untold mountain 2007
60'' x 52''
mix media on canvas





self-made man 2007
60'' x 52''
mix media on canvas

Sin Chew Daily , 12 July 2007

UTUSAN MALAYSIA ,ISNIN 23 Julai 2007

Painting & Drawing Makna di sebalik warna

SEBAGAIMANA karya-karya seni verbal, seni tampak juga merupakan sebuah catatan untuk menyatakan apa sahaja. Daripada gejolak dalaman pelukisnya hingga ke elemen-elemen sosial di sekitarnya.

Warna, sapuan berus dan tekstural merupakan sebahagian daripada medium untuk seseorang pelukis bersuara dan berkomunikasi dengan khalayak.

sesebuah karya tampak itu sendiri merupakan rakaman ruang dan waktu tertentu. Apa yang diketengahkan pada kanvas atau apa sahaja medium adalah catatan masa dan peristiwa.

Gambar-gambar pramoden dihasilkan oleh cara berpikir masyarakat zaman itu yang menggunakan sudut pandang kosmos dan mikrokosmos.

Manusia/pelukis moden pula jauh berubah. Mereka cenderung menggambar manusia dalam ruang, sedangkan manusia pramoden lebih menggambar waktu dunia manusia.

Pameran solo pelukis, E.H Chee, Painting & Drawing di Suria Stonar Show Gallery hingga 30 Julai ini merupakan sebahagian daripada makna-makna tersebut antara ruang dan waktu.

Melalui warna, Chee cuba mengisi ruang dan waktu pada kanvas. Karya yang tanpa bentuk dan imejan tetapi sarat dengan makna itu dikongsi dengan khalayak.

Tetapi beliau meletakkan persoalan ruang dan waktu itu pada tempat yang paling peribadi. Apa yang dituangkan pada kanvas adalah sebuah ekspresi antara diri dan pemikiran.

Ia lahir daripada pemahamannya dalam menilai keindahan yang berada di sekelilingnya. Elemen-elemen itu kemudiannya ditafsirkan dengan cermat tetapi dalam perspektif yang berbeza-warna dan berus.

Sebagai pelukis abstrak ekspresionisme, beliau tidak mengutamakan imej tetapi kekuatan warna, sapuan berus dan stroke untuk menonjolkan ruang dan waktu pada kanvas itu bergerak.

Sama seperti proses pemikiran dan gerakan naluri dalam menilai, mentafsir dan memahami tema yang diangkat ke kanvas. Seringkali dengan gaya sapuan yang lembut dan memukau. Namun, tidak jarang dengan gaya spontan, kasar dan `menyeramkan’.

Sebagai pelukis abstrak yang berpusat pada emosi, apa yang tergambar pada karya-karyanya adalah pergolakan emosi atau ketenangan ketika mengisi ruang dan waktu.

Beberapa karya Chee seperti Sahut (2003), Flower of Youth (2007), Prayer (2007) dan Wujud (2003) misalnya menampilkan gaya sapuan kasar, spontan dan tebal. Namun, beberapa karya lain seperti Lovers (2005), Blue Element (2007) menonjolkan unsur-unsur harmoni.

Dalam pengkaryaannya, Chee sebenarnya sedikit terpengaruh dengan seni lukis Nusantara yang tidak memperlihatkan kecenderungan realis-naturalis. Sebaliknya, ia selalu memperlihatkan abstrak.

Masyarakat Timur memang tidak mengenal representasi dalam keseniannya kecuali simbol dan perlambangan. Faktanya, manusia Timur lebih akrab dengan dekoratif, ornamen, simbolisme, bentuk-bentuk stilasi sebagai ekspresi kesenian mereka.

Oleh itu karya-karya Chee meletakkan dirinya sebagai titik pada ruang dan waktu. Keresahan, gejolak dan rasa dalam diri ketika itulah yang dilontar kepada khalayak menerusi kanvas.

