{"id":13648,"date":"2018-11-22T16:49:04","date_gmt":"2018-11-22T08:49:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www2.weiling-gallery.com\/gallery\/?post_type=portfolio&#038;p=13648"},"modified":"2021-10-19T12:53:53","modified_gmt":"2021-10-19T04:53:53","slug":"its-been-four-years-since-cheng-yen-pheng-29-november-2018-6-january-2019-press-release","status":"publish","type":"portfolio","link":"https:\/\/weiling-gallery.com\/gallery\/portfolio-item\/its-been-four-years-since-cheng-yen-pheng-29-november-2018-6-january-2019-press-release\/","title":{"rendered":"It\u2019s Been Four Years Since&#8230; &#8211; Cheng Yen Pheng |29 November 2018 &#8211; 6 January 2019 &#8211; Press Release"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id='artists-title'  class='avia-section av-av_section-142ff43b7600746a6e970fde5cf91c57 main_color avia-section-default avia-no-border-styling  avia-builder-el-0  el_before_av_one_fourth  avia-builder-el-first  avia-bg-style-scroll  container_wrap fullsize'  ><div class='container av-section-cont-open' ><main  role=\"main\" itemprop=\"mainContentOfPage\"  class='template-page content  av-content-full alpha units'><div class='post-entry post-entry-type-page post-entry-13648'><div class='entry-content-wrapper clearfix'>\n<div class='flex_column av-av_one_full-2a9015ff38129c418a3f2eafba3e9512 av_one_full  avia-builder-el-1  el_before_av_hr  avia-builder-el-first  first flex_column_div '   ><p>\n<style type=\"text\/css\" data-created_by=\"avia_inline_auto\" id=\"style-css-av-av_hr-a6de236e6c183bbbd700292deacd2b52\">\n#top .hr.hr-invisible.av-av_hr-a6de236e6c183bbbd700292deacd2b52{\nheight:20px;\n}\n<\/style>\n<div  class='hr av-av_hr-a6de236e6c183bbbd700292deacd2b52 hr-invisible  avia-builder-el-2  el_before_av_textblock  avia-builder-el-first  '><span class='hr-inner '><span class=\"hr-inner-style\"><\/span><\/span><\/div><br \/>\n<section class=\"av_textblock_section \"  itemscope=\"itemscope\" itemtype=\"https:\/\/schema.org\/CreativeWork\" ><div class='avia_textblock  '   itemprop=\"text\" ><h3 class=\"p1\" style=\"font-family: 'eb garamond'; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: 2px; text-transform: uppercase; text-align: left;\"><a title=\"It\u2019s Been Four Years Since\u2026 \u2013 Cheng Yen Pheng |29 November 2018 \u2013 6 January 2019 \u2013 Works\" href=\"https:\/\/weiling-gallery.com\/gallery\/portfolio-item\/its-been-four-years-since-cheng-yen-pheng-29-november-2018-6-january-2019-works\/\">works\u00a0<\/a>|<a title=\"It\u2019s Been Four Years Since\u2026 \u2013 Cheng Yen Pheng |29 November 2018 \u2013 6 January 2019 \u2013 Press Release\" href=\"https:\/\/weiling-gallery.com\/gallery\/portfolio-item\/its-been-four-years-since-cheng-yen-pheng-29-november-2018-6-january-2019-press-release\/\">\u00a0press release<\/a><\/h3>\n<\/div><\/section><\/div>\n<style type=\"text\/css\" data-created_by=\"avia_inline_auto\" id=\"style-css-av-av_hr-a07f7596b1fca85f6595a75d593069df\">\n#top .hr.hr-invisible.av-av_hr-a07f7596b1fca85f6595a75d593069df{\nheight:40px;\n}\n<\/style>\n<div  class='hr av-av_hr-a07f7596b1fca85f6595a75d593069df hr-invisible  avia-builder-el-4  el_after_av_one_full  el_before_av_one_full  '><span class='hr-inner '><span class=\"hr-inner-style\"><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<div class='flex_column av-av_one_full-2a9015ff38129c418a3f2eafba3e9512 av_one_full  avia-builder-el-5  el_after_av_hr  avia-builder-el-last  first flex_column_div '   ><section class=\"av_textblock_section \"  itemscope=\"itemscope\" itemtype=\"https:\/\/schema.org\/CreativeWork\" ><div class='avia_textblock  '  style='font-size:14px; '  itemprop=\"text\" ><p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'open sans thin'; color: #000000;\"><span style=\"font-size: 25px; letter-spacing: 1px;\">It&#8217;s Been Four Years Since&#8230;<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><em>\u2018It\u2019s Been Four Years Since&#8230;\u2019<\/em> marks a tumultuous yet stabilising period in the life of artist Cheng Yen Pheng. This aptly titled second solo exhibition reflects on and emphasizes a chapter in her life which has tested yet moulded her, and has consumed her in its totality, to the distraction of practice (Her last exhibition, <em>\u2019Pricked\u2019, <\/em>was in 2012). On a trail-blazing path as one of the country\u2019s most provocative and brave contemporary voices, Cheng Yen Pheng left a mark on the local art scene, when, as a finalist in the National Art Gallery\u2019s Bakat Muda (Young Contemporary) 2014 competition, she stood up for her work entitled <em>ABU,<\/em> which courted some controversy and was censored from being shown during the final exhibition. Her outspoken, honest, and determined approach towards her life, is mirrored in her art journey.