Writer, Lost Words, Found Worlds: On ‘The Library of Unread Books’ (Heman Chong) at Blank Canvas,Penang, review for Plural Art Mag

Hosted at art spaces and museums around the world, The Library of Unread Books is a traveling public reference library. The work was born during Heman Chong’s residency at NTU Centre for Contemporary Art (NTU CCA) in Singapore in 2016, departing from the idea of unread books and the tie to our psychological experience. Heman Chong collaborates with Collection Manager and Registrar Renée Staal in creating this thought-provoking initiative that examines the concept of neglected or abandoned books—items that symbolize potential knowledge yet remain untouched by their owners. 

“Beyond serving as a democratic space where people can engage with all kinds of literature, a library also serves other valuable social and leisure functions. In fact, visitor seek out libraries for free air conditioning; however, unlike shopping centres, one doesn’t have to spend money to benefit from being in a library. Accessible to any visitor, these books encapsulate their previous owners’ abandoned hopes and dreams of reading them, and can now be read by someone else.“

– Excerpt from Lost Words, Found Worlds: On ‘The Library of Unread Books’ (Heman Chong) at Blank Canvas, Penang by Amanda Ariawan, 2023.

Read Amanda’s full review on Plural Art Mag: pluralartmag.com/lost-words-found-worlds-on-the-library-of-unread-books-at-blank-canvas-penang

About Heman Chong

Heman Chong is a Malaysian Singapore-based artist, curator, and writer whose multidisciplinary practice spans image-making, performance, and text-based works. His work often examines the political and social structures embedded in everyday life, exploring themes of surveillance, media, and the circulation of knowledge. A key aspect of Chong’s work is his engagement with speculative fiction as a means to explore time, memory, and alternative realities. He is particularly interested in how ideas evolve, get translated, or are misinterpreted across different contexts, using text and storytelling as vehicles for open-ended participation. His projects often invite audiences to engage directly, blurring the lines between creator and observer. Chong’s work has been widely exhibited in museums and biennales across Asia and Europe, and his pieces are included in the public collections of Art Sonje Center, M+ Museum, The National Museum of Art Osaka, and Singapore Art Museum, amongst others.

About Plural Art Mag

Plural Art Mag started out as a student blog founded by Pauline Gan, Luke Chua and Usha Chandradas, three friends who met in art school while pursuing Master’s degrees in Asian Art Histories in Singapore. Art historians might recognise “plurality” as a term that’s bandied around liberally in essays. Here, it encapsulates their founding members’ initials (PLUral) and their outlook on art writing – embracing difference and individuality. United by nothing more than a deep love of the arts, a wicked sense of humour and a burning desire to simplify the language of art academia, they started blogging as a way to reach out to people who want a deeper understanding of Southeast Asian art, but don’t care to be mired in technical gobbledygook. (pluralartmag.com)