GEORGE TOWN – What good can come out of something as bad as a global pandemic that brought the world to its knees? Visual artists, though severely affected by the lockdown, have emerged from the confines of their homes to pay tribute to – surprisingly – the pandemic that kept them boxed in.
Street artist, Khor Zew Wey, also known as bibichun, portrayed it plainly through three wooden figurines posing as nostalgic superheroes, instantly identifiable even with reduced details.
Others, like fine art practitioner Ho Su San, crafted two pieces that evoke the feeling of being thrust to a place where inspiration ceases to exist.
“The beginning of the lockdown was very difficult for me because I was stumped on ideas for my artwork when I was stuck at home.
“After a few months, gradually I started to feel okay. I adapted. I’ve practised controlling myself and generate ideas from within me.”
Multidisciplinary artist, Ivan Alexander Francis Gabriel put up his first ‘proper’ installation – a bed, the place where he comprehended the situation of being locked in.
“I remember very distinctively on March 18, waking up and questioning, ‘What in the world does it all mean?’ I did not know how to verbalise that feeling and thought.”
It was a difficult time for Ivan as he encountered many deaths of his friends, and he felt like his whole world just paused, just like a bed that is left behind after one wakes up to go about life.
“I started looking at my actual bed.
“I suddenly started gravitating towards the idea of unmade beds. How that evokes a sense of loss and grief within its space. Because my bedroom became the place I grieved the most.
“Every day when I wake up, it's almost as if I put myself into the shoes of the people who lost their life to Covid-19. What was their bed like? Did they have enough pillows? Did they have enough comfort? Somewhere between waking up and going back to bed – they may never come back.”
The PAUSE Visual Arts Exhibition is organised by curators Sharmin Parameswaran – independent curator – for Kuala Lumpur’s chapter and Kenny Ng, for Penang's chapter.
Here, ten Penang based artists; bibichun, Esther Geh, Fahmi Mustafa, Forrest Wong, Ho Su San, Ivan Gabriel, Kangblabla, Teh Yew Keong, Teoh Kooi Pei and Yap Ley Min, detail their version of the movement control order (MCO).
Despite the isolation and uncertainty, the community found new conversations and a new-found collective synergy of a shared experience that the whole community was going through.
Funded under the Cendana Visual Arts Showcase Funding Program, this exhibition was birthed midway through 2020, during the first MCO.
Ng told The Vibes that a series of video interviews with artists was published on the Art Kepoh Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/artkepoh.
“There we have artist explain even further how they have dealt during the ‘PAUSE’ period and some explaining how they have come to produce these pieces,” he said.
The exhibition is currently running at the Hin Bus Depot until May 2. – The Vibes, April 26, 2021.
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