Pergeseran semiotik, baik makna mahupun mesej ketika khalayak mengintepretasi setiap karyanya ekspresionismenya hingga memunculkan wacana baru tidak penting kepadanya.

Intepretasi makna lain oleh khalayak akan terjadi pengujian kembali makna awal atau malahan atau memberi makna baru hingga karya-karya Chee seperti umumnya lukisan abstrak dapat diberi 1001 pengertian.

Chee dan khalayak tidak lagi perlu bertanya, ada apa dengan makna jika setiap titik dan ruang yang dicipta pada permukaan kanvas telah mewujudkan sebuah wacana semiotik budaya visual yang boleh ditafsirkan oleh sesiapa sahaja.

Pada karya-karya di pameran solo keempatnya itu juga, Chee juga cuba bereksperimen pada permukaan kanvas. Bahawa setiap ruang yang dipaparkan adalah bersifat heterogen dan mempunyai nilai tidak sama.

Dalam erti kata lain, beliau meletakkan setiap ruang itu mempunyai makna yang tidak sama. Ruang sebelah kanan berbeza ertinya dengan ruang kiri. Begitu juga atas dan bawah atau depan dan belakang.

Ia seolah-olah mengingatkan kita pada teori relativiti oleh Albert Einstein bahawa ruang dan waktu itu pasangan kembar yang tidak dapat dipisahkan.

source: :


Monday July 9, 2007

Chee finds his calling in art

By VIVIENNE PAL
Photos courtesy of THE ART COMMUNE

Sombre: The colours in Royal Ease, like many of Chee’s pieces inspire an emotional reaction.

ASK E.H. Chee about a defining moment in his life and he would probably say at the turn of the 21st century.

“I decided to be true to myself, to be a fine artist,” he said, adding that it was not a spurious decision based on a whim rather, it was what he felt was right.

“I was supposed to go full swing into film production but something held me back – my desire to paint,” said the new-but-not-so-new-kid on the art block.

With only three solo exhibitions since 2004, Chee, 43, could well be dismissed as a rookie in the fine art scene but his 25 years of experience as a commercial artist in the film industry makes him an authority in his own right.

To pursue his dream, Chee did the unthinkable in 2000 – he sold his house to finance his Fine Art studies at the MSC College “for the second time”, rented a 1,212 sq m studio as well as buying materials such as canvases, paints, books and brushes, and also travelled – all in the pursuit of art.

Hypnotic: Gombak Gemilangis one of Chee’s series of paintings on the rooster. Note the vivacity radiated by the colours and brush strokes.

His approach was almost extravagant for someone who was trying to discover his own style in an industry permeated with artists with enough experience and fresh graduates from renowned art institutes in the country.

“I treated my canvases like they were pieces of A4 paper, ordering in rolls and splashing on the colour – experimenting all the way without being calculative on the cost of material,” he said.

Chee discovered his “groove” two years later in a fusion of technology and understanding of colour gained from years as a commercial artist, and a fresh perspective with an academic twist garnered from his theoretical stint at the MSC College.

With confidence gained from establishing his own style, Chee embarked on his first solo exhibition themed Birth of The Flow in 2004, with his second solo show simply titled Paintings & Drawings last year.

At a glance, Chee’s work displayed a certain maturity, his strokes exuberant and decisive with accidental effects – both natural and contrived – that gave that extra edge to what was a masterly interplay of colours, texture, and abstract shapes and figurative which engaged the viewer into contemplation.

His works seemed somewhat “familiar” colour-wise, however, the emotional intensity that he has somehow managed to impart through a circuitous route from his heart, to his eyes, hand and brush, is unique.

Chee does not stick to a tried-and- tested medium but allows himself a freedom of expression through oil (his favourite) mixed with charcoal, acrylic, pigment and polymer, all delivered through dips and splashes of the brush, smears and direct pouring of paint.

This latest exhibition documents his growth from 2002 until the present and Chee is clearly proud of the distance he has “travelled” so far.

