Art in Malaysia has hit a ceiling of sorts where its audience is concerned. At present, the market that consumes art — buyers, collectors and fans — is restricted to a very small demographic and it is the same group of people who are keeping the market alive. Artists and galleries are trying very hard to expand this demographic but the task that lies before them is daunting — creating new audiences for art is in itself hard, cultivating one that is willing to pay top dollar for it is even more difficult.
There are many theories why we have this problem, but the consensus is because of the way art is taught — a generous and appreciative audience for art comes from a generation of people who are taught to do so. Art lessons imparted in primary and secondary schools, especially in recent years, are dedicated to making children pass exams and not to cultivate creativity or encourage its consumption.
Older generations of Malaysians remember art being taught differently. Art was a serious subject; those who did well were allowed to exhibit their works and those who didn’t were constantly coached and given assistance. Teachers themselves were also of a different calibre; they were often talented artists themselves. They taught children secrets to art that escape many of us today.
A chance meeting with pioneering Malaysian artist and sculptor Yeoh Jin Leng offered an insight into what art education used to be and what the subject means to a child, teenager and adult, and more importantly, how differently art is absorbed at the various stages of our lives.
Jin Leng’s pioneer status is not only as an artist, but as an educator as well. After receiving his teaching qualifications from the Malayan Teachers College in Kirkby, Liverpool, he went on to become the first Malaysian Federal Scholar for Art at London’s prestigious Chelsea School of Art. The tall and slender Jin Leng, who sports a very artist-like scruffy ponytail and a kind yet cheeky grin, lectured for 20 years at the Specialist Teachers’ Training Institute (STTI) where he was head of the art education department and created the syllabus for teaching art. 
He asks The Edge photographer Kenny Yap and I if we draw and we admit that we don’t. “Did you know that you actually had it in you? I don’t know about now, but it was there once,” he says. With a drawing capability limited to misshapen stick people, I find that hard to believe. But Jin Leng has another explanation.
“Young children’s development in terms of artistic activities differs greatly from children who have achieved puberty and adolescence. How they make art is different… two or three-year-olds begin with scratches; it is very schematic work. Lines become circles, which they then connect to the sun, for example. They later move on to a second stage, natural pictorial representation in their work. The idea is to capture them at this time and teach them how to keep drawing, to not feel scared or shy.
“When they come to puberty, they begin to be concerned with real experiences. As a child, art is a cognitive experience — they see and they draw. Teenagers realise that what they are doing is not real, so a whole lot of Form 2 students are completely confused about art — they can’t produce the reality that they want! When they are frustrated and find no understanding of what they are going through, they turn their back on it and art loses them. They end up avoiding art, choosing logical subjects that provide them with definitive answers. Two plus two is four, not 22 — no grey areas,” he explains.
Adults process art quite differently and tap a different internal source when it comes to producing creative work of any kind. However, Jin Leng’s point is well made — if this creative tap isn’t switched on early, it’s not going to gush with ideas later on.
“There is a lack of understanding of the development and philosophy of the way children grow and change. After adolescence, what concerns children are their own realities — their childhood experiences are left behind. So, if art is not a cherished part of that past, it will be ignored and cast away.”
The teaching course Jin Leng once designed addressed this with a comprehensive approach to teaching art that included basic concepts like space, form and colour and to complement painting and sculpture, a specialised study of indigenous crafts like embroidery, pottery and weaving. In addition, there was another module on the philosophy of education, principles of art education and history of art to cultivate in teachers the need to develop the personality, character and individuality of children. He also developed curriculum that targeted adult art education, for example for students doing art in Form 6.
It’s a holistic approach to art that stimulates both the left and right sides of the brain — the study of art technique, history and so on provides students with analytical approach to the subject, training their left brain to work. The right brain kicks into gear as students are taught to understand their own artistic instinct and are given the chance to be truly creative.
“We think there is only one kind of intelligence — the intellect. But there is also feeling, there is emotional maturity and intelligence that should be considered. Today, I see that everything is so basic and predictable because of an over-reliance on the left lobe. That’s not learning,” he protests. “Our education system is geared towards getting students economically prepared for the real world, but what about emotionally? Instead of developing innate abilities and special qualities in each of us, we are ignoring them.”
