The Malaysian Insider

NOV 1 — This is the last week to catch Eric Peris’s 30th solo photographic exhibition at the Sutra Gallery, which ends on Nov 5. Eric’s first two solo exhibitions were in 1982 at the Rupa Gallery (now closed), in Kuala Lumpur. Since then he has had 28 shows of his own.

In this one, Eric pulled out one example from each of his last 30 shows. What you get is a kind of retrospective view of one of Malaysia’s master photographer’s lifework. He deserves better national acknowledgement for his contributions as an artist, photographer, photojournalist and teacher. (It may yet come we hope.)

OCT 26 — "Land Below The Wind", Cheong Sung Kin’s title for his exhibition of ceramic sculptures and teapots, is taken from the title of a book written in 1939 by the American author Agnes Newton Keith. Cheong is from Sandakan and the book was written in the same town in Sabah (then known as North Borneo). Subsequently that title has been accepted as the unofficial descriptor for Sabah.

Keith wrote mainly about her domestic life as a colonial official’s wife and a little of her infrequent treks into the jungle. Cheong’s sculptures are of the landscapes and its inhabitants; from his own observations and the family's backyard. He grew up surrounded by natural environments and indigenous cultures and peoples.

APRIL 14 — There are quite a few festivals that fall in April. For the Chinese community, there’s the annual Ts’ing-ming when they visit the graves in honour of their ancestors.

For the Christians they observe Good Friday and Easter, the death and rebirth of their saviour Jesus Christ. And the Thais who live here celebrate Songkran, the annual water festival signalling their lunar New Year.

It is in this mixed mood of death and birth that I write about two nonagenarian Malaysian artists. The venerable Bo-Yeun, 96, passed away this week and Fung Yow Chork, 91, is critically ill in hospital (I shall write about him in another article).

APRIL 12 – For 20 years or more, if you were a Malaysian artist, not in the popular line-up, yet one of those lucky ones with your artwork in the National Art Gallery’s (NAG) collection, you’ll probably have a quibble with NAG because you can’t find any of your works on display in the premier art institution. Why?

There could be many reasons for this distressing situation. One was that there was simply no deliberate policy, in the past, to display a sample of ever artist, past and present, old and young, of the 3,800 artworks in their collection, for the public to get an overview and judge for themselves what sort of artistic talents we have in the country.

But thanks to the current Director General of NAG, Mohamad Najib Ahmad Dewa, many things have changed. The 54-year-old, who has a PhD in textiles, was the former Dean of the University Science Malaysia’s Centre for Art Studies. He took over the helm of NAG in 2007.

Najib’s own artistic career has also seen many changes; starting as a batik artist at Central Market in Kuala Lumpur, he went on to university and later became an academic before moving on to the top job as custodian of Malaysian art.

NAG is now more inviting and informative about the general cultural wealth and health of the country. There are many more art activities by or endorsed by NAG in and outside the premises in Jalan Temerloh.

Now, if you are one of the 800 or so artists with works in NAG, you can be sure one of your artworks (old or new is uncertain) is on display in the permanent collection exhibition in the main room on the ground floor as you enter the building. Many artists who had shied away from NAG are now proud to bring their friends and even potential collectors to visit the gallery. The attendance figures have gone up recently.

For the first time, anyone walking into NAG can now get a brief idea of the story of Malaysian art going back to about 3,000 years with the cave paintings in the Tambun cave, in Ipoh, to the art forms by some of to-day’s old and young practitioners.

This display reflects every conceivable artistic and political viewpoint in the local context and the fun part is that visitors can best judge for themselves what sort of art they personally like or dislike. What the art “experts” declare is “hot” and what is “not hot” is nothing more than their personal opinion and their vested interest as part of their job or their financial connection with the business of selling art objects.

Besides, there is also for the first time a sumptuous-looking publication documenting the country’s art history. Susurmasa or Timelines which goes out to all the schools, as a text book, will teach students about the art history of the country. This publication is in Bahasa and English and is available in major bookstores. (I shall be reviewing this book at a later date.)

At NAG, there is also a gallery shop that sells not only art books and prints but also art materials like canvases at a discount to artists who are members of NAG. This new membership, for a small fee, which is open to anyone, is to eventually create an artist co-operative so that all members can enjoy lower prices for many of their art supplies.

In the next move the Director General is trying to introduce a more institutionalized art marketing structure for local artists. Artists are advised by NAG that they have to start selling their art product only through the middlemen, the commercial art galleries, which then can best “package” the artist’s work to fetch a better price.

Then NAG, in the future, will only buy artworks through such art merchants. In this way it hopes to bring in more professionalism similar to the other art markets in the world. Yes, there have been extremely high prices of Malaysian artworks being sold through auction houses that make international news headlines but there is also the underside of this trade which is open to fraud and greed, just like the rest of the financial markets which is now in a crisis of its own making.

Given that we can never set limits to personal and corporate greed, artists and businessmen and women alike, and many of the financial transactions are not open to public scrutiny, what sort of artists and artistic commodities will emerge? Does the contemporary art marketplace today not look similar to its other “toxic” financial counterparts?

There is certainly more work and thinking ahead for NAG and the rest of art community to make art relevant not just individually but to the rest of the country and the world.

 

MARCH 1 – This black-and-white photograph of an artificial right leg without the body is an unusual and intriguing sight.

How many of us have come across this uncommon situation in the mainstream of our normal daily life? Normally, it is usual to meet a person without one or both of their legs but never a leg without the other limb and the rest of the body. Whose leg is this and where is the body? What is it doing there? This is surreal.

Where did this incongruous image come from? This bizarre portrait of a single prosthetic right leg with its shoe on and in a pair of blue jeans, set in a men’s changing room, is now on show at the photographic exhibition “Empathy”.

This is the third collection of my photographs focusing on people with various disabilities going about doing sports and other activities and enjoying their life.