Tew Nai Tong

Lim Kim Hai

Syed Thajudeen

Lecture on chinese ink painting appreciation

Dr.Cheah Thien Soong, an experienced Malaysian ink painter, teacher, and curator, gave an introductory lecture on the appreciation of ink paintings at Pinweizai Gallery in Kota Kemuning on Tuesday. It is a rare occasion to attend a lecture on art appreciation in malaysia. We have very little concerns for art appreciation here. Not that we don’t know the importance of it. And it is also not that we ignore it entirely. Many writers have lamented on the lack of critical discourse in local art for many decades. Still, we are, afterall, demure and modest asians with our manners. We don’t want to upset any artist by pointing out any faults of any particular works. If the artist is gracious enough to take the criticism, we often call it ‘constructive criticism’. Otherwise, any ‘constructive criticism’ will also become personal slander with malicious intent. so, artists would rather bury their head in making paintings than discussing anything that may offend any colleagues. And thus, everywhere we go, we keep some vocabulary of politically correct complements in our bag to distribute during art shows. That’s the way to survive here.

A proper discourse on art appreciation in general is hard enough to find, it is even more invaluable to have a talk on chinese ink painting. Dr.Cheah is no stranger to giving lectures on art. A very approachable and cheerful teacher, he can dispense an encyclopedic knowledge of chinese history and art philosophy as long as you have the ear for it. He was teaching in the Malaysia Institute of Art for 12 years before retiring in 2002. Heading the program for caligraphy and ink painting in the school, he has produced many successful students under his guidance. He’s now the president of Caotangmen society for eastern art research and constantly organising and supporting activities promoting art and culture in the country. One grievance i have is that most of such activities are only available to chinese speaking community. Yes, the lecture is in mandarin. Though, I’m glad that I manage to convince a malay artist friend to come along as well. It is a torture to translate the essense of his lecture to english. Still, the aesthetics in ink painting is very universal. Apart from dr.Cheah who are very eagar to share with my friend his passion for ink painting(with his limited vocabulary of bahasa), the rest of the chinese crowd are less enthusiastic. I cant’ help feeling that there is still this barrier of ethnic difference standing between chinese and malay, even in art. One of them remarked to me in mandarin before he left, that I should help them (as in malays) to expose to other cultures as they are very self-absorved in their own culture and religion. I felt a bit embarrassed but manage to force an agreeable smile back.

The audience for the lecture was pretty small, just over some 10 people. Dr.Cheah intended to have it small and contacted only close circle of friends. The lecture took about 1.5 hour including impromtu critiques of some works in the gallery. Although short, but the structure of the content did manage to cover the essential knowledge for appreciating ink painting. Let me just recap here what was mentioned in brief. The first is the aesthetic roots of chinese culture. These include the three major philosophical concepts in chinese history: Daoism, Buddhism, and Confucianism. Daoism focuses on maintaining a harmoneous relationship with everything in nature and to achieve peace and balance. Buddhism preaches selflessness, compassion and the sincerity to embrass all things. confuciusism emphasises ethical standards, duty, rules and conduct in daily life. These aesthetic roots influences at various levels the approaches and concepts of chinese ink painters and also how they absorb western ideas of visual arts into their paintings.

Dr.Cheah continued to give the four essential characters of a good artwork. These again are very universal concepts that can be applied to all arts. They are: 1. ethnic root; 2. localisation; 3. personality; 4. contemporary or fitting to the period. An artist’s work should always find its root from his/her ethnic lineage. A search within one’s own ethnic culture is not only a way to enrich the work but to enrich the artist him/herself. Localistation refers to place we live and stay, our surroundings and environment. An artist should have the sensitivity to feel his/her own lived experience and represent them in the art. The region may not limit to a town, a city or a state. It can include even the whole region of southeast asia. Just consider how culturally connected we are to the indonesian, for example. Personality is essential to all artist. One cannot mimick the teacher’s work forever. The final character challenges the artist’s reflexivity to change with time. Artists mus be able to change with time.

