The many fictions of Heman Chong

Aileen Burns and Johan Lundh___Going into this conversation, we are conscious that it will be published in the context of a focus on science fiction. Your work Calendars (2020–2096), made up of 1001 photographs, addresses a long future timeline and is also resolutely grounded in our time. The photographs were taken in Singapore over the course of seven years and we understand that you established a set of rules to guide the work: spaces such as malls, cafeterias, airports, and housing estates were documented at times when they were open to the public but empty of people. If this is a projection of the future, it is pretty bleak. If these calendars are for a future audience, what are they telling people about our time? And if they are a project of a future reality, what can be learned from this cold and un‑fantastical future?