Attention-grabbing: Chee takes the bull by its horns in this piece entitled Cow.

The true test, however, is whether he remains relevant in the coming years – a matter he has pondered deep and long, and perhaps has a solution to it.

“Much as my focus is on fine art. I won't quit commercial art. I have laboured long to arrive at where I am today, having taken into consideration the possibility that I may someday reach a plateau where impressing the art-appreciative public is concerned, which is why it took so long before I finally decided that this style of mine would have enough impact,” Chee said.

“My first show was a dipstick test to gauge public reception of my work and I am happy with the response so far. Ultimately, there is always a strategy, a back-up plan for everything and that is how I have thought things through. Besides creativity, artists must be able to manage their careers in every aspect,” he said.

E.H. Chee Paintings & Drawings can be viewed at Suria Stonor, 16, Persiaran Stonor, Kuala Lumpur from 11am to 5pm daily until July 30.

For more details, call 019-3368 928.

8 July 2007

pohon, jubah dan balung, sacred cow

Pohon2004 6'x4' mixed media on canvas

Pohon - Chee Eng Hong created many tree paintings and drawings that called it "pohon"This has became an extension of his "Sahut" painting.It came as though the process allowed the landscape to move, to developed and evolve not to the extent of dominating the who process, The progression is very subtle not intervene, just like accumulation of property as a whole or organically growth.It has now worked on a larger scale and begins to exploit the expressive power not only of the image itself but also rather metaphorically, it's defied by employing the conventional approach.

In his work for this image, notably in his favorites mixed media and oil on canvas's painting and drawing the medium he's most comfortable with, in which, allowed him to the greatest freedom to create and recreate. This is not merely painterly version of an ordinary tree; it has arrived at a new theme; a leafless, solidify, and lump, the tree characterized by a linear tangle of a gnarled, aged branches, textured bark and sturdy of trunk. The age and the shape of the trees begins to narrative, left evidence, either sad or angst, giving the picture a heavy desolation but does not eliminate the quietness and calmness. Yet, post potential amount of destruction.

One of the trees called "Pohon" which was painted in 2004, and"Flames 2005" exploits to different effect, with expressive potential of the tree's explosion and eruption forms, and exhibited in 2006 in his one man show in Alpha Utara Gallery in Penang.

Hot, fiery, and burning as oppose to common terminology given to describe tree were pressing out from the artist colors tube, like no alternative given, the selections and choice are limited. From this limitation it throws one to the vast atmosphere, non-restricted zone and as if, prepared for shortcoming.

It is also unmistakably for a repercussion of massive nuclear explosion.Akin to an atomic explosion's mushroom clouds, full forms that dominate the canvas's shallow field, pressing out from the ground, almost pull us into the space.

The dedication in the title "Pohon" or "Tree" is also indirectly tell his affection to the subject tree, although after years he began making the trees, he did not want to stop there.
He laments " after all, even the origin of "sejarah" (Malay language for history) derives from Arabs word "syajaratun" which means tree and which means ancestry. genealogy, legend, biography, descent, origin".

Many states, towns, and roads have name after trees, which is very common.

The interaction between the power of the image itself, tree, must be from his root that connected him to Taiping town where the landscape is graced with many trees and he regularly cycle past them.




Jubah 2005 mixed media on canvas 8'x68"

Jubah - (robe) was frantically rendered with wide, strong and urgent brush stroke. The translation of solid and fluid interchangeability is distinct. As if, there is a magic transformation when a person wore one,This gigantic, intimidating image is not for the faint-hearted, nevertheless this is not intended but had to it as impressive as if the distortion of the Omnipotent newly obtained were giving tall order, and we who allowed the entrusted with immense power to realize its purposes through them. Now they have the tendency to reinforce and ready to conquer with the anticipation of a serious battle, be it to defense or to attack or simply just to satisfy beyond the so-called human ego. When steps back, viewers can discern an exiting and a cognitive visual,it's resonate the tensions of society under the stamp of aristocracy.

