Victor Chin

The exhibition at the KLPac

Peter and Wuan with their presentations

Me with some of my photographs

Our group photograhpic exhibition is now on at the KLPac and thanks to KLPac the show  has been extended from 17 August to 13 September. With this extension, it will also co inside with Shakespeare’s play Hamlet ,which also explores the ideas of death, at the KLPac directed by Chris Ling.

We simply wanted to share our private photographs of our grief with a public and hope that this encounter might initiate important dialogue about life and death, and explore the relation between the two. We know this sort of private experiences of lost are seldom seen in the open, like what we are doing with our pictures, but we hope this show will open up often closed doors of our sorrows.

Peter Tan had his story in his blog.

The Sin Chew and the Star newspapers had also helped with the publicity of our exhibition.  Thanks to the editors and staff.

At the Bayon temple, the unknown Khmer artists and craftsmen were able to produced extremely detailed bas-relief carvings of Khmer political history on the gallery walls. This multi-level waring scenes show  events of their conquest and defeat of their enemies. Politics -conflicts of interest- at that time was mostly settled through violence, by going to war with each other.

The Bayon temple, is the heart of the temple complex, built by the ambitious builder, Buddhist King, Jayavarman VII, in 1181. This style of building, the Bayon Style, began to replace the previous dominant Hindu influences.  All the statues of any value had been plundered over time but this wall picture of Khmer history is well-preserved. I saw it for the first time a few weeks back when I visited Cambodia.

This picture of barbarism with solders killing and elephants trampling on opposing sides reminded me somewhat of what had happened in Kuala Lumpur  last Saturday 1 August. Malaysians made political history by marching  in the street with opposing views of the Internal Security Act, a long-standing law allowing detention without trial.

But one would imagine that after 900 years of waring history in this region, we would have learn t to settle our disagreements, alliances and balances of power without resorting to using the Malaysian riot police to fire tear gas and water cannons into its own citizens’ gathering.

When can we resolve our diferences among us without resort to violence and imtimidation, so that we can be stronger, freer and happier?

At wherever your soul may be there will be people who will remember you and your family and love ones. There will always be those who will remember your work (though cut short by you sudden unexplained death) and will continue where you have left off.

You will always be one of the many true sons (past, present & future) of Malaysia.

Some mornings, my breakfast is a simple bowl of home made peanut and dried oysters porridge, cooked over night in a slow cooker, with a sprinkling of chopped fresh spring onions and coriander. A small port of Chinese tea.

My son, Seenum, would have gone to school after his own breakfast. My wife, Numpueng, drives him to his near by kinder garden. She usually have her own choice of food in the morning which she’ll pick up on the way back home. We would eat together occasionally.

On days like this, there is a sense of happiness and serenity, otherwise, there is usually a feeling of anxiety. I am often filled with mortal concerns. How long can I continue to take care of my family and myself? How shall I live? What have I done with the life given to me? How can I have a clarity of mind?

How much do I know of the art of living?

Bo-Yuen painting in his studio.

APRIL 14 — There are quite a few festivals that fall in April. For the Chinese community, there’s the annual Ts’ing-ming when they visit the graves in honour of their ancestors.

For the Christians they observe Good Friday and Easter, the death and rebirth of their saviour Jesus Christ. And the Thais who live here celebrate Songkran, the annual water festival signalling their lunar New Year.

It is in this mixed mood of death and birth that I write about two nonagenarian Malaysian artists. The venerable Bo-Yeun, 96, passed away this week and Fung Yow Chork, 91, is critically ill in hospital (I shall write about him in another article).

In the early years, there were two well-known artists/monks in Penang. One was the late venerable Chuk Mor from the Triple Wisdom Temple and the other was Bo-Yeun from the Kek Lok Si  temple. After many years, Bo-Yuen left Penang in 1961 to set up the Hu-Bin Vihara in Petaling Jaya.

They were among the first batch of young monks who migrated from Fujian, China, to serve in the local temples. Their passing marks the end of that line of descendants from China.

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