While this leads to a generation that has little or no connection to art and artistic expression, Jin Leng’s experience has seen it affect people more deeply than that. His conclusion is that if art were taught not just as a subject but also as a way of communicating and as a legitimate channel of expression, we would be a very different society. “The principles of art can be applied to day-to-day life that provides a contemplative take on life and that reminds you that you are not alone, yet you are who you are. You cannot have a country full of people who do not have this internal maturity and self-assurance,” he says a little sadly.
The curriculum he painstakingly created is not used anymore and Jin Leng has left his educator role. These days, he spends his time with his paintings and sculptures. His works rarely hang in galleries — his wife Diana shares the space Jin Leng calls home, gallery and studio. A walk through his double-storey house in Ulu Klang, with a huge garden where the swimming pool could have been, is a showcase of his many interests as an artist.
Paintings abound, many of which are of Odissi dancers in movement. In another, a woman sits in the middle of a tantric Hindu symbol. A glass cabinet is home to antique Malay jewellery that is part of a collection he has just started. Fresh flowers from his garden sit atop a wooden coffee table, which is covered with brochures of previous exhibitions. A shiny iMac in his studio is an unexpected accessory, but his modern approach to art is what sets him apart from many other artists of his time.
But one thing he does share with them is hope for the future. While Jin Leng knows that art education in Malaysia is not what it used to be, he also sees glimmers of hope in an emerging generation of artists who are trying very hard to make a name for themselves.
As we prepare to leave, Jin Leng asks a question that strikes a chord with us. “Every day, there are new artists emerging and there are people to appreciate their art. But is it enough? Are we happy in our limited understanding of other people’s creativity and that of our own?”
Blue-chip performance
Music
Let’s Go Mamak… Again!
July 3 & 4 (8pm), July 5 (7pm)
KLPac, Pentas 1, Sentul Park, Jalan Strachan, off Jalan Ipoh, KL
RM47 and RM57 (July 3 and 4); RM72 and RM82 (July 5)
(03) 4047 9000
After the resounding success of its first concert last year, Inner Voices returns with Let’s Go Mamak… Again! The concert showcases original compositions and arrangements by local composer/arranger Ken Hor that fuse Western and traditional Malaysian instruments and are performed by prominent names in our music industry, including Julian Chan, Fung Chern Hwei, Prakash Kandasamy, Jimmy Ch’ng, Tay Cher Siang and Kamrulbahri Hussin.
MPO concert
July 4 & 5 (8.30pm, 3pm)
Dewan Filharmonik Petronas
Level 2, Tower 2, Petronas Twin Towers, KLCC
RM20 to RM85
(03) 2051 7007; [email protected]
Bernard Labadie conducts the Malaysian Philharmonic Orchestra in a performance featuring several pieces by Handel — Water Music: Suite No 2 in D, Rinaldo: Lascio, ch’io pianga and Ah! Crudel, The Arrival of the Queen of Sheba, and Radamisto: Sommi Dei and Barbaro! Partirò. The MPO will also perform Cosi fan tutte: Come scoglio and Per pietà by Mozart and finally, Haydn’s Symphony No 104 in D — London. This concert features award-winning soprano Emma Bell.
Rantai Acoustic Night
July 4 (7pm)
Itudio Studio
31D-2 Kelana Mall, Jalan SS6/12, PJ
RM15
(03) 7880 0465
Rantai Art is a non-profit organisation made up of a network of designers, artists, musicians, students and tech geeks whose aim is to facilitate community participation in art. The acoustic performance will feature Night Lights, Otam, Tilu, Edan, poet stories and Sarita.
Hand in Hand with the Stars
July 3 & 4 (8pm); July 5 (5pm)
KL Convention Centre
Plenary Hall, KL City Centre
RM100 and RM200
(03) 2333 2888
This star-studded concert to raise money for people with autism features award-winning singer Jaclyn Victor, Zainal Abidin, Juwita Suwito, Hands Percussion, Aseana Percussion Unit (APU) and The Brass Percussion Band of the Skills Academy. The night will also see the debut performance of Shining Stars, a group of performers with autism, who will be jamming with members of APU.
