IN CONVERSATION: JOHN CLANG

John Clang illustrated by Maria Chen

DATE

2025/07/25

ARTICLE

Maria Chen

PHOTOS

Courtesy of the Artist

Tracing Time, Finding Home: A Conversation with John Clang on Art, Identity, and Singapore at 60

As Singapore celebrates 60 years of independence, Artist’s Proof: Singapore at 60 (AP60) offers a poignant lens into the nation’s evolving identity, told through the perspectives of some of its most resonant artistic voices. Among them is John Clang, a Singaporean visual artist whose work has long explored the emotional, temporal, and cultural tensions of diasporic life. Born Ang Choon Leng (汪春龙) in Singapore in 1973, Clang divides his time between New York and his homeland, navigating the dual realities of global cities through photography, film, and metaphysical performance. His deeply personal practice reflects on themes of belonging, familial distance, and selfhood across time and space — themes that powerfully anchor his presentation for AP60 at Artspace@Helutrans in Singapore.

CREDITS

All works courtesy of the artist

“Don’t let the culture of other spaces ruin your own culture. Find the common voices and use that to enhance who you really are.”—John Clang

CNTRFLD. You’ve lived and worked between Singapore and New York for many years. How has this duality — of time zones, cities, and cultures — shaped your understanding of what it means to be Singaporean today?

JC. It is all about the mindset evolving and maturing over a phase of two decades. It started from the curiosities of the space outwards, to the yearning for the familiar home. It began with the absence of the people you love, with each visit and departure triggering the longing for family, to the eventual departure of them mortally, causing immense grief and regrets… and still, I feel that I want to retain my Singapore passport, I want to remain as a Singaporean. It makes me understand that my heart had long chosen where my home is.

CNTRFLD. You’ve described your work as navigating “dual realities” and absorbing the mundane as material. How do these concepts surface in the work you’re showing at Artspace for AP60? Can you walk us through the ideas behind this presentation?

JC. The Land of My Heart speaks about the evolving changes and narratives taking place in the areas where I grew up. The Singapore Girl in the image represents an eternal icon who remains unchanged, while the landscape she is situated in is constantly evolving. The words written in the photo convey a narrative from the past, lingering in my mind. These three elements combine to reflect the complex feelings I have about the space I love and miss.

A Portrait of Singapore is a drawing that uses ancient Chinese metaphysic technique Zi Wei Dou Shu to plot a birth chart of Singapore based on its day and time of independence. Through this chart, I am able to witness the challenges Singapore has faced and how it has overcome them in the past 60 years. I am also able to see the future of Singapore, and I am happy to say that we will continue to excel in the next 10 years. I call this a metaphysical portrait, which can inform us beyond the external shell, offering a roadmap of our fullest potential and our weaknesses.

CNTRFLD. What does “home” mean to you — emotionally and artistically — when you’re often working between continents? How do you sustain your connection to Singapore, especially as the country marks 60 years of independence?

JC. One important detail about my life is that I spend a lot of time at home, which is also my workspace, whenever I can. I am an indoor plant, and I have very little social life. Within this personal interior, I listen to radio stations from Singapore. So, without stepping out of my apartment, it feels no different from being in Singapore. Even after spending two decades in New York, I still have my strong Singapore accent. I open my kitchen cabinet and see packets of laksa sauce kit bought in Singapore. All these details must mean something. Whenever I have a chance, I always contribute my work and connect with people in Singapore, always cherishing those experiences and opportunities as something special, never taken for granted. In short, I respect the art community in Singapore tremendously and do take their views seriously. Because I care, my presence is formed.

CNTRFLD. Your early decision to leave LASALLE and apprentice with Chua Soo Bin set a unique tone for your journey. How did those early years shape your understanding of artistic discipline and identity?

