SILAS FONG

The SAD project began in 2019 with _SAD Info Day_s at Seoul Art Space Geumcheon, an exhibition that dissected the socially constructed expectations of artists and how institutions set, control, and manipulate what society values in art. Fong’s intention was to question how ‘being an artist’ is defined by external standards rather than intrinsic creativity. This was followed by a second SAD series exhibition at Cheongju Residency in 2020, titled SAD School of Artist Development. Here, workshops such as ‘How to Be a Successful Artist’ and ‘What an Artist Should Be’ included exercises on art rental service promotion, offering a cynical take on how professional skills are sometimes elevated over authentic expression. Fong created these series as a reflection on the realities he experiences as an educator, where institutional demands and marketable skills often take priority over creative exploration.

In 2021, SAD Kitchen emerged, inspired by ‘comfort food’ as a source of empathy and resilience. This series explored how artists working far from home find comfort in familiar foods, as well as the act of preparing and sharing meals, as a way to connect and heal. In this exhibition, Fong uses bread as a medium to convey warmth and comfort, inviting viewers to reflect on how such simple acts can challenge society’s relentless expectations. SAD Kitchen asks visitors to consider bread as a symbol of basic sustenance, contrasting the supportive, shared experience of food with society’s focus on constant productivity and success.

In SAD School of Artists Development, Department of Bread, bread-making activities become a means to critique educational and validation systems. Here, success is redefined through skill-building exercises that mimic the arbitrary demands of formal education. In Flourglass, participants attempt to master an unnecessary skill, reflecting how education systems often stress arbitrary achievements that bear little relevance to real life. In Shape and Score Clinic, participants practice precise techniques that prioritise external standards over individual potential, mirroring the limitations institutions place on creativity. This playful critique exposes how conformity and mastery of arbitrary tasks often suppress genuine curiosity and exploration.

Reflecting Fong’s own experiences as both artist and educator, SAD School of Artists Development critiques the relentless pursuit of credentials in a society where education is a direct path to social standing. Through humour and satire, Fong addresses a system that places higher value on certifications and test scores than on creativity, genuine learning, and contextual understanding, inviting viewers to question the role of art institutions in shaping the lives of artists. Alongside the workshops, Stretch—an exaggerated elaboration of ordinary bread-making gestures—creates a sense of extravagance that mirrors the grandiosity institutions use to assert their authority in public spaces.

In SAD School of Artists Development, Department of Bread encourages viewers to recognise the significance of enduring failures against the external standards of success and realise that sometimes simply showing up can be enough to ‘pass the exam.’ While visitors might leave with flour on their hands or dough in their bags, they will also leave with a sense of reflection on the value of genuine curiosity and a desire for knowledge—qualities often overshadowed by society’s focus on achievement.