DO NOT GO INTO THE MIST, DO NOT GO BACK TO THE DARK, DO NOT STAND STILL - Chong Kim Chiew

DO NOT GO INTO THE MIST DO NOT GO BACK TO THE DARK DO NOT STAND STILL ALON VEDASTO CRUZ, KIM, EMRAN AZIZ, PAITHOON KUEDBUT, LIAM SMITH AND ZASKIA ROESLI

This catalogue is published in conjunction with Chong Kim Chiew's exhibition DO NOT GO INTO THE MIST DO NOT GO BACK TO THE DARK DO NOT STAND STILL A GROUP SHOW ARTISTS Alon Vedasto Cruz Kim Emran Aziz Paithoon Kuedbut Liam Smith Zaskia Roesli

CURATOR Doppelg�nger Labor PROJECT MANAGEMENT Joshua Lim Lienne Loy Nikki Ong WRITER Anca Rujoiu DESIGN nowornever.my PRINTER Unico Services

Published by

A+ WORKS of ART d6 - G - 8, d6 Trade Centre 801 Jalan Sentul 51000 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia +60 18 333 3399 info@aplusart.asia www.aplusart.asia All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in retrieval systems or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical or others without prior permission in writing from the Director of A+ WORKS of ART. © 2018 A+ WORKS of ART, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, Anca Rujoiu and the works of Chong Kim Chiew.

ISBN 978 967 15431 9 1 Edition of 500 Printed in Malaysia

CONTENTS

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The Double Bind Anca Rujoiu

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Introduction Doppelgänger Labor

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The Traversal Landscape Alon Vedasto Cruz and Kim

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Inclined 60 Degrees – A Space Within A Space Emran Aziz

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Planet Paithoon Kuedbut

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We Have Not Changed Liam Smith

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Pupuk Kandang Zaskia Roesli

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Artist Bios and Acknowledgments

The Double Bind

Anca Rujoiu

Since 2013 there have been several fictional figures whom Chong Kim Chiew has employed in his works. There is TOPY, a young designer from the Czech Republic. There is Kim, an American of Asian descent, whose country of origin is uncertain, and who happens to be a recurrent character in Chong's latest exhibition presented at A+ Works of Art. Little information is revealed about each fictional artist, other than elementary biographical data (year, place of birth, residency); each imagined artistic practice is wrapped up into a deliberate "packaged ethnicity".1 Similar examples abound 1

2

3

Monica Juneja, “GlobalArt History and the “Burden of Representation”,” in Global Studies: Mapping Contemporary Art and Culture, eds.

Hans Belting, Jakob Birken and Andrea Buddensieg (Stuttgart: Hatje Cantz, 2011), 274-297.

Sandra Kisters, The Lure of the Biographical, On the (Self)-Representation of Modern Artists (Amsterdam: Valiz, 2017), 23.

Ibid 30.

in press releases accompanying contemporary art exhibitions of different scales.

Relying on biographical information to construct the identity of an artist has been a long-standing practice in Western art history. 2 The biographical approach in art history reached a peak in the Romantic era, where work and life narratives were blended together with anecdotes and the topoi about artists who were either heroised, invested with magical powers, or presented as exceptional members of the society. 3 Artists often associated themselves with recurrent ideas about artistic identity and appropriated them as part of their self-image, to the point that it became hard to distinguish

between fact and invention - all this fed the audience's curiosity, and also the market. Even today, the intersection between an artist's life and her work brings us inevitably on the territory of fiction, where biography serves as a construction mode of an image, an image of its time.

In this context, the rhetorical question, "How fictional are fictional artists?" 4, raises an important point. The question was addressed

by Koen Brams, the editor of an anthology of

4

Koen Brams, The Encyclopedia of Fictional Artists (ZĂźrich: JRP|Ringier, 2010), 7.

fictional artists (hailing largely from Western literature). When one fictionalises the art world, one sheds light on how it is perceived from outside, but also how it functions from within. Fabricating fictional identities by using recognisable language and complying with the standards in the art world, Chong's work addresses the institutional system of art. He points out how artists often become tokens of representation in the process of exhibitionmaking. In the non-Western context, identity markers such as ethnicity or nationality serve as factors of inclusion and currencies of circulation within regional and global cultural networks.

