Only a Fragment
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ONLY A FRAGMENT Eiffel Chong Minstrel Kuik May Sherman Ong 7 – 21 2015 Only a Fragment “A photograph Nowadays, we are constantly bombarded by the photo- and the strict visual structure, Eiffel is able to conjure a is only a graphed image, scattered everywhere in the urban breath of associations such as Color Field paintings to landscape, seducing us with their auratic quality, at the minimal abstraction. As in his other previous series, Eiffel fragment, same time attempting to sell something, while in cyber- considers the abstract concepts of life and death through an and with the space, the digital image mutate, grow, change via digital economical visual language, highlighting banal details such passage of time tools or disintegrate via sharing and usage. Furthermore, as soft clouds in the sky and the horizon line into delicate its moorings the act of taking a photograph has become an innate gesture textures. Furthermore their uniformed stillness links them to most people equipped with smartphones and mobile as one, and one is again reminded that all seas are actually come unstuck. digital devices. These photos captured anywhere using part of the same mass of water. Finally, there is a sense It drifts a mobile device could mean something for a moment of calmness fabricated by the images as one is given an away into a either as a way to document vital information or freeze opportunity to view nature before the intervention of man. soft abstract meaningful moments, but usually in time end up as hopeless digital relics forgotten in the phone's memory. Minstrel Kuik (b. 1976) is a dynamic artist working with a pastness, open This group exhibition at Richard Koh Fine Art titled Only variety of media such as photography, artist publication, to any kind a Fragment presents three award-winning artists working painting and drawing. She was recently awarded the of reading” in Malaysia that use photography as an important part of prestigious UOB Painting of the Year prize under the their visual language while expanding its utility as more Established Artist category in Malaysia in 2014 and in – than documenters of reality. The works on show offer varied 2013, she was the winner of the International Photographer Susan conceptual strategies, with some that use text to expand the Award at Higashikawa Photo festival, Japan. Her previous work reflects on life and the sense of being framed from a Sontag reading of the images while others eliminate superfluous details, showing the images as they are, devoid of distrac- personal perspective, and this ongoing series on show titled ting allusions. “Cosmic Matter” (2005- ) which started during her studies at the Arles School of Photography, France, is a grouping of Eiffel Chong (b. 1977) is an accomplished photographer with photographs alluding to in a larger sense the mysteries of a varied body of work that examines the impact of man’s the universe stimulated by her readings on space travels action on the natural environment and the world. He was and parallel universes, though visual clues are left to anchor awarded the 3rd prize in the photography category for the the interstellar associations with everyday domestic objects Asean-‐Korea Multimedia Competition in 2010 in Seoul, and familial situations. Trusting that words and images are South Korea and was a finalist in the Young Contemporary complementary in her creative process, a piece of fictional Art Awards at the National Visual Art Gallery Kuala text inspired by Stanley Kubrick’s 1968 film “2001: A Space Lumpur, Malaysia in 2006. His visually delicate work Odyssey”, the 1967 song by the Beatles titled “Lucy in the Seascapes (2013 – 2015), titled aptly by the locations where Sky with Diamonds” as well as the 1969 tune “I Took a Trip they are shot, reveals bodies of placid seas captured from on a Gemini Spaceship” by Legendary Stardust Cowboy different piers such as in Hong Kong andKampung accompanies the 6 photographs in this exhibition. The Tanjung Rhu in Malaysia at different points in time. Though glossy images of distant full moons, model planets and taken from varying locations, the strict formal structure fluttering luminous invertebrates are a metaphor, a simula- maintained (centered horizon line, pastel color palettes) crum of space travel and time. The text, in the tone of science makes the vistas appear similar, universally simple and fiction and heavy with pop culture allusions mirrors the pure. With a limited color palette, sensitive tonal difference aesthetic choices of the photographs. Fragments of the artist’s life are blended into the creations. The work such manner an encounter with a stray cat cradling a dead moth as Cosmic Matter (2005) was photographed in Seattle, US in its mouth. In the encounter, the artist attempted to make while the artist was visiting a family member, examines a trade for the moth with the cat using a tuna bun during signs of absence while hinting at the other, the elsewhere which an unexpected gaze into the feline’s eyes raised a and the uncanny. She is interested in the digitalization chain of associations. A snapshot image of the cat on the of our memory once our physical body has