Raymond Wong
Living and commuting around the city involves much involuntary sharing. A group of passengers may be united in the aim of travelling from one place to another, yet most individuals choose to remain contained within themselves, utilising their books or their headphones as means to be kept outside of their daily lives. Minor complications and frustrations fill our heads, and repetitions and routines numb our senses and awareness of the fabric of our environment. Public spaces are constantly filled with people that are trapped within their own thoughts, and upon their awkward silences and inimical glances empty trains are slowly filled, concrete walls are gradually built and desolated hearts are left unfulfilled.
Through this series of woodcuts, it is in my intention to convey a sense of isolation and detachment that can be experienced by an individual living in the city. Originating from my discovery of old 78 rpm records, the black circular form that dominates this series has a certain focalising quality that is at once alluring and mystifying, but at the same time it alienates and defines the position of the viewer as an observer. In Leave us and I Was Lying in a Burnt Out Basement, the inverted shapes from cutting out circular planks bear similar if not more arresting effects, establishing a shifting relationship between self-interpretation and certain representation which heightens the ambiguity of the images.
I’m interested in the grouping of images that can epitomise a certain feeling, but I also believe in how individual images can be read in ways that can convey a consciousness or suggest possible narratives. In this series it is in my intention to intrigue without to instruct.
C.V.
Born in Hong Kong 1985
Live and work in Brighton UK
Education and Qualifications
GCSE’s: Art, English, Design and Technology, Mathematics, German
A-Levels: Art, Physics, Mathematics
2004-05 Foundation studies in Art & Design, City of Bath College
2005-present BA (Hons) Fine Art Printmaking, University of Brighton
Selected Group Exhibitions
2005 Hothouse, Gainsborough Building, Bath, UK
2006 Inked, Sussex Arts Club, Brighton, UK
2006 We Collective – an outdoor installation and workshop, Sziget Festival, Budapest, Hungary
2007 Second Sight, University of Brighton Gallery, Brighton, UK
2008 University of Brighton Degree Show
Relevant experiences
2004 Working with Silvia Dimitrova, Bulgarian Icon painter
2005-7 One of the founding members of We Collective, an art & design group made up of students of University of Brighton and Moholy-Nagy University of Art and Design in Budapest
2006 Workshop in gig poster production with Brighton Fringe Art Production (BFAP)