GOH EE CHOO
"Untitled"
etching
paper size: 56.5 x 76 cm
Goh Ee Choo is a devout Buddhist and who has constructed two Buddhist shrines in
the galleries in the show Trimurti & Ten Years After. Since 1995 he has produced
art pieces that deal directly with the principles of Buddhism. His main aim is
to clearly communicate, so he uses objects & symbols that to his viewers, are
most identifiable, and able to provide meanings directly.
Goh Ee Choo wrote in 1996: The main aim in my art and life is to raise the
overall energy level of the viewer: the spiritual, emotional, and intellectual
level ( I see art as one of healing and transformation. ( (in the) theory of
dependent-origination, everything is interdependence and (as) interbeing(s) ( we
are all interrelated and everything depends on each other). This concept
manifests itself in my artworks.
In Trimurti and in the show Trimurti & Ten years after, Goh Ee Choo is one of
the trio of these groundbreaking artists which include S. Chandrasekaran, and
Salleh Japar. These artists use values inherent in Asian cultures and
philosophies as the basis for their mode of expression.
Works of Goh Ee Choo include:
Preservation
Heavenly Flow
Origin
The Theatres of Power
History of Sexuality
Word
Power Structure
Wealth Mandala
Transformation of The Spiritual Dragon
Light, Knowledge, Structure
Rite Of Silence
Om Mani Padme Hum - Enlightenment Series
Beyond Boundaries
The Word
TRIMURTI and Ten Years After:
A LANDMARK EXHIBITION ON THE HISTORY OF SINGAPORE CONTEMPORARY ART
Opens to the Public: 20 November 1998 - 21 February 1999
(Official Opening: 2 December 1998)
NOW AT THE SINGAPORE ART MUSEUM: WORKS BY 3 SINGAPOREAN CONTEMPORARY ARTISTS
(Singapore, 28 October 1998) The Singapore Art Museum is pleased to present a
timely exhibition featuring the works of three important Singaporean
contemporary artists, S. Chandrasekaran, Goh Ee Choo and Salleh Japar
entitled,Trimurti and Ten Years After, by showing a selection of over 40 works
by the artists. The works which include paintings, sculptures, installations
will be accompanied by multimedia documentations. The exhibition will trace the
individual development of the artists over the past decade. More importantly,
the exhibition will also provide an assessment and appraisal of the earlier
exhibition put up by the artists in 1988 entitled Trimurti. With an immediate
critical success, Trimurti (1988) found its way into most, if not all, major
historical accounts of Singapore contemporary art.
Trimurti, an exhibition initiated by the three fresh graduates of Nanyang
Academy of Fine Arts then, has been identified as a critical moment in the
development of contemporary art in Singapore. The event is important in the
context of Singapore art as it underlined the artists' interest in expanding the
formal vocabulary of contemporary art in Singapore in a manner which was
conceptually rooted to the various religious beliefs of the practitioners, and
still is. The exhibition which featured paintings, sculptures, installations and
performances were based on ideas anchored to eastern philosophy drawn from
Hindu, Islamic and Daoist traditions.
Trimurti, a Sanskrit term meaning three visages, has been employed as a theme in
this exhibition to propose the dynamic integration of differing traditions into
a syncretic form, that different things can exist together harmoniously. The
exhibition can be seen as a co-optive response to the Singaporean
multiculturalism. This theme, which is the essence of multiculturalism - the
very notion of the harmonious co-existance while maintaining the integrity and
uniqueness of the given cultures, is particularly important and relevant in the
context of Singapore, it being a multi-racial, multi-cultural and
multi-religious society.
Since the event, these artists have earnestly pursued their individual
interests, evolving ideas that they have each forgrounded in Trimurti. They have
all held important solo exhibitions over the past few years, extending and
developing their practices beyond Trimurti. Their works had been featured in
international exhibitions in Southeast Asia, Australia, Europe and the United
States. Through a selection of works completed over the past 10 years, the
exhibition will show how the three artists have refined their ideas beyond the
Trimurti exhibition and subsequently emerged as artists of international
standing.