JC. The early decision to leave LASALLE was because my family and I couldn’t afford the school fees. What made it worse was that I gave up my chance to enter Junior College to join LASALLE. So, by quitting LASALLE, my highest education level at that point would be just a Secondary School graduate. It was a very heavy decision for me to make, especially since I came from a Secondary School meant for the top 10% students. I knew for certain that if I didn’t create any meaningful artwork in the future, I simply wouldn’t have any future at all. That idea struck me deeply. If I am not able to risk it all for something I believe in, why spend another minute doing it. I needed to devote myself fully and that’s what I did. Will I advise others to do what I did? No, I wouldn’t even dare to attempt it again.

CNTRFLD. Your work Reading by an Artist rethinks portraiture through metaphysical performance and divination. What prompted this turn toward the performative and metaphysical in your practice — and what does “portraiture” mean to you now?

JC. I was working on the Being Together series around 2009/2010, creating portraitures of separated families using Skype technology. During that time, I began thinking about how to continue exploring the topics of portraiture without the use of technology or even a camera. I wanted to do something that no one else had done, and to be very good in it. That was when the idea of using ancient metaphysical technique caught my attention. I knew from history that this played a very important aspect in ancient empire building. I was also aware that John Cage had been composing his work using I Ching since 1951.

This makes me want to master the technique and use it to create a portraiture of someone that goes beyond physical images, but by simply having a dialogue with someone, guiding them to truly see themselves and form an internal portrait within their heart. It was a very ambitious task and learning curve. It took me more than 10 years to research to truly become a real master of this practice, before I start doing this performance publicly. Now, portraiture has taken on a new meaning for me. It is what you know about your SELF that makes you choose what you want to SEE, and in doing so, you BECOME who you are.

CNTRFLD. Can you share any reflections on how London, or other cities you’ve worked in, have challenged or expanded your creative thinking — particularly in relation to identity and representation?

JC. I have always believed that humans have many things in common despite cultural differences. It never crossed my mind how various cities would affect my creative thinking, as I tend to focus on the similarities among humans rather than the differences. It is these similarities that provide us with the hope to connect and overcome our differences.

CNTRFLD. The Being Together series, where families were photographed across continents via Skype, resonates deeply post-pandemic. What drew you to explore the emotional distances and technological intimacies of diasporic life?

JC. I had left my family and country since my mid-20s, seeking a new life in a foreign country. It was a very dark period for me, as I was pursuing my dreams with very little resources. Making a phone call back to my family back then (late 1990s–early 2000s) was a very expensive process. So, I understand that feeling of detachment and longing, witnessing the sunset in NYC while thinking of the sunrise in Singapore. It was about being homesick.

At the same time, I also saw many illegal immigrants in NYC who had left their countries to pursue a better life, and who had little opportunity to see their homeland or families again. All of this changed when technology advanced, and I decided to create this series to mark the time we were living through, showing the distance between families across continents, while expressing the closeness and underlying dynamics of a family. It forms a new kind of family portrait that people of this time are familiar with.

CNTRFLD. In your opinion, how do different audiences—whether in Singapore, Europe, or the Middle East—respond to your work? Have there been surprising interpretations or dialogues that emerged internationally?

JC. As I tend to start a project based on basic human core fundamentals, focusing on our common needs and desires, I do feel that people can resonate with my work once they are exposed to it. The only downside is that I am not aggressively putting my work out to an international audience, due to my ‘hermit’ personality and non-existent social life.

CNTRFLD. Beyond AP60, what new projects or directions are you currently exploring — in film, photography, or elsewhere? Are there new territories you’re hoping to enter creatively?

JC. I am currently involved in a group show with Galerie Lelong in New York, officially debuting Reading by an Artist in NYC. The exhibition also showcases some of my photography work. Besides this, I will also be participating in the Ghost Triennial (Ghost2568) this October in Bangkok, as well as a residency program next year that will be announced at the end of this year. I am continuing to produce new photography and film work, both of which will take time to complete due to the nature of the content and subject matter.

For example, I am working on a documentary film together with Lavender Chang, focusing on single mothers. It is an ongoing project that will take many years to realize, as it requires time for the narrative to take shape organically. I tend to be very slow in pursuing my projects, as I want everything to hold a certain meaningful purpose.

Having said that, I hope to spend the next 10 years performing Reading by an Artist across various continents. I am confident that I can make a difference in the lives of those who encounter this performance.

