(b. 1977, Malaysia) graduated with an MA in International Contemporary Art and Design Practice from the University of East London. His work considers abstract concepts of life and death through the banal details, silent landscapes and curious obsessions he observes from daily life. He has participated in numerous exhibitions in Kuala Lumpur, London, Tokyo and Singapore. He is currently a photography lecturer for a private art institution in Malaysia.

Curator’s note:

Children project their desires for play onto dolls and toys. Through the imagination they become real characters that take part in games and make believe. Upon reaching adulthood, many naturally discard these relationships for more mature pastimes. But those who continue their fascination with the doll are often viewed with suspicion and derision. Eiffel Chong focuses on the toys consumed by adult audiences. In CUT2010, he exposes manga dolls that are part of Japanese anime and comic book culture. As an object for specific needs and escape, here the doll becomes a fetish for sexual objectification and heightened states of imagination.  Role-play and fantasy appear more bizarre and sinister, in this often misunderstood subculture. Titles such as I Will Let You Whip Me if I Misbehave and She Used Her Hand to Slip Me Inside Her miniature provoke viewers to contemplate enormous versions of these miniature figurines. In reality they are 10cm high and were bought by Chong in a shopping mall in Kuala Lumpur. But such small things are also coveted and voraciously collected by Otaku (Manga fanatics) across the world.

Chong’s images subvert the gaze between the viewer and subject. Since the dolls have been enlarged they take on human proportions and become more active participants in this spectacle. They return our gaze, and provoke our discomfort. This sense of psychological exploration is precisely what Chong aims to create when playing with scale and perspective in order to reveal the obsessions of those who participate in this community. After careful consideration, the shock of their associated pornography wears off, as with much repetitive exposure to provocative images in photography, and what is revealed are the bizarre and exaggerated practices of human voyeurism.