Weng San Sit

Artist Statement

I am a Singaporean artist living in the United States who works primarily with still and moving images, complementing them with text, archival materials, and other media as the project dictates. I have a BA in Economics and worked for almost a decade in a maintenance chemical company, making me especially competent in stain removal and rust prevention in shipyards and other industries.

That experience led me to begin in my practice to investigate and disrupt systems and power structures that create the dissonance between inattentive, homogeneous representations of marginalized bodies versus the reality of complex and multi-faceted identities; often the foundation and reinforcer of deeply entrenched inequalities.

My projects are often a response to the experience of myself or those around me. They have focused on ways in which bodies that are colonized, colored, fat, differently-abled, aging, economically disfranchised and/or gendered exist with complexities that defy definition, and have always been sites of resistance and resilience. Often by providing a space to see things as they are, I attempt to open up questions and challenge these mythologies through the continuous search for what Foucault calls the ‘Third Space’, where meanings and symbols cease to exist in fixity and can be appropriated, translated, rehistoricized, and read anew. Currently, I am working on a photo and video based project that explores routines that women incorporate in our lives as our bodies go through transitions and challenges.

I graduated with an MFA from the California Institute of the Arts and is currently based between Los Angeles and Singapore.

www.wengsan.com