Solo show by Isaac Chong Wai now on display at Zilberman Selected in İstanbul

The street lamp installations, titled ‘Crying Streetlight (2022)’, are cold and metallic. They mimic the public street lamps that are installed in the squares of Tiananmen, Beijing, China, and in Pyongyang, North Korea. The betraying details, however, are the tiny cable chain necklaces that are installed within the metallic frames; they resemble falling tears. In this installation, Isaac is manifesting and fixing the tears that are the main theme of the exhibition.

In contrast to the monumental and stationary street lamps are the videos, constantly playing back two different performances. The artist on one channel is obviously mourning (performing), yet no tears are falling. The artist in the opposite channel is crying with the help of the cable chain necklaces that fall from her palms, held closely to her face. The reference is, again, to artificial tears.

What do tears constitute of if performed publicly? Must sadness be expressed publicly in order to show genuine mourning? What if the act of mourning is compelled? Are the people in the squares then genuinely lamenting the loss of their leaders, or are they each drawing on personal experiences of grief in order to showcase their sadness? In this show, the artist is creatively exploring the meaning of crying tears when grief is politicized.