"Jubah" becomes the perfect mould, to the formation of the "jasad"(physical body). This is most vividly expressed through abstraction combine figuration, is a technical virtuosity that recalls the artist interest in the physical and metaphorical properties.



Balung (comb)2007 mixed media on canvas 52"x38"

Balung (comb) - It begins when the colors in the palette turns red, glowing, heated and is red-hot energy...marked by much heat. so intense, it seems easily ignited.

It may seem to look like our friendly domestic fowl or the rooster in the 12-years cycle of animals which appear in the Chinese zodiac.

Yet, It's mysterious, fiery, fierce and may easily excites. Balung, very interesting to look at, its organic form easily attracts like a sexual allure, only when the "balung" is prominently displayed, it announces sheer arrogance, proud. vanity, egocentric, high and mighty authority strut! The comb may be the crest and the symbol of our today's pretentious behavior, beware as we have been forewarned and take caution, as we have been told "Gombak gemilang kutu banyak, bibir hitam gigi kotor" (An old Malay proverb for "glorious crest plenty of fleas. black lips dirty teeth"- one may have a decent and honourable outlook but is a vicious and heartless person.)

Sacred cow 2006 mixed media on canvas 52"x72"

Sacred cow - an icon for many, cow and bull have always been given that strong and powerful images and fixing the viewer with a rather provocative glare. It dominates the canvas...a true resilient survivor...The triumph over struggles...

Sacred cow, figuratively, anything that is beyond criticism, cannot be tempered with or criticized for fear of public outcry. Some authorities considered themselves exempt from criticism or even questioning for their unreasonably action. It has come to almost inaccessible. Cow is a symbolic display, which upon pedestal is above the law!

The message; as art is part of social dialogue, now come with a strong presence of impulsive emotional response.It does not merely settle as a beautiful and decorative piece but with the absence of social-political issues, deprivation shows, incompleteness revealed, like a unsettled issues of mad cow social-political issues...suppressed, oppressed!

E.H.Chee's on-line exhibition

E.H.Chee's soloshow - E.H.Chee:Paintings and Drawing are now exhibited on-line.

www.alpha-utara.com

budana2005

The Birth of BUDANA

Prologue

The birth of “Budana” does not only echoing the history of art in a very literal sense with the representation of a mother and child, besides, maternal bond and the sacred association, it allude to a whole spectrum of issues. He did it again and again, at an exhausting pace as though, abided by decree given or an admonition to all.

Echoing the history of art

After thousands of years this subject still is retaining the greatest power to many great artists from artists who first painted Madonna and child in the ancient Catacomb of Priscilla, Rome. Later, from such Greats as Filippo Lippi and some of the most famous Italian artist are Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo and Raphael, Giorgione, Giovanni Bellini and Titian, in the 16th century to YBAs, Damien Hirst, with a calf in formaldehyde solution, called mother and child, divided,

Chee has a great respect for old masters and his work reveal his reverence and high regard for his predecessors. He revisits old master imagery Madonna and child, not to copy but further to steal the beauty that belong to the mind.

Certainly, He has not forgotten the great artist Pablo Picasso quote;

“Bad artist copy. Good Artist steals.”

But when one practice to steal, one has already “copy” so to speak

Ironically, why heedlessness to the great?

He could not resist the temptation to draw Budana, as though, one has lost his love one, that left a deep wounded scar, reminded him again and again.

Related to his process of making

At the era of art scene is witnessing an explosion of contemporary outburst, and with the increasing use of unconventional materials by this generation’s of conceptual artist has prompted, He revert his exploration back to painting in the face of sophistication in contemporary art practice, to most fundamental approach, the works are simpler, reduced with charcoal drawings, with far more focused in expression, and established an ideal precedent for an artist now in a hurry, further, with restricted palette of grays and blacks only, allow less deal with the mechanics of the painting but not completely to ignore it; thus brings concentrations towards the subject matter intense.

