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

A modest big book – the history of chinese caligraphy in Southeast Asia

There was a very modest press conference held last weekend on the 9th to promote the upcoming book on the history of chinese caligraphy in Southeast asia. The compilation of the book is initiated and coordinated by a professor from the Beijing University, 王岳川. The Malaysian section is coordinated by Dr. Foo Yong Kong 符永刚. The Sarawak section is represented by 苏儒谋。The process of information gathering is on-going and the press conference also meant to call for individuals out there who have information to contribute to the collection. It is a greatly anticipated book. Hopefully there will be some initiatives to translate the book to other languages in the future.

contemporary chinese ink painting exhibition 16 Aug 2009 品味斋

Here is another chinese ink painting exhibition organised by the master Chieh Thien Soong together with the PingWeiZhai 品味斋 gallery in Kota Kemuning, Shah Alam. The opening will be held this sunday afternoon at 2pm. The exhibition will be showing new works from master chieh and four other invited artists. Two of whom I know are Chieh’s students. I personally admire Chieh’s painting for its originality, dislocating itself from what used to belong to China, and to have its own life in this country. Then again, eventhough we are no longer part of china, being chinese seems to demand something of us all, an obligation that all chinese decendents must posses in order to belong. It’s a lifeline that most of us desperately hold on to, to remain afloat in the sea of globalisation. For one thing is clear, chinese ink painting belongs to the chinese and all chinsese belongs to china. It sounds absurd, doesn’t it? But there is some truth in it. Chinese ink painting cannot be severed from China’s history, and that is for certain. That label “chinese ink painting” or “chinese caligraphy painting” is trademarked by China. To use it, the approval is definitely needed from the appropriate authority. Otherwise, to the locals here, they are no more than just some poorly painted watercolour paintings. In the introduction to the exhibtion, it states the objectives of the exhibition:”呼吁社会中的有识之士能够积极的参与建设和弘扬华人博大精深的书画艺术，使华人书画艺术在文化与经济全球化的今天立于不败之地，这不仅是我们每一位华人的心声同时也是义不容辞的责任。” Is this the remnants of the postindependence struggles against the malay hegemony? The statement says that it represents the the heart of every chinese who believe in our inherent obligation to protect chinese culture. Who we are as a race or ethnic group are basically a very arbitrary concept. We do not think about all the categories or traits that define who we are in everyday lives. Other than sociologists or anthropologists who may try to provide some provisional definition for their research, we basically just assume who we are as who we are. At least, until when our identity is being challenged and contested. Today, politically correct statement like this still sounds good to hear, at least for the chinese. But how significant it is and how relevant it is? Those are questions worth exploring.

Coming back to the exhibition, it is free admission just like any other in malaysia. But there is an entrance requirement: language. There is no place for anybody who cannot speak and read mandarin in this exhibition. In that sense, the exhibition is irrelevant to the majority of Malaysians. In a few weeks time, it will be over and forgotten. How does art change the world again? Perhaps I need to look somewhere else.

Recent Photo Events in Kuching

I am somewhat fortunate and unfortunate at the same time to come back to Kuching during this time. There is finally some rain today. This is the first time I see rain at my house in Everbright Jaya since my return more than a week ago. As I am writing this, rain finally pouring down outside. Hopefully this time it will last longer.

I am a bit fortunate to run into several photography events in Kuching last week. A senior photographer Tai Lek Pin (FRPS) is having his works exhibited at the Boonia Frame Gallery(文雅轩in chinese). It is located at Jalan Padungan. It doesn’t look anything like a gallery from the outside that one travel blog I ran into actually mistook it for a wine shop because there were a few bottles of chinese wine displayed at the shop window. The gallery owner is Mr. Liew Boon Poh, a chinese caligrapher himself. He just had the master Chieh Thien Song over from KL for an exhibition in July. Mr.Tai, the photographer is an old timer in Sarawak. He’s the founder of Pearl Studio now ran by his son Jonathan Tai, who is a well-known photographer as well. I was very fortunate again to have a short chat with Mr.Tai at the gallery. He is not only a good photographer but also a great writer.

I also ran into a Sarawak Photographic Society’s exhibition held in Tun Abdul Razak Museum. It was showing a collection of works by the society members. It was not a very well curated exhibition but with a great variety of works on display.

And most fortunate of all, I attended a gathering of the Sarawak photo-art society at Crown Tower yesterday evening. It was a sharing session from one of the member 刘勇辉 from his trip to Dongchuan and Yuanyang China in April this year. There was a pretty good turnout from the members and a few non-members as well. Most of the committees I met are all commercial photographers. This is definitely an interesting group to explore.

