The Artistic Adventure of Two Bali Trips, 1952 and 2001
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
Wang Ruobing The Quest for a Regional Culture: The Artistic Adventure of Two Bali Trips, 1952 and 2001 Left to right: Liu Kang, Cheong Soo Pieng, Luo Ming, Ni Pollok, Adrien-Jean La Mayeur, Chen Chong Swee, Chen Wen Hsi, 1952. Courtesy of Liu Kang Family. iu Kang (1911–2004), Chen Wen Hsi (1906–1991), Cheong Soo Pieng (1917–83), and Chen Chong Swee (1910–1986) are four Limportant early artists of Singapore. They were born in China and emigrated to what was then called Malaya before the founding of the People’s Republic of China.1 In 1952, these four members of the Chinese diaspora went to Bali for a painting trip. Struck by the vibrant scenery and exoticism of Balinese culture, on their return they produced from their sketches a significant amount of artwork that portrayed the primitive and pastoral Bali in a modernist style, and a group exhibition entitled Pictures from Bali was held a year later at the British Council on Stamford Road in Singapore. This visit has been regarded as a watershed event in Singapore’s art history,2 signifying the birth of the Nanyang style through their processing of Balinese characteristics into a unique “local colour”—an aesthetic referring to a localized culture and identity within the Southeast Asian context. Their Bali experience had great significance, not only for their subsequent artistic development, both as individuals and as a group, but also for the stylistic development of Singaporean artists who succeeded them.3 Vol. 12 No. 5 77 Exhibition of Pictures from Bali, British Council, Singapore, 1953. Courtesy of Cheong Leng Guat. The search for “local colour” in Bali in 1952 had another ripple effect. In 2001, forty-nine years after this iconic event, four Singaporean Chinese artists, Agnes Yit (b. 1974), Kai Lam (b. 1975), Jeremy Hiah (b. 1972), and Wei Woon Tien (b. 1974), who, at the time, were still in their twenties, paid a visit to Bali with the objective of retracing the pioneers’ paths. Driven by the idea that if a Bali trip in 1952 made those artists important in Singapore, they were curious to see if they too could achieve such success with their own visit.4 At the time, in 2001, Jeremy Hiah and Kai Lam were students at the LASALLE College of the Arts, in Singapore. Agnes Yit had just graduated from the Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts (NAFA), in Singapore, and Wei Woon Tien had just returned from studying at Goldsmiths College, University of London, in the United Kingdom. Though young in the contemporary art scene, they were not impulsive in their approach to this project; rather, it was planned in a serious way, substantially researched beforehand, and they managed to secure funding for travel from the National Arts Council of Singapore. They also interviewed Liu Kang, by then the sole survivor of the four pioneer artists, to obtain first-hand information on their Bali experience.5 They also consulted Singapore’s most influential art historian T. K. Sabapathy, who had made one of the very first attempts to define Nanyang art.6 They sought advice from him on the significance of the 1952 trip in historical, cultural, and social contexts. Equipped with substantial information about their predecessors and without any preconceptions about what to create, they allowed their experiences in Bali to generate their creative approach. As a result, a body of work was produced by these young artists that included a series of photographs and documentation of the interviews. These two visits to Bali, Bali, 1952. Courtesy of Cheong Leng Guat. conducted nearly half a century apart, reflect the attempts of two generations to probe the meaning of a regional culture and to define and cultivate their very own regional characteristics. The 78 Vol. 12 No. 5 Cheong Soo Pieng and Balinese women weaving, 1952. Courtesy of Cheong Leng Guat. derivation of a “local colour” from the customs of the others is, however, problematic. Bali is not an ordinary place but, as Liu Kang described it, “a paradise filled with wonders.”7 We all love wonders, but appreciation of a culture is quite different from appropriation and transference from that culture to one’s own. So what drew the artists to set foot on Bali? Left: Agnes Yit, Kai Lam, Jeremy Hiah, Wei Woon, Artist and Model, 2001, photograph, 84 x 124 cm. Courtesy of the artists. Right: Liu Kang, Artist and Model, 1954, oil on canvas, 84 x 124 cm. Courtesyof National Heritage Board, Singapore. After War World II, anti-colonial sentiments in Singapore intensified when the British deliberately left Singapore out of their negotiation for a Malayan confederation. Throughout the region, the idea of forging a new identity was growing deeper and seen as a reflection of people warming up to the idea of independence. The invention of a Nanyang regionalism, which specifically refers to the context of Malaya,8 has been