MONUMENT #8/15

Eddie Wong
MONUMENT, 2023
Single channel video, generative AI, NeRFs 3D capture
TRT: 3 minutes 20 seconds
Music credit: Chris Speed Visuals (CSV)

The Tugu Negara (National Monument) in Malaysia stands as a symbol honoring those who lost their lives during the country's struggle for independence. The monument depicts heroic figures standing tall above defeated opponents and is believed to commemorate the lives of those who were killed fighting against the so-called 'communist insurgents.' The artist holds a deep connection to the monument: his grandfather was one of the faceless insurgents, who sacrificed himself for the cause. He sees him in the stone, among the others. In 1975, communist agitators bombed the monument, causing significant damage and disfiguring the statues. Some speculate that the bombing was a deliberate manipulation by the authorities to shift the monuments' racial identity and scapegoat the communists. This incident raises questions about the erasure of history and the blurring of fact and fiction.

In his artwork, MONUMENT, Eddie Wong explores these confrontations through the use of NeRFs (Neural Radiance Fields) and artificial intelligence to recreate the 3D shape of the monument and image generation. The work questions the authority of the stone, and reflects on the broad themes of the legacies of colonialism, racism, and cultural erasure through a journey of ‘speculative fabulation’. This single channel video is a continuation of the artist’s machine-fictioning practice exploring the Malayan Emergency – the anti-colonial war in British-Malaya (1949-1960), inspired by the loss of his grandfather's life during the conflict. The monument’s simulacra becomes a portal into the artist’s personal family roots and meditations on anti-colonial struggles, cultural identity, and the spectres of colonialism that lurks in the subterranean rubble of our world.

Eddie Wong is an artist and researcher based between New Zealand and Malaysia. His interdisciplinary practice reflects on the interplay between technology, narrative and contemporary issues. With an MA in Computational Arts from Goldsmiths University of London, Wong's work encompasses writing, video art, and installations, which have been shown internationally and published in leading academic journals such as SIGGRAPH and Leonardo. He has received multiple awards, including the Lumen Prize for Moving Images.

EPOCH presents, XENOSPACE, a ground-breaking and experimental virtual exhibition that features seven artists exploring the collaborative boundaries between AI and machine learning within their creative processes.

The title “XENOSPACE” alludes to an unusual or unfamiliar environment. EPOCH has processed 360 equirectangular panoramas through Stable Diffusion, generating the subsequent AI-assisted environments that serve as the backdrop for the artworks.

XENOSPACE responds to a significant moment in the field, as it reflects on the growing relationship between humans and machines and the impact of AI on creative expression. The exhibition serves as a benchmark, showcasing the expansive collaborative potential of AI and machine learning in contemporary art practices and exhibition building. – chatGPT