When value is assigned to the artwork and its meaning determined by such markers, how does one negotiate the desire of belonging

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to one place with the discomfort of being confined to it? Exploring the process of identity construction, Chong reveals various doublebind situations, where one is facing tensions, conflicting expectations or messages.

Artists made use of fictional identities as a conceptual form of practice where processes of production, self-reflexivity, and self-representation converge into the work. A plethora of examples could generate another encyclopaedia of fictional artists by artists themselves, if not a thematic show. Examples include Marcel Duchamp's alter egos, R. Mutt or Rose / Rrose Sélavy; Claude Cahun (b. Lucy Schwob); and Cindy Sherman's self-portraitures; but also artists collectives such as the Guerrilla Girls, Claire Fontaine, Reena Spaulings - all of whom make use of fictional identities to test the boundaries of the art system. Roberto Chabet and other peer artists, introduced the character of Angel Flores, opening for the artist a space 5

Cocoy Lumbao, “Three Essays and One Elegy: Surface, Suture, Substance,” in Roberto Chabet, ed. Ringo Bunoan (Manila: King Kong Art Projects, 2015), 229.

of conceptual and narrative possibilities. 5 The artist Shubigi Rao has positioned herself as an apprentice of S. Raoul whom she invented as a male mentor and a father figure, highlighting the conventional distribution of gender roles.

Unlike some of the examples above,

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Chong does not invest efforts in passing his

fictional characters as real, but in producing a space of representation for each. Multiple identities correspond to the multiple spaces that constitute the exhibition.

Marking the lower surface of the gallery space, Chong points out to social hierarchies that divide Malaysian's society. Hybrid sculptures, half in the shape of a human finger, half resembling a piece of dung, are scattered on the floor. Pupuk Kandang (Manure) is the work of Zaskia Roesli, an Indonesian artist according to Chong. The work is the product of her collaboration with an illegal worker in Malaysia, a fellow Indonesian woman who wanted to remain anonymous. In their discussion, the woman confessed how she perceived herself as loathsome as dung, something that produces aversion, yet is not entirely useless. Internalising an image of selfabasement, the woman is left with little to hold on to herself. Planet, authored by fictional artist Paithoon Kuedbut, is an eyeball merged with an earth globe rendered as an inflatable object, as if an individual view was blown up at a global scale. It is a surrealist gesture extended also in the work Inclined 60 Degree - A Space Within A Space by Emran Aziz. The installation is a reconstruction of the temporary National Museum (Muzium Negara), which was

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established in 1953 at the initiative of the British High Commissioner in Malaya at that time, Gerald Templer. The short-lived building was demolished in 1961 for the construction of the 6

7

Muzium Negara, History, http://www. muziumnegara.gov. my/ main/?c=Sejarah_1 8 August 2018.

present-day National Museum. 6 In the gallery space, the museum is inclined at 60 degrees, the number matching at the time of the exhibition opening 7 the total amount of years passed since the Federation of Malaya became independent.

The museum is another space of representation, where nation-building efforts take a unified visual form, where identities are fixed, often with insufficient room for nuances or contested narratives. Reflections on the role of a national museum of Malaysia are assigned to Aziz, an imagined artist hailing from Brunei, pointing to the two neighbourhood states' intersecting histories and cultures that unsettle a cohesive national narrative.

Chong's Muzium Negara displays four photographs from the series, We Have Not Changed by Liam Smith, described as a Singaporean artist, born in Hong Kong and educated in United Kingdom before his relocation

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E-mail correspondence with the artist, 31 July 2018.

to Singapore. 8 The figures in the photographs have the quiet, obedient, isolated presence of museum artefacts. They are in fact photographed male and female faces of mannequins from the Melaka

Sultanate Palace (Muzium Istana Kesultanan Melaka). Used in displays of traditional clothing of the multiple ethnic groups that make up Malaysia's population, these mannequins bear resemblance to Caucasian facial features. By accident, the choice of mannequins on display complicate, if not undermine the efforts of cultural representation.

