For four days in Venice last year, Singaporean artist Ming Wong either ambled around dressed as an elderly gentleman in a three-piece white suit and panama hat, or masqueraded as a mincing, seductive teenaged boy in a blond wig and sailor suit.
The results of his eccentric, costumed posturing can be seen in his latest video installation, Life and Death in Venice. A re-visitation of Luchino Visconti's classic 1971 film, Death in Venice, based on Thomas Mann's novel, it has Wong playing both the leading parts of Professor Aschenbach, an ageing German writer-musician, as well as that of Tadzio, a young Polish aristocrat.
With a camerawoman (Ivana Ivanova) and an assistant, Wong produced, directed and performed the piece on location while representing Singapore at the 53rd Venice Biennale last year - from which he returned with a special mention.
The Venice piece is on show at Hermes' Orchard Road boutique in Singapore until May 2, before its screening at the 17th Biennale of Sydney from May 12 to August 1.
Wong, at 39, is the same age as the original film. With a thoughtful smile, the Singapore-born, London-trained and Berlin-based artist explains the impetus: 'Coming to Venice, you see this very special place, where every shot looks like a postcard. It's a cliche. But it's a living cliche. I wanted to deal with that by inserting myself in it. But in this crazy blond wig and sailor's outfit, I was just pushing it to the limits of tastefulness.'
In a way, Wong's endeavour is a race against time to preserve that which is ephemeral or no longer exists. Scenes of Aschenbach and Tadzio's introspection are played out against some recognisable artworks displayed during the Venice Biennale, by the likes of Tomas Saraceno, Paul Chan, Tobias Rehberger, Ragnar Kjartansson and Zilvinas Kempinas, now dismantled.