Encountering Mass Men (2021)

Commissioned by Wei-Ling Gallery for the exhibition catalogue, published on Art&Market Singapore

We may think we know Choy Chun Wei’s works — feel that with his use of printed materials from our consumer era that we understand them — and take pride in our ability to access his hybrid world that is based on the fourfold schema of artist and object, the media and the mind. As ‘Encountering Mass Man’ demonstrates, there is much more to the title than meets the eye. The suite of eight vibrantly coloured works mounted onto the wall will ensnare you, as do the far from innocent fragments of slick advertising prints which transport you into a discomforting world; a place of captivation where optically, nothing is quite what it first seems to be. As Choy elucidates about the title, “As delightful as it is that we are connected to one another through virtual communication in this lockdown, our meetings are nevertheless still projections. There is a longing for tangible relationships in the resistance and boundaries, and how that is important to us.” ‘Encountering Mass Man’ suggests a paradox and expresses a balancing act that nudges us to search ourselves in a turbulent, liquid environment.