Friday, June 17, 2005

Pang Khee Teik does Hong Kong night markets

Besides being a photographer, Pang Khee Teik is also the editor of Malaysia's arts website Kakiseni.com, a writer of wanky monologues, a lazy graphic designer, a moderator of a mailing list for gay writers, a bad actor, a connoisseur of personal ads, a frequent changer of hairstyles, a teh tarik addict, a brownnoser, a sloweater and a fasttalker. Philosophy requires decadence. Monogamy is for the weak.

Past exhibitions:
1995: The Sustainable City, organised by Equator Club, at Isetan Art Gallery, Lot Ten
1998: Brickfields Now and Then, with Eric Peris and Victor Chin, in conjunction with Thor Khar Hoong’s Brickfields Now and Then
2004: Notthatbalai Arts Festival, at De Lost Generation Space
2004: Art ± 1000, at Valentine Willie Fine Art

Pang's artist statement:

Welcome to the Hong Kong night markets!



Thongs from Ladies Market at Tong Choi Street! Toys from Temple Street Night Market at Mongkok! Fortune Fish from Goldfish Market at Bute Street!

Welcome to the reified desirability, the intangible plasticity, the aesthetic evolution.

We are the cock teasers. We are the new gods. We are domestic creatures bringing good luck.



We are exotic. We are colourful. We are cheap.

Asians ‘R’ Us!

Hari Azizan and the Selling of Women


Hari Azizan works as a journalist for The Star, specializing in education issues. She describes her involvement in the arts as sporadic, the most notable of which is her participation in Five Arts Center’s Young Director’s Workshop IV, in which she attempted to stage the controversial play Vagina Monologues. She is also a trained teacher and has worked with children in theatre at TheActors Studio Academy, and community arts programmes with Five Arts Centre. She's currently is on a quest for the big story and the perfect collaboration with artists from various disciplines.

Her most recent theatrical presentation is SOS Times, part of Director's Workshop ,5 which consists of four workshop performances themed on the Communist Party of Malaya. SOS Times explores the private lives of two people who gave everything to fight for a free Malaya: Ong Boon Hua (the CPM secretary general more notoriously known as Chin Peng) and Shamsiah Fakeh (leader of Angkatan Wanita Sedar). Pictures of from the opening performance of SOS Times can be found here

Hari's artist statement:

When they say that everyone should make art, they forgot to mention what grueling work it is. You need dollops and dollops of discipline and commitment, something I, had to learn the hard way.



My pieces look at how women sell themselves within the social, cultural and religious frame. The tudung motif would not go away after the most recent moral hysteria (JAWIgate), and here my sisters ask to be counted.



Titles:
1. Everyone says I love you
2. The little chick who could- a folktale
3. DIY morality

Wednesday, June 15, 2005

The Selling continues at The Photographer's Gallery

Well well.

Who woulda thunk. We're off on another exhibition run thanks very much to the people at The Photographer's Gallery. They invited us to have another chance in the hope of extending and circulating exhibitions, keeping access to our artworks publically available at least until June 30. The place is really nice, a big garden, old bungalows, KLCC looming overhead, just right behind the British High Commission.

This Saturday (June 18, 7pm) we're making another bash out of it - oooh, we do like our snazzy 'lil soirees - calling it Show & Tell. Last time we did something like this at our previous exhibition, we got rained out (or at least that's the excuse we're sticking with). So. Swing by, have a drink, watch whatever it is we're presenting (videos, readings, performances...) and of course, have a peek at our works.