[Please note that the Conditional Movement Control Order (CMCO) announced on 13 October 2020 comes into effect from 14 to 27 October 2020 in the Klang Valley. Do check with the organiser for rescheduling, cancellation or closure announcements. Click here for more information on the CMCO.]
Leading art gallery Wei-Ling Contemporary currently has a double feature in store for visitors with two exhibitions ongoing until November. On one side is the WLG Incubator Young Artists Show featuring a talented pair of newcomers destined for great things, and on the other is a showcase by seasoned artist Wong Chee Meng who continues his study of hope and how it influences our lives.
WLG Incubator Young Artists Show
Wei-Ling Gallery has always been committed to nurturing young talent and providing a platform to display their work, and the WLG Incubator Young Artists Show is a realisation of that. This edition features Anas Afandi and Tang Tze Lye, who spent six months working with and being mentored by renowned artist Ivan Lam in the Young Artists Collaborative Mentorship Program.
Exploring and experimenting new concepts with Lam, the young artists produced a range of work which has become the focus of the current Incubator project. It is hoped that these collaborations will help cultivate the voice of the next generation of Malaysian artists.
Anas Afandi
Displayed on a bed of soil on the gallery floor, visitors will find a random set of objects and artefacts organised in a hierarchical structure, inviting them to investigate each specimen just as the artist himself did when he excavated them from a small plot of land near his family home in Taping.
The installation is part of Anas Afandi’s attempt at leaving the past behind and finding ways to integrate art into life as opposed to seeing it as something separate. The items, which have been there for decades, are now unearthed and on show for all to see, giving himself and viewers that chance to draw different meanings from them.
Tapak Pembakaran (Waste-burning Site) 2020 is a continuation of his earlier work Dokumen Seorang Imigran (Document of an Immigrant) which uses history, experience, environment and knowledge to find the relevance of art in contemporary living.
Tang Tze Lye
The second artist to be highlighted at the Incubator is Tang Tze Lye who uses his art and the human body as a means to understand his own identity. His work focuses on themes of gender, queer identity and beauty, challenging the societal norms of what a ‘normal’ and ‘abnormal’ body should be.
Bright colours with blue and chromatic pink are used throughout much of his work to express gender, and the figures seen in his paintings emphasise intimacy and fantasy while normalising what are considered taboos of the body and gender.
Lye’s work on queer art has also led him to incorporate performance art as a way to connect with audiences. Here he uses narration, poetry, and dance to accompany his installation.
Good Days Will Come
Running alongside the Young Artists Show is a new exhibition from artist Wong Chee Meng who radiates positivity in this new series of paintings. He draws inspiration from hope, a state of mind which has been an underlying theme in one way or another in much of his previous work. Here he approaches it with a newfound energy, bolder in the way he transposes it to the canvas using colourful palettes and symbolic figures like Chinese homophones, hidden numbers, lucky phrases and charms.
Using a layered technique seen on stereoscopic 3D images, Chee Meng hides these elements in his paintings which are then slowly revealed to the viewer as they look at each piece. The application of different coloured filters to achieve this optical illusion also represents different life perspectives.
After receiving permanent damage to his vision following a motorcycle accident in his teenage years, Chee Meng’s view of the world has become warped in a variety of ways – a weakness which he has turned into a strength as he creates complex, multi-faceted images with hidden deeper meanings beyond the surface.
Chee Meng’s exhibition is timely as hope and positivity are both things we could use in spades in these trying times. If you’ve been feeling low, head to Weiling Contemporary and get a boost with this uplifting exhibition!
Weiling Contemporary
Where RT01, Sixth Floor, The Gardens Mall, 59200, Kuala Lumpur
When 11am-7pm (Tues-Sun)
Tel 03 2282 8323
weiling-gallery.com/contemporary