Art
CONCEPTUALLY, this is a very old painting – 50 years, from 1975. I was thinking then about solipsism. In a way, the phenomenon traps the mind like a pickle in a bottle, an “achar”, fermenting, transforming within its confined limitations but remaining essentially the same. Claustrophobia mirrors this mental incarceration, in
History
MY RECENT nine-day trip to Chiang Mai and Chiang Rai in early January has been most fruitful. In Chiang Mai, I was hosted by renowned artist Wattana Wattanapun. I made a presentation on “Art & Storytelling” at his gallery and we went to the galleries of (1) Inson Wongsam and
Art
SOME 50 YEARS after I left formal studies in sociology and anthropology, I am finding the lectures and readings of those days useful in guiding my art. For example, I derived ideas on self-portraits in fragments from Zygmunt Bauman. Now I am exploring Claude Levi-Strauss’s discourse on totemism, part
Storytelling
There was a time from 2002-08 when the nation was at the cusp of consolidating a new media group. theSun and The Edge were at the centre of this movement. But it was not to be. This is an insider story of how theSun developed, and later with The Edge
Exhibition
LAST YEAR was a defining year for Jin’s Art Gallery. My intention was to brand it as a place where art and story-telling meet; the four shows that were held there exemplified its purpose. I also planned each show as I would a publication. The following are some details
Art
TIRED BY the huge mess my old works had become, I sat down over a few weeks in 2016 with my former colleague, Jason Tan, to sort them out. First, along a few themes and then, to write something cohesive about them. Eventually, they took the form of four PDFs.
Exhibition
SHELIA SINGAM AT THE EDGE, Sheila was part of the Options team under Surinder Jessy. They shared the same floor as me and BK Tan so we saw each other often. At the time, I did not know how multi-talented she was. Since then, mainly via her Facebook posts, I
Exhibition
LIM YIN FOONG YIN FOONG joined The Edge shortly after we launched in 1994. I met her there and have been following her work post-Edge too – her evolution from journalism to creative non-fiction. What she portrayed at Off Stone is a small but important and meaningful part of an interesting
Exhibition
KEE THUAN CHYE THUAN CHYE and I have been friends since 1966 when we met in Form 1 at Penang Free School. He was kind enough to contribute two items for the exhibition: a display of his books and a presentation, ‘A Word with You: Readings and a Chat with
Exhibition
‘OFF STONE: Works of journos & ex-journos made after hours or post-career’, Oct 5-17, 2024 at my gallery was, by far, my most ambitious project. I gathered 18 journalists and ex-journalists to exhibit their works and/or make presentations on matters close to their heart. In this four-part series, I
Art
WAITING for others can be stressful, frustrating and infuriating. This is especially so when we have nothing else to do and do not know the length of the wait. There is, in addition, a sense of helplessness. Sociologically, waiting can be linked to power dynamics and inequality, wherein the less
Art
IN MID-2023, Khoo Boo Teik, a close friend from school days, asked me if I could design the cover of his book, Anwar Ibrahim: Tenacious in Dissent, Hopeful in Power. It got me thinking about a few pieces of art for the cover. “Tenacity & Hope” was one of them.