If you like and follow comics in Singapore and online, you might have heard of A Good Citizen, with its snarky outtakes on Singaporean politics.

A Good Citizen has also done exhibitions in real life before, like this one titled "Singawhore":

And there was also his collaboration with us three years ago, during the 2015 General Election, where he gave us classics such as this:

And this:

But who is Citizen Dan, actually?

This is Dan Wong:

Dressed casually in jeans and a T-shirt showing a giant cat rampaging Godzilla-style through town, Wong is a jovial fellow who is every bit as lively as his art. His upbeat manner proves to be infectious within minutes of meeting him, in a third-floor walkup shared office space in Boat Quay.

A scan of his desk offers a peek into the sources of inspiration Wong draws upon to fuel his art: there are Warhammer 40k novels, of which he's a voracious consumer — he admits, perhaps with less shame than one would expect, that he has spent at least S$2,000 on books for the futuristic table-top build-and-paint-your-own figurine game.

There's also a pair of diving booties sitting at the top of a tall black shelf dividing his table from the one beside him — Wong has chalked up 75 dives so far.

And in our conversation with him, Wong is as frank and direct as his art is striking, pulling no punches in his vivid expressions and gesticulations of what drives him in the creation of his work.

It all started with scrawling genitalia on the wall in school

Wong admits up front to us that he is fairly certain his art career began in Ahmad Ibrahim Secondary School, where he "found great and tremendous joy in drawing various sorts of genitalia, sexual objects and body parts, on the toilet walls".

Most of his drawings were usually done at sitting height — although for more explicit drawings, he would draw them at squatting height since those required more time. More detail, you see.

Here's where he stresses that his drawings were all (considerately enough) done in pencil, knowing that the cleaner would have eventually have to wipe them off. He was also never caught, he explains nonchalantly, as his friends never once ratted on him to the teachers.

As for why he did it, beyond the joy that came with engaging in such uninhibited expression, Wong adds that it was ultimately an act borne out of frustration — at his powerlessness in the face of an authority that exerted complete control over him, and which could not be resisted.

"... this proximity or exposure to authority, authority that you cannot fight against, this sense of helplessness, powerlessness...[where] the more I go to school and the more I’m forced to do things I don’t want to do, and the more I’m powerless against authority, I think that’s where the frustration grew. Because I know that this is not what I want to do, but I have to do it regardless, because if I don’t, bad things will happen. There’s no argument to that right?"

To hammer home his point, Wong gesticulates the motion of getting hit by teachers, in a throwback to earlier days of harsher forms of discipline:

"... the idea that somebody in power can hit you... you[the person in power] can cause me harm but I cannot cause you harm back. Wow, that’s not fair."

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But polytechnic and university showed a more empowering way

It was only when Wong entered Nanyang Polytechnic (NYP) that he found far more purposes for drawing, beyond being simply a means of expressing his frustration.

In NYP where he majored in Digital Media and Design, Wong said the prospect of drawing 3D models greatly excited him.

"You could do a lot of things with 3D models. You could create naked human bodies, you could do all sorts of fun stuff... I think I discovered my love for illustration in NYP."

Of greater importance to his development as an artist however, were the live drawing classes that NYP conducted. For it was here that Wong found a context to nudity that made it socially acceptable.

That was a moment of empowerment for him, as he realised that as long as it was within an academic context, pretty much anything, including controversial subjects, could be justified.

"When I saw that, I went, that’s great! I have power already, can do anything I want!"

This instinct, however, would have to be honed significantly over the years, for Wong to turn his art into something far more constructive and singular in purpose.

A keyboard warrior and a vulgar troll

Wong sheepishly admits that throughout his years in NYP, army, and subsequently in his first job afterwords as an illustrator for a trading card game known as The Spoils, he describes himself as "a keyboard warrior and a troll" who was very misinformed and used a lot of swear words in comments online.

It was only when he entered the School of Art, Design and Media at Nanyang Technological University, after working a number of years as an illustrator, that Wong says his mind opened up greatly as a result of the subsequent education he received.

Wong tells us excitedly that what university turned out to be was simply an extension of what he first found in poly — "justifying things academically". Except that this time, the realisation would have a more immediate effect:

"I realise that at university, people do that all the time. And as long as you place things in the right context, anything can be fine art, anything can work, anything can be made to relate to people. ANYTHING.

