, press release)
He has had major solo exhibitions such as On Becoming A Man National Gallery (1995), numerous exhibitions at the Museum of Modern Art in New York and Life/Live, and at the Musee d’Art Moderne in Paris 1996. In 2010 he will produce his new site-specific installation opus “5” - a City of Vancouver commission for the 2010 Olympic Games.
(www.5.paulwongprojects.com)
He was awarded The Bell Canada Award in Video Art in 1992, was the first recipient of the Transforming Art Award from the Asian Heritage Foundation in 2002 and won the inaugural NFB/CHUM Trailblazer Expressions Award in 2003. He received The Governor General's Award in Visual and Media Arts in 2005. He was the Canadian Spotlight Artist at the 2008 Reel Asian International Film Festival in Toronto, where his video Perfect Day was awarded Best Canadian Film or Video.
He is the founding director of Vancouver artist-run centres Video In/VIVO (Satellite Video Exchange Society 1973) and On Main (On The Cutting Edge Productions Society 1985).
www.5.paulwongprojects.com
paulwongprojects.com/intensity.html
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