Diary of Madline 驰线手记 @ Lostgens'

The roads of Kuala Lumpur is a battlefield. Driving a car with manual transmission is like wielding an obsolete weapon. Highways without tolls become swampy jungles, full of potholes and unsightly obstacles. We risk certain death each time we step into our vehicles, yet KL-ites spend 10% of our working lives on the road, while enduring stress and masking patience. Driving as an action, has become an extension of human body function, as we control cars with sensory perception and physical movement. Young artist Eddie Choo Wen Yi exploits this daily experience, and turns this notion of indirect control on its head.

13062013 Thursday Morning: Home - Batu Caves (One way)
P/S: I have nothing to say
Traffic: Not so good
Speed: Shifting gears 1, 2, 3 and keep repeating the same thing all the long way

Having devised an apparatus that draws while her car registers movement, the artist creates drawings supplemented with driving conditions such as departure point, destination, traffic flow, weather, etc. These information may at first pique the analytical mind, but one eventually realises that this data is superfluous. Following an Automatism tradition championed by the Surrealist André Breton, this collection showcases irrational and unexpected lines & dots. Dated from 13-June till 13-August, the early experiments are scratchy sketches; By July the drawings begin to take on a curious composition of a crowded central space (stuck in slow-moving traffic) with long curving lines (braking at speed).

Dual coloured ink combinations - 30062013 Sunday Morning + Night: Home - Lostgens (Return);
08072013 Monday Night: Home - Jalan Panggong (One way)

Time and space contribute to a transcript where the artist chooses her medium at random, her daily choice setting the scene for the visual record. Colour combinations like red-green and blue-orange create simplistic contrasts, while the few watercolours denote rainy days and other melancholic moods. A wall dedicated to 6 drawings that are grouped informally as Going Home, are strangely uniform in its appearance and the most aesthetically pleasing. Her 3-month residency completed and preparing to leave for Taiwan, the artist successfully exhibits a delightful exploration of an art philosophy without being banal. Eddie maintains that although the drawing is by the car, she has control of the car - the question then becomes, does her drawing has control over her?