HEAVENHELL

(2009, six-channel audio-video installation, 10:00 min, dimensions variable)

HEAVENHELL, A collaboration with and a commission by NPO Koganecho Area Management Center as part of Chong’s residency at the Koganecho Bazaar, which is located in the former red-light district of Koganecho, Yokohama, Japan. Koganecho was the conceptual reference for ‘hell’ in Akira Kurosawa’s 1963 film High and Low. However, because of the district’s notoriety, shooting on location became far too dangerous for the cast and crew.

HEAVENHELL looks to restage the past and present representations of the red-light district by shooting the slum scene on the same street that Kurosawa had initially intended but was unable to do so. Chong referred to the film scenes that Kurosawa shot in the studio in order to re-create the eerie and hyper-theatrical mood of the infamous street in both the traditional and contemporary periods; recruiting local youth in the now cleaned-up neighbourhood of Koganecho.

2015 Artstage, Singapore
2014 EYE Filmmuseum, Netherlands
2013 Museum of Applied Arts, Austria
2013 Kino Der Kunst, Germany
2010 Museum of Canadian Contemporary Art, Canada
2009 Int’l Festival for Arts & Media Yokohama (CREAM Forum), Japan
2009 Koganecho Bazaar, Japan