Magical Designs by Carey Wong
Selected scenic designs and text from Carey Wong's "THE WORLD TRANSFORMED"
Portland Chinatown Museum
Text by Carey Wong
The World Transformed: Scenic Designs by Carey Wong (2022) by Carey WongPortland Chinatown Museum
About the artist
Carey Wong has worked for over 45 years as a stage designer and arts administrator in the U.S. and abroad. He has designed sets and/or costumes for over 300 productions of operas, plays, musicals, and ballets, as well as art installations and themed environments.
The World Transformed: Scenic Designs by Carey Wong (2022) by Portland Chinatown MuseumPortland Chinatown Museum
A selected retrospective of his work, The World Transformed, exhibited at the Portland Chinatown Museum in 2022. It highlighted favorite projects from a career that has spanned nearly half a century.
Keep scrolling to read excerpts enjoy detailed photos from the exhibition's catalogue, The World Transformed: Scenic Designs by Carey Wong.
The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe
"Any production of this C.S. Lewis work is challenging because the action moves quickly between the country home of Professor Kirke, with whom the Pevensie children are staying in wartime England, and the icy enchanted world of Narnia, ruled by the White Witch."
The World Transformed: Scenic Designs by Carey Wong - The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe (2002-10/2003-01) by Carey WongPortland Chinatown Museum
"I was inspired by Ansel Adam's 1949 photograph of one of his favorite subjects, a towering tree at the western fringe of El Capitan Meadow. The photo is entitled, "Oak Tree, Snowstorm." Because white, not black, comes to represent evil and paralysis in Narnia."
Madama Butterfly
"Madama Butterfly has in recent years been charged with cultural appropriation and has raised questions about the practice of non-Asian singers appearing in yellowface to take on the roles of Japanese characters."
The World Transformed: Scenic Designs by Carey Wong - Madama Butterfly (1999) by Carey WongPortland Chinatown Museum
"My scenic design appears to take a traditional approach to the opera by creating a picturesque environment for the opera's action. However, on closer view, something subversive is going on...an impression of a lovely world, but one that which is not as it should be..."
Boeing Boeing
"Mark Camoletti's comedy involves a Paris architect who is simultaneously romancing three flight attendants who work for three different airlines. A change in schedules leads to all three women arriving at his apartment nearly at the same time, resulting in mayhem and hilarity."
The World Transformed: Scenic Designs by Carey Wong - Boeing Boeing (2013) by Carey WongPortland Chinatown Museum
"When performed today, Camoletti's period romp needs to have a production that places it firmly in the '60's so that the character types, behaviors, and attitudes depicted can be seen as a reflection of that period."
The Marriage of Figaro
"The Marriage of Figaro has often been called the perfect opera. Figaro, the Count's valet, and Susanna, the Countess' maid, are about to be married. The Count, however, has amorous intentions towards Susanna and wants to exercise his droit de seigneur."
The World Transformed: Scenic Designs by Carey Wong - The Marriage of Figaro (1990) by Carey WongPortland Chinatown Museum
"The director and I were inspired by a photograph of a curved French staircase that visually suggested the musical elegance and line of the opera. Director Bakman suggested a raked stage surrounded by elevated platforms with gently curved steps leading from one to the other."
The Journal of Ben Uchida: Citizen 13559
"Naomi Iizuka's play traces the journey of Japanese-American Ben Uchida and his family from their life in San Francisco's Japantown in the 1940's to an internment camp where they endure the hardships of life there."
The World Transformed: Scenic Designs by Carey Wong - The Journal of Ben Uchida: Citizen 13559 (2017) by Carey WongPortland Chinatown Museum
"To me, the play's story revealed itself like the peeling of an onion - as layers were removed, successive layers were revealed. And this was the way I designed the set for the show."
Uncle Ho to Uncle Sam
"Trieu Tran's autobiographical play traces his family's dramatic escape form war-torn Saigon and the horrors of a Viet Cong re-education camp to becoming refugees who end up in America."
The World Transformed: Scenic Designs by Carey Wong - Uncle Ho to Uncle Sam (2010) by Carey WongPortland Chinatown Museum
"For this production, I combined the idea of a shrine to the deceased with that of an altar to the sea goddess Mazu...for Trieu's family and other refugees, a shrine to a deity who could miraculously intercede in taking them across the water to a better life was an apt symbol."
Learn more about Carey Wong and his work at www.careywong.com.
Read about The World Transformed in Carey Wong retrospective reveals the layers of a life in scenic design by Amy Wang at The Oregonian.
Watch an artist talk with Carey Wong and actor Barbie Wu hosted by the Portland Chinatown Museum.
Photos by Jeff Lee Photography
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