The Traversal Landscape, a three-channel video installation by Alon Vedasto Cruz and Kim, correlate the image of water with the notion of identity. Water operates as a connector, linking territories and making possible transnational exchanges, but also acts as a divider, creating secluded and isolated territories. Playing the same video, but at different speeds, the three screens can be navigated by the viewer through passageways in the projections. Altogether they create a space that can be understood as a "locality" in Monica Juneja conception of the term. Discussing the "burden of representation" 9

experienced by non-European artists in an

increasing global art world, Juneja proposes to rethink the notion of locality so as to avoid creating the traps of nostalgia, self-exoticisation or rigid cultural nationalism, which artists sometimes find themselves falling into. A locality takes form "on the interstices of spaces, cultures, and freedom", offering a space of belonging,

9

A term referenced

by Monica Juneja from Kobena Mercer’s essay “Black Art and the Burden of Representation,” in: Third Text: Third World Perspectives on Contemporary Art & Culture 4, no.

10 (Spring 1990): 61–78.

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but also the possibility of transgressing its containment. In this act of drifting, moving from one screen to another, one experiences both a sense of cohesiveness, but also fragmentation.

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Introduction

Doppelgänger Labor

The exhibition features five Southeast Asian artists (Philippines, Brunei, Singapore, Indonesia and Thailand) as well as one anonymous artist from Indonesia. They were invited to create artworks in Malaysia related but not limited to topics concerning the country's history, politics and identity. Artists were encouraged to look into their own background in order to broaden and develop an imaginative yet practical creation (video, installation, photography or sculpture).

A majority of Southeast Asian art exhibitions typically involve local artists creating artwork locally. However, the theme for this exhibition is the Malaysia beyond Malaysian artists. The curator embraces the audacity to view Malaysia as an outsider without hesitation, without discarding his foreign identity.

As Southeast Asia becomes of greater interest globally, numerous international exhibitions have featured art and artists from the region. In these cases, was the authenticity of Southeast Asia being exhibited? Were the interpretations genuine relative to the region? And would it be wrong to adopt a diverse view? If all things are confined to locals interpreting locals, isn't this parallel to being politically correct, in the worst sense of that term? In this exhibition, the curator invited the participating artists to ponder such concerns. He also wanted to provoke a loosening up of the inherited territorialisation that frames how artists represent their countries.

Obscurity of the future, uncertainty of the past and inconsistency of the present are the current circumstances of Malaysia society. Do not go into the mist. Do not go back to the dark. Do not stand still. Contradictory viewpoints, yet, at the same time, art can become like a spiritual anchor.

Doppelgänger Labor, is an artist collective formed in Malaysia in 2013.

The Traversal Landscape

Alon Vedasto Cruz and Kim

Alon Vedasto Cruz was born in 1983 in the southern Philippines. He is a graduate of UP Film Institute (UPFI). His video art was exhibited in Videoformes, a French international video art event in 2015. Currently he lives in Manila.

Kim is an Asian living in New York. Due to issues concerning his identification, he is a stateless person. His origins remain unknown.

He is often mistaken as a Korean, Chinese, Hong Konger, Taiwanese, Filipino or Vietnamese because of his name. He works mainly with video and explores the conversation between the body and time.

The Philippines is a Southeast Asia country in the Western Pacific Ocean, comprising more than 7,000 islands. To Alon, the scattered islands are a shrunken topography of the world map.

The ocean views are part of Alon's daily scenery, and this scattered terrain has inspired him to connect all of them with water.

Since 2011, Alon started coming to Malaysia to take video footage of water. He has since filmed over 500 video clips. In 2015, he stumbled upon Kim's work and invited him to collaborate.

Kim agreed and sent Alon his work via email. That's how they started their collaboration, bridging together seemingly unrelated topics to create The Traversal Landscape.

The Traversal Landscape is a video installation. There are three screens that allow the audience to traverse freely from one section to the other, offering a unique viewing experience in every instance. The same video will be played on the three screens: on the first, the video is shown at normal speed, it's contents, the various forms and veins of water. The second screen is a backtrack of the first, manifesting the reversal of time.

The third screen is the slow-motion version of second.

