Just attended the media preview of Ming Wong's Life of Imitation at the Singapore Art Museum. Another nicely curated show - after the FX Harsono show, the museum is on a roll. Wong's works first premiered at the 2009 Venice Biennale and won Special Mention from the jury. It's now restaged with some additions. My favorite work is by far the Life of Imitation installation, Wong's tribute to Douglas Sirk's Imitation of Life, a 1959 Hollywood melodrama about a mixed-race American actress trying to make a career as a 'white' showgirl. Wong has always been interested in issue of racial identity. Here he cast three male actors (you'd never know) from the main ethnic groups in Singapore (Chinese, Malay and Indian) playing in turn the three roles in a rotation. Two films with different actors play at the same time and a clever play of mirrors strengthen the differences and similarities. Very clever and really to the point.
