Wong Wai Yin

He, She, It (2019) are three series of acrylic and watercolor drawings, executed in an aesthetic reminiscent of vintage posters from the 1950s. Self-explanatory, He, She, It respectively represent clichés about the male, female and neutral genders. Wong uses ready-made clip art stencils to depict blank faces interspersed with catchy slogans, turning the iconography on its head and into a tool for satire, caricature and parody. The display methods of these three series are also meaningful: He is framed and proudly hung on the wall, She stands in an upright open rack to be perused, while It lays on a poster rack on the floor, indifferent to the viewers’ gaze.

Beneath the levity of superficial binary gendering, the works prompt self-reflection and trigger unwitting identification, which might ultimately arrive at a deeper truth about genders. We might yet see that gendered behavior and prejudice are tautologies perpetuated by our own conscious and unconscious participation in it.

He, She, It (2019) are three series of acrylic and watercolor drawings, executed in an aesthetic reminiscent of vintage posters from the 1950s. Self-explanatory, He, She, It respectively represent clichés about the male, female and neutral genders. Wong uses ready-made clip art stencils to depict blank faces interspersed with catchy slogans, turning the iconography on its head and into a tool for satire, caricature and parody. The display methods of these three series are also meaningful: He is framed and proudly hung on the wall, She stands in an upright open rack to be perused, while It lays on a poster rack on the floor, indifferent to the viewers’ gaze.

Beneath the levity of superficial binary gendering, the works prompt self-reflection and trigger unwitting identification, which might ultimately arrive at a deeper truth about genders. We might yet see that gendered behavior and prejudice are tautologies perpetuated by our own conscious and unconscious participation in it.

He, She, It (2019) are three series of acrylic and watercolor drawings, executed in an aesthetic reminiscent of vintage posters from the 1950s. Self-explanatory, He, She, It respectively represent clichés about the male, female and neutral genders. Wong uses ready-made clip art stencils to depict blank faces interspersed with catchy slogans, turning the iconography on its head and into a tool for satire, caricature and parody. The display methods of these three series are also meaningful: He is framed and proudly hung on the wall, She stands in an upright open rack to be perused, while It lays on a poster rack on the floor, indifferent to the viewers’ gaze.

Beneath the levity of superficial binary gendering, the works prompt self-reflection and trigger unwitting identification, which might ultimately arrive at a deeper truth about genders. We might yet see that gendered behavior and prejudice are tautologies perpetuated by our own conscious and unconscious participation in it.