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.

Mapping invisible cities exhibition KL 6 June 2009

MAPPING INVISIBLE CITIES

Saturday, 6th June 2009, 1.00pm
The Annexe Gallery
Central Market Annexe Kuala Lumpur

The Opening will be followed by an open workshop from 2-5pm.
The Workshop theme is: Beyond the Concept of City Photography (Alex Moh and Azrul K. Abdullah)
The exhibition continues until Sunday, 21 June 2009.

Exhibition Synopsis
Photographer and Professor Peter Bialobrzeski (Germany) travelled and worked in Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, Singapore, Vietnam, and the Philippines during his Sabbatical in winter 2007 / spring 2008. In residency workshops he combined his own photographic investigations with those of young talents in the six capitals of Jakarta, Hanoi, Bangkok, Kuala Lumpur, Manila and Singapore.

The outcome of the workshops was a multifaceted kaleidoscope. It shows images from cities in headlong rushes for modernization, the sharp profiles of economic cycles spreading around them like growth rings: audacious fantasies of architects, city planners and engineers tested by tropical climate, natural deterioration and economic constraints; the flashy artificiality of consumer zones next to the smelly reality of black alleys; promises of modernization restrained by the power of tradition and encouraged by an unquenchable will to leave the past behind.

“Mapping Invisible Cities” is the second ‘Goethe’ art project (after ‘ArtConnexions) that brings photographers from the region together in a search for common exploration of the urban ‘subject’.  Consequently, teaching and learning have converged in creative results.

It is the Goethe Institute’s vision to encourage an exchange of ideas and creative practice between SEA and Europe;  it utilises the network of SEA’s cultural centres and -  scenes to promote creative interaction among the young artists of the region.
(Alex Moh)

Asef forum 2009 – afterthought.2

Peter Bialobrzeski gave an interesting talk on the topic of the future of photography. He explained about the lowering of expected renumeration from taking pictures in the future as more and more images saturate the market. A picture that used to cost a magazine a few hundred euros to commission a photographer to take can be easily downloaded from stock agency in the web for as low as 1 euro.

The two points I think he was making about the future of photography are:

1. as more and more people are equiped with cameras and able to document the state of the world around us, the pictures of tomorrow are more focused on the authenticity of an image. The photographer, amateur or professional, who can be closest to the action will be the one supplying the images. One example is that some war photographs come from pictures taken by soldiers with their personal cameras rather than professional war photographers.

2. Exclusivity becomes very important for photographers who want to make a good living out of photography. In this sense, the abundance of middle class photographers today who work from assignment to assignment will diminish and may not exist in the future. Their market are being threaten by the fast distribution of digital images. I personally think that it is not so much a threat but a positive challenge. This is because there is another perspective that we can look at this.

I recently got my hand on a copy of the first Malaysian Salon Exhibition catalogue in 1963. This was not the first Salon Exhibition held in Malaya. The name Malaysia only exists after 1963. Although the photographs are interesting but I sort of quite intrigued by the advertisement in the catalogue. The Leica camera advertisement below for example. That’s a nicely illustrated drawing of the camera. For someone like me who grew up amidst all the explosion of images around me in the 80s till now, this looks very unnatural to me. And even sort of exotic. I expect to see a real camera in an advertisement for camera. At least something photographic. Illustration just cannot give you that reality, the physical closeness with the machine. It is difficult to imagine it working as a mechanical device.

The one below was taken from a photo exhibition catalogue in 1976. Now we have a photograph of the camera itself. Now I can imagine the thing being there. It exists. I can trust the photograph to tell me that there is a tangible device being sold. There is no mystery anymore regarding the looks of the camera. I know exactly what to expect when I see it in the shop.

And in a 2007 full colour catalogue, I cannot find an advertisement without at least one image inside. There is a trend to be seen here. I think small businesses are thinking of new ways to make use of cheaper and more affordable images. Today, a small coffee shop owner can easily call up a freelance photographer to make a full colour menu of the food with little costs. Although the quality may not be of any professional standard, but the availability of this option gave small business a new creativity to promote their busineses and to serve customer better. And in itself is part of creative economy. As busineses become more creative with pictures, middle class photographers, by no mean will suffer from the over saturation of images. In fact, as more people learn to use and see images, their demand for better and more personalised picture will increase as well. And more is yet to come. I think the possibilities are endless.

‘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.

