Capturing Contemporary– Zelin Seah

PROJECT BOOTH: CAPTURING CONTEMPORARY

_ ZELIN SEAH

PROJECT BOOTH: CAPTURING CONTEMPORARY

_ ZELIN SEAH

Zelin Seah (b.1980, Malaysia) graduated with a BFA from the Birmingham City University in 2007 and has since participated in numerous exhibitions and residencies in Malaysia and around the region. He is critically acclaimed for his semi-abstract black and white depictions of the contemporary socioeconomic phenomenon with the usage of fragmented daily life space images. Seah was an awardee for The Young Guns Awards 2013. His works were Jury’s Recommended choices at 14th Japan Media Arts Festival. In 2014, Seah was included in Malaysian Eye Book, and participated in Prudential Eye Zone at Saatchi Gallery, London. Seah’s works are in the permanent collections of the National Visual Art Gallery Malaysia, Birmingham City University, United Kingdom and HOM Art Trans, Kuala Lumpur.

Through his painting practice, Zelin Seah applies Western Art ideologies from a Southeast Asian perspective. His work stems from an idea that the migration of ideology from Western Art has been expanded and borrowed by different regions worldwide. The consequent paintings have been removed from their original context, but their survival through various forms of reproduction has created a new visual language in itself.

TAKSU is a leading contemporary art gallery and specialist in Southeast Asia. Representing selections of fine art with distinctive urban edge, we are at the forefront of contemporary art in this region. TAKSU works to forge a platform for established and emerging artists to share their pool of creativity and knowledge through its residency programs and exhibitions. Encapsulating the true meaning of the word TAKSU; divine inspiration, energy, and spirit.

Suherwan Abu Director, TAKSU Galleries

Graphic Design Jeffrey Lim / Studio 25 Printer Unico Services Artworks & Images © 2015 Zelin Seah This publication may be reproduced in any form for academic, editorial and/ or non-commercial purposes without special permission from the artist(s) and gallery, with acknowledgement of the source. For other purposes, prior consent is needed.

Seah’s art education was diverse, having been trained in both traditional and contemporary styles in Malaysia where imitation is a common way to learn art. The artist studied Master works from internet sources which were often reproduced images themselves-- it was not until he pursued his Arts Degree overseas did he personally get to view an original work of art from the West.

As a result of his disjointed learning journey, Seah’s work may at first appear uncertain and fragmented. However, this style brings with it a unique perspective, which manifests in his use of the classic cross-hatching technique tailored to suit his own personal preference, and instead of a full-blown copy of the surface through colour, lighting, and imagery, Seah paints lines to create a metaphorical structural net that attempts to capture the intent that lies beneath each work.

Seah sees his deliberate “imitations” as reflections of the migration of Western art into other regions, with each outcome holding its own as individual despite coming from the same reference image. They are not meant to inherit all the qualities found in the originals, but are rather used as material to explore and derive new context.

top left; Laocoön, Museo Pio Clementino, Vatican (approximate date 25BC) top center; Laocoön, by BANDINELLI Baccio, Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence (1525) top right; Study of the Laocoön Group by Peter Rubens (1601) bottom left; Installation; Capturing Contemporary, 2015, Used fishing net, Dimensions variable bottom right; Flowers in a Vase, by Jan Davidsz. De Heem (1645)

Laocoön series: Zelin Seah’s studies on the Laocoön series is based on the research from internet, about the ancient statue Laocoön and his Sons (25 B.C.) that was excavated in Rome in 1506. Artists and connoisseurs at that time including Michelangelo and Raphael once debated on how the missing parts should be interpreted. After that, different versions of study and reproduction have been created in different times, based on different artists’ interpretation. The artist takes reference not from the original Laocoön statue, but uses a copy of Rubens’s sketch of it from internet, which contain even less information from the origin, in an attempt to discover the transformation of information in the age of the information highway.

Flowers in a Vase series: For his Flowers in a Vase series, the artist borrows from Jan Davidsz. De Heem’s paintings of the same title. The painter family of David de Heem included father, brother, and sons, all of whom painted works in similar styles which are often hard to set apart. Seah made reproductions from the same painting, to discover the possible aesthetic motivations from different angles (rhythm, volume, structure) apart from what the eye sees on the surface (lighting, colour, image).

He wanted to depict a notion of time in the paintings, allowing the different flowers in his work to live and die in their own time.

About the Project This body of work represents the artist’s views on the relationship between contemporary art and its viewers. The haphazardly strewn fishing nets act as barrier that intentionally disrupt the audience view of his paintings on the wall, thus questioning the accessibility of contemporary art today. This train of thought stems from the artist’s own learning journey—before pursuing his graduate studies overseas, he studied art through reproduced images from second or third hand sources. The paintings in this project are copies of imitations of Western masterpieces found on the internet. With every reproduction, the works are further removed from the original.

PROJECT BOOTH: CAPTURING CONTEMPORARY

—

ZELIN SEAH

Left: Flowers in a Vase_ version a, 2014, Bitumen, offset Ink and oil on linen, 150x130cm Center: Flowers in a Vase _ version b, 2014, Bitumen, offset Ink and oil on linen, 150x130cm Right: Flowers in a Vase _ version c, 2014, Bitumen, offset Ink and oil on linen, 150x130cm

Left: Laocoรถn_ version a, 2014, Bitumen and oil on linen, 180x160cm Center: Laocoรถn_ version b, 2014, Bitumen and oil on linen, 180x160cm Right: Laocoรถn_ version c, 2014, Bitumen and oil on linen, 180x160cm

PROJECT BOOTH: CAPTURING CONTEMPORARY

_ ZELIN SEAH