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2009/01/01

Chee goes with the flow

By : TUNG ENG SWEE

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Chee with his Jubah (mixed media on canvas, 172cm x 244cm).

It may have been a long time coming but there is no holding back artist Chee Eng Hong now. TUNG ENG SWEE writes.

ARTIST Chee Eng Hong, 45, says what he paints are not his messages to the viewer but his narration of what he perceives of the goings-on around us.

Whether they are wildly organised splashes of colours in mixed media of oil and acrylic or masses of black charcoal lines in what he calls “intuitive” drawings, Chee leaves it up to his viewer to interpret his work.

“I always liked drawing and my brothers and sisters could draw,” said Chee, who was born in Pokok Assam, Perak, the sixth child of four girls and five boys. Although art runs in his family — his father and uncles were sculptors of Chinese figurines for temples — he considered himself a late starter.

“Although I used to help my father during my school holidays, I did not get to know art formally until I was in Form Two. My Bahasa Malaysia teacher asked me if I wanted to visit an art exhibition and I said ‘yes’. It turned out to be a small art exhibition held in a corner of a craft show.”
The seed of his aspiration was yet to be planted but the creative flow had begun.

After finishing his studies in 1982, Chee took up a diploma in commercial art at the Malaysian Institute of Art.

However, fate derailed his plans when his father was diagnosed with liver cancer. Financial constraints forced him to quit and join the workforce as a commercial artist, working for several firms as set designer, artist and art director.

“I never considered a career in fine art because working to survive was my only priority and the fact that I enjoyed what I did was sufficient, or so I thought.

“I did not have time to examine my life’s path but just followed the flow of existence, fulfilling everyone’s needs first.” However, a tour of Europe exposed him to the arts and in the aftermath of the Asian financial crisis, Chee finally found time to evaluate his priorities.

In 1999, a drawing workshop under Dr Jolly Koh at the National Art Gallery proved to be the turning point in Chee’s artistic expression — it led him to pursue a course in fine art at a local college as an adult student.

After a discussion with his wife, Chee made what was probably the most difficult decision in his life — he sold their house and used the money to finance his dream.

However, his self-imposed “do-or-die” mission did not yield the results he was satisfied with until a trekking trip to Gunung Tahan opened the doors to the creative flow building up within.

The trip inspired Chee’s first solo exhibition, aptly titled “Birth of the Flow”, which was held in Kuala Lumpur in 2004.

A collection of his works, comprising medium-sized debut pieces, was exhibited, among which was his Sahut series.

“Sahut means to reply or accept a call or challenge in Bahasa Malaysia. Here it represents my reply to the artistic calling which took such a long time to materialise,” Chee said.

Splashes of white jump from mysterious dark backgrounds to take centre stage on the canvas. What they represent is up to the viewer to interpret. Are they the familiar sparks of new ideas that come to our rescue in times of trouble?

Or are they doors that periodically open to free us from the shackles of our mind?

Could they simply be subliminal impressions, of paths and waterfalls, that the artist came across during his mountain climbing trip? The series marked the start of the artist’s monologue with his viewers.

The success led Chee north to Penang for his second solo, simply themed “Drawings and Paintings” which showcased his works from the late 1990s.

Bold strokes evident in his debut solo were replaced by extra large sketches done in charcoal and acrylic as Chee explored mother-child relationships through suggestive figurations.

The Penang show was a feather Chee’s cap, with many pieces snapped up even before the exhibition opened. Petronas was among his first early corporate collectors. The artist had finally tapped the creative flow, directing it to a new level and several solos.

Chee stamped his mark at The Art Commune last year, where he explored the subject of relationships even further. A piece he did in 2005 titled Lovers (mixed media), which featured two lovers kissing, culminated in two-panel work Prologue.

At the recent International Art Expo, Chee gave a preview of his larger works to come. Done in charcoal on canvas, the artist invites his viewers to discover the nuances that make up the muka (face), unveiled in two charcoal on canvas pieces, Partnership and Silent Partner.

“These two are part of a bigger volume of work in progress with the face taking centre stage. The series is about what I perceive as the coexistence between the real and the fictitious. It is my interpretation of faces and the real personalities behind them.

“This show will incorporate many muka — of public figures and the common man, the good and the bad — and will be my interpretation of the social happenings of this period.”

Targeted for this year, Chee’s show will be themed “Birth of the Komuniti”. Some of the works, he said, will be reflections of his dreams, aspirations and hopes as a Malaysian living in these tumultuous times.

Some of Chee’s works are on display at The Art Commune, Galeri MPSJ, Gate 3, Levels 2 & 3, Jalan SS13/3, Subang Jaya, Petaling Jaya. The artist can be reached at cheestudio@gmail.com.