Contemporary Paintings from Singapore and Japan

Facing the Infinite Space

The Japan Foundation ASEAN Culture Center Gallery

1993~ 7 fl 6 B-258

6 - 25 July, 1993
Organized by The Japan Foundatio n ASEAN Culture Center· f'F*Wlil/Jt<l't!Jl<!Wi'~ilL.::;-1>'1'-·,~•::f71J'lll~Lt: ,·f'F*0)7 - ~l:-::>L'clt. f'F* Ellil-/J'<:,l:ft\j;'.<;h.
t:'ll!Ml:~-J ;\c!,rnf!H·/J'atc<!'lt:,• The note on each artist is written by NAKAMURA Hideki and translated
by Janet GOFF .
• The data concerning the artists in this catalogue was mostly based uponmaterial received from the artists themselves, and edited by FURUICHI Yasuko.

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Shifting Viewpoints
NAKAMURA Hideki (Art Critic)

Contemporary Singaporean art and Japanese art haveprobably never encountered each other on the same plane
before. Whatever one looks at, including paintings, isinvariably apprehended in terms of a fixed visual field.
For instance, perspective forms a yardstick for judging
an artist's position in the Japanese art world today orassessing the meaning of a work in the internationalart scene, which centers around Europe and the UnitedStates.
In other words, differences in perspective lead todifferent standards regarding values. Any number ofcontiguous relationships which have never shared thesame perspective or context can be found all around us.
That in itself frankly bespeaks the biases of historicalcircumstances and the blind spots regarding a common
awareness.
Thus, a new viewpoint is created when Singaporean
and Japanese contemporary art are exhibited in terms of
their similarities and differences within a unified wholerather than simply being juxtaposed against each other.
This is indeed an exciting development. Even if greater
importance is attached to Asia than Europe and the UnitedStates, no possibilities will emerge for transcending thestatus quo as long as other Asian countries are treatedseparately from Japan and in light of preexisting view-

points. I believe that attachment to regions such as
Europe and America, Asia, Japan, and so forth, must
be cast aside and that new perspectives must be discovered. Despite its small scope, this exhibition raises
various questions along those lines.
A comparison of the paintings of the four artists ChenKeZhan, Tang Mun Kit, Maruyama Naofumi, and Sakurai
Michiko reveals unusual similarities which are not ordinarily found in traditional European painting trends. The
canvas as a whole is designed as chaos or infinite spacethat transcends the painter and viewer. It feels as if
the artist and spectator are being drawn into the painting.
This represents an enormous difference from European
paintings, which try to grasp the canvas as a unified entity.
4

Whereas the viewer's perspective in European paintings

it is more appropriate to face the fact that differences inseems to confront a rigid canvas, viewers looking at thecultural background and context are clearly manifested.

works of these four artists feel as if their entire being were

The Singaporean artists Chen KeZhan and Tang Mun

entering the soft depths of the paintings. Even though

Kit place less emphasis on the canvas as chaos or infinite

the two artists from Japan are relatively conscious of thespace that transcends the painter than on the painter andcontext of Western art, somehow a pliancy that departs

his shifting viewpoint as he faces chaos or infinity. The

from Western sensibilities governs their work.

artists try to stress the act of intensely painting andA major element that underlies all of the paintings andthe textual feeling of clashing and overlapping paint. If

transcends the artists is the shifting point of view. This isanything, Chen KeZhan's works convey the impression ofreadily apparent when one actually stands in front of thelayers of compressed amorphous matter, while Tang Mun

paintings. When one looks at the artists' works, it is not

Kit's paintings feature the clash of small particles as wellonly unnatural to grasp them as whole from a single, fixed

as complex webs of lines resembling tangled thread. In

viewpoint ; it is nearly impossible to do so. Of course, thatany event, what distinguishes the works of both Singa-

does not mean that the entire work cannot be looked at

poreans is the leading role played by the violent clash offrom a fixed place, but, rather, that the spectator's eye

countless elements in the painting as a field.

and mind wander across the painting surface. The paint-

Aspects suggesting the physical actions of the painterings, however, are not completely free of points of view, a

can be found in the works of Maruyama Naofumi andcharacteristic that would allow the viewer, looking straight

Sakurai Michiko as well. The outspreading color planes,

ahead, to observe the entire work equally. The paintings

however, take precedence over clearly linked linear ele-

are organized by means of a rather clear-cut , independent

ments. Consequently, the character of their paintings as

point of view. But it does not take precedence over theinfinite space is pronounced. As a result of considerable

painting surface when one faces the canvas as a wholeawareness and self-referentiality regarding the painter's

in a one-to-one relationship. The canvas constitutes a field

limitations, the shifting perspective is converted intothat ranks above point of view; the point of view moves

something insubstantial and minimal in spite of its

quite a bit around inside the painting. Moreover, the picture

independence. Although the works of both artists center

frame does not create the inner world by means ofaround color planes, they form a striking contrast.

absolute boundaries. It is merely a functional element that

Maruyama tries to limit the planes to a kind of thinness

provisionally demarcates a kind of field, like the earth 'sthat resembles a permeable membrane, whereas Sakurai

surface, that inherently cannot be demarcated.

seeks the weight of unfinished existence in the energy of

Although these similarities form common ground , all offlowing matter.

the artists have produced distinctive work. Looking at the

Despite such differences, the works of the four artists

artists broadly in terms of nationality, the intricate strokes

are unified by an effort to establish a sense of the paint-in the Singaporeans' works create a powerful impression,

ing's very existence. In other words, instead of realistic

while the Japanese artists' paintings are dominated byrepresentation, the artists are trying to allow something toa vague expanse of continuous, unbroken color planes.

manifest itself. They offer a clue to the nature of paintings.

Intrinsically, artists should be regarded separately. More-

It will be wonderful if it serves as a starting point for

over, from the perspective of the new kind of outlook I

reconsidering painting from a perspective that has nevermentioned above, clearly there is no need to separate thebeen tried before.

artists by nationality. But I think that, at the present stage,(Translated by Janet GOFF)

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