The Star Online: Lifestyle: Arts & Fashion
The Star Online: Lifestyle: Arts & Fashion |
| Posted: 19 Jun 2011 12:46 AM PDT A hidden talent surfaces, with surreal charm and humour. SURREALISM. It is a word that describes a form of artistic expression, a cultural perspective or even a seemingly unexpected situation. For 53-year-old artist Lee Toon Hian, it is a case of all three, intertwined to form the very definition of his life, much like his detailed artworks depicting objects through his wildly imaginative and, oftentimes, surreal mind. Hailing from the tin-mining city of Ipoh, Lee experienced a different sort of childhood from many other artists. Often, notable artists relive early hardship and suffering, drawing the strength to put their experiences on paper or canvas. However, Lee grew up in a prominent industrialist Chinese family. And, being schooled in the prestigious St Michael's Institution gave him a solid education and the opportunity to indulge in his own extra-curricular interest, which was putting his artistic thoughts on paper. And indulge he did. Although drawing was somewhat a secret passion of Lee's, he harnessed it well during his younger days with a few helping hands. "I started drawing when I was 15 or 16. The art teachers at St Michael's were very talented and dedicated. We started with the basics of art. They tried to make it interesting by asking us to bring a potato. We would cut it in half and then do pigment art. It started from there, then we moved onto Roman styles and other more advanced forms," he recalls. As with any traditional Chinese family in the 1970s, art was hardly considered a viable hobby, never mind a profession. "Art to my parents was always an extra thing. If it was a pencil or pen for studies, then, of course, they would buy it. But a paint brush? It was no, no, no! "I had to use my own money to buy my equipment. My allowance at that time was about 10 to 20 cents a day. So, to buy a brush took me a week," says Lee. After finishing secondary school, he furthered his studies in law at the University of Stirling in Scotland but kept his artistic passion to just random doodles (or, as he humorously calls it, "doodoos"). But it was during his time in the United Kingdom, surrounded by art itself, that his interest grew. "I made a lot of friends who shared what I saw in the fine arts. From Japanese to Norwegian to Canadian, there were 12 of us in this little art society. We visited the smallest to the biggest museums and exhibitions in the UK. As for my drawings, I would just doodoo whatever I thought was interesting. That was the slang back then, doodoo ... perhaps it has changed now." Following the completion of his law studies, Lee returned to local shores after receiving news that his father was sick. Since his brothers were busy with their own careers, his father gave him an ultimatum – take over the reins of the family's construction business or fold it up. As any well-brought-up son would do, Lee chose the former. However, during his years of developing the business, he continued to draw his musings and build on the style that he had witnessed countless times during his years abroad. "My biggest influences were Michelangelo and Dali. When I walked into the Sistine Chapel with these amazing artworks on the walls and the ceilings, it just gave me a sense of what classical art is all about. "But the person that I look up to the most is definitely Salvador Dali. He was the master of surrealism. It's all about art that shocks the mind and works with the element of surprise, which is something I always love to do," he says. After years of keeping his works a private indulgence, Lee recently agreed to exhibit his drawings for the very first time. His debut solo, entitled Bewildered, opened at Wei-Ling Gallery in Kuala Lumpur last week. His works for the show depict mostly humans and animals, in painstaking detail, with each drawing telling its own story. Employing strokes created using mostly fine Chinese calligraphy brushes, Lee succeeds in blending both East and West influences in his artistic style with his unique form of deft surrealism and charming naiveté. In his drawing titled Bewildered, three horses stare out at the viewer with eyes of shock and confusion. With the piece placed beside the aptly-named Horse Trading at the gallery, the cold humour of confused horses wondering about their impending fate comes to life through Lee's poetic brushstrokes, which tell a story as vividly as any book . Over the years his style has changed somewhat, but what remains is his keen eye, which zeroes in on fascinating details in the most obscure places. "Nowadays I don't travel that much, so I just watch CNN and Animal Planet. And if anything fascinates me, I draw. One picture I did was of Saddam Hussein's statue, where his own people pulled it down. You could never imagine the collapse of Saddam, so the symbolism was very interesting. "I just see something in front of my eyes and I know it is something significant. That is when I draw it," he says. As unlikely as his journey has been, Lee's natural understanding of his unique art form and his ability to give a fresh look to an aging face will undoubtedly render many local art critics "bewildered" as to where this talent has been all these years. Bewildered is on show at Wei-Ling Gallery (No. 8, Jalan Scott, Brickfields, Kuala Lumpur) until July 2. For more information, call 03-2260 1106 or go to weiling-gallery.com/bewildered.php. Full Feed Generated by Get Full RSS, sponsored by USA Best Price. |
| Posted: 18 Jun 2011 09:16 PM PDT THERE are many things that have been done to death with ceramic works. Chinese blue and white. Check. Peony blossoms motif. Check. Pamela Chan has made both her speciality. Her art may have roots steeped in tradition, but she believes it should never be confined to its original form. Chan should know – many years have gone into developing her technique. "You must explore new avenues. You start with something you're interested in and then work on refining it. An artist should never feel that he knows everything about his art form," she says, adding that she strives to enhance her technique with contemporary elements. "I've been doing Chinese blue and white, and peonies and ferns for more than 10 years now and it's possible that I'll spend another 10 years doing this. It takes a long time to develop something because art needs to be constantly explored. I'm always searching to go beyond the traditional way of ceramic making." Perak-born Chan, 43, went to Guangzhou, China, to study art, then stayed on to teach for six years. She moved to Jingdezhen about five years ago. She calls herself a perfectionist and says there are many occasions where it takes almost a month to produce a piece of art. "Many completed art pieces are merely prototypes. You go through many failed