Artists
Vanda and Chandra
Vanda Chong has always been a life romantic who is guided by her imagination. She has explored multiple disciplines, not wanted to master any one in particular because learning is her passion. Sharing what she learns is her second passion. Her work, whether it’s a photograph, an installation, a film, or functional furniture and lighting, all have a story behind its making. These stories evoke memory, awaken the heart, and bring warmth into those who might come across it. She is currently on an assignment which requires her to travel across the world to Hong Kong, to test her romantic capacities in hand delivering a lost personal article back to its rightful owner. Opportunities like this lead her to creative inspiration, and what becomes of it could be anything.
Chandra Nalaani sees art as a way to give form to thoughts that haven't quite surfaced, to redirect energy, to better understand herself and the outside world. She uses wire, steel, canvas, clay, charcoal, doorknobs, safety pins, video, thread... and whatever else strikes her fancy at the time. Usually it isn't until the piece is finished that she realizes why she chose a certain material, object, or site. The process is first intuitive and then tangible: you're drawn to something, then the work begins to take shape (object as translator). She's always had an interest in discarded things—what falls by the wayside, what resonates at the subconscious level but doesn't quite break through at first glance.
Abstract yet specific—and regardless of the medium or form—she hopes to capture a quiet intensity or a certain gesture so perfectly that it becomes not about the piece itself but the wordless things we understand without knowing that we do. Influences include Eva Hesse, Tom Friedman, Ann Hamilton, and Louise Bourgeois.
On their pairing:
How refreshing is it to look at relationships not through the lens of love, or hate, or anything grandiose, but through the small, inscrutable things – like odd habits and idiosyncrasies, the negotiation of personal space and politics of touch, and misread cues and miscommunication? Chandra nailed this one on the head – it’s not the big gestures that get us carried away, it’s the little ones that get under our skin. Vanda, as well, is a collector of the small gestures that illuminate our lives. Together, these two sculptors and installation artists will flick the switch on the excitement – and awkwardness – of flings.