Cheo Chai-Hiang: Cash Convertor

Publisher Queensland Art Gallery Stanley Place, South Bank, Brisbane PO Box 3686, South Brisbane Queensland 4101 Australia www.qag.qld.gov.au Published for ‘The 6th Asia Paciic Triennial of Contemporary Art’, organised by the Queensland Art Gallery and held at the Gallery of Modern Art and the Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane, Australia, 5 December 2009 – 5 April 2010. National Library of Australia Cataloguing-inPublication data: Author: Asia Paciic Triennial of Contemporary Art (6th : 2009 : Brisbane, Qld.) Title: The 6th Asia Paciic Triennial of Contemporary Art. ISBN: 9781921503085 (pbk.) Subjects: Art, Asian--21st century--Exhibitions. Art, Paciic Island--21st century--Exhibitions. Other Authors/Contributors: Queensland Art Gallery. Dewey Number: 709.50905 © Queensland Art Gallery, 2009 ISBN 978 1 921503 08 5 This work is copyright. Apart from any use as permitted under the Copyright Act 1968, no part may be reproduced without prior written permission from the publisher. 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Cover (including back cover and inside gatefold details): Kohei Nawa Japan b.1975 PixCell-Elk#2 2009 Taxidermied elk, glass, acrylic, crystal beads / 240 x 249.5 x 198cm / Work created with the support of the Fondation d’enterprise Hermės / Image courtesy: The artist and SCAI, Tokyo / Photograph: Seiji Toyonaga Page 6–7: Subodh Gupta India b.1964 Line of Control (1) (detail) 2008 Stainless steel and steel structure, brass and copper utensils / 500 x 500 x 500cm / Image courtesy: The artist and Arario Gallery, Beijing Page 8–9: Rudi Mantofani Indonesia b.1973 Nada yang hilang (The lost note) (detail) 2006–07 Wood, metal, leather and oil / 9 pieces: 260 x 45 x 9cm (each) / Collection: Dr Oei Hong Djien / Image courtesy: The artist and Gajah Gallery, Singapore / Photograph: Agung Sukindra Page 10–11: Kim Gi Chol North Korea (DPRK) b.1959 The Songchun River Clothing Factory team arrives (detail) 1999 Ink on paper / 135.5 x 250cm / Collection: Nicholas Bonner, Beijing Page 12–13: Monir Shahroudy Farmanfarmaian Iran b.1924 Lightning for Neda (detail) 2009 Mirror mosaic, reverse glass painting, plaster on wood / 6 panels: 300 x 200cm (each) / Commissioned for APT6 and the Queensland Art Gallery Collection. The artist dedicates this work to the loving memory of her late husband Dr Abolbashar Farmanfarmaian / Purchased 2009. Queensland Art Gallery Foundation / Collection: Queensland Art Gallery QUEENSLAND ART GALLERY Contents 16 Premier’s message / Anna Bligh 68 Minam Apang Tales from the deep / Miranda Wallace 140 Tracey Moffatt Plantation / Julie Ewington 200 Building bridges: 10 years of Kids’ APT / Andrew Clark 17 Sponsor message / Santos 71 Alfredo and Isabel Aquilizan In flight / Michael Hawker 143 Farhad Moshiri Hybrid confections / Abigail Fitzgibbons 206 Kids’ APT artist projects 18 Sponsors 72 Chen Chieh-jen On going / Naomi Evans 144 Kohei Nawa Seeing is believing / Michael Hawker 21 Director’s foreword / Tony Ellwood 75 Chen Qiulin Salvaged from ruins / Angela Goddard 147 Shinji Ohmaki Dissolving into light / Shihoko Iida 76 Cheo Chai-Hiang Cash converter / Yvonne Low 148 The One Year Drawing Project / Suhanya Raffel 79 DAMP Untitled and indefinite / Francis E Parker 152 Paciic Reggae Roots Beyond the Reef / Brent Clough 218 Catalogue of works 80 Solomon Enos Polyfantastica / David Burnett 157 Rithy Panh Gestures of protest / Amanda Slack-Smith 230 Artist biographies 85 Monir Shahroudy Farmanfarmaian Lightning for Neda / 158 Reuben Paterson Pathways through history / 242 Australian Cinémathèque Programs Promised Lands / 24 A restless subject / Suhanya Raffel 32 Rites and rights: Contemporary Paciic / Maud Page 42 Promised lands / Jose Da Silva and Kathryn Weir 86 Subodh Gupta Cold war kitchen / David Burnett 161 Campbell Patterson Intimate videos / Francis E Parker 252 Acknowledgments 50 The hungry goat: Iranian