Lot 094
Chong Siew Ying
b. Kuala Lumpur, 1969
Untitled, 2003
signed and dated (lower center)
oil on canvas
145 x 173cm
PROVENANCE
Private collection, Negeri Sembilan
ESTIMATE RM 50,000 – 90,000
PRICE REALISED RM 41,000.00
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Laugh, and the world laughs with you;
Weep, and you weep alone...
These opening refrain from Ella Wheeler Wilcox’s poem, Solitude, perhaps best elucidates Chong Siew Ying’s Laughter Series, which shows androgynous faces dominating the whole canvas in inexplicable convulsions of laughter. Is the outburst to conceal some awkward personal misgivings, a demented trait, a fake emotion, a ridicule, or a distraction? The gender of the laughing person is ambiguous, even with the shaved head which is to amplify the facial expressions. Could it be Siew Ying’s own avatar although she has painted herself intruding in canvases with tresses et al in such pieces as Wonderland, and in named persona like Iris. Other viewers may see it differently. The facial expression (the real, natural laugh) is well captured, which reflects the innocence, the purity...
It’s fortuitous that Chong Siew Ying furthered her art studies in France after a diploma in Graphic Design at the Petaling Jaya College of Art and Design. Supporting herself by working part-time as an au pair, she studied at the L’Ecole des Beaux-Arts, Versailles (1991-1994) and L’Atelier 63 (1994-1996), and had solos at the Maison Tch’A, Atelier d’Maravel and Gallery Café Panique. On her return, she was awarded an artist’s residency at Rimbun Dahan, and later the Freemont Fellowship at Vermont Studio Centre, United States. She won the Special Award in the Young Contemporary Artists (BMS) competition in 2002, and was a finalist in the Hong Kong Sovereign Art Prize in 2009. She was also featured in Art Stage Singapore in 2015, and had her solo Crying With Trees at The Edge Galerie in 2014. |