50:50 — Seah Zelin & Yeoh Choo Kuan

SEAH ZELIN

50 / 50 SEAH ZELIN YEOH CHOO KUAN

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SEAH ZELIN (b.1980) Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia EDUCATION 2007 Bachelor of Art with Honor (Major in Fine Art) University of Central England (Birmingham City University) SOLO EXHIBITION 2013 50 / 50 two man exhibition Taksu, Kuala Lumpur 2011 To Whom It May Concern: Being House of MATAHATI, Ampang, Malaysia GROUP EXHIBITIONS 2013 UP Exhibition Taksu Gallery, K.L SAGE Residency Exhibition House of Matahati, Ampang Local’s Only Exhibition Taksu Gallery, K.L 20@13 Exhibition Gallery 13, K.L 2012 Sama-sama Exhibition Boston Gallery, Manila, Philippines Southeast Asia Art Exchange New Zero Art Space, Yangon, Myanmar 2011 In Death Row’s Shadow KLSCAH, KL Sequential Narrative Galeri Chandan, KL Vertical or Horizontal Exhibition House of Matahati, Ampang 2 010 MERAPI ERUPTION Exhibition House of Matahati, Ampang Pudu Community Art Festival Pudu Plaza, KL Pameran Poskad 2010 My Art Space, Singapore 200 9 Cutie Cultie Comic show One Art Gallery, PJ 200 8 “Div15ion” Exhibition Findars Space, Annexe Central Market, KL “Merdeka Visualogue” Charity Exhibition The Gardens, Mid Valley, KL “Illustration is Everywhere” Exhibition One Art Gallery, PJ 2007 BA Show 2007 Birmingham City University, UK “F 02” Exhibition Birmingham, UK 2003 “Keranamu Malaysia” Exhibition Palace of the Golden Horses, KL

PRIZES & FELLOWSHIPS 2013 SAGE Artist-in-Residence Program Perahu Art Space, Yogyakarta, Indonesia SAGE Artist-in-Residence Program House of MATAHATI, KL 2012 SAGE Artist-in-Residence Program Project Space Pilipinas, Manila, Philippine Southeast Asia Art Exchange Program Open Society Foundation, Myanmar 2011 Artist-in-Residence House of MATAHATI, KL Jury Recommended Works 14th Japan Media Arts Festival, The National Art Center, Tokyo, Japan Finalist MEA Malaysia Emerging Artist Awards Gallery Soka Gakkai, KL Finalist VAA Visual Art Awards Starhill Gallery, KL Finalist UOB Painting Awards, Menara UOB, KL 2010 Finalist VAA Visual Art Awards, Starhill Gallery, KL 2009 Finalist MEA Malaysia Emerging Artist Awards Gallery Soka Gakkai, KL Consolation Prize Festival Ampang Photo Competition, Ampang 2008 Finalist Putrajaya National Watercolour Awards Annexe Gallery, KL Winner OUT OF LINES Drawing Competition, Annexe Gallery, KL 2007 1st Prize Comic Fiesta Online Art Competition, KL 2006 Finalist Putrajaya National Watercolour Awards National Art Gallery, KL 2005 1st Prize Best Comic Illustration, Jom-Karangkraf Komik Malaysia, KL 2004 1st Prize Best Comic Drawing, Peraduan Baka Baru Komik Malaysia, KL Finalist Anugerah Kijang Art Awards, National Bank Malaysia, KL 2002 Finalist Nokia Art Awards, Ramsay Ong Gallery, KL

ART PROJECT / PUBLISHED WORKS 2012 Mapping project: Visualize Cultural Map on Bangsar Residency, Casa Living Magazine 2011 Mapping project: Visualize Cultural Map on Kuala Lumpur’s historical villages, Sin Chew Daily 2 010 Mapping project: Visualize Cultural Map on Pudu, Pudu Art Community 2007 Illustrate & design book: “100% Hands made”, A documentary book for Hands Percussion Team 10 year’s anniversary, Hands Percussion Team WORKING EXPERIENCE 2003 — Senior Lecturer to The One Academy of Communication Design WORKS IN COLLECTION National Visual Art Gallery Malaysia SHALINI GANENDRA Fine Art Gallery Gallery House of MATAHATI Birmingham City University, UK

KUALA LUMPUR

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previous page; Rise / oil on linen / 180 x 205 cm / 2013 above right; Inclination / oil on linen / 180 x 205 cm / 2013

Collapse / oil on linen / 205 x 180 cm / 2013

left; Into The Flood 1 / oil on linen / 140 x 123 cm / 2013 right; Into The Flood 2 / oil on linen / 140 x 123 cm / 2013 next page; Into The Flood 3 / oil on linen / 140 x 123 cm / 2013

TAKSU hit the nail on the head when they chose the title ‘50/50’ for Seah Zelin and Yeoh Choo Kuan’s two-man show. Equally different, these two young artists are also equal parts of the same shell, with paintings that share similar dynamics of form, yet disparate origins of thought.

