As a FRONT International artist, Wong’s work relates to both the science and art themes of Synapse as well as FRONT’s themes of transformation and healing. Wong Kit Yi lives and works between New York and Hong Kong. Exploring biological answers to metaphysical questions, she deals with odd scientific findings and the dysfunctional relationship between what is considered science and pseudoscience. Wong also investigates the contractual relationship, working with such ideas as patron collaboration through the 99-year leases for her artworks. Her interests are always subject to change.
Her most recent works have been included in projects organized by Public Art Fund (New York, 2020); TANK Museum (Shanghai, 2020); Para Site (Hong Kong, 2019); Surplus Space (Wuhan, 2018); the Latvian Centre for Contemporary Art (Riga, 2017). Reviews of her work have appeared in such publications as the New York Times, Art in America, Contemporary Art Daily, E-flux conversations, Art Review, ART news, ArtAsiaPacific, and Art Newspaper. She was selected for the Chinati Foundation Artist in Residence program (Marfa, 2021). Receiving an MFA from Yale University, she has been teaching university courses about performance, video art and new media. She is the co-chair of LASER (Leonardo Art Science Evening Rendezvous) Hong Kong.
After researching in Akron and Cleveland, I was immensely inspired by the world’s first voice box transplantation that was carried out at Cleveland Clinic in 1998. My latest karaoke lecture performance Inner Voice Transplant (2022) covers a range of topics including reanimating a dead person’s voice to the elusive nature of the inner voice; pilgrimages made in sickness; ancient temple priests interpreting dreams millennia in advance of Sigmund Freud; the homesickness of Jiang Shi—the Chinese hopping zombie; evoking a powerful spell that has been used since the Middle Ages; and methods for using the “inner wind” from our lungs to perform political magic. – Wong Kit Yi
