Cheong Kiet Cheng – We Are Dreaming and Awake In the Air

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LIST POETRY

Few weeks ago, we hosted a collective poetry-writing session surrounding Cheong Kiet Cheng’s surreal works of art. Through this fun workshop, participants came together to create list poetry in response to paintings from the artist’s upcoming solo exhibition ‘We Are Dreaming and Awake in the Air’.

Through this new series Cheong Kiet Cheng presents ink and watercolour works that draw from her voyage, upbringing and everyday life. It is a series in which she delves deeper into her creations of fictional creatures and narratives, while continuing to address her reflections on human’s relationship with mother nature.

Cheong Kiet Cheng – Filled with you (2020) | Watercolor on canvas; 164.5cm x 134cm

Strange figures appeared from the deep forest

Under sky of shroomish clouds

Topographic mind escaping illusions of time

Crown of rabbits on swollen head

Little mermaid, how are you?

Around me, once green

The smell of dew, tingling through all senses

Why from rose tinted glasses I see is sorrow

By Amanda Ariawan, Connor Duch, Daniel Chow, and Dea Dalila

Cheong Kiet Cheng – Under the Buddha Tree (2020) | Ink on canvas; 43cm x 48.5cm

Oh mighty warrior of the land

Labyrinth forest, I take your hand

Coming home to my ghostly tribe

Wounds forgotten, in transcendent lives

Under the shadows I dance, no longer terrified

Spirits of the forest I kneel before you,

tree of ages I stand beside

We all are one, scion of the tree of life

By Amanda Ariawan, Connor Duch, Daniel Chow, and Dea Dalila

Cheong Kiet Cheng – Flowers in the Sea (2021) | Watercolor on canvas; 77cm x 96cm

Here we are, swimming in everlasting waves

Cognitive dissonance, masked happiness

Thumbelina born in a flower

Her eyes wide open, ready to teach the world kindness

My fear of falling into the sea is a thing I can’t control

Running from the past, going nowhere

I like it when my feet touch the water,

freely tapping into the shallowness of thought

My dream, washed by the line of the horizon

Unable to come back to where I am

The sound of the ocean calls for me to stay

But my mind says otherwise

By Dana Gross, Jasmine Azura, Khalila Yuniarto, and Tang Tze Lye

Cheong Kiet Cheng – Riding (2020) | Ink on paper; 58cm x 48cm

Mother is the best figure in the world

Representing many souls in one body

The joy of protecting

Accepting the fate of her children

There she goes, carrying joy and burden on her back

By Dana Gross, Jasmine Azura, Khalila Yuniarto, and Tang Tze Lye

Cheong Kiet Cheng – Loving You (2020) | Watercolor on canvas; 164.5cm x 119cm

Talking Heads

Alligator eyes in gentle beasts

Heads peeping out of watercolour trees

Connections when walking throughlife

But in my tale there will be a friend at least

The magical spiral starts inwards and swirls outwards

Barefoot creatures, seeking violet truths

Hands dipped in pink ink, held up in gratitude

Endless skies filled with dreams

And in all these colours, her eyes were the brightest blue

And in all these colours, the girl’s innocence

is the most enamoured

Petrify these creatures, what say you?

By Anita, Deena Dakshini, Kasthury Paramiswaran, Ria Thomas, and Viji Krishnamoorthy

Cheong Kiet Cheng – Life Being (2020) | Ink on paper; 58cm x 48cm

Bloodline Security

The monochrome nature of my dreams

The faces I see in my busy mind

Leaves for a poker face, but shrouded by nature

Is the jungle overcrowded?

Protected by something she doesn’t know

The ancestral energy within facades

Mixed with my culture, mixed inmy blood,

Wraps over me in branches of care.

I can go to sleep, in trees and in bushes

Feeling the safety of feline instincts

And taking care of me will be ancestors

Now existing in fable tales as folklore creatures

By Deena Dakshini and Kasthury Paramiswaran