animation, media archaeology 89 Gonkar Gyatso Trouble in paradise / Suhanya Raffel 162 Wit Pimkanchanapong In-between spaces / Donna McColm 259 Contributing authors and located visual worlds / Kathryn Weir 90 Kyungah Ham Communication beyond 165 Qiu Anxiong The new book of mountains and seas / 58 Suhanya Raffel The world and the studio / Russell Storer Angela Goddard the unreachable place / Jose Da Silva Sarah Stutchbury 93 Ho Tzu Nyen Of the way of the creator / Russell Storer 166 Kibong Rhee There is no place / Donna McColm 94 Emre Hüner Panoptikon / Naomi Evans 169 Hiraki Sawa Active stillness / Mellissa Kavenagh 97 Raafat Ishak Pathways in paint / Bree Richards 170 Shirana Shahbazi A purely visual language / Bree Richards 98 Runa Islam Things that are restless and 173 Shooshie Sulaiman Who’s afraid of the dark? / things that are still / Kathryn Weir Ellie Buttrose 101 Ayaz Jokhio Toward the within / Russell Storer 174 Thukral and Tagra Dream merchants / Russell Storer 102 Takeshi Kitano Fallen hero / Rosie Hays 179 Charwei Tsai A space of contemplation / Ruth McDougall 105 Ang Lee Quiet! The film is about to start / Ellie Buttrose 180 Vanuatu Sculptors Innovation and tradition / 106 Mansudae Art Studio and art in North Korea (DPRK) / Nicholas Bonner 114 Rudi Mantofani What is aslant and what is oblique / Julie Ewington 117 Mataso Printmakers / David Burnett 120 Mapping the Mekong / Rich Streitmatter-Tran Ruth McDougall 184 Traditions and rituals in North Ambrym / Napong Norbert 186 Rohan Wealleans Ritual and excess / Nicholas Chambers 189 Robin White, Leba Toki and Bale Jione A shared garden / Ruth McDougall 125 Bùi Công Khánh Contemporary story / Ian Were 190 Yang Shaobin X – Blind Spot / Abigail Fitzgibbons 126 Jun Nguyen-Hatsushiba Breathing is free / Shihoko Iida 193 Yao Jui-chung Wandering in the lens / Jose Da Silva 129 Sopheap Pich 1979 / Mellissa Kavenagh 196 YNG (Yoshitomo Nara and graf) Discovering new worlds / 130 Manit Sriwanichpoom The agony of waiting / Russell Storer 135 Svay Ken Painting from life / Russell Storer 136 Tun Win Aung and Wah Nu Between the two / The Cypress and the Crow: 50 Years of Iranian Animation Nicholas Chambers 199 Zhu Weibing and Ji Wenyu People holding flowers / Abigail Fitzgibbons Rich Streitmatter-Tran 139 14 Vandy Rattana Fire of the year / Mellissa Kavenagh 15 Cheo Chai-Hiang Cash converter Cheo Chai-Hiang is interested in the processes and practices of making art. His exploration of the tradition of Conceptualism stems from a personal commitment to independent critical thinking. Cheo belongs to a generation of Singaporeans who could choose between the English and Chinese education systems; he says he is ‘fortunate to have been educated in the Chinese system’, one which encouraged a world view informed by traditional Chinese ethical and philosophical values.1 A proliic writer in both Chinese and English, Cheo uses linguistic cues, textual associations and idiomatic wordplay as the basis for his work, which at irst glance often appears deceptively simple. Working with everyday objects as raw materials for his sculptures and installations, Cheo deines his art by his own terms — terms he is also not afraid to challenge. When he irst left for the United Kingdom to study at the Brighton Polytechnic in 1972, it was precisely to rethink preconceived ideas of art. His early work 5’x5’ (Singapore River) 1972, for example, consisted of a set of instructions for the exhibitors to draw a square measuring ive feet by ive feet, partially on a wall and partially on a loor. Its rejection by the Modern Art Society revealed the conservative views of the local art world at the time. Art historian TK Sabapathy has described Cheo as: . . . among the irst in Singapore’s art history to advocate cultivating critical, questioning attitudes in the practice of art [and] advanced these attributes as necessary, requisite conditions for developing that practice.2 Cash Converter 2009, Cheo’s