Posts

Showing posts from June, 2014

Here We Come @ HOM Art Trans

Image
Stepping into the gallery, terms from a silly Form 5 subject cover the space, evoking one bitter memory of an impulsive naivete. Yau Sir Meng continues her critical commentary about the Malaysian education system, where prior works from this accomplished series, include manufactured certificates and blanked-out exercise sheets. Here, Pendidikan Moral textbooks are blended into papier mâché alphabets, then stuck onto walls as 36 values around a framed announcement. News of students protesting about a compulsory subject, amplifies the effects of one who has to go through such education, their lack of critical thinking a common complaint by employers nowadays. The absurdity of this realisation is compounded, when one questions the mandate to study moral values in secondary education, where ethical behaviour can supposedly be inculcated via memorising Bahasa words. Installation views of Yau Sir Meng - 36 Nilai Murni Moral (2014) The condemnation manifest in this sublime work ...

Recess: After Berpantang

Image
Walking pass this structure across a duration of eight months, I concur that patience is a virtue I aspire towards, in preparation for this exciting phase of life. Subjective as it is, one's child is the most beautiful being in the world, in the eyes of the parents. So much for an objective evaluation of beauty. Snapshots of Multhalib Musa - Patience (2004)

Ho Mia @ Wei-Ling Contemporary

Image
Returning from Art Basel, the gallery continues on with its high-profile ways by collaborating with a corporate lifestyle magazine, to organise a charity auction for pewter teapots. The accompanying exhibition includes artworks from the gallery's usual line-up, focusing on ho mia , a Hokkien colloquialism that acknowledges the fortunate path towards one's success. Just featured in Hong Kong, Choy Chun Wei recognises the utilitarian nature of Google and the internet, by aggregating visual stimuli augmented with strobe light and fingerprint-like markings. Equally Daedalian is Kim Ng's 'Amusement', its five-columns wide layout resembling a vertically-mounted Chinese chess board. Red woodcut prints of a serene natural scene bookend the construct, followed by an urban mess left in a ditch, before converging onto the blooming flowers at the centre. Hamidi Hadi - Pohon Beringin I (2014) While a number of artists paint animals as symbols of contented happiness, Ha...

What We Believe In @ Lostgens'

Image
During a sensual walk around Petaling Street at 7 AM, one notices chirping birds, sacred sanctuaries, thriving marketplaces, uninhabited dens, heritage buildings, and the rumbling sounds behind fenced-up construction sites. On this weekend, migrant workers walk cheerfully past freshly-painted old shophouses, as the audience laments a vanishing culture. Spray-painted graffiti line concrete walls along the monsoon drain, while a Polish visitor is bewildered at the sight of a neglected river. I grab a 夹棕 and 马脚 and ponder its impending extinction. Outside Sri Mahamariamman temple, some hesitate to leave their shoes unwatched before entering. At Sin Sze Si Ya temple 仙四师爷庙, tudung-clad makciks stay to chat after delivering the morning dailies, while a man parks his Mercedes-Benz inside the compound for a hurried offering. Installation view These sights and sounds indicate a lively gathering of people, a constant exchange of materials, and a practising of ideas. Yet it is said th...

(Im)materiality: Australian Artists in the Malaysian World @ Interpr8

Image
Beautiful objects made in ancient times employ materials for its physical and functional properties. In the Western canon, materials used in art progressively got narrowed down to pigment and brush as the norm; In Eastern cultures, rare & raw materials are crafted into figurative representations, its substantial value equally treasured as much for its workmanship. Now, deconstruction is a common theme in contemporary art, where mass-produced products are utilised for its aesthetic and symbolic characteristics. Kassandra Bossell burns carbon to form opaque marks that complement the transparency of a wax covering, its ecological message hidden within her semi-luminous spheres. Former Rimbun Dahan resident artist Gabrielle Bates carves patterns out of cardboard packaging, the self-exorcising works depicting a beautiful order, that belies its meticulous stripping and cutting effort. Gabrielle Bates - "Cheong Fatt Tze" Mansion Eye-catching too are hanging structures...

In A Place of Wonder @ Wei-Ling Gallery

Image
Coloured forms are visual cues integral in the search for a personal aesthetic. Its manifestation in Kim Ng's works fascinate, as bitumen blotches and printed textures provide daily inspiration. The accumulation of motifs seen "In A Place of Wonder" , draws from the previous three solo exhibitions Kim held with the gallery - elements from nature and 3-dimensional boxes in "1/1" , silkscreen scenes and bitumen voids in "Fact or Fiction" , and polka dots and anonymous figures in "An Idyllic Space" . In the five years between solo shows, other visual objects pack Kim's increasingly large canvases - prints of industrial structures, chequered layouts, opaque blots, directional symbols, graffiti writings, right angles, etc. All these on top of collage and object prints which belong to the artist's inimitable style. The density is overpowering to the point of overbearing, especially seen in the bigger works hung at the gallery's first...

1 CARES • 關懷! @ KLSCAH 隆雪中华大会堂

Image
Timely held after another "woman's show" , established artist Shia Yih Yiing gathers female artists to contribute works that "playfully engage the audience to ignite one's ability to care..." This curatorial strategy results in strong effort by individuals, although the overall exhibition feels incoherent, likely due to the scattered exhibition spaces. Louise Low's trademark recycled brassieres greet the visitor underneath an archway and sewn onto a sofa, its visual impact never failing to suggest meaning. Shallow thoughts surface within a gallery space , where crafted landscapes by Tiong Chai Heing compel one to inspect the details, i.e. to care, a similar observation applicable also to Fathimah Zahra's toy soldiers on tea trays. Lam Tsuji - Pillow of Tomorrow (2014) Fabric as flexible material is popular - Yim Yen Sum joins strips into a porous screen, while a room shows an assortment of white clothes painted over by three related artis...