-- Artist statement
After the mid-20th century, large numbers of Chinese immigrants including my grandfather, Wong Ho Lang, migrated to Malaya from China. Recollections from my childhood memories and looking through family portraits and photo albums had provided me with a better understanding of my grandfather and family heritage. One particular family photo taken during Chinese New Year celebration with the whole family gathering at the shop front of our family-owned tire shop reflected my family heritage and the living environment during that time. Through the retelling of my family history delivered in a narrative expressed in the form of collage art and utilizing the interaction of photography, space and memory, this series of work expresses the complex feelings I carry towards my family’s migrant heritage.
Wong Boon Jun 王文骏, born in 1998, is a Malaysia-based photographer. He is currently pursuing his Bachelor's Degree of Arts in Photography at the Communication University of China in Beijing. Often touched by the beauty around him, Boon Jun has developed the passion to express the complex human relationships he observed through photography. He combines historical and contemporary material with the goal of producing a visual dialogue that transcends time and speaks into the future. His work frequently combines digital composites with analogue and alternative procedures, as well as elements of mixed media. His primary interests are origin and identity, as well as tracing memory, emotions, time, and culture change, which shift our view of history. Since 2018, Boon Jun's photographic works have been exhibited in galleries and photo festivals locally and around the Asia region. In 2022, he was nominated The 2nd BANSHAN PHOTOGRAPHY AWARD TOP 30+. In 2021, his < Grandfather's Journey: A Chinese immigrant story > work is awarded the Excellent Student Work Award by the 2021 Pingyao International Photography Festival, 5th Communication University of China Trade Union.