Richard Jackson
July 3 & 4 (10.30pm)
Alexis Ampang Bistro and Bar
10 Ground Floor, Great Eastern Mall, 303 Jalan Ampang, KL
RM25
(03) 4260 2288
American singer Richard Jackson grew up surrounded by legendary gospel acts, chief of whom was his father George Colbert Jackson. Under his father’s guidance, Jackson pursued singing at university, where he developed a love for jazz. Jackson has been compared to legends like Luther Vandross, Marvin Gaye, Barry White and Ronald Isley.
Film
The Love Suicide at Sonezaki
July 4 (3pm)
Mini Pawagam P Ramlee Finas
Kompleks Studio Merdeka, Finas, Jalan Hulu Kelang, Ampang
Free admission
(03) 4104 1375/76
The Love Suicide at Sonezaki follows the love trials of Tokubei, who is in love with prostitute Ohatsu. His uncle Kyuemon complicates things by wanting him to marry his niece. Kyuemon bribes Tokubei’s stepmother to make him change his mind. When Tokubei learns of this, he takes the money from his stepmother to return it but ends up lending it to his friend Kuheji who is in financial difficulty. But when it comes to returning the money, his friend denies all knowledge of it.
Visual Arts
Idyllic Lifestyle
Until July 12
Art Loft
Lot F-03, CapSquare Centre, 7 Persiaran CapSquare, off Jalan Munshi Abdullah, KL
11am to 7pm (Mon to Sat)
Free admission
(03) 2692 6118
Vietnamese artist Ngovan Sac’s solo exhibition depicts the impasse that people face in their daily existence. He observes and records in his paintings how people deal with crisis and contemporary issues. Ultimately, the works are reflections of you and me.
Cartographical Lure
Until July 4
Valentine Willie Fine Art
17A Jalan Telawi 3, Bangsar Baru, KL
Noon to 8pm (Mon to Fri); noon to 6pm (Sat)
Free admission
(03) 2284 2348
Contemporary artists from Malaysia and around the region were invited to explore artistic mapping as a subjective visual representation of our lived environment in this exhibition. The artists’ personal responses to particular locales are created with different materials — computer-generated images, traditional hand-drawn and other forms of craftsmanship — resulting in a complex body of work that ranges from the biographical to the conceptual, from maps of interventional nature to maps of land use interpretation. Participating artists include Chong Kim Chew (Malaysia), Tiffany Chung (Vietnam), Gan Siong King (Malaysia), Bea Camacho (the Philippines), Mark Salvatus (the Philippines), Jason Wee (Singapore), Krisnamurti (Indonesia), Jenifer Woodford (the Philippines) and Nadiah Bamadhaj (Malaysia).
ThreeSixFive Me
Until July 12
The Annexe Gallery
Central Market Annexe, Jalan Hang Kasturi, KL
11am to 8pm (Sun to Thurs); 11am to 9.30pm (Fri and Sat)
Free admission
(03) 2070 1137
Nizam Abdullah’s first solo exhibition is a culmination of a hard-won introspection of the last years of his art practice. Fundamental to Nizam’s new body of work is a deconstructive approach to the question of the Malay male identity and its inclination towards narcissism. Working across a variety of media, from wall installations to paintings and video, the concept of identity and the aesthetics behind a specific cultural identity face a many-pronged assault that ultimately hopes to redefine what it means to be a Malay man.
Stimulus II
Until June 30
NN Gallery
53A & 56 Jalan Sulaiman 1, Taman Ampang Hilir, Ampang, KL
10am to 6pm (Mon to Sat)
Free admission
(03) 4270 6588
This exhibition features German-Malaysian artist couple Brigitte and Azzudin Shahabudin, who have worked as a team for many years. They are showing their common and individual works for the first time in Malaysia, works that express the aesthetics and mysteries of the human form inspired by the paintings of classic European and Eastern masters.
