The First Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art

MALAYSIA KUNGYU LIEW Who am I? 1991 Installation Born in 1960 in Jitra, Kedah, Malaysia, Kungyu Liew is one of the new generation of Malaysian artists born after the country's independence in 1957. Like many others of that generation, he had his formal art training in Malaysia, studying graphic design at the Malaysian Institute of Art in Kuala Lumpur between 1980 and 1983. Kungyu Liew has been active in theatre and dance as well as visual art, including the design of posters, programs, sets and costumes, and partici- pation as a cast member. Public exhibition of his work began in 1986 with the 'Space' exhibition at the National Art Gallery, Kuala Lumpur, and since that time his work has been represented in major group exhibitions almost annually. These have included a number of exhibitions at the National Art Gallery, Kuala Lumpur: 'Open Art Show', 1987, 1989 and 1990; and 'Young Con- temporaries', 1987, 1988 and 1989, his work in the 'Young Contemporaries' exhibitions winning awards in two successive years. In 1988 Kungyu Liew also participated in 'Asian Arts Festival' at the Club Med Cherating, Pahang in Malaysia, and in the 26 International Sand Sculpture Competition, Regional Council, Hong Kong. In 1991 he mounted his 'Alter Art' installation with associated performance at Theatreworks in Singapore. At present he lives and works in Penang, making cultural comment through his installations, performance-art pieces, street theatre, posters, postcards, paintings and photography. Since he does not subscribe to 'modern- ist' tendencies, Kungyu Liew can be regarded as a post-modernist Malaysian artist. Ironi- cally, however, he was one of the first so- called post-modernists in Malaysia to gain recognition by the predominantly modernist Malaysian art establishment. His art is not only unconventional in the Malaysian cultural context, but it is often playfully and intentionally subversive of traditional social and religious rituals and behaviour. In his 'Alter Art ' installation and performance in Kuala Lumpur and Singapore, for example, he attempted 'to provoke anger and discomfort from the audience' by throwing and breaking dis- carded altar paraphernalia in front of them, simultaneously reminding them (through the use of television monitors) how these objects are frequently, and even more irreverently, left by the roadside to be urinated on by dogs. The combination of video and prayer altars is in itself telling, although it is not uncommon to see these placed side by side in Chinese homes. In making such statements about Chinese traditions and beliefs, Kungyu Liew is less concerned with conventional aesthetic considerations as with t he efficacy of presentation/installation in dismantling religious fanaticism. He burns incensed joss sticks, for example, to evoke a ritualistic atmosphere. Permanence of objects, it seems, is not important, since nothing lasts in this world. Traditions die hard, but they do die. Perishability, impermanence, exhaustion, are therefore the more significant issues for human beings. Zainol Abidin Bin AhmadShariff