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">This body of work is personal. It is her life laid bare. Through it she composes her own museum of life, looking upon the act of creating as a way of assembling, materializing and conserving life\u2019s experiences. The artist places herself as a storyteller, as she connects the dots between different events encountered and major life-changing decisions settled throughout the past four years. Echoing distinct themes ranging from femininity, maternity, motherhood, life and death, to her transition from the city to the \u201ckampong\u201d life, this dynamic body of work moves beyond expression, as it also serves as the artist\u2019s realization of her inner metamorphosis, while unfolding the joy and struggle as an individual, but also a woman, mother, and artist.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">To Cheng Yen Pheng, at a certain point in life, it is inevitable for human beings to be intrigued by questions surrounding sexuality, which often contest our status, roles, and limitations as either man or woman \u2013 as categorised by society. In her hanging clothes installation, the artist reveals a reality often considered as taboo; the phase of discovering our own anatomical transformation, and the curiosity towards what the body is capable of. Hand-shaped outlines are stitched onto shorts, t- shirts and singlets, under attire commonly worn by young adults during their age of transition \u2013 a stage between youth and adulthood, between pure innocence and maturity. The hands are placed where the body\u2019s intimate parts would be covered by the fabric, as if pointing out the notion of desire. Cheng Yen Pheng chooses to overlap the boy and girl singlets, so as to underline the blurriness of gender. The pressure for every individual to be gender consistent (having characteristics that are consistent with one\u2019s biological sex), is also expressed through paintings of papaya flowers; while the male flowers are always unisexual, the female flowers present bisexual characteristics, and both genders are able to transform sexes.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">The artist\u2019s focus evolved from femininity to motherhood as she entered the phase of maternity, followed by the birth of her first child. A pair of paintings that exposes the pregnant woman\u2019s body dramatizes the state of being physically full; this feeling of \u2018fullness\u2019 is juxtaposed directly against the feeling of \u201cemptiness\u201d, after she had delivered her baby. A feeling she holds especially close to her heart, now that her body has returned to its pre-pregnant state. The birth \u2013 a life and near death experience for both the mother and her child \u2013 is depicted through visuals of skulls and vertebrate collaged into a form comparable to that of womb yet a blooming flower at once, symbolising the life-giving nature of a woman.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">As a mother, Cheng Yen Pheng leans towards nature in offering the best quality of life and life-long learning opportunities for both her child and herself. Having the courage to leave the big city and taking the risk to move to a village with just her daughter, she figured that so much can be learnt by imitating the self-sufficient way of life that the local villagers uphold. On rice paper, the artist stitched illustrations that were mainly inspired by painter Jean-Fran\u00e7ois Millet\u2019s observation of French villages in the late nineteenth century, which interestingly echo the present-day situation in Malaysian villages. Fascinated by nature that surrounds her current living environment, the artist attentively wove wheat roots onto the rice paper.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">The installation composed of cuts of sandpaper joined by stitching seems to conclude Cheng Yen Pheng\u2019s four years of a critical journey. It mirrors her ideology of problem solving, by combining multiple solutions in order to come up with a complete story that is ideal to her eyes. The choice of sandpaper as material represents \u201cthe importance of softening the stiff and sharpening the weak\u201d; no matter how unpredictable it gets, one must be supple in choosing alternative paths in life, and shall constantly progress. A large-scale origami paper sculpture folded into a dinosaur, embodies the opposing ways she perceives her daughter; a precious creature, yet a challenging one at the same time.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Altogether, <em>\u2018It\u2019s Been Four Years Since&#8230;\u2019<\/em> challenges the romantic conception of a perfect life that seems to dominate our society, through an honest point of view of the life of a woman, a daughter, a mother an artist. A life laid bare.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><em>\u2018It\u2019s Been Four Years Since &#8230;\u2019 <\/em>is featured at Wei-Ling Contemporary from 29<sup>th<\/sup> November 2018 to 6<sup>th<\/sup> January 2019.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><em>Wei-Ling\u00a0Contemporary\u00a0is\u00a0located\u00a0at\u00a0RT01 Sixth\u00a0Floor,\u00a0The\u00a0Gardens\u00a0Mall,\u00a059200,\u00a0Kuala<\/em><em> Lumpur, Malaysia.\u00a0Admission\u00a0hours\u00a0are\u00a0Tuesday-Sunday 11am-7pm.