BLOCK B

(2008, single-channel audio-visual installation, HD, orig 35mm, 20:00min, Tamil with Eng subs)

BLOCK B was shot in the Brickfields neighbourhood of Kuala Lumpur, where the artist lived for a time. The area is not only a major local transportation hub, but it is also home to a large Indian community (both local and expatriate), massage parlours, red-light districts, a blind community, and various religious structures, including temples, churches and mosques. This is a place where the cadences of the azan (the Islamic call to prayer) meld with the tintinnabulation of the puja (Hindu prayer rituals). The composition of the moving images is presented as an abstract grid – a moving painting. A theatrical treatment of documentary and fiction. What Chong offers the viewer in BLOCK B is a revealing tension between the anonymous spatial homogeneity of urban architecture and the colour, noise and ferment of life as we find it in Southeast Asia.

Nous remercions de Conseil des arts du Canada de son soutien.