Dance of Arms dates from Wong Hoy Cheong’s time in the U.S. as a student. The concern with social issues that is to characterize much of his practice, especially his interest in the plight of the oppressed and marginalized, is anticipated in this painting, produced at a very early stage of his artistic career. The tableau depicts a scene that the artist had encountered while living in Boston in the early 1980s: waiting on a train platform is a motley crew of commuters, including a shoeless man slumped over on the floor with his eye closed, either asleep or drunk, and most likely homeless. The painting contains other autobiographical elements: the apartment block that Wong lived in then is portrayed in the background. The artist’s later preoccupation with the situation of the common man is already evident here – an originary moment of revelation.
