» True Blue no.d7

Sourcing images from mass media and archives, Tông’s works transcends time and dissolves borders in a global study of political discord. The images appear faded, emphasising this passing through time and our removal from the original experience. Tông’s manipulations of each image create heavy distortions and eschew any clear reading of events. What we are left with is our own interpretation. Detached from their separate narratives, Tông re-contextualises the photographs in a unified presentation of disparate movements. Splotches and stains accentuate the True Blue and True Gold series’ historical tone, while fluid patterns and recurring geometric grids emerge to give a sense of movement and flux. Layers of oil paint become a visual representation for the layers of meaning observers can read into his work, and ultimately compound a feeling of confusion. Texts throughout the work are reversed and pixelated, suggestive of information, true or false, filtering at first through people, then generations, and finally into the present. Identities of people in the photographs are obliterated, and large groups reduced to expressive shapes and lines, as Tông’s focus rests not on the individual but the effectiveness of our collective power. (Text courtesy of the artist)