50/50 Equal parts, equally different

First, Zelin. A graduate of the University of Central England, he injects a painting methodology into his works that’s based on layering. A process first seen in a residency show in a gallery in Ampang, his works today have developed into more developed deconstructions of our everyday lives.

Rachel Jenagaratnam

Hard to picture? His abstract works are actually more relatable than they seem. Underneath the swirls and the confusion, his mise en scenes are based on images found in IKEA catalogues – those tomes where pages present perfectly-composed kitchens, living rooms, and bedrooms, and where happy families tease you with the promise of a blissful life. Indeed, it’s our modern existence that the artist is hinting at in his works. Socioeconomics, in particular, is Zelin’s subject matter du jour and globalisation has been rife in the artist’s mind. As he so rightly says, everything that we face today is ruled by economy.

This a poignant observation for us, the masses. Real life matters, from rising inflation rates and costs of living, to financial tumbles and plunging stocks are matters that affect us on a resoundingly direct level. That perfect rug from IKEA may be the perfect solution to our tightening purse-strings, but it also symbolises our increasing homogeneity or uniformity; “I find it’s hard to look for your own identity,” argues the artist, hinting at that deluge of meaningless form that has become so intrinsic to our current existence. The furniture we find in IKEA here in Malaysia is going to be identical to what we would find in Sweden, Japan, or even in the United States. How will we be able to differentiate ourselves from one another in the future? Is that promise of a perfectly-curated life a sham and hindrance to our individuality?

Zelin channels this conundrum into his dystopian paintings, where the perfect IKEA scenes are distorted into something altogether different. Ambiguous figures melt and spillover the furniture, and other anamorphic forms disrupt the placidity of the carefully-constructed rooms. The title that the artist has chosen for this body of work appropriately conveys the mess of it all: Deluge. A word that’s often used in reference to natural disasters like floods or tsunamis, Zelin relates this keyword to the economic and political ecology; terms like ‘financial turmoil’ and ‘political tsunami’ aren’t unheard of in the mass media, and Zelin’s works point to a threatening swell that’s about to erode our identities. In the artist’s own words: “Everyone follows the same trends, reads the same news”.

Yes, Zelin’s works hinge on the macabre, and the artist notes that many of the works in ‘50/50’ were produced during a hopeful, pre-election period. Inclination, for instance, has a plant growing from the ground, but what the growing form signifies is that people’s inclinations or choices are already very deep-rooted and you don’t know if the outcome will be good or bad.

All these socioeconomic and political matters are worth chewing on, but taking it one step further, it would be worth considering what it might be like to be an artist of Zelin’s generation.

Art fairs, art commerce, and the general envelopment of art and money is inescapable and art’s institutionalisation is a game of chess, with key players hogging the board. If you choose not to play the game, where exactly do you belong?

Indeed, there’s subtle irony to the contrast between the mass-produced furniture that inspired these works, to the final context of Zelin’s paintings; the paintings will be exhibited in a private art gallery, sold at a fine price due to their irreproducibility, and will soon occupy an institution or a home.

Factory-line chairs and tables they are not.

YEOH CHOO KUAN (b. 1988) Kota Bharu, Malaysia EDUCATION 2 010 Diploma in Fine Arts Dasein Academy of Art Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITION 2013 50 / 50 two man exhibition Taksu, Kuala Lumpur 2012 Private Sentiment by Yeoh Choo Kuan HOM, Kuala Lumpur SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITION 2013 UP Exhibition Taksu, Kuala Lumpur SAGER III HOM Gallery, Kuala Lumpur Locals Only Taksu, Kuala Lumpur 2012 Young & New part IV HOM Kuala Lumpur A Meter Diameter HOM Kuala Lumpur 2011 Finalist of Malaysian Emerging Artist Award (MEAA) Soka Gakkai Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur Finalist of Visual Arts Awards (VAA) Starhill Gallery, Kuala Lumpur The Malaysian Rice Plate Project Kuala Lumpur Convention Center, Kuala Lumpur Inspiration of Tomorrow Starhill Gallery, Kuala Lumpur 2 010 NOW! Starhill Gallery, Kuala Lumpur Breakthrough Starhill Gallery, Kuala Lumpur Finalist of Visual Arts Awards (VAA) Starhill Gallery, Kuala Lumpur AWARDS 2012 Artist-in-Resident HOM, Kuala Lumpur

Essay Rachel Jenagaratnam Catalog Design Jeffrey Lim / Studio 25 Printer Unico Services Artworks & Images Š 2013 Seah Zelin & Yeoh Choo Kuan 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.