Because of the slow-motion, audiences might notice, in contrast to the views of ocean water, hidden fragments that are close-up shots of a specific body part. These fragments are intersected into different parts of the video. The slow-motion enables only one shot to be seen each time as an audience member enters the exhibition spaces. If one wishes to see all the fragments, one would have to stay put by the screen for seven hours.

Kim is a stateless person. Hence, his body/identity is, in some sense, invincible to him. His unclear and shattered identity resemblance the endless drift of ocean. If one wishes to learn about his existence, you need to trace back to his past. His body only appears in the third slow-motion video. The only way to assemble his identity is to watch the video over and over again.

As for Alon, he is always curious about what goes behind the screen and often imagines stepping into the world behind the screen. The Traversal Landscape is a realisation of this desire to step inside, and offers layered discoveries of a mysterious scenery.

The water has connected the scattered terrains, while the shattered existence is hidden in the water. This is the combination of two shattered identities.

Alon Vedasto Cruz and Kim The Traversal Landscape (still image from video) 2018

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Alon Vedasto Cruz and Kim The Traversal Landscape 2018 3-channel video installation with cloth Dimensions variable Video duration 9:29 mins and 237:17 mins

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Alon Vedasto Cruz and Kim The Traversal Landscape 2018 3-channel video installation with cloth Dimensions variable Video duration 9:29 mins and 237:17 mins

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Inclined 60 Degrees – A Space Within A Space Emran Aziz

Emran Aziz is a Bruneian. He first got to know about Malaysia through East Malaysia. He acquired a general knowledge about Malaysia’s cultural history while he was studying in Singapore.

When Emran was invited to this exhibition, he recalled reading some relevant information about visual arts in Malaysia and started his research. As a result of an emerging interest in national museums, he decided to employ the institution as the theme of his creation for the show - an inclined museum.

In 1953, Sir Gerald Templer, the British High Commissioner, founded the Temporary Museum at the original site for the Selangor Museum. The dimension of the museum was 60m by 24m, and only existed for 6 years (1953-1959) before the National Museum was established in 1963. The Temporary Museum underwent two significant historical periods: the Malayan Colonial years and Malaysian Independence.

The inclination is a metaphor for instability. The artist chose to use the year of Malaysia's independence to determine the degree of the inclination. Hence, the degree will increase as the years go by.

Peoples familiarity with history resembles the magnitude of inclination. As time passes, and the degree of inclination increases, the gap between the floor the building will increase as well (at least until 90 years). It is as if this gap is a space to get to know history.

The Temporary Museum held a collective memory of the people. Although it has been demolished, it should not only be preserved in the archives. Appearing once again through this exhibition it can summon forgotten memories.

Besides, this creation is a space within a space that echoes the geographical location of the artist. Brunei is surrounded by Malaysia, living in a space within a space.

Emran Aziz Inclined 60 Degree – A Space Within A Space 2018 Wood and light Dimensions variable

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Planet

Paithoon Kuedbut

Originally from Thailand, Paithoon Kuedbut often merges two different worlds to create a new entity. He believes that the arts should be full of variables and unpredictable.

Planet is a work with multiple meanings: it is a planet, and it is also an eyeball. The artist created a surreal inflatable work. This illuminated, enlarged balloon creates a magnified and striking visual effect. However, it turns into a frail balloon when it encounters physical touch.

Planet takes on a simple yet powerful form. It is an integration of an eyeball and a planet (an integration of the closest and furthest entities from our body). The planet also looks like an illuminating spot (black mark). The bizarre integration offers multiple interpretations. It consists of a familiar organ, an imaginary distance and a conflicting displacement. In an era characterised by highly stimulating visual images, how do we remain unaffected by the excessive visuality while at the same time remain able to distinguish our vision with clarity?

Perhaps this 360-degree rotatable, left-right swayable and position-transferable sphere can keep up with this rapidly changing world, and help us feel more orientated with its cast of light.

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Paithoon Kuedbut Planet 2018 Balloon Diameter: 180cm

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We Have Not Changed

Liam Smith

Liam Smith is a Singaporean artist. Born in 1993 in Hong Kong, he obtained his primary education in the UK before migrating to Singapore when he was twelve. Due to his upbringing, he has developed a deep-rooted interest towards Asia’s mixed cultures.

