PAUL WONG

Miss (2006)
video/installation & photo panels
Video: Miss Chinatown

Miss is a construction of how we see women and ourselves. The images and sounds are from several different projects examining issues of representation and identity.

The triptych of video, photography and sound are portrayals of contemporary Canadian women. The central video work juxtaposes a segment of a beauty pageant mixed with the views, opinions and experiences of eight subjects on desire. These ‘alternative’ perspectives are set against the backdrop of the cheong-san (traditional Chinese dress) segment of the Miss Chinese Vancouver Pageant. The clip is an off-air recording of the live televised event. Miss Chinese Vancouver went on to win the Miss Chinese World Pageant in Hong Kong. Paul Wong was one of the Vancouver judges.

Missing - a branch of tiger orchids is laid over a photo collage of 18 women. The image is from the front page of a Vancouver newspaper. For over a decade, more than fifty women from Vancouver’s downtown eastside disappeared off the streets of one of Canada’s poorest areas. Many of these women worked as hookers to support heroin and crack addiction. These disenfranchised women were neglected in life, and once gone and out of sight, easily forgotten. Authorities did nothing to try to connect the disappearances. Pressure from families and the public finally forced police to take action. Fragments of remains were located scattered throughout a pig farm in Vancouver’s suburbs. DNA results identified over a dozen women. Robert Pickton is charged with the serial killings.

Mr. + Miss Ing are in fact both photographs of the artist. Wong in tuxedo was photographed at Rideau Hall in Ottawa in 2005. Miss Ing wearing a tiara, red velvet cape and holding a bouquet of flowers is Wong as he appeared in the final act of Re-Act - a performance retrospective and produced as a cd-rom in 2000.

BIOGRAPHY:

Wong is a multidisciplinary artist best known for his media art and live art projects. He is self-taught and has been exhibiting videotapes, installations, photographs, performances and writing since the 1970's. Born in Canada his works often address his cross-cultural influences of being Chinese and Canadian. His work is influenced by, and is also a critique of, mass media and pop culture. He is an artist who uses electronic media to record and reflect the environment around him that has included the lives of his friends and family. Over the past 1/4 century his work has reflected his acute curiosity about the world we live in. He has portrayed being angry and young, beauty and innocence, love and desire, hate and violence, lucidity and confusion, sexuality, race, social injustice, decadence and death.

He was awarded the 2005 Governor General’s Award in Visual and Media Art, Canada’s highest award for artists.