Sherman Ong is an award-winning filmmaker, photographer and educator. Straddling fiction and documentary, his films were exhibited in Europe, US, Brazil and Asia and have won awards in Hong Kong, Greece, Italy, Indonesia and Malaysia. Dara, Bini, Mati Laki is a multi-channel video installation created by Ong for his 2020 solo exhibition, "White Space: works by Sherman Ong," at Lim Hak Gallery, NAFA. This three-channel video employs staggered sequencing to create a sophisticated and immersive narrative experience.
Ong's work often blurs the lines between Southeast Asian folklore and horror, drawing inspiration from local myths and superstitions. By juxtaposing the familiar and the fantastical, he highlights the importance of history and ritual in shaping our identities. Through techniques like metonymy and suspension of disbelief, he invites viewers to reimagine cultural identity through fragmented and symbolic representations.
This style of video work is critical for its Southeast Asian content, but also its technical strategies and the display medium informing the genre of the artist’s oeuvre.
