Representing the space in which Wong transformed his art, My Secret World, 1978-1981 (1984) was conceived as a variation of Bedroom at Arles (1888) by Vincent van Gogh, whom Wong considered an inspiration for his own efforts to create a new manner of painting that would reveal the spiritual in the mundane.

As van Gogh had, Wong exaggerates the geometric plan of the room and utilizes the rectangles of furniture to counterbalance the shapes of the windows. In both images, paintings on the walls indicate the rooms serve the dual functions of studio and bedroom. However, in striking contrast to van Gogh, Wong does not allow the viewer full access to the room. Instead of depicting the room from a position within it as van Gogh did, Wong makes his room visible only through two windows.

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Blurring boundaries between reality and illusion, the rows of brick that dominate the picture surface can be regarded both as exquisitely rendered surface pattern and as the actual walls of his building. The window frames bear a variety of inscriptions, including the declaration that "It was in this room that the world's first paintings for the hearing impaired came into being."

On the back wall of the hotel room is Psychiatrists Testify: Demon Dogs Drive Man to Murder (1980), one of the "paintings for the hearing impaired." In Psychiatrists Testify, voluptuous hands with large fingers spell out in American Sign Language the title and other statements derived from a tabloid newspaper account of a murder trial. Displayed in Secret World, this particular sign language painting reminds viewers of the frequent use of seedy hotel rooms in popular detective fiction. In addition, Psychiatrists Testify is linked to the surrounding composition of Secret World by its illusionistic brick frame, which echoes the exterior hotel walls.

Paintings for the Hearing Impaired

The name for the American Sign Language series is obviously witty, as all paintings are fully comprehensible to the hearing impaired. Yet, this concept also serves to convey Wong's sincere and deeply felt commitment to reaching out to the socially dispossessed through his art. In addition, Wong's project can be related to an important theme in Renaissance art theory, concerning the supposed superiority of painting to music. Thus, Leonardo da Vinci and other Renaissance artists maintained that paintings could so completely engage viewers that they could hear sounds emerging from the scenes depicted.

Originally exhibited in Lower East Side and Soho restaurants and antique shops in 1980, the "paintings for the hearing impaired" were the first works by Wong to attract significant critical attention. Although Wong rarely produced paintings with Sign Language as the sole subject after the early 1980s, he continued to incorporate hands spelling out words in many cityscapes and figurative paintings.

During a Public Art Fund-sponsored residency at New York City's Department of Transportation (1990), Wong created Traffic Signs for the Hearing Impaired, executed by city workshops in aluminum steel and made the same size and colors as conventional traffic signs. Located in all five boroughs, these are used to identify public schools and to provide important directions ("One Way Street," "Watch Out for Pedestrians," etc.). In 1992, Mayor David Dinkins gave Wong a Special Arts Award to acknowledge his efforts to include all New Yorkers through his creation of these works of art.

Storefronts

During the 1980s, Wong created an extensive series of paintings, which he referred to as Storefronts, depicting the facades of various businesses, places of worship, and social organizations located in the Lower East Side. For example, African Temple at 9^th Street (1985) shows two occupants of the storefront temple against its outer walls, which are densely covered with inscriptions. Like many other paintings in the series, African Temple attests to Wong's fascination with graffiti and found inscriptions of all sorts.

Blurring boundaries between reality and illusion, Wong makes several of the Storefront paintings, such as Iglesia Pentecostal (1986), approximately as large as the facades that they are supposed to depict. As Jasper Johns did in White Flag (1955), Wong emphasizes the equivalence of painting and subject by omitting any indication of spatial depth in Iglesia Pentecostal. However, in both White Flag and Iglesia Pentecostal, subtly textured paint indicates that the images are reproductions of other things. Although strongly influenced by Johns' intellectually complex approach to the depiction of supposedly ordinary objects, Wong differed from him by focusing upon subjects that resonated with the experiences of those excluded from the mainstream because of race, economic status, or sexual orientation.