An ambitious exhibition in New York sets out to reevaluate the borders that define us.
A YOUNG lady kneels solemnly on the ground with a huge ladle in her hands, the grandfather adjusts his sunglasses and a boy clutches a mop tightly in his left hand. Then the camera snaps a picture, and then another.
For posterity?
Perhaps.
This is the Keeping Up With The Abdullahs series by Vincent Leong, its title a play on the popular idiom keeping up with the Joneses.
The first photograph shows a Malaysian Chinese family dressed in their traditional Malay best, and in the second, an ethnic Indian family is garbed in similar attire.
Posing in front of their kampung baru (new village) houses in Setapak and Ampang in Kuala Lumpur, a few of them bear umbrellas while others find it acceptable to have brooms by their sides.
Aided by a composition reminiscent of 19th century photographic portraits of the Malay Sultanate, the pictures have a tinge of old about them.
But they were taken just last year.
The work touches on the subject of cultural assimilation as a route to peaceful coexistence, and below each is a brass plate engraved with Jawi text that reads “Malaysian” in Cantonese and Tamil.
Framed in plastic gilded frames, these photographs are currently on display at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum (often referred to as The Guggenheim) in New York.
“I present a false sense of assimilation with these photographs, hopefully injected with some humour. For the past few years, my art has revolved around Malaysia and Malaysians. It is hard not to think about what is happening around you,” says Leong of his commentary on racial inequality in the country.
On his blog (somethingin nothing.blogspot.com), he comments that the country has been built on the unity of all races and we have always been free to celebrate our cultural differences. Of late, however, there have been attempts – including resorting to “desperate scare tactics” – to segregate the ethnic groups.
“I think the idea behind my work is one that is shared by many Malaysians,” he says.
Leong mulled over the idea for several years before taking the plunge.
“I held back because I could not convince myself of the statement of this work, but many years of thinking about it and being influenced by current affairs in Malaysia, I decided to show it at my solo You Are Here at the (now defunct) Valentine Willie Fine Art KL last June.”
All costumes and props were deliberately set up for this project.
Leong started off with a clear image in his mind about what he wanted the photographs to look like, but like with most of his works, he ended up with a final version that is somewhat different to the initial idea.
“The general image is the same, but there are differences are in the details – certain poses, and one or two props,” he says.
Choosing to work with digital photography because it is “simply the quickest form of image making” and “easy, cheap, quick and effective”, he shares that it was no easy feat to organise the photoshoot with such a large group.
“This is digital photography, anyone can do it. And to me, the production of art can come in any form, as long as the idea is conveyed clearly,” he concludes.
Leong’s Keeping Up With The Abdullahs digital chromogenic prints, like the other works at the No Country: Contemporary Art For South And South East Asia exhibition, have been recently acquired for the Guggenheim’s permanent collection under the auspices of the Guggenheim UBS MAP Purchase Fund.
No Country is the inaugural exhibition of the multi-year Guggenheim UBS MAP Global Art Initiative. This initiative, a collaboration between The Guggenheim and UBS, charts contemporary art in three geographic regions; aside from South and South East Asia, it also explores Latin America, and the Middle East and North Africa.
It is a collection-building programme that encompasses curatorial residencies, international touring exhibitions, audience-driven educational programming and acquisitions for the Guggenheim’s permanent collection.
“As UBS has a long standing tradition of supporting art programmes around the world, our alliance with a global organisation like The Guggenheim is a perfect fit,” says UBS Wealth Management Asia Pacific CEO, Kathryn Shih.
Describing the Guggenheim UBS MAP Global Art Initiative as a “unique collaboration which emphasises each organisation’s commitment to contemporary art”, she adds that UBS is proud to partner the Guggenheim in showcasing Asia’s most promising artists.
“This powerful and timely project will promote professional and cultural exchange, bringing contemporary art to a wider audience and encouraging the acquisition and exhibition of artworks that open important new perspectives locally and internationally.”
The New York presentation presents works from 22 artists and collectives, including two Malaysian artists: Leong, with his Keeping Up With The Abdullahs series, and Wong Hoy Cheong, who explores the subject of colonisation through the Japanese Occupation of Malaya in the early 1940s in his video Doghole.
Wong’s 22-minute colour video focuses on detentions by the Kempetei (military police arm of the Japanese army) and includes a first-hand account of the experience by detention survivor Wong Kum Peng. The narration is interwoven with live-action sequences, motion graphics and animation. It examines the complex conditions of war and ambiguity of accounts born from violence.
“Doghole is am important work that reflects from a contemporary position on a historical event in Malaya’s past. It brings to light the complexities of conflict and how one understands and responds to such conflict after the fact. Not to mention it contains a very real and raw first-hand account of the experience of war-time detention, combined with visually enthralling aesthetics,” says June Yap, Guggenheim UBS MAP curator, South and South East Asia, in an email interview.
Of Leong’s Keeping Up With the Abdullahs, she comments that it is a light-hearted take on a serious topic.
“It brings the public topic into the personal sphere, and suggests consideration of the politics of relations without being political itself. It prompts us to take a second look at the communities we have around us, and how we relate to one another.”
According to Yap, deciding on which works to include in No Country was challenging because of the sheer number of significant artworks and artist practices in the region of South and South East Asia.
“All the works selected for No Country are conceptually complex and visually powerful. They are intriguing, they challenge us to think further, and they are also delightful in the visual encounter. It was a difficult selection process,” she says. No Country is “not intended to be comprehensively representative” of the countries that the artworks and artists are from. Instead, it serves as a starting point for the museum to engage with the region.
“No Country, as part of the Guggenheim UBS MAP Global Art Initiative, is meant to showcase and share artworks that present the contexts of bring a part of the region, while also being able to go beyond the idea of nation or country as the limits of understanding these art practices, and to consider what our relationships mean for us within the region,” concludes Yap.
No Country: Contemporary Art for South and South East Asia is on at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York until May 22. It will travel to Asia Society Hong Kong Centre in October this year (until February 2014), and is expected to be presented in Singapore after that.
Vincent Leong"s commentary on cultural assimilation in Malaysia - The Star Online
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