Donna Ong collects everyday objects. In her object installations she transforms these into their own meaningful narrative context, thereby showing them in a new light – in the literal sense of the word. In The Forest Speaks Back in Künstlerhaus Bethanien, Ong develops her own landscape portrait of the tropical rain forest using an accumulation of glass objects that she arranges skilfully on various levels and in formal groups. She extends this into a sculptural installation in space, incorporating light, sound and video projections. Starting out from the romantic concept of the tropical jungle and stereotypical images produced at the end of the 19th century, she interprets the western world’s dialogue with the tropics and reflects upon this as a manipulated identity. Ong’s playful change of perspectives to include the reciprocal view of the other develops socio-political references via conscious play with the reciprocal expectations of different cultural influences, revealing individual identities and cultural standpoints as complex self-constructions.