WHAT MAKES ART POWERFUL? – Wei-Ling Gallery

#WLG DISCUSSION LAB online programme

WHAT MAKES ART POWERFUL?

This is a big question but intrinsically art has the phenomenal ability to make us feel understood, empowered, and less alone-it is what brings meaning and purpose to humanity.

As an online extension to Wei-Ling Gallery’s Discussion Lab programme during the MCO, this forum questions how art can heal, effect social change, open up dialogues, adjust the way we see things, empower and transform. Through engaging with a good work of art one can feel connected to our senses. It makes the world feel felt. And if powerful enough, it can motivate us to think, engage, and even take action.

The common story of struggle is what defines us all. Philosopher Nietzsche’s quote, ‘To Live is to suffer, to survive is to find some meaning in the suffering’. Art is perhaps, the communicator or conduit for this universal suffering-it is what brings us all together. It allows us a better understanding of what life is, through the journeys of other human beings. Everyone has experienced life in their own way, so when it is presented through art, we can each relate to it in varying degrees. It transcends and can be transformative.

Each of the three panelists hail from different backgrounds- in terms of their medium of expression- but what unites and defines them is their ability to create forms of art that are moving and inspiring, but draw from the deep, life-changing experiences each one of them has endured.

Panelists:
Malaysian artist Yau Bee Ling
Malaysian filmmaker Saw Teong Hin
Indonesian artist Dadang Christanto

Date : 10 May 2020, Sunday

Time : 11:30am – 1:00pm (GMT+8)

VIDEO

YAU BEE LING (B. 1972)

Throughout her 25 year career, Malaysian painter Yau Bee Ling’s work has consistently echoed her observations on the world and reflect autobiographical themes. Her works are deeply personal and profound in their symbolism, as she struggles to reconcile the broad gambit of human experiences and the complex roles of contemporary women in present-day society. Highly regarded as one of the country’s foremost painters, her work pays homage to a life-lived.

Over the years, Yau Bee Ling has moved from one identity to another: from single woman to wife to mother. Each move, each curve in the winding road leading to where she is today is a journey of searching and looking for answers. Answers to the conflicts brought on by the transition from one phase of life to another: of being a woman, a wife and a mother. Answers to the conflicts brought on by the multiple responsibilities she carries. Despite the façade presented she struggles to understand who she is: a mother, a wife, an independent woman. Despite the serenity of motherhood and the meaningful ties within the family and the community her inner self lives a complicated tangles of ties and responsibilities within the family and the larger communities. It is a responsibility laden with hopes and fears: hopes for successes and later being able to celebrate those successes; and fears of the traps and failures that may lead to a meaningless existence.

For Yau Bee Ling, it is the moment that defines the person she is and will be. Introverted and thoughtful, her onwards journey takes her to her inner self. It leads her to ask the all important question: what is my inner self? “Who am I?” “What am I here for?” “What purpose am I serving?” “What will I leave behind?”

Through her works, she challenges and ponders the questions that inhabit her mind and soul. Each series of paintings are charged with their own distinctive energy, reflective of her state of mind, her emotional well-being and the way she perceives her place in the world at the time. Her works are therefore a cathartic process for her, as she struggles to reconcile the meaning of life, through the layering of and scrapping back of paint, and colour, navigating her way through the twisting terrains of her paintings in the search for truth.

SAW TEONG HIN (B.1962)

Saw Teong Hin is a multiple award-winning writer, producer and director for film, tv and theatre.

A creative industry veteran of more than 30 years, Teong Hin was Louis Vuitton Malaysia’s Generation Next (2003), was Tatler’s 100 People You Must Know In Asia (2006), received the CHT Essence Art Award (2009), was August Man, Men Of The Year (2017) and was Chinese Film Association Malaysia Leading Film Industry Person (2018).

Teong Hin’s directorial debut, “Puteri Gunung Ledang” (2004), is the first Malaysian submission for the Academy Awards and the first Malaysian film invited to the Venice International Film Festival.

His production company, Real Films, provided production support for Ang Lee’s “Lust: Caution”, produced the Sudirman-tribute musical film, “Hoore! Hoore!” (2012) and the Penang Hokkien film “You Mean The World To Me” (2017).

For theatre, Teong Hin co-wrote the book for “Puteri Gunung Ledang – The Musical” (2006). He conceived and directed site-specific works for George Town Festival, namely “Emily of Emerald Hill” (2010), “Silat” (2012) and “You Mean The World To Me” (2014). He also co-wrote and directed “Chow Kit Road! Chow Kit Road!” (2013), at Istana Budaya.

Teong Hin directed the television mini-series “Tangkal Besi”(2010) and the web series “Inikah Cinta” (2010).

He was the creative director for the 29th SEA Games & 9th ASEAN Para Games Opening and Closing Ceremonies (2017).

DADANG CHRISTANTO (B. 1957)

Dadang Christanto was born in Tegal, a small village in Central Java, Indonesia, into an Indonesian family of Chinese descent. He studied painting in Yogyakarta, and was an active member of the arts community. With a diverse body of work that encompasses painting, drawing, sculpture, installation and performance, Christanto has won critical acclaim for his ability to portray and sensitively evoke reflections on universal human suffering and communal grief. He was amongst the first Indonesian artists to enter the international art world in the early 1990s, notably featuring in the first and third Asia-Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art, Brisbane in 1993 and 1999, as well as the Bienal de Sao Paulo, Brazil, in 1998. He was curated into many other major art events worldwide including Gwangju Biennale, South Korea (2000), and was featured in the Venice Biennale in 2003 and at his home country the Yogyakarta Biennial, Indonesia (2003) and Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney, (2010). His works are held by the National Gallery of Australia, as well as major collections in Singapore, Japan, Indonesia, and in Europe is at Magdeburg Museum Germany. The National Portrait Gallery of Australia recently honoured him with an exhibition for his role in the development of art in Australia.

Throughout his career, Dadang Christanto has produced a body of works that honours the countless victims of political violence and crimes against humanity. The sincerity and rawness of emotion portrayed in his works stem from his personal narrative, which he has subtly woven into every aspect of his art. References to the year 1965 appear again and again. As an eight year-old boy, Christanto was heavily affected by his father’s disappearance, thus his art has become inseparable from this tragedy.

His latest solo exhibition, ‘M I S S I N G’ was held at Wei-Ling Contemporary, Kuala Lumpur, in 2018. The monumental installation comprises 110 acrylic and charcoal imagined portraits of the 1965 victims. Dadang Christanto’s oeuvre engages with collective history and personal trauma. His painting and sculpture are imbued with an aura of silence, precisely referencing the political silence that enveloped the injustices that has shaped his childhood. His unbounded practice transcends its specific historical and political roots and leads to a wider meditation on the nature of violence and unjust death and suffering.