Tags & TreatsWorks by Vincent Leow |
| By David Chew | |||||
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Vincent Leow occupies a significant place in the development of contemporary art in Singapore. His prolific and alternative art practice has always been rooted in debates over the contemporary Singapore identity. Alongside fellow contemporary artists such as Cheo Chai Hiang, Tang Da Wu and Amanda Heng, Leow is part of the group of artists in the 70s and 80s who began to ponder the role of audience reactions and responses in relation to their works, becoming interested in some form of dialogue with their audience. Leow and his peers started to focus on the idea and concept behind an artwork, on the speculation behind a work rather than on the execution of the work and the rendering of actual appearances. Born in 1961, amidst the throes and tumultuous times of Singapore’s pre & post-independence era, Leow’s formative years coincided with Singapore’s very own, a dramatic period where in a mere two decades rapid modernisation as well as nationalism were taking place, against a backdrop of transnational economics and global commodity diversification. Numerous scholars and writers have observed the pluralisation of the cultural climate during the 1980s, which were brought about by the forces of modernisation. It created disruptive conditions that ironically facilitated the emergence of new art movements and artistic possibilities, spurring younger artists like Leow to engage in critical self-questioning and new forms of expression. In 1988, this creative energy focused and culminated in the establishment of The Artists Village (TAV) rather symbolically, in one of the few rural areas left in increasingly urbanised Singapore. It was sited in Lorong Gambas (Ulu Sembawang), and functioned as an open studio for experimentation and discussion. At its peak, it had some 35 artists living and working on the site, and another 50 others participating in exhibitions held there. Commenting on this period, Leow noted that in this atmosphere, where one was introduced and exposed to so many different types of art forms and expressions, the experience was almost like rediscovering art all over again – rebelling against the idea that art was not just about creating a finished object like a sculpture or painting, but that it was about the expression of ideas and about the process of creation. Finding traditional carving and sculpturing limiting in its slowness in being able to express his ideas, Leow’s experience at TAV made him realise that performance art and painting were more immediate and spontaneous. His artistic output during the two years the collective was based in Lorong Gambas, reflect this spontaneity. Works such as Lucky Strike, Yellow Circle, Cut Throat and Two Men (all done in 1989) express this gestural and spontaneous quality. Together with the strong colours, unruly brushstrokes as well as the violent nature of the paintings, Leow’s works from this period are highly-charged with strong emotion and anger, challenging the relatively safe temperament of the field of painting in Singapore thus far. Collectively, they also contain “a rogue element in painting”, strongly going against the dominant modes and styles of painting in Singapore at that time, which were lyrical and formalistic abstraction or realist/naturalistic genres. Leow continued to explore this spontaneity in his work through few but iconic performances that explored the idea of the commodification of art such as The Three-Legged Toad: Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous (1992) and Coffee Talk (1993). Leow left Singapore at 28 to spend some three years at the Maryland Institute, College of Art in Baltimore pursuing his MFA. His US studies would offer a more systematic exposure to modern and contemporary Euro-American art that would further his personal artistic development. Works that came out of this period had singular subjects, reminiscent of the still-life tradition, but with Leow exploring the material and texture of paints and the canvas, questioning the very definition of painting itself. Yellow Field (1990) has both the scale and rich textural surface of classical landscape paintings that are of this monumental scale, but Leow’s version of this explores stretching an everyday object, a t-shirt, into a landscape painting of a runway. Others such as Milk (1989), Shield The Lamp (1990), all containing a still-life of a singular object, allowed Leow to explore within the painting medium and its technicalities. One of these works, Buoy (1990), characteristically fulfils Leow’s wish that his artworks take on a life of their own after he is done with them, and has an added dimension to its intent of exploring texture and the painting surface. Wasps had decided to build their nest right on the canvas, right above the centre of the buoy itself, adding a third dimension to the artwork’s surface. Leow’s exposure to mass media and pop culture in the US inspired works that included such elements. A series of works that continued to explore the surface of the image had him layering of polka dots over the canvas, something Leow would intermittently use even in his later paintings (Dumbo, 1991, as well as Red & White, 2000). Leow commented that his intention was to convey an idea of viewing the world through the pixels of a television screen. Leow also began to explore the satirical use of whimsical symbols and icons, using images of animals such as rabbits, elephants, giraffes and fish (Silverfish, 1990), as his voice to make social statements. In many of these works, such as Pablo (1998) and Aladdin & Genie (1994), as well as later works such as Hawk (2007), Leow would base these characters on his real life pets. Pablo and the later Andy series were his pet dogs, while Aladdin and Genie were his pet rabbits, and Hawk a pet rooster. Silverfish (1990) underscored both the commodification and capitalist culture of mass culture and its production, while Dumbo and Aladdin & Genie were commentaries on politics - both the rabbits and the elephant were used by Leow to represent political parties. This refined and developed social commentary and voice is a distinct contrast to his earlier raw, gestural paintings. Leow continued the idea with his famous Mountian Cow Factory series (1998) which had a Warholian quality, with vibrant bright colours, and of reproducing multiples with just the different background colour. The