About the Exhibition
How Long Have You Been Here is a solo exhibition by Penang-based artist Hoo Fan Chon that follows a song, a book and a blanket across the Bay of Bengal, in the hands of the Bangladeshi workers who carry them. Three new bodies of work, a video, a series of paintings and a set of tailored bags, trace what happens to each as it crosses into Malaysia.
The exhibition takes as its historical anchor Rabindranath Tagore's visit to Penang in 1927, during which he laid the foundation stone of the Hu Yew Seah building and, on 18 October, composed the song Kharo Bayu Boy Bege at the Eastern & Oriental Hotel. The visit is commemorated in Penang as heritage. The workers who arrive in the same city today are counted as labour. The exhibition opens on the eve of the centenary of that visit.
How Long Have You Been Here is a question Bangladeshi workers ask one another as a greeting. Asked by a local, the same words measure distance. The exhibition begins from daily life in George Town, where Bangladeshi workers are a visible part of the city's streets and a rarely acknowledged part of its account of itself. George Town was built by arrivals, and its heritage listing rests on earlier crossings of the same sea. The crossings have not stopped.
Exhibition dates
3 October – 15 November 2026
Exhibition Location
Hin Bus Depot, 31A Jalan Gurdwara, George Town, Penang
Opening programme
Saturday, 3 October 2026
8 pm Opening Reception at Hin Bus Depot
Public Programmes
Saturday 17 October 2026, 8pm: The Burden of Representation: Artists Working On and With Communities, a discussion with Wong Hoy Cheong, Okui Lala and Hoo Fan Chon, moderated by Ong Kar Jin.
Zine
Coming soon!
About the Artist
Hoo Fan Chon is a visual artist based in Penang, Malaysia. His research-driven projects are often situated in local geographies and engage with class aspiration, cultural identity, informal histories, and colonial legacies. By reframing everyday life through irony and wry humour, his works observe the oscillations and assimilations between social classes, the official and the informal, the highbrow and the lowbrow.
Earlier in 2026, he participated in the Transmediale Festival — By the Mango Belt & Tamarind Road, and in Wan Hai Hotel: Singapore Strait (Rockbund Art Museum / ART SG). Last year, he was selected for Moving Narratives Cycle II, organised by the Prince Claus Fund and the British Council, and undertook a residency at IASPIS, Stockholm. He also participated in the SEA-AiR Studio Residencies, organised by NTU CCA Singapore and the European Union, in Helsinki, Finland (2022). His solo exhibitions include The World is Your Restaurant (Kuala Lumpur, 2021) and Let Them Eat Salmon (Singapore, 2023). Hoo graduated with a BA in Photography from the London College of Communication (2010) and co-founded the Run Amok art collective (2012–17) in George Town.
Installation
Coming soon
Artworks
Coming soon