| My work is about seeing through the first layer. To explain this, I will first talk about the process of how I create my artwork. I have a library of over two thousand 35-millimeter slides. I layer two or more slides, or I cut them apart with an Exacto blade and create a collage. I then scan, but that is all that is done digitally. There is no Photoshop involved in this process. Doing these by hand is very important to me. When I put the slides together, there is no set plan. I move one over the other on a light table and, if it works, I put them into a slide cover. At times, it looks like a fast hand of Black Jack. I let the images flow with no forethought or plan. It is all a game of chance. Just like life. |  |
X-ray Vision – Ophelia Chong
My work is about seeing through the first layer. To explain this, I will first talk about the process of how I create my artwork. I have a library of over two thousand 35-millimeter slides. I layer two or more slides, or I cut them apart with an Exacto blade and create a collage. I then scan, but that is all that is done digitally. There is no Photoshop involved in this process. Doing these by hand is very important to me. When I put the slides together, there is no set plan. I move one over the other on a light table and, if it works, I put them into a slide cover. At times, it looks like a fast hand of Black Jack. I let the images flow with no forethought or plan. It is all a game of chance. Just like life.
Now on to the why. I grew up in a house that was built in 1890. One year, my parents decided to paint the dining room. As I helped steam off the wallpaper, I keep peeling off layer after layer of paper. Each layer told me a story—who sat here, who ate here, who lived here. That moment of discovery stayed with me. It laid the foundation for my future artwork.
By combining images, I can bring the hidden into view.
My portraits show the layers behind the face. Think was created with two images—a child with scars and a close up of Rubens’ Rape of the Daughters of Leucippus from 1671. The scars of her agony live below the surface. Tattoo U was created by layering Parmigianino’s The Madonna with the Long Neck from 1535 with a skull tattoo. Madonna has been tattooed by history.
There is joy and pain behind every face. You just have to look behind all the layers.
