Common People and Other Stories

For his residency at Art in General, Heman Chong will create Common People and Other Stories, a new project inspired by Quantum Leap, a short-lived American science-fiction television program about an imaginary physics experiment gone awry and its consequent ethical dilemmas. The name of the TV show’s protagonist, Dr. Sam Beckett, is a thinly veiled allusion to the Irish playwright known for his pessimistic outlook on the human condition. In what has now become a television cult classic, Sam travels through time, randomly “leaping,” or “Swiss-cheesing” into the bodies of other people (including men, women, and once, a chimpanzee), attempting to prevent history-altering catastrophes, all the while trying to make his way back to his own place and time.

Chong takes the stories of Sam’s travels and expands them by bringing them into the context of Art in General’s ground-floor Project Space, which he will use as a studio as well as a venue where visitors may see the ongoing development of his new work. There, Chong plans to explore the often humorous narratives and serious moral underpinnings of Quantum Leap, which aired on NBC from 1989 until 1993 but remains an active fixation for many. He also explores the aspects of the TV show that have caused it to become an underground craze as it touched on a range of gripping themes such as the order of the universe, family drama, nostalgia, coincidence and a seemingly sentient supercomputer named Ziggy. Common People and Other Stories also stems from Chong’s broad research on literary and visual representations in science-fiction literature and film.

Art in General has also commissioned Chong to create a world map, which will be published in the spring edition of INSIDE, Art in General’s periodic publication announcing and elaborating on its programs. Far from a traditional map that outlines topographies and territories, Chong’s contribution is a diagrammatic chart of the years and places Sam Beckett visited in his time travels.

A public program will also be scheduled near the beginning of Chong’s residency. This will provide a broader context for Common People and Other Stories by showcasing a book published in conjunction with Chong’s recent exhibition The Sole Proprietor and Other Stories (2007), at Vitamin Creative Space in Guangzhou, China. Edited by Melissa Lim and published by Vitamin Creative Space, it includes nine commissioned texts about thought experiments, social conditions in the Third World, world religions, magic and other assorted nightmares. The contributors include Cosmin Costinas (contributing editor, European and US sector, Documenta 12 Magazine), Astrid Mania (freelance curator and writer for ArtAsiaPacific, Berlin), Joselina Cruz (curator, Singapore Art Museum), Rodney LaTourelle (art writer, Winnipeg and Berlin), Leif Magne Tangen (art journalist, Leipzig and Oslo), Binna Choi (curator, BAK, Utrecht, The Netherlands), Hu Fang (novelist and gallerist, Vitamin Creative Space, Guangzhou, China) and Russell Storer (curator, Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney).

Heman Chong’s residency is supported in part by an award from the National Endowment for the Arts. Additional support has been provided by the National Arts Council in Singapore.

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