{"id":7694,"date":"2015-11-11T14:35:48","date_gmt":"2015-11-11T06:35:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www2.weiling-gallery.com\/gallery\/?post_type=portfolio&p=7694"},"modified":"2016-01-29T12:41:26","modified_gmt":"2016-01-29T04:41:26","slug":"read-essay-spaces-borders-and-identities-by-dr-hanni-geiger","status":"publish","type":"portfolio","link":"https:\/\/weiling-gallery.com\/gallery\/portfolio-item\/read-essay-spaces-borders-and-identities-by-dr-hanni-geiger\/","title":{"rendered":"Read essay “Spaces, borders and identities” by Dr. Hanni Geiger"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Spaces, borders and identities<\/span><\/p>\n

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There are many different ways of reading an art piece. In order to\u00a0decipher its meaning and get closer to the work \u2013 everything must be\u00a0allowed. Above all: watching and thinking, which actually are\u00a0processes of referring all visible to human experience bound to a\u00a0specific time and space. According to the postmodern theories, we are\u00a0living in the space age, the simultaneous, the near and far at the\u00a0same time.[1]\u00a0But what kind of space are we dealing with? A private,\u00a0public, political, geographical, postcolonial, limited or\u00a0de-territorialised space? And how is dealing with space and its\u00a0limitations affecting the self awareness of cultural, national or\u00a0gender related identities?<\/p>\n

The artist Chong Kim Chiew is showing his manifold \u0153uvre at Wei-Ling\u00a0Gallery. According to the artist the very differing pieces produced\u00a0since 2007 are meant to represent different artistic personalities he\u00a0is dealing in his work with. Beyond Chong Kim Chiew\u2019s art pieces we\u00a0get introduced to creations of \u201c0\u201d, \u201cKim\u201d and \u201cTopy\u201d, the artist\u2019s\u00a0avatars. This very pluralistic understanding of his many identities,\u00a0art, but also life, can be taken as a key point for the interpretation\u00a0of these not only aesthetically and materially, but also discursively\u00a0rich works.<\/p>\n

The diversity of media and styles used by originally one artist seem\u00a0to be a great exhibition\u2019s concern. Design, photography, sketches,\u00a0installations, multi media canvases made out of tarpaulin, stripes,\u00a0acrylic and other materials mark the gallery setting. There is the\u00a0very clear yet simple and strong effect of Topy\u2019s work \u201cExhibition\u00a0logo design No: 1\u201d. It is a commitment to classical design,\u00a0illustrating a black graphic figure on a yellow background, throwing\u00a0its own head in a waste basket, and raising questions about one selves\u00a0as parts of society \u2013 like all pieces of Chong Kim Chiew\u2019s imaginary\u00a0artist-fellows.<\/p>\n

Kim\u2019s video installation \u201cSkin Time\u201d is enigmatic in its own way. The\u00a0number 480\u201900 dented into skin and hardly readable, could be understood\u00a0as a snapshot of a frozen time. The photography captures one single\u00a0moment, a glance in time, and is therefore a reminder of a long gone\u00a0moment. On the other hand there is the scar that bypasses the\u00a0importance of time, when the memory of a certain moment in time\u00a0becomes a lifelong journey, inscribed into the skin, worn always and\u00a0everywhere. Seen as a canvas, the skin has now the same function as an\u00a0art work which in a classical sense tends to be timeless, maybe even\u00a0endless, related now only to the space it is being placed in \u2013 like\u00a0here, the gallery.<\/p>\n

Among other works even \u201cUnreadable Wall\u201d, made out of shredded and\u00a0blended newspaper pieces from all around the world that form bricks\u00a0can be seen as a reference to the negotiation of space: bits of larger\u00a0information, critics, ideologies and beliefs from different world\u00a0cities come together in one single art piece: diversity within unity.\u00a0Undoubtedly, \u201cBoundary Fluidity\u201d are the most impressive pieces in\u00a0this exhibition that deal with space. The very large tarpaulin pieces\u00a0are hanging from the ceiling, consecutively installed in one line,\u00a0whereas others lie spread out on the floor, are rolled-up and leaning\u00a0against the wall or are presented as photographs and videos in an\u00a0installation. It is the refined, harmonious aesthetics of the\u00a0different colours, shapes, lines and words which capture the beholder\u00a0in the first glance. But a closer look at the beautifully composed\u00a0ros\u00e9, black, white, grey and bluish acrylic formations and\u00a0criss-crossing lines reveal a deeper meaning. What we get to see are\u00a0diverse overlapped maps with marked borders. We decipher places as\u00a0Gemas, Malinan, Malacca or Singapur – the old colonial Malaysia stated\u00a0additionally in the words \u201cMalaya Britanica\u201d, separated or connected\u00a0through a number of fine or bold lines. Though globalization suggests\u00a0a de-territorialised world, borders are omnipresent and a sociological\u00a0and political fact \u2013 controlling the migration of people all over the\u00a0world.<\/p>\n

