{"id":8012,"date":"2015-11-30T20:19:07","date_gmt":"2015-11-30T12:19:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www2.weiling-gallery.com\/contemporary\/?post_type=portfolio&p=8012"},"modified":"2015-11-30T20:23:39","modified_gmt":"2015-11-30T12:23:39","slug":"klang-valley-streets-painting-with-photos-by-su-aziz","status":"publish","type":"portfolio","link":"https:\/\/weiling-gallery.com\/contemporary\/portfolio-item\/klang-valley-streets-painting-with-photos-by-su-aziz\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cKlang Valley Streets: Painting with Photos\u201d by Su Aziz"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

New Straits Times, 27 April 2007
\nKlang Valley Streets: Painting with Photos
\nby Su Aziz<\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\"INDIVIDUAL:<\/a>

INDIVIDUAL: Volker manipulates images to create new experiences.<\/p><\/div>\n

Painting with photos. Two artists from different backgrounds blithely distort reality with the most intriguing results. SU AZIZ experiences their worlds.<\/p>\n

\"FISH<\/a>

FISH EYE\u2019S VIEW: Kong Yee\u2019s unique perception of a dome.<\/p><\/div>
\n

\"STYLISED:<\/a>

STYLISED: Not the usual urban transport scene as captured by Kong Yee.<\/p><\/div>\n

WHAT started out as a \u201cblind date\u201d turned out to be a terrific friendship between Chin Kong Yee and Volker Hamann. \u201cI didn\u2019t know what Kong Yee looked like, except that he had a beard and long hair,\u201d recalled Volker. \u201cSo, on the train platform, I saw someone who fitted the description and walked up to him and asked, \u2018Are you Kong Yee?\u2019 And he said yes!\u201d<\/p>\n

You see, Volker wanted to visit Penang and his friend could not accompany him, so he \u201cset him up\u201d with Kong Yee who was also going to Penang to buy art supplies. But instead of introducing them to each other prior to the trip, they were told to just meet at the train station platform!<\/p>\n

Both artists developed unique techniques to reflect their way of looking at the mundane through the lenses of their cameras. \u201cExcept that Kong Yee paints the pictures of his photos,\u201d said Volker, photographer and sculptor, who hails from Germany and has been a full-time artist for 14 years now.<\/p>\n

\u201cVolker had a catalogue when we first met on that trip to Penang,\u201d said Kong Yee, known for his brightly painted pictures seen through a distinct fish-eye lens angle. \u201cYou know how one catalogue tells 1,000 words? Well, it said it all. It showed his sculptures. His works are modern and interesting.\u201d
\n\u201cI don\u2019t remember exactly when I first saw Kong Yee\u2019s works,\u201d said Volker, thinking hard. \u201cMaybe in Romania, during the international art festival in summer of 2005. Whichever, what struck me was, his artwork was in the same direction as mine!\u201d How is that? \u201cWe take photos and we manipulate them.\u201d<\/p>\n

While Kong Yee, 34, paints them in his distinctive style which seems to include you in the painting, Volker, 44, uses technology to manipulate them to change something that is familiar into something unfamiliar. \u201cYou know the place but it somehow looks different,\u201d added Volker.<\/p>\n

This is their second exhibition together, documenting their journeys through one other\u2019s continent: Kong Yee\u2019s paintings of his second visit to Europe and the photographs of Volker\u2019s first visit to Malaysia.<\/p>\n

Their first was in Stuttgart, Germany, last year. Ricarda Geib, the curator of the exhibition in Germany, described it as \u201ctwo artists, two ways of life, and two cultures are brought into dialogue with one another. Both are freed from a logical, argumentative structure but are instead juxtaposed against each other in a bid to see thorough the mundane into the essence of the experience that each encountered on their journeys\u201d.<\/p>\n

Their easy camaraderie is infectious. Take the issue of marriage: \u201cPerhaps not for me,\u201d said Kong Yee with a glint in his eyes. \u201cIt is something, I think, that does not sit quite right with humans.\u201d Roars of laughter before Volker countered with \u201cNo, no. It is a good thing.\u201d Of course Volker would think so. He is a husband and father of two and a doting one at that. \u201cI read to my 10-year-old son every night.\u201d<\/p>\n

The works of these two men are at Wei-Ling Gallery in Brickfields until May 10. \u201cI came across Kong Yee\u2019s works a few years ago and I called him. He was just painting and not really selling,\u201d recalled Lim Wei-Ling, owner of the gallery. \u201cWe really grew together, Kong Yee and this gallery.<\/p>\n

Through the years, I\u2019ve seen his confidence grow in his works. Notice the bold colours at the bottom of his works now, whereas before, he used to wash or mix them together. Even his colours, though always vivid, have become even more so today.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI know Kong Yee is familiar with Wei-Ling and her gallery,\u201d said Volker. \u201cThere is a comfortable relationship there. That (the comfort level) was important to me since this is my first exhibition out of Europe and I can\u2019t wait for reactions from a non-European audience.\u201d<\/p>\n

For Wei-Ling, \u201cit was their approach to their works… which are similar and their ideologies. They both show scenes that are so familiar and yet not. When they approached me with the idea for this exhibition, I took a look at Volker\u2019s works and thought them to be visually exciting.\u201d<\/p>\n

Is it a match made in heaven? The photography pieces and paintings are definitely bold, visually arresting and imagination provoking. Kong Yee\u2019s bold colours and fish-eye distorted styled paintings will invite you in while Volker\u2019s graphically mirrored images will jump out at you. Yin meets yang, perhaps? You be the judge.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/section><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"New Straits Times, 27 April 2007 Klang Valley Streets: Painting with Photos by Su Aziz INDIVIDUAL: Volker manipulates images to create new experiences. Painting with photos. Two artists from different backgrounds blithely distort reality with the most intriguing results. SU AZIZ experiences their worlds. FISH EYE\u2019S VIEW: Kong Yee\u2019s unique perception of a dome. STYLISED: [...]","protected":false},"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"portfolio_entries":[17],"class_list":["post-8012","portfolio","type-portfolio","status-publish","hentry","portfolio_entries-news-2"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/weiling-gallery.com\/contemporary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/portfolio\/8012","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/weiling-gallery.com\/contemporary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/portfolio"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/weiling-gallery.com\/contemporary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/portfolio"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/weiling-gallery.com\/contemporary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8012"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/weiling-gallery.com\/contemporary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/portfolio\/8012\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/weiling-gallery.com\/contemporary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8012"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/weiling-gallery.com\/contemporary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8012"},{"taxonomy":"portfolio_entries","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/weiling-gallery.com\/contemporary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/portfolio_entries?post=8012"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}