吃喝玩樂 | Food, Drink, Play & Enjoyment @ 無限發掘 | Findars

Art collective Findars move into Jalan Panggong above Lostgens', a strategic location for its mostly ethnic Chinese supporters to visit and attend performances. Its opening exhibition features rotting vegetables, grotesque drawings , bloody fantasies, patterned prints, and cheerful watercolours. The space's industrial set up provides a practical background for the variety on show, which best works are contributed by Tey Beng Tze and Lim Keh Soon. Rachel Jena once described that both artists "...applied the aesthetics of (manga and comic) graphic works into their art, lending to images that are at once highly narrative and distinct." As compared to the garish mess seen at the absurd NVAG show, these drawings on paper are stripped down but more potent, corroborating that simple contrasts create an effective visual impact.

Lim Keh Soon - Diam!! (2013)

Greeting the visitor is a large pen drawing by Beng Tze on 25 pieces of yellowed (newsprint) paper, featuring his graffiti style of illustration. The mishmash of characters reside within a head-shaped outline, its grotesque traits prominently visible despite the yellowed backing. ‘Gimme Back My Banana!’ sees a steady stream of surreal parts emerge from a yellow Yayoi Kusama pumpkin, posing a reclamation protest towards contemporary art trends. The first frame of ‘100% Human Skin Lighter Case’ recalls Liew Kwai Fei’s colourful and worded paintings, while the following pictures mutilate the obscene symbol of Chinese progress in an amusingly nasty manner. Facing the bar is a wall of small works by the collective’s members, hung intimately around Beng Tze’s ‘Just My Imagination’ robot first seen at Valentine Willie.

Tey Beng Tze - Gimme Back My Banana! (2012)

Daily frustrations form violent expressions in Keh Soon’s exhibits, where littering, smoking, and theft, are treated as equally deplorable actions. Body parts of ghastly figures are blown up in red ink, invoking knowing laughter when socially conscientious situations are being referenced. ‘Diam!!’ garners immediate attention with its graphic separation of a mouth from the face, projecting a general exasperation with evil speech interpretations ranging from friendly gossip, media propaganda, to political gibberish. The subtle influence of Japanese manga is detected in ‘Dilarang Melayari Laman Web Lucah Hari-hari’, not in its illustration style, but its self-depreciating reflection of a boyhood habit deemed socially awkward. Inconsequential works can occasionally suggest self reflection, and for that we hope Findars will enjoy its stay in central KL.

Lim Keh Soon - Dilarang Melayari Laman Web Lucah Hari-hari (2013)