The overlapping of the many layers of different maps \u2013 belonging to\u00a0different eras and political commitments \u2013 isn\u2019t just standing for one\u00a0state of being, but for many simultaneously. Like a palimpsest,\u00a0traditionally a manuscript page scraped off and reused by writing over\u00a0it several times again, Chong Kim Chiew\u2019s \u201cmaps\u201d are symbols for human\u00a0multilayered history which actually is defined by continuous exiles,\u00a0wars and migrations.[2]\u00a0A fact that the artist is affirming by choosing a\u00a0tarpaulin for the base material \u2013 a common material for the\u00a0construction of temporary tent shelters for migrant camps.<\/p>\n

As the artist himself states, boundaries are fluid. They keep on\u00a0transforming endlessly \u2013 a characteristic that is related to\u00a0identities too. According to Stewart Hall, Identities are never\u00a0completed, in fact, they are always in motion.[3] They are the starting\u00a0point of history, so it is more than obvious that history and its\u00a0changes are nothing but a mirror of the unstable human identities.<\/p>\n

From this perspective, Chong Kim Chiew\u2019s works seem to transform the\u00a0classical awareness of frontiers and borders as places of conflict\u00a0into places of great potential. The many intertwined lines can be read\u00a0as a grid system, a net holding together all the different spaces,\u00a0places and identities. They even can suggest the growth of identities\u00a0like rhizomes[4] into a lot more new identities, suggesting pluralism or\u00a0hybridity as our natural state of being. We learn that \u201craces\u201d, as\u00a0well as nations are built up artificially, through codes and\u00a0ideologies.[5] That is also, why it seems inappropriate to press artists\u00a0into passports \u2013 there simply is no national authenticity.[6] The only\u00a0truth is: Movement is the basic principal of humanity, and movement\u00a0means change and diversity.<\/p>\n

Chong Kim Chiew is using the creative potential of all of his art work\u00a0to identify himself as a hybrid identity. His overlapping maps,\u00a0borders and identities are revealing an almost cartesian philosophical\u00a0world order which absolutely denies hierarchy and the power of one\u00a0single centre. The title \u201cBe careful or you may become the centre\u201d may\u00a0therefore seem like an ironical threat, reminding us of the fact that\u00a0uniformity does not exist in nature. If each identity can become a\u00a0potential centre, the consequence is a lot of diverse centres \u2013 a\u00a0\u201cplurale tantum\u201d[7]. As the land of all (identities) his works are\u00a0symbols for heterogeneity, celebrating the equality of diversity and\u00a0possibilities. For him as a versatile artist this means an unlimited\u00a0creative working process in a territorially and socially still limited\u00a0world: a clear benefit for the exploration of the boundaries between\u00a0art and life.<\/p>\n

Dr. Hanni Geiger<\/em><\/p>\n

Dr. Hanni Geiger is an art historian and researcher specialized in\u00a0modern and contemporary art (20\u201321st century) with a research focus on\u00a0the interdependencies between art, design and migration (PhD thesis:\u00a0\u201cForm follows culture. Entgrenzungen im Konzept-Design Hussein\u00a0Chalayans\u201d; engl. Form follows culture. Boundary Expandations in the\u00a0Concept-Design of Hussein Chalayan) \/ LMU Munich, grade: summa cum\u00a0laude). Among others worked at the University of Munich (Institute of\u00a0Art History) as a lecturer and researcher, the Goethe-Institute\u00a0Croatia and the Center for Advanced Studies in Munich (research\u00a0project \u201eExile, Migration and Transfer\u201d). She studied art history,\u00a0intercultural communication, art education and fashion design in\u00a0Munich and Zagreb.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/section>
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