Touched: Rouge

Isaac Chong Wai
Touched: Rouge
2025
Etching on glass, tinted acrylic, mirror, aluminum frame
60.5 x 50.5 x 3 cm

Chong debuts Touched: Rouge (2025), a series in which he uses body imprints to outline the contours of Fleur and Chen-bong from the classic Hong Kong film Rouge (1987). The ethereal marks are etched onto glass panels mounted onto colored acrylic and mirror. In the film, Fleur is a courtesan who falls for wealthy heir Chen-bong in 1930s Hong Kong, before their love is thwarted due to disapproval, resulting in the two attempting suicide through opium. Fleur’s spirit returned to humanity five decades later in search of Chen who had survived the attempt, only to find a city transformed. The film is adapted from the eponymous novel by Lilian Lee, written shortly after the signing of the Sino-British Joint Declaration.