experiments before you can achieve the perfect art piece." She refers to Jingdezhen as "a place that makes your dreams come true". "There's everything you need as a ceramicist here – history, inspiration and many types of clay. It's easy to be inspired especially since I'm living in the countryside. I open my windows and I see the mountains. The scenery is very beautiful and the air is great." In her studio, she works in the company of two cats and a dog. She likes working in a serene, tranquil environment surrounded by greenery. It's just as well that she thinks the path of an artist is a lonely one. "An artist should have lots of alone time. You have to endure this loneliness because it's the nature of the job," she says. When the pressure of work overwhelms her, Chan goes on a vacation. "I often feel like giving up, but each time I take a break, I realise that my heart is still in it. I come back wanting to do something new." She is not sure whether she will stay on in China, but wants to work until she is 80 years old. "Only then will I will hop onto a plane and return to Malaysia – maybe." Related Story: |
| Posted: 18 Jun 2011 09:16 PM PDT A potter churns design and craft into fragile, functional ware. IT is easy to imagine Derek Au sailing on the seven seas when you meet him in person. His affability and slightly tousled, dark hair help complete the picture. Of course, it's easy to make the association after he says that he grew up in Florida, the United States, and spent a lot of time sailing. "There's an incredible sense of freedom and beauty when you are alone in the ocean," Au says. Not that he does that very much now since he took to being a ceramicist in the "porcelain capital" of China four years ago. "I love Jingdezhen, it is impossible not to be inspired when you are here. There is so much history that is still living today in the form of master artisans. You can look at the whole history of ceramics and you can find most of it here," he says. Au had flown into Malaysia for the Transcending Time ceramics exhibition, which opened in Kuala Lumpur on Friday. Some of his works, as well as that of Pamela Chan (interview below) and four other artists, are on show. The 36-year-old artist is no stranger to travel. Almost two decades ago in the United States, he enrolled in college as a Physics major, a stepping stone to a good job. Or so he thought. "During the first week, my Physics professor told me I should not be in the Science department. I was a little upset by his remarks, but he was absolutely right. So I enrolled in art and humanities courses and began making pottery," he says. After two years of college, Au left and tried to "be a potter" but quickly realised it was much tougher than he had imagined. So he headed back to college and spent another five years there before getting involved in various Internet startup companies. "I really felt like we were building a new world," he says of the dot-com period in the 1990s. But after a few years of sitting in front of a computer, he went back to throwing pots. This stint also didn't last very long, so he found a job with international environmental group Greenpeace, where he stayed for the next six years. "I did my part to 'save the world', an incredibly naive goal. Regardless, I think it's important to retain a sense of idealism," Au says, adding that he worked on one of Greenpeace's ships, the Rainbow Warrior, which often sailed in Asia. It was during a project in Beijing that he fell in love with China and decided to leave his job to learn Mandarin. Just as he was contemplating moving to New York, a friend suggested that he check out Jingdezhen, and he was sold. After all, he had never really left pottery behind (he used to make ceramics at a studio in California during his Greenpeace years). During his first year in Jingdezhen, Au hardly produced any works as he was overly preoccupied with making something "cool, new and fresh". He had many design concepts in mind, which he tried to apply to ceramics. "Most contemporary ceramic design seems to be done this way. For instance, a designer thinks, 'Wouldn't it be cool if I made a porcelain cup that looks like a plastic cup?' and proceeds to slipcast accordingly. It's very superficial, applying contemporary design ideas to ceramics without regard to process or history." Au adds that in the past, potters were mostly concerned with utilitarian and design aspects of pottery. "There are many steps in creating ceramics, from making the clay and glazes, to shaping the form, to drying and firing. But today, ceramicists are also artists. They are concerned not only with utilitarian aspects, but also the conceptual and philosophical. "Contemporary ceramicists are constantly questioning their craft, exploring what ceramics was and what it can be," he says, adding that the idea is to take a traditional technique, with all its meaning and symbolism, and make it interesting and your own. Soon enough, Au discarded his fancy design concepts and started more simply. Now he sees no clear distinction between the design and craft aspects of ceramics. "Ceramics is a little different from other forms of art – you have to imagine it first, then you have to research how to do it. And then you need to try it out many times if you want to do it right. "Three years ago I started making pots inspired by tinware. After much trial and error, I realised I did not want to reproduce the look of tinware, but rather, emulate the process of tinware. So I began using thin sheets of porcelain and explored how I could use these sheets to make three-dimensional functional objects." It was only later that Au noticed an interesting correlation between what he was doing and what Song dynasty potters were doing in their emulation of Tang dynasty gold and silver wares. "The continual process of making and reflecting led to my current work. Each aspect contributes to the other." He is very particular about developing his own style and is currently experimenting with celadon, a type of porcelain with a pale gray-green glaze. Thin clay sheets are cut, folded, bent and joined, then sprayed with celadon glaze and fired. For the KL exhibition, he has a series comprising about 20 pieces on display, fit for a feast. "I imagine that there are two people, they have a bottle of wine and there are cups for drinking wine and dishes for food. My work is very thin and fragile, but it is functional. "Many people say it is so fragile that they don't use it, they only want to collect it. I use it! You just need to be a little careful." Transcending Time is on at Hap Seng Star (No. 15, Jalan Sultan Ismail, KL) till tomorrow. From June 21, the show will move to TY Gallery (No. 180, Jalan 16, Taman Perindustrian Ehsan Jaya, KL). For details, call 03-6275 5933. Related Story: |
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