A digital archive of Asian/Asian American contemporary art history

Wong, Steven

Other Names: Yao-Chee

"[...]My work attempts to puncture the the seemingly one-dimensional didactic agenda that generally underlies, and is problematic with, works of a political nature. My latest work is a self critique that re-evaluates the practices of marginalized groups attempt to re-center themselves and to alter the current power relationships. The work deconstructs egalitarian moralism as a vehicle for altering and ultimately re-structuring these power relationships as a problematic means to an end by juxtaposing the seemingly bi-polar relationship of the 'will to nothingness', which I call the 'power to will', contracted by the Netzschein concept of 'the will to power'. By illustrating what I perceive to be a flawed paradigm that has been adopted by the peripheral groups seeking 'power', the work exposes the arguments, and contradictions of this paradigm, ultimately creating its own internal dialogue. This dialogue attempts to offer the viewer the freedom to maneuver throughout the work to formulate their own conclusions, hopefully preventing the immediate closure that occurs with overly didactic works of art that offer a one-sided political agenda."

--Steven Wong, Artist Statement

Gallery of Selected Works