A”1”DERFUL DISINTEGRATION
Kim Peow Ng or Kim Ng has
consistently explored the visual possibilities and meaningful connections that emerge
between random images in his mixed media paintings, collages and ceramic as well
as found objects or discarded materials modified accordingly to encapsulate his
observations. Though known to many as a printmaker and ceramist, Kim confesses
to be more of a maker of images who teases or draws out probable connotations
from disparate marks, symbols, and metaphors by juxtaposing or contrasting them
in his multidisciplinary approach. Kim, who holds two degrees from the UK (MA
from the London Metropolitan University and MA from the University of
Westminster), cites the works of Anish Kapoor (b.1954) Robert Rauschenberg
(1925-2008) and Jean Michel Basquiat (1960-1988) among many as pivotal
influences. It is not surprising, given the concepts of duality, the use of
popular images and personal marks that permeates his works. And the city is his
bountiful hunting ground for materials that inspires him.
His latest solo exhibition
“In A Place of Wonder” however highlights his preoccupations with current
affairs affecting society.
Though it is convenient
to say that art is subjective, especially when one is unwilling to form an objective
opinion or perhaps it is unfashionable to have one when reading an artist’s
works -and to Kim’s credit he does provide enough room for personal
interpretation so that audiences can arrive at conclusions agreeable to his/her
outlook or disposition- Kim is however, far from being an impartial observer
when he sets these visual elements from life in a calculated and purposeful
way. This is evident as a large portion of the works here, in various forms, dimensions
and medium hints at manoeuvrings, shenanigans and foibles of human politics. IMHO,
these are not works that hangs passively as eye candies or as sentimental odes
to bygone eras, this latest series expects something more than mere platitudes
about beauty or pseudo-intellectual gymnastics favoured by the muddle minded (though
one should be thankful that it is also short of the required solemnity expected
in a wake or pomp).
“In A Place of Wonder” invites
one to think about contemporary political and social events, its implications and
the particular actors involved from both sides of the divide. With the manipulations
of emotions, false accusations and unsubstantiated claims by competing forces
bent on continuing or trying to establish a totalitarian grip on our thoughts,
bodies and actions, it is obvious realpolitik
are behind all the highly charged morality plays to sway the sentiments and
focus of the masses from the many chronic economic quagmires currently besting
the country as a result of unchecked corruption, unregulated wastage,
questionable patronages etc. The growing number of political careerists
operating behind facades of piousness and uprightness issuing daily religious injunctions
or promoting vile racial bigotry with impunity against other fellow pretenders
in a move to either maintain the status quo or to erect new ones has brought
with it ridiculous ramifications that could tear the social fabric of society and
create disorder in the country if left unchecked. Here, Kim Ng’s role is akin to
an amused urban anthropologist, playfully documenting these developments, constructing
possible scenarios and events that may have happened in an imaginary cacophonous
dystopic metropolis much like ours today.
It can be deduced that the
peoples of this fairly sophisticated multicultural society are struggling to make
sense, negotiate and reconcile two opposing forces, that of “modernity” and
“tradition”, terms that have become increasingly discordant and challenged in a
post historical setting.
Though having access to
great natural resources, this society was able to built first world
infrastructures and provide reasonably good amenities that money can buy, its
people however were for years believed to be regressing back to superstition, mediocrity
and apathy, all adversative in meeting today’s fast pace challenges. Hovering
above these circumstances are the amoral hedonists in power who wear the masks
of liberalism without a committed policy of liberalization while liberally
benefitting their relations and over generously rewarding their cronies and
supporters to the detriment of the country’s economic wellbeing. While the
discontentment felt by the masses are real, they were exploited by competing
self and class’ interests and have now convoluted into a so-called clash of communal
rights and spiritual values. The political mouthpieces from the alternative and
mainstream too have joined in the chorus of distortion, shouting themselves
hoarse, playing their roles to a hilt, to stupefy, electrify and pacify. All
the debris and residue from these struggles however portend the impeding
socio-political or cultural meltdown of sorts. In actuality decay has set in,
disintegration soon to follow, the tell tale signs were already there for all
to see but no one was around except for those one-eyed little napoleons and
mini dowagers counting their petty losses and undeserved gains while the rest
of the population went happily to the malls dressed up as unpaid walking
talking advertising boards blindsided by conspicuous consumption.
It is not a good place to
be when one is trapped between the existing but untenable state-crony
capitalist system and a groundswell for a form of theocratic fascist regime. With
the call for power to be either concentrated fully in the hands of a party of insatiable
businessmen or a party of infallible “holy” men, a middle or third force is
needed more than ever to serve as check and balance or a viable alternative to
this imbroglio. Far from being alarmed and dismayed, Kim is invigorated by the
fallout from these developments. The energy and the atmosphere, both irrational
and unpredictable, unlock and foretell many possible outcomes. The actions and
reactions, the cause and effects from the decisions made for us and the choices
we exercise against those decisions are natural responses of life. There is
logic in seemingly chaos, a method to madness and connections to random events
which can be made sensible when we suspend the sentimental.
Kim’s latest outputs are
artistic statements that allude to the fact that life is a messy and
unpredictable process of becoming or unfolding, like the lotus flower that
grows and is nourished by dark waters, we are constantly moving upwards against
the myriad forces of negatives and positives, each playing its natural role, competing,
complementing and finally in complementarity, resulting in a momentary state of
equilibrium, waiting for something to puncture its bliss, and have the whole
process repeat itself again.
“What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger”
Nietzsche
Tan Sei Hon
Independent art writer
and curator
2014-05-13
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