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><em>Please call\u00a0+60322828323\/\u00a0+60322601106\u00a0or\u00a0email:\u00a0<a style=\"color: #ff0000;\" href=\"mailto:noel.weilinggallery@gmail.com\">noel.weilinggallery@gmail.com<\/a><\/em><em>\u00a0\u00a0<\/em><em>for\u00a0more information.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<div style=\"font-size: 14px; line-height: 24px; color: #666666; text-align: left;\"><\/div>\n<\/div><\/section><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/main><!-- close content main element --><\/div><\/div><div id='after_section_1'  class='main_color av_default_container_wrap container_wrap fullsize'  ><div class='container av-section-cont-open' ><div class='template-page content  av-content-full alpha units'><div class='post-entry post-entry-type-page post-entry-13648'><div class='entry-content-wrapper clearfix'><div class='flex_column av-av_one_fourth-2a9015ff38129c418a3f2eafba3e9512 av_one_fourth  avia-builder-el-7  el_after_av_section  el_before_av_one_fourth  avia-builder-el-first  first flex_column_div '   ><\/div>\n<div class='flex_column av-av_one_fourth-61f1f3fb8a14755dafdb04b8bcedc67a av_one_fourth  avia-builder-el-8  el_after_av_one_fourth  el_before_av_one_fourth  flex_column_div '   ><\/div>\n<div class='flex_column av-av_one_fourth-61f1f3fb8a14755dafdb04b8bcedc67a av_one_fourth  avia-builder-el-9  el_after_av_one_fourth  el_before_av_one_fourth  flex_column_div '   ><\/div>\n<div class='flex_column av-av_one_fourth-61f1f3fb8a14755dafdb04b8bcedc67a av_one_fourth  avia-builder-el-10  el_after_av_one_fourth  el_before_av_hr  flex_column_div '   ><\/div>\n\n<style type=\"text\/css\" data-created_by=\"avia_inline_auto\" id=\"style-css-av-av_hr-a07f7596b1fca85f6595a75d593069df\">\n#top .hr.hr-invisible.av-av_hr-a07f7596b1fca85f6595a75d593069df{\nheight:40px;\n}\n<\/style>\n<div  class='hr av-av_hr-a07f7596b1fca85f6595a75d593069df hr-invisible  avia-builder-el-11  el_after_av_one_fourth  el_before_av_textblock  '><span class='hr-inner '><span class=\"hr-inner-style\"><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<section class=\"av_textblock_section \"  itemscope=\"itemscope\" itemtype=\"https:\/\/schema.org\/CreativeWork\" ><div class='avia_textblock  '  style='font-size:14px; '  itemprop=\"text\" ><p style=\"text-align: right;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/weiling-gallery.com\/gallery\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/cyp-e-catalogue.pdf\">Click to view e-booklet<\/a><\/p>\n<div id=\"PAGES_CONTAINERbg\" class=\"pc1bg\" style=\"text-align: right;\" data-reactid=\".0.$SITE_ROOT.$desktop_siteRoot.$PAGES_CONTAINER.$centeredContent.$bg\"><\/div>\n<h1 class=\"post-title left\"><\/h1>\n<h2><\/h2>\n<\/div><\/section>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"works\u00a0|\u00a0press release It's Been Four Years Since... \u2018It\u2019s Been Four Years Since...\u2019 marks a tumultuous yet stabilising period in the life of artist Cheng Yen Pheng. This aptly titled second solo exhibition reflects on and emphasizes a chapter in her life which has tested yet moulded her, and has consumed her in its totality, to [...]","protected":false},"featured_media":13781,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"portfolio_entries":[20],"class_list":["post-13648","portfolio","type-portfolio","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","portfolio_entries-exhibitions"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/weiling-gallery.com\/gallery\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/portfolio\/13648","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/weiling-gallery.com\/gallery\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/portfolio"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/weiling-gallery.com\/gallery\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/portfolio"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/weiling-gallery.com\/gallery\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13648"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/weiling-gallery.com\/gallery\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/portfolio\/13648\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13652,"href":"https:\/\/weiling-gallery.com\/gallery\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/portfolio\/13648\/revisions\/13652"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/weiling-gallery.com\/gallery\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13781"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/weiling-gallery.com\/gallery\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13648"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/weiling-gallery.com\/gallery\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13648"},{"taxonomy":"portfolio_entries","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/weiling-gallery.com\/gallery\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/portfolio_entries?post=13648"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}