The artist considers photography as a medium for selfdiscovery. We Have Not Changed is a series of photographs of figurines in “Malaysia’s” museums. The artist selected to exhibit his Melaka Sultanate Palace Museum series for this exhibition.

His point of inspiration was one of his visits to the museum in Malacca. He was intrigued by the contradiction of figurines that have western-looking facial features but exhibit the cultural dress of the ”country’s” three main ethnic groups.

If museums are reflections of the past, then the figurines in the Melaka Sultanate Palace Museum reflect a strange history that we are not quite familiar with. And although the “artist” has clearly stated that with his reproductions of the “museum’s” artefacts he does not provide the information that would familiarise ““you”” with ““your”” history and culture, nonetheless, these photographs might perhaps stimulate ““your”” imagination of many possible cultural histories.

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Liam Smith We Have Never Change #1 2018 Pigment inkjet on premium luster photo paper 29.7 x 21cm Liam Smith We Have Never Change #2 2018 Pigment inkjet on premium luster photo paper 29.7 x 21cm Liam Smith We Have Never Change #3 2018 Pigment inkjet on premium luster photo paper 29.7 x 21cm Liam Smith We Have Never Change #4 2018 Pigment inkjet on premium luster photo paper 29.7 x 21cm Liam Smith We Have Never Change #5 2018 Pigment inkjet on premium luster photo paper 29.7 x 21cm Liam Smith We Have Never Change #6 2018 Pigment inkjet on premium luster photo paper 29.7 x 21cm

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Liam Smith We Have Never Change #7 2018 Pigment inkjet on premium luster photo paper 29.7 x 21cm

Pupuk Kandang

Zaskia Roesli

Zaskia Roesli was born in 1990 in Sumatra, Indonesia. A graduate of the Indonesian Institute of the Arts (ISI) (2015), she has exhibited her work in Indonesia, Singapore and China. Her work mostly involves a collaboration to carry out a single task, and is typically presented via painting, sculpture, photography or activities.

The work presented here is a collaboration between Zaskia Roesli and an anonymous illegal migrant worker, who is in Malaysia and happens to be a fellow Indonesian citizen. Through the process of conversation, exchange and collaboration, they completed a series of micro-sculptures. In Zaskia's practice, she typically would share joint credit with her collaborators. However, in this case, due to various considerations, her collaborator prefers to participate anonymously.

Upon invitation, Zaskia surveyed Malaysia for a month before selecting this courageous woman from among many other illegal migrant workers. The woman was rather clueless about art, and never thought she might create an artwork in her life. Even if she had a chance to visit an art gallery, it would likely have been only for cleaning duties. The woman has encountered her share of unfair treatment in Malaysia. Sometimes it's as if she feels her identity is as lowly as dung. When Zaskia suggested that she could exhibit dung in the gallery space, she was astonished with the idea.

Subsequently, they both collaborated and created these micro-sculptures.

The phrase “Pupuk Kandang� is from Indonesian, and translates as manure or dung. The artwork title thus retains the language and culture of both artist and migrant worker, and also highlights the inequality between the population of workers and their place in the social hierarchy (the greater the size, the lower their status). Although they are as insignificant as dung, they are everywhere to support and provide for the needs of the whole land.

Zaskia Roesli Pupuk Kandang 2018 Acrylic on plaster Dimensions variable

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DO NOT GO INTO THE MIST DO NOT GO BACK TO THE DARK DO NOT STAND STILL A GROUP SHOW Installation View #1

DO NOT GO INTO THE MIST DO NOT GO BACK TO THE DARK DO NOT STAND STILL A GROUP SHOW Installation View #2

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DO NOT GO INTO THE MIST DO NOT GO BACK TO THE DARK DO NOT STAND STILL A GROUP SHOW Installation View #3

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Artist Bios

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Alon Vedasto Cruz was born in 1983 in the southern Philippines. He is a graduate of UP Film Institute (UPFI). His video art was exhibited in Videoformes, a French international video art event in 2015.

Currently he lives in Manila.

Kim is an Asian living in New York. Due to issues concerning his identification, he is a stateless person. His origins remain unknown. He is often mistaken as a Korean, Chinese, Hong Konger, Taiwanese, Filipino or Vietnamese because of his name. He works mainly with video art and explores the conversation between the body and time.