CNTRFLD. Finally, what advice would you offer to young artists from Singapore or Southeast Asia who are navigating life and work across borders — especially in holding onto their voice while evolving in new environments?

JC. My advice is very simple: don’t let the culture of other spaces ruin your own culture. Find the common voices and use that to enhance who you really are. Like what Founding Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew once said, “I may speak the English language better than I speak my Chinese language, but I'll never be an Englishman in a thousand generations.” You learn to speak another culture’s language to understand and respect it, but you should always think in the way that reflects your own roots and identity.

About the artist.

John Clang (b. 1973, Singapore), born Ang Choon Leng (汪春龙), is a visual artist whose multidisciplinary practice spans photography, film, and metaphysical performance. Known for his distinctive ability to navigate “dual realities,” Clang absorbs the banal and everyday stimuli of global cities and transforms them into poetic meditations on identity, time, memory, and diaspora. Based between New York and Singapore, his work often blurs the boundaries between the factual and surreal, the personal and universal. A self-taught artist who began his career assisting Cultural Medallion recipient Chua Soo Bin, Clang held his first exhibition at age 20 with the now-defunct artist group 5th Passage and has since developed a significant international presence. His major solo exhibitions have been staged at venues including the National Museum of Singapore, FOST Gallery, and Pekin Fine Arts, while his work has been shown at institutions such as the Singapore Art Museum, Sharjah Biennial 16 (2025), Centre for Contemporary Culture Strozzina (Italy), Deichtorhallen Hamburg, and the Pera Museum (Turkey). His participatory performance series Reading by an Artist(2023–ongoing), which uses Chinese divination to create portraiture through dialogue, exemplifies his shift toward metaphysical and conceptual approaches to image-making. Clang’s notable earlier series Being Together (2010–2012), which used Skype technology to connect and photograph diasporic families across continents, and The Land of My Heart (2014), which reimagined national iconography, highlight his deep engagement with emotional and cultural displacement. His films, including Their Remaining Journey (2018), A Love Unknown (2020), and Absent Smile (2022), have been screened at major festivals such as the International Film Festival Rotterdam. A recipient of the prestigious Designer of the Year award at the President’s Design Award Singapore (2010), Clang’s work is held in the permanent collections of both the Singapore Art Museum and the National Museum of Singapore.

About Artist’s Proof: Singapore at 60.

Artist’s Proof: Singapore at 60 is a landmark exhibition and deeply personal tribute to Singapore’s founding leaders, told not through speeches or textbooks, but through art. Over the past decade, private collector Mr Chong Huai Seng has gathered artworks capturing Singapore’s transformation,

from nostalgic street scenes to bold contemporary takes on identity and leadership. In celebration of Singapore’s 60th birthday, this ambitious exhibition features over 90 works by more than 50 artists, offering a fresh perspective of the Singapore story through the creative expressions of local artists from different generations. Featuring 11 new commissions by local artists and 1 brand new music piece, the exhibition underscores Chong’s passion in supporting young artists, seeking to inspire audiences to embrace local contemporary artists and invest in the growing potential of the future of Singapore’s arts through art collecting and patronage. Chong’s love letter to Singapore traces its journey from a struggling young nation to a global city. Scenes of Singapore’s evolving cityscape unfold through paintings and photographs, while works inspired by Lee Kuan Yew and the founding fathers examine their legacy and impact on nation-building. The exhibition also looks inward, questioning the relationship between artists, the state, and its people. Presented by The Culture Story and produced by Family Office for Art, Artist’s Proof: Singapore at 60 invites audiences of all ages and backgrounds to experience Singapore through the eyes of artists.

Singapore at 60 (AP60) at Artspace@Helutrans, Singapore (13 July – 17 August 2025)

With thanks for the Culture Story for facilitating this interview.

Tracing Time, Finding Home: A Conversation with John Clang on Art, Identity, and Singapore at 60

“Don’t let the culture of other spaces ruin your own culture. Find the common voices and use that to enhance who you really are.”—John Clang

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