Spotlight Artist

Yin Ming Wong

Northeast
Yin Ming Wong's headshot

Ping Pong in the Jungle

Surreal art of a two-faced woman playing ping pong outdoors with a curving ball trajectory.

oil on canvas

Put some spin into it

Abstract painting of women in red dresses flying toward a large ping pong ball and paddle.

oil on canvas

This crowd is going wild

Surreal painting of ping pong with multiple players and paddles on a blue table, orange background.

oil on canvas

Featured in New American Paintings1 / 3

Artist Statement

I use ping pong in my work as a visual metaphor to describe code-switching and dialogue, using duplication and displacement to put emphasis on the psychological involvement within sport. I am interested in the phenomenology of plural identities that develop when embodying multiple languages and/or vernaculars. Ping pong becomes a symbol for conversation in my paintings, referencing the many potentials during dialogue for either connection or conflict. Recently, I have been inspired by the quiet panic that comes with language inadequacy and the hypervigilance one might feel during active misunderstandings within a conversation. I see similarities in this experience to the inertia or urgency an athlete might feel toward scoring or keeping a ball within bounds. I currently work with a variety of repetitive symbols such as snakes, escape, slack-jawed shock, and fire in order to push this metaphor.

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