Solo exhibition of PHUAN THAI MENG at Valentine Willie Fine Art Singapore
2 - 23 December 2011
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| Invitation card |
Exhibition View
Artworks
We Are Proud of You (?_?)
Acrylic on linen, 244 x 544 cm ( tetraptych )
right & light panels: 244 x 122 cm each, middle panels: 244 x 150 cm each
Acrylic on linen, 244 x 544 cm ( tetraptych )
right & light panels: 244 x 122 cm each, middle panels: 244 x 150 cm each
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| We Are Proud of You (?_?) ( detail) |
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| We Are Proud of You (?_?) ( detail) |
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| We Are Proud of You (?_?) ( detail) |
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| We Are Proud of You (?_?) ( detail) |
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| We are proud of you (?_?) ( detail) |
Fact and Factor
oil on canvas, 183 x 122 cm, 2011
oil on canvas, 183 x 122 cm, 2011
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| Fact and Factor (detail ) |
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| Fact and Factor (detail ) |
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| Fact and Factor (detail ) |
Re - Looking of the Malaysia Landscape
oil on canvas, 122 x 200 cm, 2011
oil on linen, 244 x 150 cm, 2011
Action 2 - Stoop
oil on linen, 244 x 150 cm, 2011
Action 3 - Squat
oil on linen, 244 x 150 cm, 2011
Action 4 - Pinch the Nose
oil on linen, 244 x 150 cm, 2011
Action 5 - Spread out the Hands
oil on linen, 244 x 150 cm, 2011
Postcard Project - Message from the Net
postcard, 15 x 21 cm, 2011
Attitude and Vision
Installation: plywood, gold leaf, polyfoam & cement
dimension variable, 2011
Blue's Game
Installation performance, 2011
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| Artist and the " Players " |
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| Blue's Game - Installation view |
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| Blue's Game - Installation view |
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| Blue's Game - Installation view |
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| Blue's Game - Installation view |
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| Blue's Game - Installation view |
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| Blue's Game - Installation view |
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| Blue's Game - Installation view |
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| Blue's Game - Installation view |
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| Blue's Game - Installation view |
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| Blue's Game - Installation view |
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| Blue's Game - Installation view |
Video documentation of Blue's Game performance at VWFASG 2 Dec 2011
Opening night
Essay
Your Country Needs You
By Eva McGovern
By Eva McGovern
The homeland is a complex idea riddled
with contradiction. On one level, it is the point of origin and return that validates
cultural identity. More of an abstract space than a clearly defined
reality, it is closely associated with the concept of countries and nationhood,
weaving together ethnicity, language, history, politics and culture. As a
belief system, it infers a shared sense of belonging and community, of pride
and sentimentality. Within geo-political terms, it is the locus of patriotic
nationalism in need of preservation and protection from outside threats.
However, the homeland/nation is not a fixed concept but as Benedict Anderson
states in his seminal text Imagined Communities, a social construct
imagined by the people who are part of it, and therefore in a constant state of
expansion and contraction around the shifting nature of politics, cultures and
economies. Inevitably, human failure by those in governance, also sow the seeds
of doubt for this idealistic construct. When politicians mislead their people
or when communities dissolve due to economic manipulation, the perception of
the homeland or nation becomes bitter sweet and filled with doubt.
Malaysian artist Phuan Thai Meng
explores the construct of the homeland and Malaysia through his signature brand
of photorealist painting laced with local socio-political commentaries in Mapping
the Homeland: We Are Proud of You (?_?). Highly conceptual in nature, his
skilful illusions purposefully articulate the artifice and cracks of
nationalism propagated by cultural campaigns and political gesturing. Texturing
his observations with installation and performance, he reveals the constantly
changing game of Malaysian politics whose outcomes sometimes lead to less than
glorious results. Rejecting the enduring Malaysian dilemma of race, class and
religion Thai Meng instead looks at a more abstracted version of the Malaysian
nation and ideas of Government bound by a responsibility towards its people but
riddled with weakness and contradiction. For the exhibition, he lifts and
translates images from the media: state run newspapers, social marketing
campaigns as well as national unity schemes such as the prevalent but vaguely
defined 1 Malaysia scheme to develop entry points into the Malaysian condition.
