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MANILA
STANDARD
Monday, November 10, 2003
Face to Face, page C6
Points of Origin
Singaporean collector Marjorie Chu takes a close look at contemporary Southeast
Asian art. Chu puts a magnifying glass on history, tradition, and vision, represented
in modern works of art including those of Malang, Danilo Dalena and Ang Kiukok.
BY MARIO M. BANZON Photography EDWIN MULI
The joke was that when Marjorie Chu's daughter first taught her how to use a
PC, the first thing she learned was to use the delete button. No wonder, she
was able to compress the understandably complex contemporary Southeast Asian
art all in one volume. She knew which button to push. After all, the region,
despite its noticeable similarities, is far more complicated. What more when
one talks about its contemporary art where history, tradition, and various influences
converge in one tangled mess?
But according to the Singaporean art collector and gallery owner, the book even
began in a very modest manner. "I always start quite small," she says. "I never
thought of this project. All I wanted to do was to write a letter to my daughter,
documenting my artworks. Otherwise, the poor thing would be lumbered with my
work, in which I am sure she has no interest."
The said letter has since produced Chu's new book. Understanding Contemporary
Southeast Asian Art, which she is currently taking around the region on a road
show. The book documents contemporary Southeast Asian artworks as Chu puts a
magnifying glass on history, tradition, and vision represented in modern works
of art including those of Malang, Danilo Dalena, and Ang Kiukok.
One of its surprises is that instead of dividing the artworks by their points
of origin, they are divided by genres. One could find Filipino abstract painters
side by side vvith Indonesian or Malaysian artists or a Singaporean figurative
painter with a Thai artist. With this arrangement, Chu compared and analyzed
the various styles and techniques employed by different painters.
The new Southeast Asian voice
"The Southeast Asian people has nearly all been colonized by a western power
(Though Thailand has never
been colonized, it still bears some European influences)," she says. "Our early
identity of ourselves is set from a European standard."
According to Chu, the current challenge for artists is how to swim out of the
hubris that surrounds their nation's colonial influences. Since the nations
are now fairly independent, they are beginning to shed the original influences
of colonialism and establishing their own identity. "Which is not easy," she
says, "because you have to realize you have a baggage. I mean, some people carry
their baggages their whole lives and not even realize they have one."
This does not mean, however, that Southeast Asian artists are operating without
standards, it is just that they have now their own standards to follow. "They
are now shedding their colonial past," Chu says.
"First of all, time was a very good ingredient in forgetting the past. And second,
we now have our own language for Southeast Asian art."
More than just a Singaporean
Chu, however, points out that she is not seeking recognition with the publication
of her book. She is not even sure it would be embraced or not. As far as she
knows, she wrote it for three reasons: 1.) She knows what she is doing, 2.)
She can afford it, and 3.) She has a collection of Southeast Asian art.
But, perhaps, it's also because during the '70s, she realized she was more than
just a Singaporean. "I'm a migrant from China and Singapore gave me my real
home," she says. "But it is a city-state. I needed to look out at an area, a
region more encompassing than just Singapore." She would later claim that more
than being a Singaporean, she is a Southeast Asian.
The book, however, was not her way of searching for an identity, which most
people would probably conclude. "When people say that about searching for identity
I don't think they know what they are talking about," she says. "Its only after
consistently doing something that a pattern emerges and definitely, in my case,
the pattern that emerged was Southeast Asia." She says it is a trait that appears
in the way she looks, the food she eats, and in the languages she knows. "So
I think it is when a repeated pattern comes out that you realize what identifies
you."
Life-long obsessions
But, of course, the completion of the book came with great satisfaction. "You
have to reach my age before you even believe me that suddenly with this book,
I know it just felt like the pieces all fell together. I wrote it. I felt I
needed to document it. And if I hadn't done it, I might've lost that urge to
write it."
"I am obsessed with food, with good living, and I think, if I don't speak in
the negative, then it means I take great interest in everything," Chu says.
She mentions that in the Olympics, some athletes excel in different sports.
"I want to be one such person," she says, "but not in sport." Of course, but
one might add, also not in art but more specifically in life.
"One should not be parochial in time and space " Chu says. "While I love contemporary
work, I also have a collection of antiquities. I have a collection of ceramics,
textile, and wood furniture. The word is to have a very keen artistry to living.
I have not one obsession. I have lots of it."
Marjorie Chu launched her book Understanding Contemporary Southeast Asian
Art last Nov. 5 at The Podium in Ortigas Center with an art exhibit.
Table of Contents | Preface to the Book | Press | Where to Buy