regarded as a successful example. Nanyang literally means “the South Seas” and embraces the geographical area encompassing the regions to the south of greater China. It is regarded as “historically a China-centric term referring to the Chinese diaspora in Southeast Asia with its pan-Chinese nationalism, and it has become anachronistic as the community settled in as citizens in postcolonial nation-states.”9 Nanyang first emerged as a local subject in the late 1920s as a kind of literary activity among Chinese immigrants and initially had very little aesthetic bearing in the visual arts.10 The rise of the term reflects the patriotic feelings of the Chinese diaspora, who at first felt nostalgic for China and unsettled in a foreign land.11 After a while, a sense of belonging gradually developed among them. The patriotic aspect of Nanyang was increasingly losing importance, while its regional flavour was growing stronger. Artists who failed to notice the local colour of the South Seas were criticized; for example Chen Lianqing, the editor of the journal Coconut Grove, commented that “if our artists say that the landscape of the South Seas is too coarse, too lacking in artistic value and thus unworthy of Vol. 12 No. 5 79 their attention, that is really a statement about their own perception and not necessarily a true picture. They have not perceived the atmosphere here with any understanding.”12 In 1938, the Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts (NAFA) was established. At the time, Nanyang was a popular prefix, frequently adopted for names such as the Nanyang University and the Nanyang Siang Bau (the Nanyang News). The academy has become one of the most reputable and influential art academies in the region of Malaysia and now in Singapore. World War II and the Japanese occupation temporarily paused the search for regional identity,13 and NAFA was forced to close from 1941 to 1945, but it quickly resumed thereafter. When the People’s Republic of China was founded, Singapore experienced another wave of emigration from China. Those who had settled here earlier faced the dilemma of whether to stay or to return. When Chinese nationalism and Southeast Asian regionalism were seen to be growing apart, for those who decided to stay (Liu Kang and Chen Chong Swee), and those who had just migrated here (Chen Wen Hsi and Cheong Soo Pieng), the urgency of foraging a new regional identity became even more so. In responding to the call, the NAFA’s founding Principal, Lim Hak Tai (1893–1963), who saw Singapore as a central locality of Nanyang because of its role as a trading port linking the East and West of the region,14 appealed for “an art form archetypal of the tropical region.”15 Liu Kang, Bathers, 1988, oil on canvas, 84 x 124 cm. Courtesy of National Heritage Board, Singapore. Seeking inspiration from tropical Agnes Yit, Kai Lam, Jeremy Hiah, Wei Woon, Bathers, scenery could be done locally, so 2001, photograph, 84 x 124 cm. Courtesy of the artists. why travel to distant Bali? With no budget airlines or efficient transportation network available, planning a sketching trip to Bali was a significant undertaking in the 1950s and certainly not the result of an impulsive act. They would have been clearly aware of the difficulty and significance of such a trip, which led Chen Wen Hsi to proudly claim, “No one had done something like that before. We started it.”16 Liu Kang considers their exhibition Pictures from Bali, which was held 17 after their trip, to have been “quite an event at that time.” 80 Vol. 12 No. 5 Liu Kang, Two By the Waterfall, 1996, oil on canvas, 84 x 124 cm. Courtesy of the Liu Kang Family. Agnes Yit, Kai Lam, Jeremy Besides the social and political Hiah, Wei Woon, Two By the Waterfall, 2001, photograph, forces searching for a local colour, 84 x 124 cm. Courtesy of the artists. the artists’ search beyond the isthmus of Malaya was also the result of the art education that they had received, a blend of techniques from the East and West. The Xinhua Academy of Fine Art in Shanghai, where the Western Art Department had been established since the 1930s,18 was their alma mater. After the Xinhua Academy, Liu Kang had furthered his practice in Paris, and Chen Wen Hsi was able to study French art publications during his sojourn in Vietnam prior to settling in Singapore.19 They were very familiar with Western styles such as Impressionism, Post- impressionism, and Symbolist aesthetics, and with prominent Western artists such as Paul Gauguin, who had spent time in Tahiti in the late nineteenth century. According to Liu Kang, for them the most desirable places to seek inspiration were, in fact, Beijing and Tahiti at the time, but the sociopolitical conditions of that period prevented them from doing so.20 Another reason to visit Bali could have been the presence of the Bali resident Belgian artist Adrien-Jean le Mayeur (1880–1958), who held a number of exhibitions between 1933 and 1941 in Singapore.