Victor Chin

“Land Below The Wind”, Cheong Sung Kin’s title for his exhibition of ceramic sculptures and teapots, is taken from the title of a book written in 1939 by the American author Agnes Newton Keith. Cheong is from Sandakan and the book was written in the same town in Sabah (then known as North Borneo). Subsequently that title has been accepted as the unofficial descriptor for Sabah.

Keith wrote mainly about her domestic life as a colonial official’s wife and a little of her infrequent treks into the jungle. Cheong’s sculptures are of the landscapes and its inhabitants; from his own observations and the family’s backyard. He grew up surrounded by natural environments and indigenous cultures and peoples.

“Land Below The Wind” was written in a genial style and is still very readable today. But Cheong’s new collection of forest and mountain settings have been through a baptism of fire and come out the other side as exquisite and unique objects of art. Besides, there are not many artists like him today who use wood fire to fire their clayware.

“Land Below The Wind No. 1″ is an imaginative and powerful use of clay to describe living in the middle of the rainforest and having to climb up and down the steps and negotiating the terrain daily. These are majestic trees with their crowns touching the clouds and the branches look like they are holding up the sky. This is not just art but the art of living with the forest.

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NOV 1 — This is the last week to catch Eric Peris’s 30th solo photographic exhibition at the Sutra Gallery, which ends on Nov 5. Eric’s first two solo exhibitions were in 1982 at the Rupa Gallery (now closed), in Kuala Lumpur. Since then he has had 28 shows of his own.

In this one, Eric pulled out one example from each of his last 30 shows. What you get is a kind of retrospective view of one of Malaysia’s master photographer’s lifework. He deserves better national acknowledgement for his contributions as an artist, photographer, photojournalist and teacher. (It may yet come we hope.)

Eric, at 70, is a prodigious artist at work and his photographs have encompassed a wide variety of subjects. Many of his shots have been influenced by some of the most famous photographers of the last century.

His visual takes of the world around him have also in turn helped many Malaysian photographers see. Of course, he is most partial to those photographers whose works are in black and white, as most of his works are such.

Bob Teoh, Eric & Lee HL at the opening

In the early 80s, Eric showed photos of views in and out of windows. His first set was from Thai windows and its architecture and landscapes. Later, he added his views of Malaysian landscapes from train windows.

On show are some vintage images of his unique way of seeing and capturing his surroundings. Not the usual postcard aesthetics of beautiful landscapes at sunset but the more unusual and unknown views that are just as photographic. This is just Eric’s art of seeing.

Eric was also one of the few photographers who trained his lenses on tin mine landscapes near his former house in the Puchong tin mining area (now Bandar Kinrara). To many, this disused tin mining area was just a desolate and ugly gaping hole.

He turned those sand dunes, mounts and valleys into a record of our land forms, our history of the tin industry; in some ways like what the American photographer Ansel Adams did in the 40s and 50s with his country’s landscape.

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This is a short video of our recent exhibition EXITS

Heah Hock Heng passed away on 20 October, 10 days short of his 64 birthday. I first met Heah, in the 80′s, when I just joined the Malaysian Nature Society (MNS). He needed volunteers to help do a painting job at the MNS field centre in Cameron Highlands.

Apart from working as a painter I also ended up cutting chillies and onions etc. in the kitchen. Heah was both the project manager as well as the chef at that time. He was already renown then for his work in the field .

My painting was not up to standard and neither was my cutting skills. But that was the beginning of my long friendship with Heah and later with his wife Cheong Ann and some friends from the MNS days.

Heah (standing in the far right) making sure that the lunch for the party was in order, 2007, at KLPac.

Two years ago, I asked Heah and his friends to help cook a lunch for 100 persons. This was a party for a mixed disability group of friends at the KLPac. It was to celebrate the exhibition of photographs of the disabled athletes, which I had done.

Heah was one person who was always willing to help, when he can, no matter what it may be. He also had a distinguished career as a project manager for forest and environment related projects in Malaysia.

Heah with all his friends helping out at the KLPac lunch for the disabled friends, 2007.

But most of all, Heah will be remembered as a chef, for feeding thousands of MUS members ’5 start hotel food’ deep in the Malaysian mountains.

Heah’s funeral will be on Saturday 24 October, 2pm, Trinity Methodist Church, Petaling Jaya.

Visitors coming to a show at KLPac, not everyone was there for our photos.

We took down ‘EXITS’ our one month long exhibition at KLPac, 13 Sept, Sunday night. It was four weeks of being in attendance at the display at weekends. We met and talked to many visitors and friends. Not everyone who walked pass our show was into seeing or contemplating a difficult subject – life and death.

What was most rewarding was to have a partner Peter Tan and his wife Wuan to join in with me to commemorate our mothers exits. Peter and Wuan didn’t quite know what they were into at first, putting up an exhibition of photographs of grief, but they both warmed up and finally we all enjoyed the experience.

Our mothers, where ever they might be, would have been proud of us (or may be not) we’ll never know. But on our part, arranging and selecting the pictures of our mothers, and sharing it to a larger public was like opening the doors of our intimate self to others. Photography was the path. Love was the key.

How these pictures were received or read was also a vary individual matter too. Many wrote in our visitors book that they were moved and shared our openness and regard of our mothers.

Thanks to Numpueng, Seenum for their support (being dragged there by me)