VINCENT LEONG: Hari Ini Dalam Sejarah
17 October – 23 November 2014
Silverlens, Singapore
In collaboration with RogueArt
For his second solo exhibition in Singapore, the artist presents a new body of works encompassing painting, printed objects, digital media and performance.
Hari Ini Dalam Sejarah (This Day in History) addresses some of the contradictions and difficulties inherent in framing a national consciousness, and the ways in which it is represented – a familiar theme both in the artist’s personal experience, and for communities either side of the Causeway.
Vincent Leong’s practice engages with structures and systems of representation to get audiences to think about where and how we locate meaning. His works can be seen as subtle and often darkly humorous acts of sabotage, challenging our experience of popular, iconic or everyday material.
The works in the exhibition refer to familiar forms of expressing national identity and agenda – landscape paintings, school murals, a national monument, the newspaper, and a patriotic song – but fail to articulate any clear messages. How do we read a stack of broadsheets that bear no text? What does it feel like to look at a national monument from behind? Would young Malaysians and Singaporeans today recognize, or sing along to, the words of “Divided Land” as performed by rock-n-roll band The Pinholes?
The exhibition title is borrowed from an educational television and radio programme, Hari Ini Dalam Sejarah, aired on a daily basis on Malaysian national television and radio since 1980, which creates a bridge between the trials and achievements of a nation’s past to a present day. The exhibition itself as a whole poses questions about nationalism and patriotism, news and propaganda, history and progress. It asks, how will we see this day in history, tomorrow?
Artist’s Profile
Vincent Leong (b. 1979, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia) graduated from Goldsmith’s College, London in 2004. His solo shows include, The Fake Show, Reka Art Space, Kuala Lumpur, 2006; The Exhibition That Was, Valentine Willie Fine Art (Project Room), Kuala Lumpur and Tropical Paradise, Sculpture Square, Singapore 2007, and You Are Here, Valentine Willie Fine Art, 2012.
He has participated in group shows such as Selamat Datang ke Malaysia, Gallery 4A, Sydney; The Independence Project, Galeri Petronas, Kuala Lumpur and Gertrude Contemporary Art Space, Melbourne; CAIS: Contemporary Art in School, Kuala Lumpur; Jakarta Biennale, 2009; and The Future of Exhibitions, ICA Lasalle, Singapore, 2010. He participated in the Asian Cultural Content Creation Centre workshop in Gwanju, Korea in 2006, and was artist-in-residence at Sculpture Square, Singapore in 2007, and a resident artist of the Koganecho Baazar in Yokohama in 2009. In 2013, his work was selected as part of the Guggenheim UBS MAP Global Art Initiative, and travelled with the exhibition No Country: Contemporary Art for South and Southeast Asia, held at the Guggenheim New York, Asia Society Hong Kong and Institute of Contemporary Art, Singapore.
The artist lives and works in Kuala Lumpur.
See also our blog posting, and Art Deliberated review.
Read the e-catalogue, and more on the works shown on Vincent Leong’s blog.