Born in 1971 in Malaysia, Sherman Ong is a filmmaker, photographer and educator. An alumnus of the 1st Berlinale Talent Campus 2003, Ong’s works have since premiered at Rotterdam International Film Festival, Netherlands (2009); International Electronic Art Festival Video, Brasil (2005); and Institute of Contemporary Arts, London (2004). He was also an artist-in-residence at the Fukuoka Asian Art Museum and in 2008 presented a feature film at the Singapore International Film Festival.This photograph, one of six acquired from a series of 17, was made in Hanoi, Vietnam, during Ong’s participation at the Goethe Institut’s Art Connexions residency project. Witnessing a sudden hailstorm, which was followed by a violent storm, Ong was struck by how the people of the city carried on with their everyday life, and how individuals have their own way of facing what nature may unexpectedly hand them on a daily basis. Seeking to evoke the spirit and form of the Japanese haiku, he composed the photograph in a triptych with three distinct images that seem to have no discernable narrative. Instead, they are, in his words, “observations in its purest form, distilled into a simple gesture, a moment of reflection, a point in a continuum, touching on the beauty of imperfection, in delicate, quiet, nuanced moments.”