Then comes the most important part, which is the explanation of the six principles of Hsieh Ho. The six principles are extracted from a very short conclusion from Hsieh Ho after he analysed many classical paintings during his time in 6th century China. That is perhaps the earliest academic study of paintings in history. He categorised the artists he analysed into six level of quality or standards. The understanding of the six principles to me have always been problematic. For one thing, they were written in classical mandarin where the meaning of each word can be problematic. Thus, throughout history, many scholars have given their own interpretation of the six principles since. The actual text can be found in googlebooks. I don’t think I will be so bold as to attempt to explain the six principles in detail here. That will take some more research and perhaps a few hundred words more.  The extracted version looks like this :《气韵生动》、《骨法用笔》、《应物象形》、《随类赋彩》、《经营位置》 and 《传移摹写》.

In the book “The way of the brush: painting techniques of China and Japan” By Fritz van Briesse, he compiled 7 versions of western translations of the six principles with the earliest by Herbert Allen Giles in 1905. In that, Giles only mentioned in passing the six methods without further elaboration. Arthur Waley in the early 1920 Burlington Magazine did analyse the six method more critically. He mentioned that the doctrines are not much different from the doctrines of the 19th century western academicians. James Cahill made a similar attempt to explain the six methods in an 1961 articles in Art Orientalis magazine. Here, his argument focused on the flaw in ancient chinese writings where punctuations were omitted. Although most later scholars accepted the fact that the six methods were in a four characters arrangement, it is possible to read them in pairs as well which will produce a slightly different meaning. As for a Taiwanese art historian Chiang Hsun, the six principles are described as steps or progression of an artist’s learning process to achieve the level described in the first principle. It is obvious from the translations that different scholars have very different understanding of the principles. That is the other problematic element of the 6 principles in my opinion which is the obscurity and vagueness of the statements itself. For this reason, it is virtually impossible for anyone to establish a valid interpretation of them. So, is it principles, canons, laws, methods? it will take forever to list out all the debates.

Dr.Cheah ended the lecture by giving a tour and real time application examples of the six principles to paintings in the gallery. Looking back, it is a worthy and fruitful lecture. Chinese ink painting has always been put in the back seat of contemporary art in Malaysia. They seem to operate entirely within their own realm of art community removed from contemporary art world. There must be a way to bridge this connection. My friend, Elias asked me a very relevant question which I have no answer during the lecture: ” Will Valentine Willie accept Dr.Cheah’s chinese ink paintings?” Who knows? hmm.. or does it matter?

PSNS photography seminar and salon 2009

I was at the photography seminar organised by the photographic society of negeri sembilan. I must say, somebody finally did it. And that is the amazing thing about it. What happen to all those self-proclaimed art photographers seeping coffee in bangsar with mouth full of art jargon? What have they done for photography? That is what really impresses me about these amateurs. There is no doubt about their enthusiasms and their passion to not only to shoot pictures but also to promote photography. How can we dismiss them from being part of art history in malaysia? Of course, the seminar wasn’t anything academic nor intellectual for that matter. The proceedings ended up as a series of unending slideshow presentations from the speakers that I noticed many have taken the opportunity to take a snooze. But then again, that’s not the point. Many cultures survive not from extravagant events but from small efforts from groups of individuals.

The most impressive was perhaps seeing our respected 71-year-old teacher of photography, Mr.Song Jin Tek explaining his experience with photoshop. Of course, everyone knew that he has always been the master of photo manipulation, even during the darkroom days. Even though some of the tips and tricks he demonstrated were common place for young photographers today, it was the confidence yet humble manner he presented it and the satisfaction and passion in the way he talked about his works that I personally believed that he really deserved the respects he received.

Harry Woo from PSM gave a more decent presentation with some basic ideas on how to improve photographic skills. Tay Puay Kuan from Singapore gave a pretty decent introduction on digital conversion to black and white as well. The rest are pretty much slideshows after slideshows.  The organiser saved the best for last. They managed to invite the master of portrait photographer, Xie Mo all the way from Guang Zhou, China to give a talk as well. He’s the first Chinese photographer to be selected as a master photographer by Hasselblad. At the end of the day, one hall was setup with two continuous lightings, computer and projector, with two dance models. As one participant puts it in mandarin, “there is nothing like a model shoot to attract the members”. Most clubs invariably organise at least one annually. The shootings went on until after 10pm.

