Art KL-itique

Dwelling between festive seasons, the image of recyclable plastic swaying in the wind spring to mind, an affecting scene from Urbanscapes 2013. Hong Yi's 'Empty Plates Pavilion' will not look out of place if it was exhibited at the Singapore Biennale , 5500 white plates forming the background of many an Instagram snapshot. This architecture graduate from Kota Kinabalu first gained attention with her playful rendition of a basketball player, which led to numerous commercial commissions; In the process garnering a worldwide social media following that a Malaysian visual artist can only dream of. Advocating art that is fun via the use of everyday materials, Hong Yi skips over the haughty fine art notion of the found object. Instantly recognizable portraits and forms are created with matter ranging from coffee to socks to food, which the artist is most famous for. Hong Yi standing in front of her creation 'Empty Plates Pavillion' Cooking has always been a...

The local visual arts scene kicks off 2014 with a slew of exhibitions featuring young artists, starting with the Malaysia Emerging Artist Award (MEAA) , where 41 finalists get to add credentials to their respective CVs. Some names repeat from the 2011 list , such as Cheong Tuck Wai and Yeoh Choo Kuan, whose crafting of oil paints project similar intent and tiresome to view. Themes popular locally are regurgitated, implying rigid academic instruction. The result is terrible art with hollow expressions - endangered animals, scrappy constructs, bitumen erosion, comic characters, splattered decay - amount to a collective yawn. References to international art leave one bemused. Andrew Chew's abstracts are Gerhard Richter decoys, and Firdaus Ismail's take on Francis Bacon's expensive triptych is plain sloppy. Sabihis - Awang Hitam (2013) Potential is detected amidst amateurish execution by Low Kar Lai and Hafiz Razak, the former blending Chinese-Taoist artefacts into n...

Visiting its National Museum as part of the Singapore Biennale circuit, " A Changed World : Singapore Art 1950s-1970" presents significant works that attempt to narrate the island state's national history and modernisation efforts. Western-trained Nanyang artists are well-represented, but what took my breathe away were the early woodblock prints by Lim Yew Kuan and Tan Tee Chie. 'After the Fire' by the former projects an apocalyptic scene of a burnt neighbourhood, while the latter's 'Yellow Danger' is daring and potent in its political message. Patriotic fervour describes Chua Mia Tee's realistic oil paintings, equally apparent in pictures of poem recitals or factory workers. Depictions of a developing nation and its populace, are exhibited alongside many river/boat scenes, one particularly attractive example being a deftly executed Chinese ink and watercolour by Chen Wen Hsi. Tan Tee Chie - Yellow Danger (1954) Wen Hsi's 'Abstrac...

Sidestepping the debate about curatorial strategy to acknowledge the melting pot Southeast Asia is, the Singapore Biennale 2013 presents "art works tended towards narrative and socio-political bases." (Iona Whitaker, randian ) An overload of information are found in education kits at the event website , providing context to the many region-specific works on display. Visiting three museums holding the majority of exhibits, two art collectives recently active on the Biennale circuit set a high bar for others to follow. Moon Kyungwon and Jeon Joonho's dual-screened 'El fin del mundo' , absorbs with its meditative inference about the human pursuit for aesthetic value; The room installation by teamLab mesmerises, where "...past and present collide, and the moving figures, the layering of sound and light, and the use of mirrors create a sense of spatial instability, of being transported into the ancient world that this work evokes." ( Rahel Joseph , Article)...

Regional collectors make their presence felt in Singapore, the island state and this art fair jointly promoting themselves as Asia's art capital . Its  well-publicised "focus on Southeast Asian [SEA] art scenes" mocks the uninitiated, as the SEA exhibition space is relegated to the periphery, its participating galleries not even included in the floor plan displayed. An exception is selected Singaporean galleries who share the same row with major players like White Cube, where the heralded melted cheese-like paintings of Jane Lee hang opposite. Platforms  are a gimmick to inject academic credentials to exhibited works, which regional curators are commissioned to develop market reports and conduct tours (no one appeared in my pre-arranged tour appointment). Art fatigue quickly sets in, as visits to the snazzy lounge provide temporary relief in the form of Papa Palheta coffee.  Yayoi Kusama - Repetitive Vision (1996) Walking past a dog humping R2-D2 and holograph...

The tagline Jewellery as a fine art leads to unmet expectations at this SGFA Vision Culture Lecture, where Robert Baines describes his art practice through four series of metallurgical works. Expounding effervescently the story behind "Bracelet 'Java-la-Grande'", the artist attempts to convince listeners that the Portuguese were the first European settlers in Australia. The scholar proceeds to present "Frisches Fleisch: Fresh Meat", a tribute to forgers who kept the craft alive, via the curious symbols of an endangered giraffe. By the last act when he traces the history of compact discs to Etruscan goldsmiths, Robert's cheeky re-imaginings of jewellery history include a definitive element of performance. Association and relocation of concepts and visuals capture one's imagination, although superimposing his jewellery onto museum catalogues are intentionally kitsch. Redder than Green Robert combines a love for history and craft in his crea...

Following in the tradition of my favourite non-authoritative end of year awards, the 2013 visual art events in Kuala Lumpur that tickled my fancy are… Favourite solo exhibition : Infinite Canvas , Chin Kong Yee; An obsession to craft visual texture and socio-political narratives is evident in Fauzulyusri’s Coreng and Chang Yoong Chia’s Immortal Beloved , but Kong Yee’s realistic wrap-around vision of Petaling Street and its surrounds, resonated deeply with my growing nostalgia for those places. Favourite group exhibition : Midterm @ Shalini Ganendra FA; Moving between artworks from 5 non-painter artists was refreshing, where walls hung with Eiffel Chong photographs,  Bibi Chew woodcuts, and A4-sized works on paper by Kim Ng, prove extremely captivating. Jostling for attention are Wei-Ling Contemporary’s narcissistic show and Galeri Chandan’s travelling exhibition , both which contain high quality works by established artists. Favourite not-so-old exhibition: Tin ...