Victor Chin

This is my new photographic exhibition starting this week at KLPac. It is an on going project documenting the ways of life of this small community. This exhibition hopes to lend a voice, a visual profile, to them which is often absent in the mainstream of our concerns and interests.

Victor Chin, Pulau Perhentian No 38, 2004, Acrylic on canvas, 81x67cm

Victor Chin, Pulau Perhentian, No8, 2003, Acrylic on canvas, 81x67cm

Letter to the Editor, StarMag.

In Andrew Sia’s splendid review, ‘Whither Malaysian art?’, StarMag, Sunday 23 November, 2008, presented us with a wide selection of opinions about the state of art and the art market. However there is the under side of the story which might add to your readers understanding on this issue.

What we would like to know as in the case of artist Jailani’s painting ‘Tribute to Latiff Mohiddin’, (which sold for about RM200,000) is, who put up his painting for sale at the Christie’s auction? What if this sale was an inside job by a profiteering cartel, where one party puts it up for auction and members of that group buy it up, just to push up the price and hence the profit margin, if they happen to have a monopoly of the artist’s works?

It is also vital to know which gallery and the people involved in dealing with the works of Jailani, Yee I-Lann, Nadiah Bamadhaj, Zakii Anwar and Cheng Fee Ming? Why it is that it is always the same few artists’ works from the same few merchants that are popping up at these sales? Why is the other artists’ works, just as good as any, not in the picture when it comes to promoting Malaysian art here and elsewhere?

The auction houses will not reveal the details of the sellers and buyers, but they will profit from both the sellers and the buyers, and this is the standard business practice everywhere. The secrecy and nontransparent methods such as it is, is in part, what that has lead to the present world wide financial crush, we are experiencing now.

What sort of artists will emerge from this present system dominated by finance, unfettered by any government or professional regulations?

How will the creative minds operate in an increasingly close market in the hands of a few self appointed profit minded ‘gate keepers’ of Malaysian art?

What if there are moves to improve the art production and the market place, with less self interest but more transparency, and with fair incentives to all parties involved with the aim of serving not just Malaysian art but all Malaysians?

Ayutthaya 11, Victor Chin, 2008

Lee HL talking to a group at Kimi Gallery Cafe

Lucien de Guise’s review of the exhibition

The exhibition Form & Emptiness by Eric Peris and I will continue at Kimi Gallery Cafe, 80 Jln. Burhanuddin Helmi, Taman Tun Dr Ismail, tel 77225585, till middle of September. After that we have been invited to to give a talk about our photographs at the Kuala Lumpur Photography Festival 2008 in October, at Times Square. Later, the pictures will be shown at a Buddhist temple in Brickflelds in November.

Last Saturday, 23, we had a small gathering at Kimi to talk about some technical matters regarding printing digital black and white prints. Mr Lee HL from Applied Imaging gave a vary detailed and interesting talk about his company’s commitment to provide the most up to date and professional services available to photographers by his establishment. Thanks to Lee.

The photographs have been on show for a month now and we had a few write-ups in the local press and we like to share the one writen by Lucien de Guise from the New Sunday Times. His piece appeared on the Sunday 10 August. Eric and I thought that Lucien wrote knowledgeably about our photos and give us a view of his well-informed opinion. Thanks to Lucien.

Photographs has many uses, as we all know, and that is why it is growing in popularity world wide. Of course there is also talk that photographs are not trust worthy documents as sometime it may be made to suit a particular propaganda for its own purposes. Furthermore with digital capabilities today it can cut and past and manipulate images without limits.

But in our views photographs can show us how we have been in the past and perhaps inform us how best to we can use the insights from our history to live for the present.

Eric Peris and Victor Chin at their exhibition at KLPac

Some of the friends who come for the discussion on the Sunday 3 August

After a two weeks exhibition at the KLPac, Eric and I decided to keep the show going by moving it to another part of Kuala Lumpur.

Today the exhibition moved to Kimi Gallery Cafe, 80 Jln. Burhanuddin Helmi, Taman Tun Dr. Ismail, and it will be till 31 August (tel: 7722 5585).

In the past two weeks there had been a few visitors to the display at KLPac and we had an interesting discussion about photography and its many complex issues, on the Sunday 3 August afternoon.

There will be another talk on the Saturday 23 August, 2.30pm, Mr Lee H L of Applied Imaging (one of our supporters) will give a talk ‘Black & White photographic printing today’. Applied Imaging is one of the few professional photographic labs in the city and Lee, we think, is one of the best to speak on that subject. This is open and free to anyone interested in the subject.

We hope that this move will give many more people an opportunity to catch up with this unusual display of photos of a common and also a demanding subject – Buddhism and photography today.

Sukhothai 1, Eric Peris, 1990, Digital print on photographic paper. 50x40cm.

Ayutthaya 1, Victor chin, 2006, Digital print on photographic paper, 40x50cm.

Photographic exhibition by Eric Peris and Victor Chin

28 July to 10 August, 2008, at Kuala Lumpur Performing Arts Center (KLPac).

Sunday 3 August, 3pm. Open discussion, with photographers at KLPac,

Please click here to read more.

Eric’s photographs, taken on several trips in the 1990s, take you on a visual trip into the ruined compounds and remains of Thailand’s first major capital, Sukhothai. His pictures captured what is left in decay of the ‘old city’ and gives a glimpse of the many impressive monuments and religious structures in its ‘golden age’ built in the 13 & 14 century. What his photos suggest is perhaps the Buddhist idea of ‘impermanence’ of all forms and things in life.

Victor’s images, taken between 2006 & 8, present fragments and close-ups of the desecrated Buddhist statues found in Ayutthaya’s ancient sites. It was the second capital of Thailand, flourishing from 14 to 18 century and because of its wealth and success, it was constantly attacked by its neighbours. 400 years ago, the invading Burmese soldiers and subsequent looters left the city in ‘emptiness’.

These 25 pictures are not just about personal memories of places visited and preserved as photographs. The art in these photographs are obvious in their compositions, lines, shapes and tonal values. Many may find these images intriguing and with unusual points of view. Hopefully these visuals can now continue to stimulate other photographer’s interest to tell their stories of other places and faces about the human condition – the destructive and survival instinct in ourselves and our fellow beings.

Contact: Eric Peris, email:ericperis@gmail.com , Victor Chin, email: vicchin@gmail.com