ASEF Forum 2009 – afterthought.1

The forum is finally over. It ended as queitly as it came. I didn’t find any reporting in the local newspaper. Very little mention of the forum on the web as well. There are many areas that can be improved in this forum. Anyhow, I always like the idea of bringing together the practioners of art from europe and asia to one place. And see how they interact when they are forced to work together. No matter how much we think globalisation is changing us, asians still operate differently from europeans. We all have different expectations of each other. One of the problem I think relevant is that although the title of the forum refers to ‘emerging photographers’, many of the participants aren’t exactly ‘emerging’. These successful young photographers are the ones often having the dominant voice in the forum. It is not to say that having a mix of more experienced photographers is not appropriate. Unless the dominant photographers know how to manage the whole team and know when to be flexible at times, it is still difficult to create a sharing atmosphere. Nevertheless, the amount of sharing depends very much on how well the participants interacts with one another.

One interesting thing I observed is that artists tend to avoid talking about their own work with other artists. Unless it is during a talk or workshop. But they are willing to talk freely about other people’s artworks. And we tend to avoid giving comments when we do not agree with certain artwork. I can understand asian doing that because we try not to have the artist ‘lose face’. Personally, I’m not sure how to react to a direct negative criticism. Perhaps, I may ask, “what other possibilities can you see for this work?” Or “what other things can you see from my work?” Although the artist can perhaps give a one hour lecture to the viewer so that he/she can understand the work better but I doubt that will be enough to change the viewer’s mind. I don’t see the point in trying to change people’s view. I like to ask people what they see in an artwork. Sometimes, I get very surprising answers and I find myself learning something new.

The reason I put up the cover page of the catalogue is just to show how terrible it looks. The names of the participants were badly mutilated. I hate to see people’s names disfigured for the sake of design. The title was so small that it is tiring just to read it (even when printed on a 6′ bunting). The only thing outstanding is the color combination. Then again, it was a rush job by the NAG design team. I shouldn’t complain too much. It is the organiser’s fault for pushing everything to last minute. Kudos for the design team to work under pressure.

ASEF Emerging Photographers’ Forum 2009

This is the second last day of the forum. It has been a long week. Not quite sure what i was getting myself into when I volunteered myself to help organise the event. But I knew that it would be a great experience for me. This is nothing like the Chobi Mela organised by Shahidul Alam in Bangladesh but perhaps KL will get to see something like that in the future. Shahidul Alam and Peter Bialobrzeski are the two more anticipated photographers coming as facilitators. There is also Martin Fuchs, who is the designer and editor for Magnum Photos. And there is a very old japanese photographer named Masaaki Nishimiya, a university professor and actively involved in the advertising industry in Japan. His film and pixel series are simply amazing. Something that I can’t describe in words. Photographs that can let you feel the light itself and experience the texture of the film. I’m sure the real thing would have been even more mesmerizing. He talked passionately about his photographs and even drew sketches of all the participants to help himself remember faces. And another very friendly japanese curator from Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography, Hiromi Nakamura. According to her, there are something like 80 galleries specifically cater for photography in Tokyo alone and over 1000 fine arts galleries. i was a bit unprepared when she asked me to help her take the group photo with her polaroid camera. I have never even touched a Polaroid camera before. Not exactly a good result but she insists that I signed that tiny print anyway. That’s the first photograph in her polaroid album.

Peter Bialobrzeski gave two amazing talks. Both I recorded and hopefully will compile some of his points later. Most of the ideas are not new but sometimes I just need some reassurance that at least there is someone out there who carries the same thought process as I do. Every photographers with some authoritative power of some sort instinctively like to offer their own opinions of what photography should be.  That can be confusing for a beginners who just pick up his/her new camera and start shooting. I like Peter’s direct approach. He gave a comment during a discussion that even for an audience, one should have the confidence to offer opinions about an artwork. When there are too many artworks flooding the market trying to gain attention of the public, it is not unlike the aisles and aisles of consumer products in Carrefour. There is only that limited amount of time and energy to focus on a small number of works that are significant and relevant. Anything else will just become irrelevant. This is not to say that less relevant artworks are not good art but all artworks are competing visually for the attention time of the viewers. And one of the important responsibility of a visual artist is to challenge the visual perception of the viewer. Personally, although I seldom dismiss less visually impressive works, but I believe creating new visual expression is one of the most important job of a visual artist.

I just want to highlight one creative artist from Singapore who was at Chobi Mela V as well. He’s Robert Zhao. He created a fictitious institute called institute of critical zoologists and create photographic works that look at the human-animal relationship. I have never seen anything like it. It’s a mind-blowing project. Other participating photographers that I like a lot are Ahmet, Jorg, and Tammy. Perhaps my background in art history sort of made me more incline to favor fine artist than documentary photographers. I was hoping to see more fine artists in the group but sadly the discussions were more or less dominated by documentary and journalism photographers.

More work to come this evening…