Originally commissioned for the 2009 Venice Biennale for the artist's solo exhibition Life of Imitation at the Singapore Pavilion, In Love for the Mood is inspired by Hong Kong filmmaker Wong Kar-wai’s meditation on love and infidelity In the Mood for Love (2000), film # 52 on The Essential 100 list.

A Caucasian actress plays both the leading man and woman and attempts to deliver the lines in Cantonese. These are recorded in three loops, played simultaneously on three screens.

Curator Russell Storer writes of the piece, “Despite Ming’s distancing techniques, and even though it is known that the actress can’t understand the language she is speaking, the scenes are still remarkably poignant, proving the power of cinema to draw the audience into its affective realm.”

Award-winning Singaporean artist Ming Wong explores the performative veneers of language and identity, through his own interpretation of world cinema.

Presented in the RBC Learning Studio.