Author: Dan Miller with illustrations by Ruby T
Publisher: Chicago and Auburn, Indiana: Half Letter Press, 2017
Pages: 44
Dimensions: 5 1/2" x 8 1/2"
Cover: soft cover
Binding: staple bound
Process: full color digital, three color RISO, with tipped in business cards by Thomas Kong and Dan Miller, and stickers hand-applied by Thomas Kong
Color: full color digital and three color RISO
Edition Size: 550
ISBN: 978-0-9818023-9-8

Thomas Kong makes collages and assemblages out of advertising, packaging, and other surplus material while managing Kim’s Corner Food, a convenience store in Chicago’s Rogers Park neighborhood.

In this publication, Chicago-based Australian artist Dan Miller introduces Kong’s prolific art practice and the first three years of their experimental collaboration. Together their productions have ranged from business cards and shopping baskets to The Back Room at Kim’s Corner Food. Housed in a converted storage room behind the store, The Back Room is a community-oriented art space and expanding archive of Kong’s work. Writing about the development of this interdependent relationship across gaps in age, culture, and artistic education, Miller reflects on what might be learned from both the ingenuity of Kong’s practice and their unlikely alliance. At Work with Thomas Kong includes excerpts from several interviews with Kong and illustrations by artist Ruby T, one of the project’s growing number of co-conspirators.

NOTE: This is a PDF version of the booklet. The print version is out of print. Thomas Kong died on May 1, 2023. His incredible art practice and spirit will never be forgotten. We are happy to share this free digital version of the booklet to help preserve the memory of his work and to continue to tell the story of Dan Miller's beautiful collaboration with this great Chicago artist.