Art KL-itique

The lack of electronic security, feels like an aberration, in this city-state. Having stayed in different hotel rooms for four consecutive nights, turning a door knob becomes an unfamiliar act, before stepping into another room with view(s). Spotlights illuminate a floor plan and dark azure walls, while the glow from five video projections irradiate acrylic constructs resembling furniture. Seductive neon colours disperse across the room, creating a mysterious enclosure that describes Sarah Choo Jing’s installation “Accelerated Intimacy” . Each video is 5:55 minutes long and runs simultaneously, where one first hears a line from The Godfather , then a violin composition (played by a boy in concert getup), and ends with a cacophony, then a synchronized door knock. Installation snapshot Listening in for a while, it becomes apparent that the dialogue is spliced from famous films. Quotes from Tootsie, Lost in Translation, The Conversation, Skyfall, Leon the Professional, Avatar ,...

Among art projects that memorialize the now-demolished Razak Mansion, both Dhavinder Singh’s “Recollēctus” , and the collaborative display “Framing the Common” , sustained my interest more than Leon Leong’s paintings . Dhavinder, who grew up in Razak Mansion, recorded visual fragments from his recollection via found objects and geometric forms, the scale and distance between things translating into intriguing collages. At the architects’ exhibition in Port Commune, the attention to build detail and living spaces, are drawn out and presented in a well-designed set up. While Leon’s works are not any less significant than the two collections of exhibits, his approach is elaborate yet contrived, where emotional response trumps thought-out expression. Taukeh by Day, Undertaker by Night (2017) [link to artist's texts 'Mixed Rice Uncle' ] Leon’s approach started with renting a place at Razak Mansion, six months before the scheduled demolition. The artist subsequently s...

In the exhibition statement, Chang Yoong Chia reveals that “…I feel the ideas and beliefs I have held about art are unravelling.” Utilizing his “childhood memory of looking into a well” as a point of departure, the mid-career artist displays sketches, paintings, and poems, which dwell on this evocation. Yoong Chia’s signature painting style and favoured iconography persist – wide-eyed creatures amalgamated into a monochromatic backwood, with the occasional text or object forcefully embedded via plays on visual forms, and a wonderful sensitivity towards countenances. From the arrangement of exhibits, to tiny drawings, one recognizes a face (or a display that looks like one) every time one turns towards his works. [l] Installation snapshot (2017) of Candy Candy's Left Eye; Candy Candy (Poem); Candy Candy's Right Eye  [r] Detail snapshot of Candy Candy's Left Eye (2017) Sidestepping the familiar, this show offers a repository of Yoong Chia’s responses, to the act of ...

At his exhibition of recent works in White Box, Publika, Jolly Koh proclaims , that “Modern Art in Malaysia is 100% foreign influence.” In the subsequent radio interview, the artist says that “this is the best show Malaysians will be able to see in a long, long time”, and “…the curator’s job is not very difficult”. The timing of Jolly’s solo show coincides with “The Unreal Deal” at Sasana Kijang, and “Gerak Rupa Ubur Penyataan 1957–1973” at ILHAM, where his earlier works are also on display. Sidestepping questions about curatorship, quality, and art history, the display of large collections of Malaysian art is still a welcome sight, insofar the interested visitor can make informed aesthetic judgements and expand one’s understanding of the Malaysian art canon. Personally, the 1960s paintings with hard-edged swathes of colours, are easily Jolly’s best work. Jolly Koh – Road to Subang II (1969) [@ ILHAM] As compared to displays from the 1970s, paintings such as ‘Road to Suban...

Two large institution exhibitions showcase abstract art within the context of Malaysian art history, which overlapping choice of artists and modern aesthetic offer much to see, but little to reflect upon. With 100+ paintings exhibited, Bank Negara Malaysia Museum and Art Gallery’s “The Unreal Deal” boasts “what is probably the largest ever display of abstract art in the country”, notwithstanding the absence of sculptures. Helmed by three relatively unknown curators, its display demarcated by decades project a lazy arrangement, exacerbated by dry catalogue essays keen on name-dropping and describing perceived styles. The thick catalogue bizarrely includes quotes by Edgar Degas and Francis Bacon, while the museum director’s statements that “(t)his is timeless and placeless art”, and “the definitive exhibition in its field”, compromise further my viewing experience. Ibrahim Hussein – Freeze (1965) [@ Sasana Kijang] At ILHAM, “Gerak Rupa Ubur Penyataan 1957–1973” presents works ...

In this age of political correctness and woke-ness, a six-months project which commissions five artworks to “represent marginalised voices”, sounds like an inadequate premise for an art exhibition. In Malaysia, however, the existing political hegemony and societal imbalance render such initiatives necessary, where voices of the underrepresented are drowned within a globalized and mainstream social media. The setup in “Merata Suara” successfully levels the presentation dynamic – none of the five individuals working with location partners (representatives from marginalized groups) identify themselves as a full-time artist, and the exhibition (including performance acts and community gatherings) takes place at Projek Dialog’s office in Ara Damansara.  Snapshot of exhibition space, with Eleanor Goroh - Fabrication in the background [picture taken from Suzy Sulaiman's Facebook album Merata Suara: Changing places from office to art .] To produce artwork via collaboration, ...

Centuries ago, what did visual art illustrate? Reverential icon? Metaphorical lessons? Decaying reminders? Can an artwork be defined as, a material object representing subjective truths? Standing outside this art gallery in Sentul, I face an oil painting, of one Roman philosopher’s marble bust from the Musei Capitolini. Inside the gallery, a sculpture family of porcelain pigs exhibit grotesque expressions. Nearby, large hangings display one peeing dog in a barren landscape, and a picture of a dead elephant being feasted on by vultures. A giant tombstone, and a taxidermy crow perched on a hoe, lie among a long patch of soil. Facing it are three acrylic paintings of monkeys in funny poses. How should the visitor look at these depictions of animals, and who is that in the window? Installation snapshot of See No Evil, Hear No Evil, Speak No Evil (2013/2017) After some looking, I conclude that the exhibited paintings are drawn from images found on the internet (the exception being...