A Day in the Life: Daniel Chong
Seeking and growing ideas
By Daniel Chong, with Nabila Giovanna W
‘A Day in the Life’ is a new series by A&M where we invite artists to share a day in their life through a short series of images and brief descriptions.
Daniel Chong. Image courtesy of Berny Tan.
Daniel Chong (b. 1995) is a Singaporean artist who transforms everyday objects into artworks that investigate memories, human emotions, and absurdities in life. For our first ‘A Day in the Life’ story, Daniel takes us into his studio to showcase his new series of works, and how sunlight and tending plants play a role in his practice.
Studio view. Image courtesy of the artist.
I usually arrive at the studio in the late afternoon. At this time, the studio glows and I would watch how the light interacts with my works.
Studio plants. Image courtesy of the artist.
The first thing I usually do once I arrive at the studio is to check, water, and prune my plants. It helps to put me in the right frame of mind for art-making.
Work in progress for ‘Absurd Intimacies’ installation. Image courtesy of the artist.
I have been working towards an installation with these biscuits, but it is still far from complete. Every day, I would come in and shift things around to grow the ideas around these enlarged biscuits.
Work in progress of a drawing. Image courtesy of the artist.
Whenever I am stuck with the biscuits, I switch to working on a new series of torn drawings depicting slept-in beds. This particular drawing is the size of a single-sized bed.
Detail of drawing. Image courtesy of the artist.
This is part of a new series of drawings I have started this year. The highlights of these works are built up by tearing away at the surface of the drawing. It creates mundane folds that are charged with this gesture.
Follow Daniel on Instagram to see more of his day-to-day routine.
Read other ‘A Day in the Life’ stories here.
About the Artist
Daniel Chong is an artist-curator working between quiet slippages of function and sentimentality. His practice softly nudges our preconceived notions of objects through minute interventions. Chong’s works are irreverent and casual but in it lies a thorough process of listening and working an object through its materiality.
