INTERVIEW (VERBATIM)
Conducted
by Ang
Hwee Chuin of ish. May 2002.
What accounts for your interest in art?
I
am interested in Art because I am interested in life. Artworks engage viewers
and lead them to question and to marvel. Art is about ideas and ways of
thinking, seeing, experiencing, and living; and extends more than aesthetics.
Art is about challenging boundaries and assumptions that we have marked for
ourselves.
You
received your art training at Nafa. Why did you choose to enroll yourself with
Nafa? Was that experience important in shaping the approaches, principles and
beliefs with which you practice art now? If not, what other events in life did?
I
attended Nafa during Sunday mornings when I was in Junior College for a year.
These sessions were introductory. There was no other comparable art course in
Singapore during that period. When I studied and traveled abroad in Ireland and
Britain, I was exposed to an open and questioning society. There was a vibrant
arts community with accessible art collections and contemporary exhibits, and my
immersion in this community sparked the germinal seed of creativity within to
thrive.
You
have participated in immersion programs in many places – which include a good
mix between Asian and Western cities. Was that intentional and how do you think
such a wide-ranging experience has shaped or altered your outlook on life at
large?
I
am stimulated in all senses and probed in my belief systems when I am in a
foreign land with its culture. This exposure takes on a different nature
compared to reading at my comfort in my home; I am able to explore, observe, and
interact. There may be far less formal and structured knowledge that I can
immediately learn (compare with the flow of theories and methods imparted by a
lecturer in a classroom), but the immersion experiences are unique and
irreplaceable in their intensity, flexibility, and totality. My outlook in life
is broad and that has helped nurture in me a joyous appreciation for other
subjects and experiences, an ability to recognize universal patterns and to
connect different systems in creative endeavors, and a healthy tolerance and
respect for the values of fellowmen.
What
is your chief motivation in practicing art and what do you hope to derive from
it?
Practicing
art is primarily a self-indulgent activity; I enjoy art-making and therefore I
do it. The practice of art is immensely challenging intellectually. An artist
develops his ideas and researches on the best ways of presenting them. The
process of open reception to external influences, internal development of ideas
and creative construction of artworks, and communication to viewers are
exercises in the examination of life. An examined life is worthy of living.
In
every article we read about you, the media casts you as an ophthalmologist
before an artist, and inevitably there must be mention of the many prestigious
awards you have picked up in your artistic career. Do you think that in this we
see that people are legitimizing their attention for an artist because of his or
her achievements and status? Does this not hint that gaining acceptance and
recognition is very much a problem that artists in Singapore face and yet can do
little against?
Categories
and labels are to aid people in understanding, just like boxes drawn on a page.
I would rather be seen in my entirely. When society views me with a label, it
assumes my abilities and potential. I like to meet people who are able to engage
me without the aid of labels, and able to assess the quality of my works, and
the essence of my mind without relying on assertions of formal titles and expert
opinions of professionals. All of us to some extent, tune our attention
selectively, and use stereotyping screening to quicken our cognitive assessment
and to dampen cognitive dissonance. In an increasingly dynamic and
multi-disciplinary world, these old cognitive tools may be more misleading than
helpful.
You
once mentioned that “In every man lies an artist waiting to be discovered.”
Do you still believe in that? And what has ascertained that belief in you? Do
you also think that creativity or artistry can be nurtured?
An
artist is a person who incessantly seeks the opening of his mind, the
comprehensive understanding of life, and the communicating of his insights to
his fellowman. This liberating journey is an unanswered call in a man who is
oblivious to ubiquitous artistic elements. The moment the man begins on his
liberating journey, he discovers himself as an artist, initially spiritually,
ultimately functionally. VOICES is a series of mental and emotional orientations
I identified that can be learned and internalized by everyman to access the
creative process. The orientation of the mindset and the adoption of these
approaches can enable everyman to be creative. Creativity and artistry are a set
of universal skills that everyman can exercise in his domain. I have reached
this conclusion by reflective introspection and observation of the world at
large.
In
your “Biotechnics” series of works, I somehow see a vague relationship drawn
between science and the supernatural. Of course believers of metaphysics can
argue that they are both fundamentally branches of philosophy, but was it just
me or do you believe that there is indeed an intricate relationship between the
two?
The
dichotomy of Physics and Metaphysics define the majority perception that these
fields are founded on different logical systems. What the relationship between
the two hold for me is: Even if all the questions of the universe are answered,
each of us will wonder about his identity, his purpose, and his role in the
grand story of the universe. How
many of us will accept the concept that we are self-propagating agents no more
than evolutionary vessels for DNA, and action agents for the epic resolution and
ascendancy of ideas and values in the grand story of the universe? That we must
be alive as we believe ourselves to be, we must seek out the great tampering
spirituality that comforts and inspires, whether it is in us, the incipient or
the outer reaches of the universe, or the space between nothing and something.
