Art KL-itique

“By comparing APS (Angkatan Pelukis Semenanjung) to PPMM (Persatuan Pelukis Melayu Malaya), I suggest that Hoessein Enas and APS’s ascendency marked a second moment in the development of modern art discourses in the Malay language during 1950’s Malaya. It also reflected a shift from a period that focused on aesthetic experimentation in search for an ‘art for society’. This can be seen in the post-war proliferation of published Malay art writings in Singapore, towards a new collective aspiration in Kuala Lumpur. This aspiration desired to affirm the political legitimacy of the Malay elite class and its position as leaders of the new Malayan and later Malaysian nation-state.” - Moving Suara for Sovereignty: Reading the shifts in 1950’s Modern Art Discourses in Malay through Kamus Politik, Simon Soon , catalogue essay in Dato’ Hoessein Enas: From His Personal Collection , 2015 Hoessein Enas - Study Sketch: Datuk Patinggi dan Datin (1988) It takes a different type of corporat...

Transaction is a poor substitute word for exchange , given its materialistic insinuations. Yet material documentation remains the primary source and evidence, that activities were done, knowledge was exchanged, and experiences lived. 25 artists, activists, and community workers, gather at Jalan Petaling and Kampung Banda Dalam, to participate in a 12-day program to explore ideas and discourses around social interventions and participatory public art. As a non-participant, my only option to get involved is to look through a static exhibition of historical things. Maps, brochures, photographs, recycled objects, booklets, prints… Time to re-read and reflect again on Jay Koh’s Art-Led Participative Processes . Installation view

skrej51: hi a/s/l? elcric02: tbh idk   jk skrej51: wtf yolo lmao  ur ig potd is da best  2moro yumcha? elcric02: gtg my bff wants 2 go uptown 4 some art exh lols skrej51: haha bojio  art ftw  (l)mirl? I stay near uptown can cu soon 2 have banana shake lol elcric02: nvm its ok :p  share a link wit u haha    post-inter.net   kthxbai skrej51:  kk will check dat out   143 ig  plz cont posting chio pix  ttyl Snapshot from exhibition opening, featuring untitled performance by Sudarshan and Fairuz Sulaiman [picture from Minut Init's Facebook album] Walking into the third floor shoplot space, the visitor is greeted with projector screens, a stack of papers on a pedestal, one turntable on the floor, and a couple mobile printers. Is this a post-internet art exhibition? Where are the digital renderings, the memes, or the video mash-ups? Does circle jerks refer to masturbating men? The curatorial statement clarifies, “…i...

Ooi Kok Chuen once described Sylvia Lee Goh’s paintings as “…a world unto its own; a snug, safe space filled with fond memories and her favourite things;” At this retrospective, her works emit a luminous, dreamlike quality that frighten more often than delight. Loneliness characterise pictures painted with staged ornamental details, often showing the cheongsam-wearing artist surrounded by well-tended flora, and/or resplendent Nyonya ceramic ware, and/or sumptuous Nyonya kueh. Adding onto the disarrayed perspective illustrated, the paintings' backgrounds are always dark, where objects are lit in the artist’s mind. As the artist tirelessly elaborates upon her eccentric worldview, I realise that self-indulgent paintings used to intrigue myself, but not anymore. Sylvia Lee Goh - After A Thousand Years (1987) Upstairs, ink paintings by Cheah Thien Soong also touch a cynical nerve with this visitor, as I ponder upon a general disinterest in Chinese paintings. The Nanyang sty...

One audience member – likely an international school student – asked (paraphrased by this author), “if visual art is used to communicate something that one finds difficult to express in words, how do you feel when you now have to describe the completed artwork in words?” The question was directed at Agnes Arellano, Nadiah Bamadhaj, and Geraldine Kang, three artists invited to speak about their creations at “KataKatha Session with Artists ”. KataKatha is a new cultural initiative sponsored by a regional bank, and run by Pusaka, whose director Eddin Khoo describes it as “…a gathering of minds and creative people, to explore the creative process, and to look at the aspects of creative life in Southeast Asia.” Its four-day program includes closed door exchanges and public sharing sessions, which documentation will be developed post-event for future exhibitions.  Nadiah Bamadhaj - Cina Wurung, Londa Durung, Jawa Tanggung (No longer Chinese, not yet a Dutchman, a half-baked Javane...

"The persona is a complicated system of relations between individual consciousness and society, fittingly enough a kind of mask, designed on the one hand to make a definite impression upon others, and, on the other, to conceal the true nature of the individual." - Carl Jung, The Relations between the Ego and the Unconscious (1928), CW7: Two Essays on Analytical Psychology, p.305 "Whoever looks into the mirror of the water will see first of all his own face. Whoever goes to himself risks a confrontation with himself. The mirror does not flatter, it faithfully shows whatever looks into it; namely, the face we never show to the world because we cover it with the persona, the mask of the actor. But the mirror lies behind the mask and shows the true face." - Carl Jung, Archetypes of the Collective Unconscious (1935), CW9 Pt. I: The Archetypes and the Collective Unconscious, p.43 Chris Chong Chan Fui -  Pekan Nabalu (2015) The visitor sees oneself in fou...