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Emran Aziz is a Bruneian. He first got to know about Malaysia through East Malaysia. He acquired a general knowledge about Malaysia's cultural history while he was studying in Singapore.

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Originally from Thailand, Paithoon Kuedbut often merges two different worlds to create a new entity. He believes that the arts should be full of variables and unpredictable outcomes.

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Liam Smith is a Singaporean artist. Born in 1993 in Hong Kong, he obtained his primary education in the UK before migrating to Singapore when he was twelve. Due to his upbringing, he has developed a deep-rooted interest towards Asia's mixed cultures.

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Zaskia Roesli was born in 1990 in Sumatra, Indonesia. A graduate of the Indonesian Institute of the Arts (ISI) (2015), she has exhibited her work in Indonesia, Singapore and China. Her work mostly involves a collaboration to carry out a single task, and is typically presented via painting, sculpture, photography or activities.

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

A+ WORKS of ART and Chong Kim Chiew would like to thank:

Noriza Bt. Zakaria Anca Rujoiu Chong Kon Fong David Wong Joshua Lim Lee Weng Choy Leo So Lienne Loy Mato Tytee Nascent Choy Nikki Ong Valerie Chian

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About A+ WORKS of ART A+ WORKS of ART is a contemporary art gallery based in Kuala Lumpur, with a geographic focus on Malaysia and Southeast Asia. Founded in 2017 by Joshua Lim, the gallery presents a wide range of contemporary practices, from painting to performance, drawing, sculpture, new media art, photography, video and installation.

Its exhibitions have showcased diverse themes and approaches, including material experimentation and global conversations on social issues. Collaboration is key to the ethos of A+ Works of Art. Since its opening, the gallery has worked with artists, curators, writers, collectors, galleries and partners from within the region and beyond, and continues to look out for new collaborations. The gallery name is a play on striving for distinction but also on the idea that art is never without context and is always reaching to connect — it is always “plus” something else.

DO NOT GO INTO THE MIST DO NOT GO BACK TO THE DARK DO NOT STAND STILL

DO NOT GO INTO THE MIST DO NOT GO BACK TO THE DARK DO NOT STAND STILL ALON VEDASTO CRUZ, KIM, EMRAN AZIZ, PAITHOON KUEDBUT, LIAM SMITH AND ZASKIA ROESLI

About A+ WORKS of ART

This catalogue is published in conjunction with Chong Kim Chiew’s exhibition DO NOT GO INTO THE MIST DO NOT GO BACK TO THE DARK DO NOT STAND STILL A GROUP SHOW ARTISTS Alon Vedasto Cruz Kim Emran Aziz Paithoon Kuedbut Liam Smith Zaskia Roesli

CURATOR Doppelg�nger Labor PROJECT MANAGEMENT Joshua Lim Lienne Loy Nikki Ong WRITER Anca Rujoiu DESIGN nowornever.my PRINTER Unico Services

Published by

A+ WORKS of ART d6 - G - 8, d6 Trade Centre 801 Jalan Sentul 51000 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia +60 18 333 3399 info@aplusart.asia www.aplusart.asia All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in retrieval systems or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical or others without prior permission in writing from the Director of A+ WORKS of ART. © 2018 A+ WORKS of ART, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, Anca Rujoiu and the works of Chong Kim Chiew.

ISBN 978 967 15431 9 1 Edition of 500 Printed in Malaysia

A+ WORKS of ART is a contemporary art gallery based in Kuala Lumpur, with a geographic focus on Malaysia and Southeast Asia. Founded in 2017 by Joshua Lim, the gallery presents a wide range of contemporary practices, from painting to performance, drawing, sculpture, new media art, photography, video and installation.

Its exhibitions have showcased diverse themes and approaches, including material experimentation and global conversations on social issues. Collaboration is key to the ethos of A+ Works of Art. Since its opening, the gallery has worked with artists, curators, writers, collectors, galleries and partners from within the region and beyond, and continues to look out for new collaborations. The gallery name is a play on striving for distinction but also on the idea that art is never without context and is always reaching to connect — it is always “plus” something else.