That we would have known how events have happened, we would have rather known
why events have happened.
From
your works I also see that there is a layer of symbolism imbued into the images
derived from your scientific or medical work. This is somewhat like the
chicken-or-egg question: do you decide what to do with one particular image
first or does the idea hit upon you out of the blue before you search for that
one image to fit your vision?
In
the expansive field of Technological and Biomedical Science that I have chosen
to focus, I am aware of the ideas, logical systems, and tools that are used by
practitioners in their daily work. The concept – the question I am asking or
the experience I am isolating – is most important. I seed the concept in my
mind, where I allow the subconscious to play with the concept freely, and
allowing a vision of the artwork to emerge from the inner competition of
thoughts. I decide on the media and tools to present the concept; I may employ
media and tools uncommonly used in art-making but commonly used in other
industries. If these tools are unfamiliar, I seek to learn about them.
I make an intuitive judgment on whether the vision of the artwork – the
concept expressed in this form – will be successful. I continue to refine the
vision, and am responsive to the vision, the actual physical product, and the
constraints, and attempt to reconcile all three. For some works, I highlight the
symbolism in the works, for other works, symbolism is an additional mode of
viewing, and for others, I choose to eliminate this point of view altogether.
The concept of the work takes precedent.
What
is “Brave New World” and what does it signify for you?
I
enjoyed reading Brave New World by Aldous Huxley when I was in first year junior
college. The book is simply written yet is rich with provocative issues of
eugenics, genetic engineering, social stratification, and knowledge deprivation.
Presently, I believe that genetic diversity, despite its apparent physical
flaws, keep the genetic pool in a state of dynamic tense equilibrium, and the
same holds true for subculture diversity, despite the clash of views, for
intellectual capital. The Brave New
World represents an exciting time when rapid and ground-breaking technological
advances will require an equally brave and responsive change of mindsets to
manage their introduction to mankind for their benefit.
Do
you think that you could possibly have been a designer, since your works are
very much the synthesis of art, science and technology – the very elements
which make up design? If yes, what sort of things would you be designing?
Design
elements have always been part of my work. I have completed some basic
architectural design studio credits, and hope to be able to design small
building and structural projects and artworks in collaboration with architects
sooner rather than later.
Your works are always named in such a way they take on a science-fiction edge. Do you think your art works will ever depart from that?
Titles
of the works clue the audience in on the work. The works are named because the
works are based on concepts of science, and the aesthetics and relationships
among scientific objects. I appreciate science-fiction. I have created artworks
on socio-political themes, among others. That I have focused on Technological
and Biomedical Science is partly based on my greater experience in these fields,
and partly based on my desire to explore a niche field with depth in a highly
competitive art world, where failure to distinguish styles and themes in
artworks lowers visibility.
Did
you design your own website?
I
designed my websites with the help of public domain code and I am comfortable
with new media tools. Since I started off with multi-screen video installations
more than a decade ago, and have been developing multi-media works on my
internet sites, tools of new media design have consistently been part of my
arsenal.
Tell
us about your studio: how it was shaped, how is the space like, what are your
working habits, how it has impacted upon your “life” – that is if you see
your medical and artistic work as separate from “life”!
I
have a small space at Telok Kurau Artists’ Studios where I store some of my
artworks. It is a standard commercial trailer and is not large enough for me to
work in it as my works outsize it. I try not to separate medical and artistic
work consciously except for administrative filing and financial budgeting. My
medical perspectives are truly essential to my artwork, and it is reasonable to
state that some of my works will otherwise not be what they are. My approach to
engaging life is holistic.
What
is home like for you? Which is your comfort space? Why do you enjoy that space?
Home
is sanctuary for the restoration of the soul, the taming of the senses, and the
rejuvenation of the body. My shower is my comfort zone, because the few minutes
of warm water rushing onto me softens the tension of my muscles, washes away the
worries of the day, and refreshes my mind.
Tell us what you do in your leisure time. Have you any other passions in life?
Beautiful woman and the finer things in life, in addition to reading and writing , financial analysis and investment, entrepreneurship and management, architecture and structures.
What's the one thing that you'd really like to attempt next -outside art?
The most unpredictable, the most hazardous, the most demanding, but potentially the most rewarding - marriage.
You have one minute as Mr Universe - what would you like to say to the world?
Seek your passion, embrace and enjoy it. The greatest manifestation of art is Mankind, and your most important artwork is yourself. When you have an open mind, seeing the relevance and possibilites in the infinitesimal and the colossal, and gaining a positive and sincere mindset, then you have become an artist of ideas and the ways of the world.