ENDEMIC

(2015, installation, mechanical artificial orchids, dimensions variable (x 12 pieces with table)

ENDEMIC is an installation of mechanized and manufactured copies of rare endemic orchids of Mount Kinabalu, Malaysian Borneo. This project looks at the definition of 'endemic' which can be defined as a species that only survives at a certain locale / climate / environment. Using two points of reference, (1) historical field research photographs and (2) published botanical illustrations, a fabricated clone with a single mechanized bloom are seen barely moving, haphazardly laid flat on a wooden table. A sharp light from one side acts as a beam of sunshine through a window onto this table of harvested latex orchids. Reflecting on the various definitions of the indigneous, the native, the origin, and the original; ENDEMIC moves an unmovable species whose only means of existance is through an artificial reproduction within a manufacturing process.

"The exhibition’s centrepiece was ENDEMIC (2015), Chris Chong Chan Fui’s replicas of rare orchids grown in the artist’s home country of Malaysia. Unique to the tropical region of Borneo, these plants rarely survive when transplanted from their native climate. Chong’s artificial flora are so skilfully replicated, however, that only a close inspection reveals their facsimile features, as each petal makes mechanical ‘clockwork’ movements. The kinetic nature of Chong’s botanical sculptures raises the question of authenticity in the age of genetic engineering, while also hinting at the challenge of humans who have been transplanted to adapt and sustain their culture – a possible metaphor not only for Southeast Asia’s stateless Rohingya minority but also for those citizens displaced by the Tohoku earthquake, tsunami and nuclear disaster of 2011."
(K. Usuda, FRIEZE magazine, April 2016)