Kadang Kadang Dekat Dekat Akan Datang No. 2 - Chong Kim Chiew, FX Harsono

EXHIBITION GUIDE

15 SEP – 7 OC T 2O17

FEATURING A R TISTS

Chong Kim Chiew FX Harsono With Talk by

Dr Tan Teng Phee Nº 2

A+ WORKS of ART is proud to present Kadang Kadang Dekat Dekat Akan Datang, which is an ongoing series of preview exhibitions by artists the gallery collaborates with, and this ongoing series of previews showcases artists’ existing and/or ongoing works. The title of this series is a reference to a riddle in the famous P. Ramlee movie Nujum Pa’ Blalang (1959).

PRO GRAM

TALK

Dr Tan Teng Phee

Behind Barbed Wire: A Social History of Chinese �ew Villages in Malaya (1948–1960) 3 pm Saturday 30 September 2017

For this edition of Kadang Kadang Dekat Dekat Akan Datang, A+ WORKS of ART presents works by multi-disciplinary Malaysian artist Chong Kim Chiew (b. 1975) and Indonesian contemporary artist FX Harsono (b. 1949, East Java). Chong Kim Chiew shows Isolation House (2005–2017) and FX Harsono shows Memorandum of Inhumane Act No 3 (2017) an installation of 33 individual prints, the work was recently shown at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Taipei.

Courtyard

A Chong Kim Chiew Isolation House 2005–2017

Living/Library

b. 1975, Kuala Lumpur

44 pieces zinc sheets, iron fence and wood sticks Dimensions variable

B B

A

FX Harsono b. 1949, East Java Memorandum of Inhumane Act No 3 2017 Pigment based digital print on acid free paper, charcoal Dimensions Variable

Facing to Jalan Sentul

A+ WORKS of ART — Exhibition Guide

TA LK BY D R TA N TENG P H EE

Behind Barbed Wire: A Social History of Chinese New Villages in Malaya (1948–1960).

SY NOP SIS

CHONG KI M CH IE W

FX HARSO NO

Chong Kim Chiew’s Isolation House (2005–2017) centers on the resettlement of over 530,000 Chinese “squatters” and plantation workers in “New Villages” (or Kampung Baru) during the Malayan Emergency by the British colonial government, The installation features metal signboards with the names of the “New Villages” written on them; resembling those on the streets in Malaysia today.

In this work, Kim Chiew seeks to explore identity through space and text in given names.

FX Harsono’s Memorandum of Inhumane Act No 3 (2017) represents the artist’s efforts in documenting significant events, people, and circumstances surrounding massacres committed against Indonesians of Chinese descent across villages and cities of Java from 1947 to 1949. Harsono came across an official document during his research on the same topic at the National Archives (Leiden University Library, Netherlands).

The entire content of this document is re-presented as an installation of 33 individual prints, each replicating the original pages of the published document, onto which Harsono has made his own drawings and markings.

The work was recently shown at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Taipei earlier this year in February as part of the group exhibition Rosa’s Wound.

Kadang Kadang Dekat Dekat Akan Datang — No 2

According to the British (and later the Alliance) Government, the Malayan Emergency began on 16 June 1948 and ended on 31 July 1960.

One of the most important and enduring social impacts of the Emergency was the relocation and regrouping of nearly 1,200,000 rural dwellers and Chinese squatters to more than 600 New Villages throughout the peninsular.

Yet there has been very little social history written to date on these New Villages during the Emergency period.

In fact, the ‘Emergency’ as experienced by these New Villagers demonstrates the uniqueness of their experience as New Villagers and as a special group of Chinese in Malaya, a group whose existence and identity came to be based on forced resettlement, artificial villages and highly militarised controls.

This talk aims to shed some revisionist light on the events surrounding displacement, relocation and everyday life of those New Villagers’ past history and memory through a social history approach.

ABOUT THE ART IST S & SPE AKER

A BOUT US

CHONG KI M CH IE W Chong Kim Chiew (b. 1975, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia; lives and works in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia) is an artist and curator who enjoys the openness of art language. Working across different mediums, methods and paradigms, he believes the most critical factor in contemporary art is “attitude”. His installation work comments on the social and political environment of the exhibition sites. Seeing the meaning of materials as linked to the environment, Chong regards materials as being non-static but constantly fluctuating, expanding outwards and prone to misreading.

He has staged solo exhibitions in Wei-Ling Contemporary (2015) and RAP Art Space (2005), in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. He has also curated projects in Sekolah Menengah Stella Maris, (2008), 153 Gallery (2006), and RAP Art SPace (2004, 2003). Chong has a BFA, majoring in Oil Painting, from Guangzhou Academy of Fine Art, Guangzhou, China, in 2000.

A+ WORKS of ART is a contemporary art gallery based in Kuala Lumpur.

Founded in 2017, A+ WORKS of ART strives to engage contemporary practices and discussions in new media art, especially photography, video, Installation and performance art. While the main geographic scope of the gallery is Malaysia and the rest of Southeast Asia, it keeps its ears attuned to global conversations on social issues, critical imagination and material experimentation.

F X HARSONO FX Harsono (b. 1949, East Java) is one of the most important contemporary artists in Indonesia and has remained a central figure in the Indonesia art scene over the past four decades. He was one of the founders of Indonesia’s Gerak Seni Rupa (New Art Movement) that emphasizes on experimental, conceptual approaches and active engagement with social and political issues. In recognition of his “commitment to art and to freedom of expression in art” over the decades, Harsono was awarded the Joseph Balestier Award for the Freedom of Art in 2015. He was also given the Prince Claus Award in 2014, honoring his crucial role in Indonesia’s contemporary art scene for forty years. His work has been shown in international biennials and museums worldwide. Currently his work is shown in two important exhibition on Southeast Asia Art: After Darkness: Southeast Asian Art In The Wake of History, Asia Society, New York.

September 8, 2017 – January 2, 2018 and SUNSHOWER: Contemporary Art from Southeast Asia 1980s to Now, The National Art Centre, Tokyo & Mori Art Museum. July 5 – October 23, 2017.

DR TAN TENG PH E E Dr Tan Teng Phee obtained his PhD, Behind Barbed Wire: A Social history of Chinese New Villages in Malaya during the emergency Period (1948–1960), from the Asia Research Centre, Murdoch University, Western Australia, in 2011. The dissertation was awarded a second prize for the best thesis on Asia, by Asian Studies Association of Australia’s President’s Prie and DK Award in 2012. He was a Lee Kong Chian Research Fellow at the National Library Board in Singapore. He then joined National Heritage Board as a Curator from November 2011 to April 2017. He is now the Chief Researcher of Singapore Chinese Chamber of Commerce & Industry.

Collaboration is A+ WORKS of ART key ethos, based in the belief that wonderful things can happen when people share and exchange ideas. Artists working with gallery are not so much represented by the gallery but engaged in an ongoing conversation and collaboration. Likewise, curators, writers, collectors and galleries are welcome to initiate conversations about potential collaborations. The name, A+, refers then not just to the gallery’s strive for distinction and professionalism in its services and working processes, but also a sense of readiness to start a dialogue with any interested party.

Founded by Joshua Lim, who has decades of experience in the hospitality industry, A+ WORKS of ART represents a natural progression for the avid art lover. Lim has been an art supporter for the past decade through his ongoing art acquisition and his promotion of contemporary art in his network.

A+ WORKS of ART d6-G-8, d6 Trade Centre 801 Jalan Sentul 51000 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Opening hours 12 pm – 7 pm, Tuesday to Saturday Closed on Sunday – Monday and public holidays

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