work for APT6, is comprised of six sculptures from a series that Cheo has been developing for the past ive years. In this work, he evokes the sort of street scene which can still be found in parts of Singapore, boxing it up neatly for the foyer of the Gallery of Modern Art. The individual sculptures are pieced together using seductive neon lights, found objects and polished steel ixtures, suggesting shophouse signage,3 reminiscent of an all-too-familiar way of life — the raw hustle and bustle, glowing heat, shiny trinkets. Cash Converter shows the layering of various disparate elements, which, on the one hand, makes perfect material sense when placed side by side, but on the other accentuates a competitive spirit as each ights for space and attention. One component, Dang Dang (Mirror Effect) 2009, is a commanding piece with its two iconic ‘當’ (dang) signs written in traditional Chinese, characters still commonly used as signage by pawnshops in Singapore. Cheo draws attention to the subtle relationships formed between individual characters by strategically adding words before and after the sign — it now reads shang dang (‘conned’) and dang dai (‘contemporary’). The visual juxtaposition of the traditional script ‘當’ (dang) with the simpliied scripts ‘上代’ (shang dai) is striking. Cheo grew up learning traditional Chinese in school, and belongs to the shang dai (‘previous generation’).4 He encourages us to contemplate the signiicance 76 of juxtaposing the two seemingly unrelated words ‘conned’ and ‘contemporary’ — who was conned, and by whom? In Fei Chang Ku 2007, another element of Cash Converter, the artist makes a pun on the pronunciation of the Chinese word ‘哭’ (ku, which translates as ‘cry’) and the English word ‘cool’. ‘HuaYu Cool!’ (Mandarin Cool!) was the theme for the 2004 Speak Mandarin Campaign to encourage English-speaking Chinese Singaporeans to improve their Mandarin language skills. Initially launched in 1979 to encourage dialect-speaking Chinese Singaporeans to speak Mandarin, the campaign has in recent years shifted its focus to Chinese Singaporeans who grew up speaking English. Anxious to keep up with the opportunities a global city presents, Singaporeans have embraced the English language, which has become the default lingua franca for many, widening the gap between the current and previous generations. After living and working in Europe and Australia for almost two decades, Cheo returned to Singapore to ind a more anglicised audience who did not always understand the Chinese expressions used in his work. The ambivalent role of the Chinese language in Singapore raises the question: are Singaporeans encouraged to speak better Mandarin now in order to reconnect with their elders or to simply improve the facilitation of business transactions? Cheo’s works are rooted in contemporaneity (dang dai), but pay homage to the previous generation (shang dai). There is humour and play in Cash Converter, but underlying it is quiet relection and pathos. Perhaps Cheo is subtly alluding to the economic agenda behind cultural policy, urging us to think about its real cost, or maybe he is merely trying to entice us with his bright neon sculptures, as any shop owner would a customer. Yvonne Low Endnotes 1 Cecily Briggs, ‘The thirty-six strategies: Thinking in the midst of things’, in Cheo Chai-Hiang: The Thirty Six Strategies [exhibition catalogue], Casula Powerhouse Arts Centre, Sydney, 2000, p.21. 2 TK Sabapathy, ‘Cheo Chai-Hiang: Agent of change’ in Cheo Chai-Hiang: The Thirty-Six Strategies, p.15. 3 A shophouse is a terraced two-storey building with a shop or eating house on the ground loor and living quarters above. 4 By combining the added characters shang (上) and dai (代), the phrase now reads shang dai (上代) (‘previous generation’). Cheo Chai-Hiang Singapore b.1946 Fei Chang Ku 2007 Stainless steel, perspex, neon / 3 parts: 53 x 55 x 13cm (each) / Image courtesy: The artist and NAFA, Singapore 77