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on the bark and the needles of pine and fir trees,  
Chong Yan Chuah 蔡崇彦
b. 1992, Selangor, Malaysia
Working in between London & Kuala Lumpur

Sino-Malaysian artist, architect and designer Chong Yan Chuah works primarily in the mediums of the digital image, game art, and installation art, between virtual reality and simulated space, fictive narratives and imagined bodies.

Positioning himself as a virtual architect, digital shaman, and techno-pagan, Chong Yan assumes the role of a mapmaker, drafting blueprints of the unseen. the simulated spaces of the Malay Archipelago, where cultural memory and digital landscapes intersect. Often imbued with esoteric symbology and cryptic iconography, invoke a sense of ritual and invocation, transforming virtual space into an augmented mythology, a cartography of speculative worlds where the sacred and the synthetic coalesce.

Chong Yan studied architecture at Newcastle University (ARB/RIBA Part I), and then at the Architectural Association (AA) in London (ARB/RIBA Part II), receiving the 2014 RIBA President’s Medals nomination and AA Scholarship. He has worked extensively with Make Architects in London on competition projects all over the world, contributing to the development of 3D images, cinematics and real-time experiences. Co-founding Inferstudio in 2017-18 alongside Nathan Su and Bethany Edgoose, he later directed Somnii, an art direction, digital imagination and research studio. Beyond studio work, he has participated in architecture conferences hosted by DATUM:KL and Pertubuhan Akitek Malaysia (PAM), advocating for a broader perspective on worldbuilding that transcends traditional architectural frameworks. As an artist,  his works have been exhibited and collected internationally. He has exhibited at Royal Academy of Arts, Royal Institute of British Architects, Haus derKulturen der Welt Berlin, NTU ADM Gallery Singapore, National Museum of Singapore, NOVA.The Staatliches Bauhaus, Academy of Sciences Malaysia (ASM), ArtScience Museum Singapore, National Art Gallery Malaysia, and Ilham Gallery.
HYPERLINK
Somnii
 Showreel
Inferstudio
 Instagram
 Vimeo


REPRESENTATION
Art
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Creative & Post Production


For all enquires please contact:
chongyanchuah@somnii.co

Media – please find my press pack, including Artist Profile, Artist Photo, Selected Works, here.
EPK (Electronic Press Kit)

For interview, please first contact: press@somnii.co

Video on this site is hosted via vimeo. On countries restriction, reach out with a request.
“I tend to use numbers, dimensions to build my fictional world. Everything has a certain value and is quantifiable. This mathematical logic dictates the gestures that shape my universe, zooming, scaling, multiplying; acts of manipulation that both define and destabilize its structure. The iconography of this cosmos is deliberately cryptic, dominated by circular forms, radiant orbs, metallic studs; each a private cipher for cyclical renewal and perpetual beginnings. Layered within is an idiosyncratic script, a language of my own invention, inscribed as an autonomous system of meaning that resists immediate comprehension. “Bodies and terrain are as confrontational as they are ontologically slippery, corporeal entities populating a landscape that is as alien as its inhabitants.”

“My work explores the entanglements between ancient myths and emerging technology, epitomized by the fusion of the mythologies of the Malay Archipelago with digital shamanism. a conceptual framework akin to techno-paganism. I am fascinated by the convergence of traditional rituals, spirits, and cutting-edge technological advancements, fostering spaces that resonate with both our ancestral past and the digital zeitgeist of the present era.”