Eventhough the publicity on PSNS’s website was in english, I must make clear that this seminar was conducted entirely in mandarin. Language has always been a huge barrier in conducting events in Malaysia. Focusing on one language will invariably leave out some groups of people. The inclusion or exclusion of people, whether it is intentional or not, is unhealthy. Race-based politic is equally unhealthy. Of course, the reason for such division is often caused by language barrier. To a large extent, this is the result of the failure of our national language to unite the people.

http://www.hasselblad.com/hasselblad-masters-jury-2009/xie-mo.aspx

http://my.poco.cn/id-45392361.shtml

Art talk at RogueArt 13 June 2009

Rogue art organised a nice little series of talks entitled “Where art happens” at their gallery space at Jalan berangan. It is only just under half a kilometers walk from the monorail station which is pretty convenient. This is the first time I pass through this road. A very nice neigbourhood with most houses coverted to bars, hostel and restaurants. The pictures here were stolen from Satu‘s website taken by photographer Isnian.

The team of panelists invited are no doubt heavy weight art administrators and managers. Dr.Najib, DG of NAG, Ahmad Mashadi, Head of NUS museum, Hasnul from USM museum, and a less familiar figure, Iqbal from Bank Negara yet to open gallery. The topic is ‘art spaces: policies, agendas, ways forward’. I am not quite sure what to think of the topic. The first part of the talk is mostly narratives about the history and work of a museum administrator. A bit more like promotional opportunity for the speakers for their own museums. Nothing wrong with that.

First up was Dr.Najib. I have not heard many good comments about Dr.Najib so far in terms of his performance as DG. In fact I have not heard of any good comments about all the DGs of NAG. I suppose that is why the NAG is still in today’s sorry state. Although I do see some encouraging renewal like the ‘revived’ website, some new publications, podcasts and some effort to reengage with the local artists. These are positive signs. Our famous motto is “biar lambat asalkan selamat”. Selamat in this context is more like work without unnecessary stress. But I can empathise his position, as he himself quoted he’s there “to serve our political master”. NAG is a statutory body. It cannot be free from being part of the political machinary of the government. And funding is always at the mercy of the ruling government as well. As he put it, the funding for the NAG has increased from 8 million in 2004 to 16 million in 2009. It doesn’t sound like much. But how much does it take to run a gallery like NAG? I haven’t got a clue.

Second speaker is Hasnul. The presentation is neither a marketing promotion nor a very clear historical narrative of his museum. So I have trouble seeing the point here. Still, if this were a museum management class, that would be a pretty good lecture, with some improvement to the slideshow of course. Ahmad Mashadi from NUS museum gave a much personal view of his experience to revive the NUS museum. The speakers talked more about surviving then moving forward. So there were not much discusion about strategies for the future. It felt like everyone was just feeling blessed and relieved that their museums were not worse than before. Surely, they have done their best to better their organisations to the condition today.

The shortest talk was by Iqbal. He’s straight to the point. Short and simple. The yet-to-open new bank negara gallery(http://museum.bnm.gov.my/teaser/index.html) looks very impressive, located somewhere near Bukit Tunku and opening in december this year. I may have seen the building before but did not pay any attention to it. I am very happy to see another very impressive museum opening in Malaysia that can rival the islamic art museum which I think is amazing already. When I say good museum, I mean museum that I would be willing to pay money to visit like the islamic art museum which I’ve been twice. The only thing ironic about the museum is the fact that while everywhere people are short of funds, here we have our bank negara throwing money around to, ironically, glorifying money by opening a museum for money. Is ironic the correct word? I don’t know.

After lunch, we had Rifky, a curator from indonesia, Pang from the Annexe, Simon, a curator and writer, and Syed Nabil from NN Gallery. Again just like in morning session, there is not much point in the afternoon session. A sort of introduction to all different art spaces around the region, plus a private gallery perspective from Nabil. Pang, as always, gave a  very fluent, aloquent and almost looked effortless speech. I always like the idea of an art space that can accomodate all forms of art. And perhaps that’s the reason Annexe Gallery has been pretty successful in building its own image as an alternative space for more controversial and critical art.