Memorial Exhibition Peter Harris 1923-2009
Until Aug 28
Art Salon @ SENI
SENI Gallery, Lot 55350, Changkat Duta Kiara, off Jalan Duta Kiara, Mont’Kiara, KL
10am to 6pm (daily)
Free admission
(012) 504 1434
Peter Harris came to Malaya in 1951 and founded the Wednesday Art Group in 1952 with members like Patrick Ng, Syed Ahmad Jamal, Dzulkifli Buyong, Cheong Lai Tong and Jolly Koh, who are now regarded important Malaysian artists. He was honoured by the National Art Gallery as the first artist to hold a retrospective exhibition before he left Malaysia in 1960. Harris came back two years later to oversee art education in Sabah and left again in 1967. Since then, he has held several exhibitions here, the most recent being his solo at The Art Gallery Penang in 2001. The works in this memorial exhibition include many pastels of his studies of people, which he drew while he was stationed in Malaya as well as his later works.
Singapore
Bisik Menjerit
Until July 5
Artspace@Helutrans
2nd Floor, 39 Keppel Road, Tanjong Pagar Distripark #02-04, Singapore
11am to 2pm (Tues to Sat); 11am to 3pm (Sun)
Free admission
(+65) 8133 1760
Jalaini Abu Hassan’s second solo exhibition in Singapore showcases a new series of charcoal on paper that bravely illustrates the comic-tragedy of a nation through the farcical extravaganza of the circus, taking us through the clownish spectacle of Malaysian politics. Jalaini shows us through his skilful handling of the charcoal medium a dystopic vision of Malaysia, criticising a political mechanism that is in urgent need of an overhaul. The result is an honest, funny, acerbic and sharp-witted look at this country’s socio-political landscape.
Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto Extravaganza
July 3 (7.30pm)
Esplanade Concert Hall
1 Esplanade Drive, Singapore
S$11 to S$75
www.sistic.com.sg
Principal conductor of the Orchestre National d’Île de France Yoel Levi leads the Singapore Symphony Orchestra in performing Borodin’s Polovtsian Dances from Prince Igor, one of Tchaikovsky’s more neglected piano concertos, No 2 in G major (Op 44), and Rimsky-Korsakov’s Scheherazade (Op 35).
Bangkok
Transcendents
Until July 17
Mumu Arthouse
106/1 Soi Sribumpen, Yen Akat Rd, Bangkok
11am to 11pm (daily)
(+66) 081 286 9676
American photographer Cameron Wolf’s first exhibition in Thailand displays artfully staged, intimate prints of male models to explore notions of perception and reality. Having worked as an adviser for the US Agency for International Development in the prevention, care and treatment of HIV/AIDS, Wolf looks sensitively at the dignity of his subjects, highlighting their courage and will to survive.
Jakarta
Opera Negeri Fantasi
July 10 & 11 (8pm)
Graha Bhakti Budaya
Jalan Cikini Raya 73, Taman Ismail Marzuki, Jakarta Pusat
30,000 to 100,000 rupiah
(+62) 21 68 131 559
Yoko Mahagenta presents a world music showcase in Opera Negeri Fantasi.
Queen of Blues Meets The King of Rock and Roll
July 29 (8.30pm)
Shanghai Blue 1920
Jl Kebon Sirih Raya 77-79 Jakarta Pusat
120,000 rupiah
(+62) 21 391 8690
The Aartsen Quatro performs with Sue Bonnington and Eduard Alexander, singing tunes of Etta James, Aretha Franklin, Koko Taylor, Chuck Berry, Bill Haley and Little Richard, The Beatles and Elvis Presley. Come dressed in your best 1950s get-up.
Editor’s Pick
V: Version One
Until July 12
Threesixty Art Development Studio
Lot ff-07, The Waterfront@Park City 5, Persiaran Residen, Desa Park City, KL
Noon to 8pm (Tues to Sun); Mon by appointment only
Free admission
(03) 6280 7876
This group exhibition features young emerging women artists tackling feminist and gender awareness issues in a subtle but interesting manner. V represents Venus while suggesting value, virtue, voice, victory and vanity. These artists may not be from the bra-burning generation but belong to a new generation that is striving to build a world of their own where they can have it all.
This article appeared in Options, the lifestyle pullout of The Edge Malaysia, Issue 761, June 29 -July 5, 2009.