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

50 / 50 ZELIN SEAH CHOO KUAN YEOH

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978 - 981- 07-6969-7 PAPERBACK

978 - 981- 07-6970-7 E-BOOK

previous page; Brute Romance / oil on canvas / 170 x 150 cm / 2013 left; Dissolution / oil on canvas / 170 x 150 cm / 2013 right; Fragility & Strength / oil on canvas / 170 x 150 cm 2013

Solo / oil on canvas / 213 x 170 cm / 2013

above; Duo / oil on canvas / 213 x 170 cm / 2013 next page; Trio / oil on canvas / 213 x 170 cm / 2013

But arguably, painting is one object that still liberates us from this cycle of homogeneity and the trappings of economics. Choo Kuan’s works, more romantic and emotionally charged than his counterparts, are the perfect examples. Looking to the body aesthetic as his chief topic, Choo Kuan’s paintings are 50/50’s of their own; Brute romance and Dissolution are developments of his Figurative series, whilst the other three pieces are from his freshly-created Gap series.

Choo Kuan’s paintings are harder to put into words. After all, they are more personal to the artist.

The works from his Gap series, for example, are spatial explorations between the artist and particular objects, and this is not to be confused for the actual physical space that lay between them. Instead, Choo Kuan’s focus has been on a more intangible space. The work Solo, for example, was an attempt to paint the space between the artist’s psychological being and his physical self. And ‘intangible’ is indeed the right word to use, for even the artist is unable to describe it concretely: “The concept is something unseen and unutterable, with no incident behind it, so I feel more to the ground when I paint it out with strokes, colours, and textures, so that they go purely abstract”.

Choo Kuan’s figurative-rooted works also circle around themes such as love, sex, and death, and there’s a European fancy in his monochromatic works, referencing a gilded era when painting was the highest form of expression. Indeed, the works’ potency lie in their maker’s emotive substance that’s embedded underneath the paint. It’s that notion of the ‘aura’ that Walter Benjamin wrote about in one of his most well-known essays. Benjamin lamented its loss in the age of reproducibility – and this certainly goes back to the IKEA analogy – but we find it flourishing in paintings and other creations that singular, unique, and not easily mimicked. Fragility and Strength drives these points home. Monochromatic and visceral, the paint lines appear on the canvas as feisty scratches, and a headless figure casts a ghostly form against the dark background.

With Fragility and Strength, you also get a sense of the artist’s painting methods. Choo Kuan produces his works is by removing elements one at a time, and what eventually gets left behind are abstract figures and gestures that are shrouded in the artist’s feelings and thoughts. Arriving at this point has been accidental. Indeed, it’s interesting to note that the artist’s earliest figurative works were highly realistic, and a peek into his works from his student days and the days soon after reveal proficient painterly skills. What has transpired since then is this: maturity, which has been achieved through life experiences and thought.

Choo Kuan’s works today are less literal than they used to be, and for that, they emanate a particular kind of hush. “We have too much information,” notes the artist, admitting that his paintings are “more romantic”. They are, and it is Choo Kuan’s intention to return to a more lyrical, instinctive, and poetic form of expression. Literal, these paintings are not. Escapist? Absolutely. And would it change how you viewed his works if you were aware of the sources of inspiration for the young artist? Figurative paintings and Chinese art, as well as his mother’s passing.

What Choo Kuan wants audiences to do is to “feel emptiness” when they look at his works, and to revert to a more base level of viewing. “Take out the information,” commands the artist, who believes we all “need some rest in our lives”. As mentioned earlier, all this is a little difficult to put into words, but what Choo Kuan seems to be saying in his latest works is this: sometimes you don’t need words at all.

If Zelin’s works were a lament about a loss in our individuality, Choo Kuan’s paintings are the solution to that problem, as they are liberations from our material worlds and socioeconomic deluges. And herein lies the contrast between these two very promising artists, yet their superb coming together. ‘50/50’, in short, offers you equally different art, yet two equal parts.

YEOH CHOO KUAN

50 / 50

_ ISBN 978 - 981- 07-6969-7 PAPERBACK

978 - 981- 07-6970-7 E-BOOK