disintegrated grass greets the audience; its informal appearance makes and the existence of parallel universes, and how through the image seems ‘genuine’. Finally, the photographs of 3 photography, this conception can be explored or alluded pairs of mutilated moths, in which one appears to be to. She quotes the experience of the Chinese philosopher morphing into a gecko or vice-versa, complete the assem- Zhuangzi (c. 369 BC – c. 286 BC) in which he dreamed one blage. The juxtaposition of text and images welcome night that he was a butterfly fluttering joyfully in space various readings of the work and the text aid in the creation but when he awoken from the slumber, he realized that of layers to the reading of the images. Sherman also re- he returned as himself, thus confusing him on whether he searched on the ancient art of shape shifting in Southeast was a man dreaming he was a butterfly or the other way Asia where there is a documented history of shape shifters around. The artist passionately believes that our experience such as were-cats and were-tigers, in certain parts of of the universe, the unconscious and the afterlife is limited Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand. In Malaysia, were-tigers and there is still much learn and understand. Seeing the are known as harimau jadian. In local folklore, harimau works as fragments of herself, Minstrel opines that due to jadian is believed to be non-hostile to man, and is said the autobiographical and personal nature of her works, the to take its animal form only at night to guard plantations journey and exploration is not yet over. from wild pigs. As hinted in the text, the artist views the early art of shape shifting to have been modernized and Similar in conceptual approach to Minstrel’s, an obscured adapted into contemporary culture, exemplified in the story narrating an accidental encounter weaves together antics of local politicians. the 4 photographs by Sherman Ong (b. 1971), a Malaysian artist based in-between Malacca and Singapore and has This exhibition Only a Fragment at Richard Koh Fine widely exhibited in museums, biennales and film festivals Art, Kuala Lumpur reveals the expanded language of worldwide such as the Venice, Singapore and Jakarta photography in the Malaysian context through the works of biennales, ICA and Tate Modern in London, UK as well 3 innovative photographers that are continuously pushing as the Rotterdam International Film Festival. He was the boundaries of their respective practices. the winner of the 2010 ICON de Martell Cordon Bleu Photography Award and the 2015 Prudential Eye Awards winner for the photography category. He works mainly in Haffendi Anuar film and photography, with varying series that examine the 2015 human condition and our relationships within the larger milieu. For this exhibition, the artist presents a paired- down installation consisting of 4 printed photographs on archival paper and a piece of printed text mounted on board displayed like objects on a shelf. The text serves as an introduction to the images and explains in a poem-like Eiffel Chong – Kampung Tanjung Rhu #1 (Malaysia) Kampung Tanjung Rhu #2 (Malaysia) 2013 2013 C-type print C-type print 195.6 x 152.4 cm (Unique edition) 195.6 x 152.4 cm (Unique edition) Shek Tsai Po (Hong Kong) Blake Pier (Hong Kong) Yuk Saai Shek (Hong Kong) 2015 2014 2015 C-type print C-type print C-type print 195.6 x 152.4 cm (Unique edition) 195.6 x 152.4 cm (Unique edition) 195.6 x 152.4 cm (Unique edition) Eiffel Chong Eiffel Chong (b. 1977, Kuala Lumpur) Solo Exhibitions graduated with an MA in International 2015 Seascape , Artify Gallery Publication Art13 London, Olympia Grand Hall, London, Valentine Willie Fine Art, Singapore; Valentine Contemporary Art and Design England Willie Fine Art, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia Practice from the University of 2014 Works 2002 – 2014, Hong Kong Design Institute, MIDTERM, Shalini Ganendra Fine Art, 2007 Bebas Lah: Malaysia@50, Annexe Gallery, Kuala East London and a BA (Hons) in Hong Kong Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia Lumpur, Malaysia Photography from London College 2013 Under Control, 2902 Gallery, Singapore of Printing. Besides his production Chobi Mela International Festival of Photogra- Sharing Space: Contemporary Photography 2012 This Used To Be My Playground, Artify Gallery, of photographic work, Chong is phy, Shilpokola Academy, Dhaka, Bangladesh of Malaysia + Japan, The Annexe Gallery, Hong Kong Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia highly engaged with the Malaysian 2012 Wawasan 2020, Valentine Willie Fine Art, photographic community; taking on Before The World Fell to Pieces, Valentine Willie Singapore NYKL: Landmarks of New York and Kuala Lumpur, Fine Art, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia The Annexe Gallery, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia the role of mentor for the Goethe Headlights 2012, Valentine Willie Fine Art, A Matter of Life and Death, ArtDepts by VWFA, Institut Malaysia/Nikon Shooting Stars Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia Young Contemporary Arts Award 2006, @Goodsdept, Plaza Indonesia, Jakarta, programme and Exposure+ Workshop.