The audience was pretty quiet. One question from Eva, cofounder of arteri, directed at Hasnul, appeared relevant. She was asking whether there were any strategies to pull potential visitors other than the existing pool of school children, staff, art students and artists. Hasnul and Dr.Najib tried to answer the question but never really got to it. From my understanding of their answers is that there were no strategies for such effort at all. I think it is hard enough to maintain the interest of the existing visitors. At the end of the day, we still see museum as a publicly funded agency rather than a business entity. The museum administrators do not rely on the public to make money. They also don’t need to create any special image for corporate sponsors. Marketing will never become an important strategy unless they stop depending on their institutions or ministry to supply the funds.

There was a little confusion when Hasnul answered another question about funding that he considered his organisation ‘not underfunded nor overfunded”. And later he did claim that they had limited budget for promotion and marketing. A little contradiction there but that’s just show how we see marketing and promotion: as an expandable element in the organisation. I remember a great example of the museum of contemporary art (MCA) in Australia that brought in the concept of marketing into their museum. They appointed a director of marketing and strengthened their marketing department. They conducted the proper marketing analysis of competitors, segmentation, the usual SWOT analysis, rebranding themselves to pull in sponsorships. They even designed tailor-made sponsorship packages for specific sponsorships. They overcome the lack of funding from their government and replaced it with corporate sponsorship. And this is a museum that costs 9 Australian dollars to enter. Of course, success stories are always nice to read but an effort like that is never as easy as it seems. I would be interested to see any of our own museums try out strategy like that for a change.

Although not exactly a talk that can generate alot of dicussions but certainly informative to a certain extent. And the crowd was so small that it just felt like the artworld in malaysia is more like art ‘worlds’, all fragmented. Or perhaps artists just don’t see the point of these talks. More can certainly be done to understand how to get art related people to come together. I personally hope to see more of these talks happening in KL.

‘Ane ku xi ane’ – a talk on Soo Pieng’s painting

This is the second art talk series organised by the Nanyang Alumni association. The first one was on Chen Wen Hsi. They are all pioneering artists in Malaysia and Singapore. I like the format of the talk because there is always one speaker who is a close friend of the artist, a friend from a more business relationship, and an art critic or curator. All of them can talk about the different perspectives of the artist. One thing that they should have done is to have some sort of documentation that can come out of the talk. That would be perfect. Many of this events and the discussions are seldom documented. Worse still is that they are all in mandarin. It is ridiculous to even consider the amount of audience that this kind of talks can reach.

This image was taken from wikipedia. Next time when you have a 50 sing dollar note in your pocket. Those are the two paintings, one by Chen Wen Hsi and the other by Cheong Soo Pieng. ‘Ane ku xi ane’ is hokkien, meaning something like, this is how it is, or this is how it should be. It is a way of insisting on a personal way of doing things. The artist’s friend 丘瑞河and 俞隆庆both spoke of this verbal quirks of his. And also how much he likes to make changes to his students paintings in class until they become totally his own. Another one is “ane tu ho”, meaning this is enough, or this is just right. It is a way to tell his students not to over do it. Wonderful stories from the two old friends of the artist.

I am very fortunate to be able to understand both english and mandarin. There is always this uncomfortable feeling when I attend an ethnic-based event like this. The same feeling I got when I attend an all Malay events. We can’t help but to start glorifying our own group and race. It is hard to get rid of that dichotomic thinking of east and west, of us and them. Chinese are desperately trying to hold on to that thin thread that connect our name to the great China’s past. We worship the 2000 year old history of china as if they are our own. There is this invisible pressure and expectation from everyone that since you have a chinese name, it is your obligation to stand on the ‘east’ side. And everyone just love to use that cliche saying 崇洋媚外to criticise the younger generation who choose to follow the ‘west’. It all comes back to the natural question we have about ourselves, who we are and how should we identify ourselves to others. I don’t have that thread anymore. East or west are pretty much the same to me.

There was even a small debate during the talk about one of the painting. Of whether it is more western influence or eastern influence. Is it the composition that is more chinese or is it the content? Who knows? It is a great piece of work after all. Even names like kandinsky, klee and picasso are being thrown around. At the end, it is the authoritative Chung Chen Sun who put his foot down and insisted that nobody can beat the 2000 year-old history of art from china. yes… ane ku xi ane.