Eric Fong Artist's Statement

My practice explores social issues relating to the body and health practices, informed by my former profession as a medical doctor and increasingly by my ethnicity. My approach is concept-based, and the media I use include video and photography, sculpture and live art. I am interested in social engagement, and my recent works have often developed from working with people of diverse ages, abilities and cultural backgrounds. Arising from observations of human behaviour and emotions, my work often expose the subtle humour that can be found in varying social encounters and reveal the eccentricity and beauty in the quotidian that are often overlooked. By maintaining a sympathetic yet objective attitude towards the subjects, my work seeks to encourage dialogue and open-ended interpretation. My earlier works focussed on scientific aspects of medicine such as biotechnology and the phantom limb phenomenon, whereas my more recent works have explored social aspects of health issues such as mental illness and ageing. One of my current interests is the effect of increasing globalisation, especially cross-cultural pollination between East and West, on health practices. Inspired by the growing popularity of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) in the West, I produced a body of work that offers a playful view of tongue diagnosis in TCM during an artist’s residency at the Chinese Arts Centre in Manchester in 2005. In contrast, the opening-up and rapid economic growth of China in recent years has resulted in an increase in consumerism and Westernisation there, including a rising preference for Western medicine over TCM. This has inspired a body of work that explores the shift in health and cultural practices in China produced during a British Council & Arts Council England residency in Shanghai in 2006.

