{"id":15045,"date":"2019-12-28T12:11:16","date_gmt":"2019-12-28T04:11:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www2.weiling-gallery.com\/gallery\/?post_type=portfolio&#038;p=15045"},"modified":"2021-03-06T17:11:35","modified_gmt":"2021-03-06T09:11:35","slug":"s-e-a-focus-15-19-january-2020-press-release","status":"publish","type":"portfolio","link":"https:\/\/weiling-gallery.com\/gallery\/portfolio-item\/s-e-a-focus-15-19-january-2020-press-release\/","title":{"rendered":"S.E.A. FOCUS |16 &#8211; 19 January 2020 &#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-15045'><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; padding-left: 30px;\"><a title=\"S.E.A FOCUS |15 \u2013 19 January 2020 \u2013 Works\" href=\"https:\/\/weiling-gallery.com\/gallery\/portfolio-item\/s-e-a-focus-15-19-january-2020-works\/\">works\u00a0<\/a>|<a title=\"S.E.A FOCUS |15 \u2013 19 January 2020 \u2013 Press Release\" href=\"https:\/\/weiling-gallery.com\/gallery\/portfolio-item\/s-e-a-focus-15-19-january-2020-press-release\/\">\u00a0press release<\/a>\u00a0| <a href=\"https:\/\/weiling-gallery.com\/gallery\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/Cheng-Yen-Pheng-Catalogue.pdf\">E-BOOKLET<\/a> | <a href=\"https:\/\/www.artandmarket.net\/news\/2020\/1\/11\/sea-focus-2020-champions-southeast-asian-art?fbclid=IwAR0E8TRI2mSr1yeWAF7tVM_DjVc5zV82_2A-8tn2Xcir8JLUCl8arBm4WHk\">NEWS<\/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=\"color: #333333; font-family: 'open sans thin';\"><span style=\"font-size: 25px; letter-spacing: 1px;\">S.E.A. FOCUS (Booth A-05)<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline; color: #333333;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'open sans thin'; text-decoration: underline;\"><span style=\"font-size: 25px; letter-spacing: 1px;\">Cheng Yen Pheng &#8211;<em>\u00a0 It\u2019s Been Four Years Since\u2026<\/em><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"color: #333333;\">This body of work marks a tumultuous yet stabilising period in the life of Malaysian artist Cheng Yen Pheng. It reflects on and emphasizes a chapter in her life which has tested yet moulded her, and has consumed her in its totality. 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 ABU, which courted some controversy and was censored from being shown during the final exhibition; in Malay, the word <em>\u201cabu\u201d <\/em>signifies \u201cash\u201d, but it also stands for <em>\u201cAsal Bukan UMNO\u201d <\/em>which translates to \u201cas long as not UMNO\u201d (United Malays National Organisation) \u2013 the ruling political party. 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: #333333;\">This body of work is personal. 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: #333333;\">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.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"color: #333333;\">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: #333333;\">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: #333333;\">Altogether, her work 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, and an artist. A life laid bare.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"color: #333333;\"><strong>Date:<\/strong><\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"color: #333333;\"> 16 \u2013 19 January 2020<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"color: #333333;\"><strong>Booth Number:<\/strong><\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"color: #333333;\"> A-05<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"color: #333333;\"><strong>Venue:<\/strong><\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"color: #333333;\"> S.E.A. Focus<\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"color: #333333;\"> Tent A \u2013 Galleries<\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"color: #333333;\"> Gillman Barracks<\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"color: #333333;\"> 7 Lock Road, Singapore 108935<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"color: #333333;\"><strong>Opening Hours:<\/strong><\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"color: #333333;\"> Thursday, 16 January 2020, 1pm \u2013 7pm<\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"color: #333333;\"> Friday, 17 January 2020, 1pm \u2013 10pm<\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"color: #333333;\"> Saturday, 18 January 2020, 12pm \u2013 7pm<\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"color: #333333;\"> Sunday, 19 January 2020, 12pm \u2013 6pm<\/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-15045'><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  avia-builder-el-last  flex_column_div '   ><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"works\u00a0|\u00a0press release\u00a0| E-BOOKLET | NEWS S.E.A. FOCUS (Booth A-05) Cheng Yen Pheng -\u00a0 It\u2019s Been Four Years Since\u2026 This body of work marks a tumultuous yet stabilising period in the life of Malaysian artist Cheng Yen Pheng. It reflects on and emphasizes a chapter in her life which has tested yet moulded her, and has [...]","protected":false},"featured_media":15047,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"portfolio_entries":[20],"class_list":["post-15045","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\/15045","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=15045"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/weiling-gallery.com\/gallery\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/portfolio\/15045\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15055,"href":"https:\/\/weiling-gallery.com\/gallery\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/portfolio\/15045\/revisions\/15055"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/weiling-gallery.com\/gallery\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15047"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/weiling-gallery.com\/gallery\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15045"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/weiling-gallery.com\/gallery\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15045"},{"taxonomy":"portfolio_entries","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/weiling-gallery.com\/gallery\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/portfolio_entries?post=15045"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}