The tale of Southeast Asian painters moving to the West to study and gain inspiration, is one that’s found in almost all art history books, but what about artists who moved to other parts of world? What about the folks who were interested in the cultures and people of the Global South — what did they paint and how did the express their curiosity ?
The National Gallery Singapore’s latest project Dalam Southeast Asia (or “Inside Southeast Asia”) aims to address this topic, casting its spotlight on lesser known Southeast Asian artists. The first exhibition The Tailors and the Mannequins: Chen Cheng Mei and You Khin focuses on the impressions formed by Singapore artist Chen and Cambodian artist You Khin, from encounters with people and places in Africa, South Asia and South America, amongst others, from the 1970s to the 2000s.
There are many gems in this tightly curated show but You Khin’s African scenes stand out with their ferocious brushstrokes and dense compositions. He arrived in Africa as a refugee himself, escaping the Khmer Rouge in his home country and was troubled by some of the poverty he experienced in Africa
Here’s a look at his scene of faceless working tailors in the Ivory Coast:
And here’s a busy, frenzied marketplace in Khartoum:
Chen too, travelled the world and we get to see her rendition of Kenyan chieftains , ladies doing the laundry in India and Pakistan, and a medicine man from Brazil.
As Lead Curator for the UOB Southeast Asia Galleries Shabbir Hussain Mustafa muses, “this was a deliberate, considered decision taken by a (female artist, Chen) to travel to these incredible geographies in the 1990s. It’s worth probing these decisions.”
He also shares with us that You Khin made connections during his travels, with Ismail Fatah, one of Iraq’s most important artists.
This was just a super exciting presentation all round — it’s small, but gives us new ways to think about Southeast Asian art, from a totally different perspective. Look out too, for the carefully considered wall text in the show – there are a number of rhetorical questions in them to (perhaps?) initiate difficult conversations.
They prompt us to think about what a retro Singapore stock exchange trading floor might have in common with the arrival of a cargo ship in Doha (surrounded by needy people with outstretched arms)?
Or why busy working African tailors are depicted as having no discernible facial expressions (see image above)?
Are there ideas here that we can challenge and investigate about the value of labour in a hyper – capitalistic society?
Still, even if you don’t want to go down the socio- political rabbit hole, there’s plenty of beautiful art to take in. Be sure to check the show out when it opens to the public on 29 Oct.