I’m so glad I went to university. If not I would be very narrow-minded now."

It was an effect that would not have been possible had it been for the army — by far, the largest influence and inspiration for his art as we subsequently found out.

A love-hate relationship with the army

To say that National Service and the army annoys Wong is an understatement.

He describes it as an "abusive ex-girlfriend that won’t let you go":

"Army will always find a way to make sure you are inconvenienced [and] uncomfortable. For instance, when I was working freelance, when army calls you up, you have to drop everything — and for us freelancers, schedules and timings are very important.

When army calls you up, you have to drop all these lobangs, you have to drop everything. I literally lost money in army."

NS has provided him with his fair share of haunting experiences.

In one of his most notable ones, Wong recounts how a motorbike course he had to do as part of his vocation as an armour scout nearly resulted in the loss of his own "family jewels".

While traversing a camel's hump obstacle with a scrambler bike, a momentary loss of control sent him flying and falling onto the bike with the handlebar hitting him in the pelvis. Had the handlebars hit him just three centimetres lower, Wong said, his organs would have been damaged irreparably.

And yet, as much as Wong loathes to admit because it is akin to "legitimising army and the suffering (he) went through", army has taught him much in dealing with difficult people and difficult situations.

"There are some parts of me that I can see that I’ve grown to be a more resilient — I hate to use that word — more resilient and stronger individual because of army."

Compared to school, Wong's perspective on army is more nuanced. There still is the child in him who screamed in frustration at what he describes as "a sense of imprisonment brought about by the law", much like during his school days, he also sees NS as "a necessary evil because if there’s a foreign aggressor, the best place is to be in the army because they got guns and s**t".

He also is quick to qualify that in fighting for the country, "it's not because I’m nationalistic or what, I just want to protect my own personal way of life, my own little corner of the world."

His favourite creative space and time: pooping

 

 

Of course, it was also in NS that Wong found what he perceives to be the strongest and safest spaces of all and consequently, another of his main sources of inspiration: poop time.

"Pooping is a space where nobody can bother you. Your most private moments are not even in the bedroom — I mean, nobody is allowed to disturb you while you are pooping because if they did, that is against the law.

So that’s literally the most private space you have that’s uninhibited by society. Even let’s say in the army, I tell the platoon commander, even he will make concessions for that.

It’s literally the most powerful private space that you have — pooping. The law protects you. Free from all these inhibitions, I think that’s where my mind is free to wonder because I know for a fact nobody can disturb me. I don’t have to consider other people’s viewpoints."

A cathartic resolution to NS

Fortunately for Wong, however, the army is no longer that great a concern to him, having this year successfully completed his reservist obligations and entered the military reserve (MR) phase.

And Wong has chosen to celebrate this occasion (yep, with a S$5,000 boost to his CPF account and that trademark watch) by co-creating an exhibition about it, titled "KNOCK It DOWN" — which he says examines Singapore's NS system and the experiences of those who have served. 

It could have been very easy to go with a purely negative view of NS, Wong says, but he and painter Eddie Ching decided to included the full range of experiences, including the positive ones and those that go in between, in order to stay true to himself.

This exhibition, he feels, is a reflection of the maturity that he has achieved as an artist since he first started out as a frustrated secondary school kid.

And it also ties in with the intention that he has behind A Good Citizen as well:

"A Good Citizen is an avenue for me to express my frustrations and poke fun at S’pore in a satirical light that makes people laugh, that’s relatable, that’s not destructive. That’s the cop out answer."

Cheekily, Wong reminds us with a big grin:

"But let’s not forget that underneath deep down inside, you dig deep enough, you find the troll. The ugly, ugly troll."

Running from August 31 to September 24, 2018, KNOCK It DOWN will be held by ARTBLOVK Gallery at 195 Pearls Hill Terrace #03-05. Alongside Wong, other artists featured at the exhibition include:

• EBAO
• Jerry Teo
• Wei Jing
• Masterpiece Collectibles

Admission is free.

Top image credits: Photo by Jeanette Tan. Artwork by and courtesy of Dan Wong.