Already established within the Malaysian
art world as an artist, educator and founding member of artist collective Rumah
Air Panas, Phuan Thai Meng is known for painting an unsettling picture of our
contemporary experience. His photorealistic paintings of objects and everyday
spaces communicate notions of consumerism, urban decay and the impotence of
politics with the Malaysian landscape. Executed over a period of weeks and
months, his painstakingly slick, flat and gleaming surfaces are an exhaustive
exercise in mimesis. However, audiences are always aware of the mirage, which
quickly shifts into a brittle imitation on the verge of collapse. This highly
contrived ‘fakeness’ thus serves to put into sharp focus the illusion of
politics and the potential failure of the Malaysian dream. By removing all
forms of articulated physical gesture and brush stroke, he stretches the
potential of painting beyond the personal and romantic connotations of the
artist in the studio to produce a searing social commentary on the world around
him.
His network of images bring together
faceless politicians gesturing during tokenistic publicity appearances for
social regeneration campaigns, designed posters for cleaning up water supply systems
and monumental billboards that reveal goals of national aspirations and
prosperity. Epic in both scale and aesthetic treatment Thai Meng highlights the
formulaic nature of these forms of social and political marketing through
various media outlets. In this way he echoes Anderson’s belief that
community/nation is a result of media communication and capitalism extolling a
common but nevertheless imagined discourse for people to put their faith into.
His politicians are from all races and lifted from various newspapers such as
The Star, New Straits Times and Berita Harian, each with their own political
leanings. However stripped of their individuality they morph into the generic
official, dressed in dull and inspiring uniforms of white shirts and dark
trousers. Categorised into actions, each monochromatic man squats, stoops,
stands, spreads their hands or pinch their noses to illustrate hollow gestures
of engagement during various publicity outings to lobby support for political
parties or show commitment to the needs of various communities. Brought to life
during performance on opening night, Thai Meng further develops his critique
into a curious game of football. In Blue’s Game, a cast of
uniformed officials play the beautiful game as governed by a constantly
changing set of rules dictated by the referee. It is a cynical take on the
puppets of politics who compete for public popularity. But who benefits from
such exercises in the end? Who is controlling who and what of the
passive/active spectators/citizens? Where is the pride in the homeland now?
Thai Meng’s curious exhibition title is
repeated in We are proud of you (?_?) a large scale
four panel work depicting a decaying collage of lesser known Malaysian
landmarks bound together by glittering fireworks, kitsch rainbows, and a
ominous hand in a thumbs up gesture. Footnoting the painting is the
phrase Rakyat Didahulukan Pencapaian Diutmakan (People First
Performance Now) a slogan from Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak’s 1
Malaysia campaign that began in 2010. Designed to encourage greater racial
harmony through a series of marketing strategies and efficient governance, the
campaign has received mixed responses. Although 1Malaysia health clinics and
grocery stores for lower income groups and NGO’s supporting youth projects in line
with the scheme appear positive, a solid defence of their implementation and
further clarification has been less than forthcoming. The emoticon at the end
of the Thai Meng’s four panel piece and exhibition title, expresses this sense
of confusion by the rakyat (people) with the two question marks acting as
perplexed eyes reacting to such ambiguity. The Eye on Malaysia Ferris wheel --
relocated from Kuala Lumpur to Melaka and Malaysia’s version of the Singapore
Eye -- the locally manufactured Proton car and government building in Putrajaya
all conveys a mixture of secondary success and/or decay. The glittering pomp
and circumstance erupting around this moulding collage injects an uncomfortable
tension heightened by a raw and bruised hand forced to endorse this parody of
national success.
So who are the bearers of pride in Thai
Meng’s exhibition? Who is the ‘We’ in this menagerie of signs, slogans and
images? Constantly preoccupied with community on a grass roots level Thai Meng
is often concerned that the public has an incomplete set of knowledge on
current political strategies due to a type of government
deception/manipulation. Fact and Factor a hyper
realistic depiction of a wrapped water filter poster calling for clean water
supplies subtly provokes the monopoly on infrastructure by specific companies
who make such basic human needs more difficult. These social problems are
compounded by the inability of local government and politicians to improve
these situations. This emphasises his belief that no matter the race or
political loyalties all politicians are the same, nameless and faceless tokens
to a larger game that does not take into account the needs of community as its
main priority. In this light, perhaps the ‘We’ is not the Government or the
people but the symbolic voice of universal corruption, that pride is not a
positive sentiment but a negative vice that leads to avarice and blind
progress.
As a whole, Mapping the
Homeland: We Are Proud of You (?_?) is more of a mapping of ideology
than physical landscapes, Phuan Thai Meng nevertheless creates a visual
representation of Malaysia through a series of loaded signs and symbols that
reflect his personal vision on the status of the country or homeland. Although
his photorealist surfaces are laden with the weight of social commentary
importantly, his work is not without humour or light hearted kitsch. Through
his use of wry and knowing titles, text and language he presents a Malaysian
comedy of errors filled with tragedy and farce that consider the relationship
between individual and country.
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