Images of work

Brief CV

Education 2001    M.A. in Fine Art, Goldsmiths College, University of London, London, UK 2000    B.F.A. (Honours), York University, Toronto, Canada 1979    M.D., University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada 1977    B. Med. Sc., University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada Selected Exhibitions & Live Art Events 2007    Creekside Open x 2 (prize awarded by Victoria Miro), APT Gallery, London, UK Buffalo 07, Black & Asian Film Festival, London, UK Slack Video, Hull International Short Film Festival, Hull, UK Behind Closed Doors, The Lightbox Gallery and Museum, Woking, UK East End Film Festival, London, UK Future Shorts Film Festival, London, UK 2006    Cinecity, Brighton Film Festival, Brighton, UK Saison Video, Lille, France Field of Vision, Beijing New Art Projects, 798 Art District, Beijing, China Routes & Remedies, Asia House, London, UK China Connections, Riverside Studios, London, UK Gstaadfilm Festival, Gstaad, Switzerland Unnatural Selection, Shrewsbury Museum & Art Gallery, Shrewsbury, UK      Body Navigation international contemporary arts festival, Elagin Island Gallery, St. Petersburg, Russia      2005    VAD Video and Digital Arts International Festival, Girona, Spain Super Shorts Film Festival (touring), London, Manchester, Glasgow and other cities, UK Imaginaria International Short Film Festival, Conversano, Italy Simultan International Video/sound Festival, Timisoara, Romania After Hiroshima, Brunei Gallery, School of African & Oriental Studies, London UK Video Showcase, Angell Gallery, Toronto, Canada Big Screen programme, Cornerhouse/BBC, Exchange Square, Manchester, UK 2004    EAST International 2004, Norwich Gallery, Norwich, UK Pilot:1 International Art Forum, Old Limehouse Town Hall, London, UK Progress, Spital Square art space, London, UK Breathe, live art events at Bow Festival and other locations in London, UK (supported by Space Studios and the City & Hackney Teaching Primary Care Trust)     2003    Remembering the Present, Centre for Arts Education, Serpentine Gallery, London, UK Brief Encounters International Short Film Festival, DepicT! competition, Bristol, UK Shot by the Sea Digital Film Festival, Heritage Museum, Hastings, UK Nth Art exhibit.001, Ols & Co Gallery, London, UK Bowieart Film Night, Portobello Film Festival, Westbourne Studios, London, UK Sticky Rice, Notting Hill Arts Club, London, UK 2002    Majority Rules, Free Gallery, Glasgow, UK Digitized Bodies/ Virtual Spectacles, Mestna Galerija (City Gallery), Ljubljana, Slovenia Atoms in the Family, International 3 Gallery, Manchester, UK 2001    Phantoms, The Old Operating Theatre, Museum & Herb Garret, London, UK (solo exhibition) Digitized Bodies/ Virtual Spectacles, Ludwig Museum/Museum of Contemporary Art, Budapest, Hungary 2000    Intimate Perceptions, Inter/Access Gallery, Toronto, Canada 1998    Eric Fong: Corpus Interna, Gallery 44 Centre for Contemporary Photography, Toronto, Canada (solo exhibition)  Shadow Crossings, Gallery TPW - Toronto Photographers’ Workshop, Toronto, Canada 1997    Time and History, Art Gallery at the Student Centre, York University, Toronto, Canada 1996    Body/Image, Inter/Access Gallery, Toronto, Canada The Camera Obscured, Edmonton Art Gallery, Edmonton, Canada Collections Arts Council England, UK The Lightbox Gallery & Museum, Woking, UK Artist’s Residencies & Commissions 2006    Artist Links, British Council & Arts Council of England, Shanghai, China Brookwood project, The Lightbox Gallery & Museum, Woking, UK      2004-5 Breathe, Chinese Arts Centre, Manchester, UK 2002-3    Dementia & Art, Age Concern Kensington & Chelsea, London, UK Awards & Scholarships 2007    Crecholarshipsekside Open x2 exhibition prize (awarded by Victoria Miro), London, UK 1999    Dean’s Prize for Excellence in Creative Work, York University, Canada  Jack Bush Scholarship, York University, Canada 1998    Kondor Fine Arts Scholarship, York University, Canada 1997    The Provost’s Award, York University, Canada Catalogues Kirby, Simon. Artist Links. China: British Council, 2006 Shakespeare, Tom. Unnatural Selection. Shrewsbury Museum & Art Gallery, 2006 Haines, Bruce. ‘Harry’ in EASTinternational 2004. Norwich: Norwich Gallery, 2004 Andersson, Cecilia. Atoms in the Family. Manchester: i3 Publications, 2002 Czegledy, Nina. Digitized Bodies – Virtual Spectacles. Budapest: Ludwig Museum, 2001 Lau, Yam. Eric Fong: Corpus Interna. Toronto: Gallery 44, 2000 Selected Reviews & Media Coverage   Martin Herbert, ‘East International 2004’, Art Monthly magazine, Sep 2004, p.29 Daniela Johnson, ‘East International’, Flash Art magazine, Oct 2004, p.65 George Szirtes, ‘East International 2004’, Modern Painters magazine, Autumn 2004, p.119 ‘News’, www.bowieart.com, Feb 2002, Apr & Oct 2003 Tracy Smee, ‘An Interview’, Doctor’s Review magazine, Aug.2002, Vol.20, No.8, p.98 Profusion.007, ‘New Taboos’, Contemporary Art: Artists, Brands & Themes, BBH London/Profusion 2002, p.92-3 ‘Radar/Visual Arts,’ Flux magazine, #29, Feb/Mar 2002, p.109 ‘Special Relativity’, City Life magazine, #449, 6-21 Feb 2002, p.45 ‘Exhibitions’, The Guardian Guide, Feb 9-15, 2002, p.34 ‘The Happening’, www.bbc.co.uk/manchester, BBC Manchester, Feb 2002 Television interview, ‘Digitized Bodies’, Televizija Slovenija, programme I, 16 Jan 2002 Alex Vass, ‘Reviews’, British Medical Journal, Vol. 323, 27 Oct 2001, p.1007 Cecilia Andersson, ‘Arte y ciencia’, Zehar, verano 2001, p.9 Writings Eric Fong, ‘Posthuman Toys and Games: Biotechnology, Art and Medicine’ in Segments & Spécimens, Éditions J’ai VU, 2002, p.73-80 Lectures, Presentations & Panel Discussions 2007    International Working seminar, National Portrait Gallery, London, supported by Chinese Arts Centre 2005    Developing a Career in the Arts seminar, Arts Council England WM & Chinese Arts Centre, Ikon Gallery, Birmingham, UK Artist’s presentation, South Asian Arts Development Day, Arts Council of England SE, UK 2004    Artist’s talk, Chinese Arts Centre, Manchester, UK 2003    Artists’ Corner (British Chinese Artists’ Association), Serpentine Gallery, London, UK 2002    Majority Rules panel discussion, Free Gallery, Glasgow, UK Digitized Bodies Forum, Galerija Kapelica, Ljubljana, Slovenia 2001    Biotechnology and Selfhood, Bio_Media_Forum (French Institute, C3 and Goethe Institute), Budapest, Hungary

Contact

Email: ekh_fong@hotmail.com Website: www.ericfong.com

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