Wong Ping: Earwax: Times Art Center Berlin

Times Art Center Berlin is pleased to present the upcoming solo exhibition Earwax 耳屎 by the artist Wong Ping, curated by Hou Hanru. Spanning three months from March 4 till June 26, 2022, the exhibition features three newly commissioned, site-specific installations created by the artist. As one of the most eccentric artists of our time, Wong’s visual language moves on the border between shock and humour, often creating disturbing and crude narratives that challenge conventional concepts of human desire, obsession, shame, isolation, or repressed sexuality. At the Times Art Center Berlin, the artist realizes his largest sculptural work to date, and transfers his idiosyncratic, humorous aesthetic into three-dimensional space. In his new works, playfulness meets urgency and discomfort as Wong critically reflects on turning increasingly inward in the face of pandemic restrictions on public life. As Hou Hanru writes in his curatorial statement: “From Hong Kong, Wong Ping sends us greetings, somewhat intimately, via the secret canal—his ears are now connected to ours. Is there a hole to some fresh air out there, on the other side of the world, in this pandemic new age?”

Murmurs leak from someone’s ear. It’s the echo created by the excess of a bunch of unpleasant words that have been blocked from the eardrum. Those that made it through are simply nonsense, only the earwax remain as wisdom.

Wong Ping, Earwax (excerpt)