John Clang
Reading by an Artist
Exhibition and Performance
The Gibbes Museum of Art, Charleston, SC
March 25 – April 10, 2026
John Clang performed his acclaimed participatory artwork Reading by an Artist in the Cambell Rotunda at the Gibbes Museum of Art in Charleston, South Carolina. The work, which has been at the core of Clang’s artistic practice since 2023, is based on traditional Chinese studies of the cosmos. The artist’s readings result in a metaphysical portrait captured in long exposure — without the usual photographic apparatus of a camera and the end-product of a photograph. In each session, a “likeness” of the sitter, reminiscent of a print being developed in the darkroom, gradually comes into sharper focus as one obtains clarity about the intrinsic qualities in one’s life and the constellation of choices that shape them. Local participants in the Gibbes exhibition interacted with the Singapore-based artist virtually through a laptop computer that was set upon a table in the Campbell Rotunda.
Reading by an Artist was accompanied by four additional artworks including A Portrait of the Gibbes Museum of Art, a destiny chart that Clang produced for the museum based on its founding date. A reading of this chart was the focus of Clang’s public talk at the Gibbes Museum (see below). Three other works on view were developed by the artist in order to extend his practice literally and conceptually, across dimensions of time and space: Table of Inquiry, Nine Chairs, and The Testimonial Series.
To watch Clang’s public talk at the Gibbes Museum of Art, moderated by the museum’s President and CEO, Alex Rich, and FSA’s curator, Tushara Bindu Gude, click on the yellow video box below.
To read more about the works in the exhibition, click on the link at the bottom of the page.
About the Artist:
Singaporean visual artist John Clang (b. 1973) is primarily known for his work in photography and film, through which he conveys his internal observations and ruminations on deeply observed, but seemingly mundane and banal, external stimuli.
Select Images
"John Clang: Reading by an Artist" at the Gibbes Museum.
"John Clang: Reading by an Artist" at the Gibbes Museum.
"John Clang: Reading by an Artist" at the Gibbes Museum.
"John Clang: Reading by an Artist" at the Gibbes Museum.
John Clang, "Table of Inquiry" detail, 2026.
John Clang, "A Portrait of the Gibbes Museum of Art," 2026.
John Clang, "Reading by an Artist (The Testimonials Series)" at the Gibbes Museum, 2026
