The Contemporary Orient

Kai Siong Chong

THE CONTEMPORARY ORIENT is a series of photographic self-portraits that visually explores the possibility of the self whose existence exhibits the characteristics of the “Orient” subject but simultaneously possesses the Orientalist gaze. Questions arising from the entwined relationship between Orientalism and photography are the starting point of this photographic series. The self-portraits adopt visual tropes from Orientalist photography in the 19th century and early 20th century, combined with the aesthetics of self-portrait practices in Chinese art and photography.