Isaac Chong Wai Finds Empowerment Through Care

The theme of Isaac Chong Wai’s latest exhibition flickers right at you in bright white neon as the lift opens into Hong Kong’s Blindspot Gallery. The words ‘falling’ and ‘carefully’ blink in turn, then together; the adverb’s Cantonese equivalent, ‘小心地跌倒’, flashes on the wall nearby. The first of half of that word, ‘小心’, is uttered frequently in this city and has many meanings, from ‘beware’ to ‘take care’.

Chong, who is based between Berlin and Hong Kong, is better known for his performances than for semantics. His show, ‘carefully’, which roughly coincides with his inclusion in the 2025 Taipei Biennial, showcases recent neon sculptures, glass etchings, drawings and prints as well as a video performance work. Chong’s art is often made in response to efforts to find solidarity in the face of global political uncertainty; in this exhibition, he takes a personal tack, drawing upon his upbringing in colonial Hong Kong.

Neon lights, glass structures, reflective surfaces: the aesthetics of the exhibition are superficial yet visceral nods to the city itself. Around the corner from the neons, glass plaques are mounted upon mirror-topped plinths in Missing Space (Hong Kong) (2025). Each glass sheet contains the GPS coordinates of a mark associated with the 1941 Battle of Hong Kong, which began when the Japanese Empire attacked the territory (then a British colony), launching an occupation that lasted almost four years. Chong transforms the negative spaces from these marks, some of which are the bullet holes, into crystalline forms to illustrate the paradoxical nature of material and memory alike: depending on its state, each can be transparent, fractured or obscured.

Themes of duality pervade the exhibition: from the dichotomies intrinsic to Hong Kong’s heritage as a former British colony (it returned to British rule in 1945, lasting until 1997), to the cultural plurality Chong himself navigates daily. This is most clearly exemplified in the bilingual neon signs, and more subtly referenced in the series ‘Breath Marks’ (2023–25): abstracted silhouettes of newsworthy photographs from Hong Kong’s history, made by photographing his breath marks on glass and etching that image onto a series of glass panels. A particularly potent example, Queen Elizabeth II and Crying Hong Kong Girl (2023), references a viral photograph of a sobbing girl clutching an image of the late Queen Elizabeth II at her memorial outside the British Consulate in 2022. Some criticized the girl for grieving an imperial regime. The reproduction of this moment in glass, as ambiguous as it may be, raises questions about whom and what we grieve, which versions of history are worth remembering and how mourning and memory fracture us. Though seemingly tenuous, the dictum of Chong’s exhibition title suggests that the historical incidents that splinter us are nuanced and fragile and should be addressed carefully.

Die Mütter (The Mothers, 2022), the lone video work in the exhibition, offers a remedy to this fragmented sense of grief. Referencing German expressionist Käthe Kollwitz’s woodcut of the same name – from her series Krieg (War, 1918–23), made in the wake of World War I – Chong’s 14-minute, two-channel video serves as an example of the power in collective grieving. Filmed in the ruins of a Franciscan church in Berlin, the work depicts the artist and a group of performers leaning on one another, interweaving their arms and bodies to form a unit. Rotating clockwise, they sing songs of mourning and lullabies from a range of cultural traditions, including Sanskrit mantras and German choir music. Through movement and song, Die Mütter demonstrates Chong’s proposition: that care and collectivity can be harnessed to produce a sense of empowerment in situations that otherwise leave us feeling powerless.

Isaac Chong Wai’s ‘carefully’ is on view at Blindspot Gallery, Hong Kong until 1 November

^{Main image: Isaac Chong Wai, Missing Space: HSBC Lion Stephen in Hong Kong, 22°16'49.9"N 114°09’35.1”E, Claw #1, 2025, glass, etching on glass, mirror, wooden tray, 3 × 8 × 6 cm (glass sculpture), 30 × 30 cm (etched glass), 30 × 30 cm (mirror). Courtesy: the artist and Blindspot Gallery}