series of multiple cow prints were paired with life-sized sculptures of cows that were then placed in public places. The use of animals in Leow’s art can be seen in his Andy series, featuring a half-man half-dog creature which has featured prominently in his work until today. The notion of the hybrid or mongrel, half man-half animal, was an idea that Leow had explored concurrently even in his TAV days. Used like an alter ego, Leow’s development of Andy gradually became full blown as a natural evolvement of the use of animals as symbols in his work. Inspired by a postcard of Andy Warhol from which Leow named his pet dog in Warhol’s honour, the Andy series of narratives evolved the satirical voice into a burlesque style that placed ‘Andy’ in different situations and bodies. These paintings were colourful, bright, almost fairytale-like, evoking the sense of a creation of a mythical and magical setting. For instance, the very vibrant Andy’s Addiction (1996) shows Andy against a candy-red background that looks almost good to eat, or the mischievous Bombs Away (1996) that has Andy naughtily defecating bombs on an otherwise sunny day. These creatures have been written about previously as hybrids: i.e. part human, part animal. This concept of the hybrid was a way for Leow to define his identity as an Asian artist both with Western art training, as well as living in a country with both East-West ideologies mixing together. Andy would reappear with characteristic anarchy in Leow's paintings throughout his career, grinning within the sacred, sanctified compositions of classical and iconic masterpieces in art history (Renaissance Andy series), with Leow intentionally 'cross-breeding' high and low art sources, then popping out into real life in the form of life-sized sculptures that would feature most significantly in 2007, in the Singapore Season exhibition Andy’s Pranks & Swimming Lessons, and the Singapore Pavilion at the 52nd Venice Biennale in 2009. Andy’s Prank(s), Hawk, and Andy’s Wonderland (all 2006) are (literally) polished life-like representations of Andy, harking to the collectible culture of comics and cartoons that are immortalised, in real life, through their representation as figurines and toys. Sadly, Andy, the actual dog on which the series of works were based on, passed away at the age of 14, and the series has taken on a poignant and commemorative significance. Death, says Leow, is the only way to start afresh. His latest works echo his sentiments vehemently, but also silently. Having spent over a year teaching in an art university in the Middle East, Leow’s latest works created from his time spent there explore the notions of identity and legacy, and of commemoration and tribute, but with a somewhat more sombre tone in relation to mortality and death, in part inspired by Andy’s passing away. Conversations with a Femur Bone (2010) is an installation based on life-sized human femur bones that have a phrase inspired by the genre of memento mori etched on them, a sombre reminder of what is left after death – only bare bones on a clinical metal hospital trolley. The bones suggest the baggage and weight of memories that death leaves behind for the living – heavy and unwieldy. Accompanied by blacked-out portraits (Portrait and Hand, Hawk Portrait & Salam, all 2009), Leow’s new works seemingly retreat from the creation of another identity (re: the Andy series), to the erasing of it. All that is left, are traces of the person through their hands. Contrasting against colourful backgrounds, these portraits hark back to the classical painting tradition of portraits (the portraits and the way their subjects pose do bear a faint resemblance to a blacked-out figure of Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa), but also are inspired by the memento mori genre of classical paintings that serve as a reminder of the futility of earthly vanities. His other two installations Feet Remembered (2010) and Heads Remembered (2010) reinforce the theme of futility of earthy vanities – by commemorating the everyday person with as much stature and pomp as state heroes. Using plinths that would otherwise raise historical national heroes, clay feet casts of trishaw drivers are celebrated and placed on top of these plinths in commemoration of their hard lives – after all, asks Leow, why shouldn’t their lives and everyday spent on earth be as great? Used to normally create a representative likeness of an individual and to celebrate his or her life, Leow plays on that with Heads Remembered (2010), creating ceramic busts that do quite the opposite - lacking specific facial details but still nevertheless placed in an artificial cemetery state-park setting. Certainly these more metaphorical and abstract works denote a departure point for Leow, but still echoing the intent of the Andy series, which through various series of works, celebrated the life of Leow’s common mongrel dog, Andy, which Leow and his wife saved from the streets. Bibliography Cheo, Chai-Hiang, 2000, The Thirty-Siz Strategies, Casula Powerhouse Arts Centre, NSW Australia Kwok, Kian Chow, 1996, Channels & Confluences: A History of Singapore Art, Singapore Art Museum, Singapore Kwok, Kian Woon, 2009, The Artists Village 20 Years On: Locating & Positioning The Artists Village in Singapore and Beyond, Singapore Art Museum; The Artists Village, Singapore Lim, William, 2008, Asian Alterity, Mainland Press, Singapore Leow, Vincent. Personal interview with Artist, Dec 2009. Nadarajan, Gunanlan, 2007, Contemporary Art in Singapore: Vincent Leow, Institute of Contemporary Arts Singapore, Singapore Poh, Lindy, 2007, Andy’s Pranks & Swimming Lessons, Soobin Art Int’l, Xin Beijing Gallery, Singapore, Beijing Sabapathy, T.K., 1991, Many In One: 25 Years of Art From Singapore, National Museum of Singapore, Singapore Sabapathy, T.K., 1991, Sculpture in Singapore, National Museum of Singapore, Singapore Sabapathy, T.K. & Briggs, C., 1991, Cheo Chai-Hiang: Thoughts And Processes (Rethinking The Singapore River), Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts & Singapore Art Museum, Singapore Storer, Russell, 2007, Contemporary Art in Singapore: Making Space: Historical Contexts of Contemporary Art in Singapore, Institute of Contemporary Arts Singapore, Singapore Wee, C.J.W.-L., 2001, Four Eyes, Cloudy Skies: Vincent Leow. The Ongoing Process of ‘Making’ Art. Singapore: Atelier Frank & Lee, Singapore
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