‘Following the psychoanalytic investigation of art has been divided in two ways. Either it is regarded as fanciful, over-interpreting what is essentially simple, or it has been regarded as reductionist, applying cold hand of logic to the hot emotion of art’. (www.freud.org.uk/hirst.html.)

“BUDANA series” was born out of feuded and hostility within us. Ironically, the artist uses the harmonious image of mother and child as a metaphorically to speak of today hostility of life

E.H.Chee ‘s drawing of BUDANA, seems the child is allowed to be independence but at times have placed at the vulnerable and exposed position,

The mother carries and hold with loving and affectionate but also with very precautious, often look after and watch out for any unforeseen danger.

Looking at today’s we live in a world that is rife with war, poverty, violence, matrimony separations, discrepancy of religion, disaster and chaos in general.

In these merciless spaces, you can felt of mother’s senses of uncertainty and sadness of being entrapped into the unwelcome predicament.

He had also had begun to tackle the “BUDANA series” in forthright manner with the imagery of sacred association of mother and child, surpassing the beauty without omitting the most important art of feeling, emotional or spiritual depth. The artist progressively and unintentionally pursuit “ the beautiful in the mind”. This leads him to engaging to intellectual aspect and relies on emotion experience.

.

Separations related

The psychological and emotional impacts like fear, angers and longings are unbearable.

No one can imagine how one going through the agony and suffering of loosing her child in tragedy. The anxiety undoubtedly felt at the sudden disappearing of a child.

What’s the traumatic moment for the parents?

- Divorce

In Matrimony separations, once the decree nisi came through followed by absolut (final decree in divorce proceedings), It also determines the faith of a child;

Some lost the child in the course of custody; the ex remarried and decided to change the child’s surname and name because of religion or for some other reasons without consequences that the child identity was altered, originality lost, possibly could not rediscover the root and culture of the child forever. It is a betrayed to the child that he’s not given to access to his genetically, historical origins and links. Isn’t it fait accompli?

- Poverty

Don’t forget our Poverty crisis. The pressure faced by such hard-core poor is likely to only increase as price-hike continue to inflict the economy, even though the authorities is trying to eradicate poverty but its not quick and effective enough to stop some poverty stricken families to give away their children,

(from the nutmeg verses by: Himanshu Bhatt./The Sun)

- Repressive Law

Parents are deprives from practice their parenting responsibility through I.S.A detention interruption. I.S.A is a repressive law against the very core of basic human rights. A child is being deprived of their rights as a child to have a parent and to grow up in a safe environment and without harassment. This is a form of child neglect and all this children, whom the government are abusing systematically.

- Greed

Mothers unaware that they are feeding their own baby with poison milk, tainted with melamine, mixed by corporation for maximum profit making.

These cruel separations of Mother and child were result by sheer greediness.

Upset and angry to those who rob and tear down the happiness that the mother’s arduously took to built and enviously guarded, but now only left a fragment of memories to be cherished.

She cried to bid her son goodbye with tears in her heart “I have no tears for you. But rest assured, forget you I will not. You shall always remain in a special corner of my heart, till the day I die. Son, goodbye…” ( reference: conversations with CK/pg.116)

Enduring idea

While recalled a poem written by Usmang Awang in 1955 title “Bunga Popi

Manusia gila perang telah membunuh segala mesra”

The artist hand holding pieces of willow sticks pounding charcoal into powder on canvas to leave mark, create another BUDANA painting after another, it was like he have been struck by this surpassing beauty which will always play and replay in one mind from his stealing beauty of the sacred bondage of “mother and child”.

Even though, today most contemporary gallery are racing to look out for new intellectual with cutting edge pieces and definitely they would not welcome and apprehensive to this so-called cliché “mother and child” images and subject like this which have been considered a tired, mundane and no longer a challenging subject for discourse,

He did not want to ignored a new spirit summoned and went on to do it. And he wants the viewer to see the true strength of this works not from the aesthetic and technique alone but for enduring idea.