The exhibition will occupy the Upper and Lower Galleries in the Museum.
A series of talks, lectures and discussion sessions based on the themes of the
exhibition will be held at the Singapore Art Museum over the period of the
exhibition, November 1998 to February 1999. A series of talks, lectures and
discussion sessions based on the themes of the exhibition will be held at the
Singapore Art Museum over the period of the exhibition, November 1998 to
February 1999.
The following are some talks & activities held in conjunction with the
exhibition:
1) Talk by Artist In conjunction with the exhibition, Trimurti & Ten Years
After, Salleh Japar will be speaking on art as a jouney into the self, his role
as an artist and his works.
Details as follows:
Date
:
Sat 23 Jan 99
Time
:
2 pm
Venue
:
The Auditorium, Singapore Art Museum
(Normal museum admission charges apply)
2) Talk by Artist
Goh Ee Choo will be sharing about his life as an artist, his art and what
inspires him. This is part of a series of talks held in conjunction with the
exhibition Trimurti & Ten Years After.
Date
:
Sat 30 Jan 99
Time
:
2 pm
Venue
:
The Auditorium, Singapore Art Museum
Sabapathy, T.K.
Trimurti and ten years after / Sabapathy, T.K. - Singapore : Singapore Art
Museum, 1998
Featuring significant works of three important Singaporean contemporary artists,
S. Chandrasekaran, Goh Ee Choo, and Salleh Japar. Created over the last 10
Years, this exhibition discusses the trends and tendencies in Singaporean
contemporary art. Contributions by Kwok Kian Chow, T.K. Sabapathy, S.
Chandrasekaran, Goh Ee Choo, Salleh Japar, Ahmad Mashadi, Tay Swee Lin.
AS 203 SG
ISBN 9810407785
Sabapathy, T.K. [et.al]
Many in one: 25 years of art from Singapore / Sabapathy, T.K. [et.al]. -
Singapore : Singapore Art Museum, 1991
Featured artists: Baet Yeok Kuan, Henri Chen Kezhan, Chen Wen Hsi, Cheong Soo
Pieng, Chua Ek Kay, Fan Chang Tien, Goh Beng Kwan, Goh Ee Choo, Jaafar Latiff,
Lee Wen, Vincent Leow Kong Yam, Lim Poh Teck, Lin Hsin Hsin, Liu Kang, Ng Yak
Whee, Jimmy Ong, Anthony Poon, Prabhakara [Jimmy Quek], Salleh Japar, S.
Chandrasekeran, Tan Oe Pang, Tan Swie Hian, Tang Da Wu, Tang Mun Kit, Teo Eng
Seng, Eng Tow, Wee Shoo Leong, Simon Wong, Wong Shih Yaw, Yeo Siak Goon, Thomas
Yeo.
AS 205 SG
ISBN 9971917343
Copenhagen 96
Denmark is the last of the European Union's 12 member nations to have a city
named as the cultural capital of Europe for a year.
Like a performing-and-visual-arts Olympiad, the "cultural capital" program is an
opportunity to bring in top names from abroad, to show off local
accomplishments, to enhance public awareness-and, not incidentally, to stimulate
tourist spending.
The exhibition which best conveyed the flavor of the Cultural Capital was
"Container 96-Art Across the Oceans." Two years before the event, 13 curators
from nine international regions were asked to commission work by artists in a
total of 96 port cities. Each artist was given a white, 20-foot-long ship
container (a semi-trailer box that can be hoisted back and forth between truck
bed and shipboard) in which-or with which-to do a project. The containers were
then delivered to a white-gravel quay in Copenhagen and mounted by region on a
three-level steel rack. Completed at a cost of $3 million, the
assemblage-resembling a Bauhaus-inspired United Nations-was inaugurated by Queen
Margrethe on May 2 and drew roughly 90,000 visitors before closing on Aug. 31.
Singapore's Goh Ee Choo offered Container Shrine Installation for World Peace,
composed of a Buddhist altar, spiritual maxims printed on wall panels,
meditation cushions and incense-all intended to "liberate energy" and foster
"total freedom."
