Lot 069
ONG XIN RU
b. Kuala Lumpur, 1991
SHH......, 2013
Signed and dated 'Xing Ru 2013' (lower right)
Acrylic on canvas
53cm x 97cm
PROVENANCE
Private collection, Selangor.
ESTIMATE RM 2,200 - 3,500
PRICE REALISED RM 3,360 |
Ong Xin Ru is a dreamer, a spinner of young children’s fairy tales of animals lording over a colourful upraised flat playground. It’s a simple futuristic world littered with stone-like contraptions of various shapes – round, oval, high conicals, dice – with rainbow-coloured coatings of various designs. The place looks like a fantasy village of candy houses. The animals, shown bigger in size, roam this fantasy land which is very regimented and level. There are rabbits, an elephant, rabbits, koala bear, giraffes, a swan, a donkey and cats. It’s not all hunky-dory where it’s playtime all the time. In a slightly lower tier below animaldom, a tiger cat with a locket around its neck seems to tease the viewer as it guards over a bowl with a large uneaten fish. What’s most unusual is that the animals on the upraised centrepad are standing one two legs, like humans, a scene reminiscent of George Orwell’s allegorical novel, Animal Farm (1945). Despite the humanized quality, there is no hint of any tension, struggle or crisis in this animaldom, save perhaps for the part when the tiger cat eats the fish. The work is from Ong’s first solo, aptly called Dream World, at Galeri Chandan (one of the two main organisers, the other being HOM Art Trans) from Dec 5, 2015 to Feb 3, 2016 - part of her prize-reward for winning the MEAA (Malaysian Emerging Artists Award) in 2013. In 2012, Ong won1st Prize in the Issey Miyake Essence of Life art competition. |