The enduring idea of “The beautiful in the mind”

Epilogue

By that highest reverent name, I address you “Bonda”. You know your gift is only to reproduce so as to prevent extinction, somehow the bondage between you and offspring blossom, this bondage then separate human from all primates, you have set the highest hallmark of all human expression…LOVE. The purest form of love emerges. Is this a gift or a curse? (reference:EngPow/

Recollection of

Bunga Popi ~ Usman Awang

Dari darah, dari nanah yang punah di tanah,
rangka manusia kehilangan nyawa disambar senjata,
hasil manusia gila perang membunuh mesra,
bunga merah berkembang indah minta disembah.

Yang hidup tinggal sisa nyawa, penuh derita,
kering, bongkok, cacat, tempang dan buta,
perang dalam kenangan penuh kengerian,
sekarang dalam kepahitan,
dalam kesepian.

Yang lain kehilangan anak, suami dan kekasih,
hilang pergantungan, hilang pencarian,
hidup kebuluran,
ribuan janda, ribuan kecewa, ribuan sengsara,
jutaan anak-anak yatim hidup meminta-minta.

Manusia gila perang telah membunuh segala mesra!
perang berlangsung mencari untung tanah jajahan!
perang berlangsung membunuh anak dalam buaian!
perang berlangsung menghantar lebur nilai kebudayaan!

Bunga popi bunga mayat perajurit bergelimpangan,
bunga darah merah menyimbah,
penuh kengerian.

Kami benci pada perang penuh pembunuhan!
kami rindu pada damai sepanjang zaman!

Usman Awang
1955

In English Translation:

Poppies

From blood, from pus that rots in the soil,
from skeletons that have lost their lives,
snatched by weapons,
the result of war maniacs who kill love,
the red flowers bloom beautifully,
requesting to be adored.

Those who live on are remnants of life,
full of sufferings,
wizened, bent, deformed, maimed and blind,
war in retrospect is full of horrors;
they remember now,
in bitterness,
in solitude.

Others lost children, husbands and sweethearts,
lost their sources of support, their livelihood,
they live in starvation,
thousands widowed,
thousands disappointed,
thousands tormented;
millions of orphans live on, and beg.

The war maniacs have killed all love!
war raged and found profit in colonial lands!
war raged and killed babies in their cradles!
war raged, and destroyed cultural values

Poppies are the flowers of fallen soldiers,
flowers drenched red with blood,
full of horrors.

We hate war,
full of killing!
we cry for a never-ending peace!

Usman Awang
1955

(Translated by Adibah Amin)

budana 2005

Chee Enghong's Biodata

Chee Enghong
Born 1963,Taiping,Perak,Malaysia

Art Education :
2000 - Fine Art in MSC International College
1999 - Drawing Workshop-National Art Gallery
1982 - Malaysia Institute of Art

Solo Exhibitions :
2008 - E.H.Chee : Works , Alpha Utara Gallery , Penang
2007 - E.H.Chee : Paintings & Drawings , The Art Commune , Kuala Lumpur
2006 - E.H.Chee : Paintings & Drawings , Alpha Utara Gallery, Penang
2004 - E.H.Chee : Birth of the flow , Artspace Gallery , Kuala Lumpur

Group Exhibtions :
2008 - The Art Commune @ Art Expo Malaysia
2007 - Deciphering the body , A2 Gallery , Penang
2007 - Art Without Frontiers , Asian Fine Arts , Bangkok
2007 - Tantalis , The Lookiss Gallery , Kuala Lumpur
2005 - Open show , National Art Gallery , Kuala Lumpur
2003 - 10th. Organization of Islamic Conference Summit , Putrajaya
2002 - The Teaching of Drawing by Dr.Jolly Koh - National Art Gallery, Kuala Lumpur
2001 - Open Show , National Art Gallery , Kuala Lumpur

Working Experience :
Art Director , Set designer and Storyboard Artist for Advertising and Film Production Company

e-mail : cheestudio@gmail.com