Kryptonite, Heman Chong

The title of this work, Kryptonite, refers to the fictional radioactive material and sole weakness of DC Comics hero Superman. Much of artist Heman Chong’s conceptual work deals with issues found in fantasy and science fiction. Kryptonite is part of Chong’s Surfacing series. The title of the series is taken from the novel Surfacing (1972) by Canadian speculative fiction luminary Margaret Atwood. Like the novel, which grapples with identity, the series title raises questions about the nature of surfaces. A surface is illusive, merely hinting at what lies below. Composed of 3,000 stickers adhered directly to a wall according to a loose set of rules devised by Chong, the installation is a clustered mass that simulates cellular growth or interphase. Each incarnation of Kryptonite is made up of individual stickers arranged to form a larger organism in response to a particular context.