To 2012, a year of political changes!

To Malaysians: Happy 2012 !

亂像是改變的前兆。

讓我們為2011年干杯，積極備戰2012年！

Disorder is the sign of change.

A toast to 2011 and be prepared for 2012!

Upside-down Democracy

Why do Malaysians need one voice and one vision if at the end this oneness will only lead us to the existential impasse?
The strength and charm of our culture is in its diversity and differentness. Our country is 54 years old and still she can't walk. In another 50 years, she will die in regrets.
Today, injustice rules our society and lies are mistaken as realities and truths. They always claim how much they love this land and their people.

In the name of love, save the country!

The Weaver at the Melaka Art and Performance Festival

"The Weaver" installation view at TTCLC in Melaka, 2011

My new work "The Weaver" was shown at Tun Tan Cheng Lok Centre in Melaka during the Melaka Art and Performance Festival last weekend (18-21 Nov). The installation draws heavily on the Maternity Home history of this Heeren Street site and the most private of trauma, embedded in both memory and body …

The body still remembers how the end of love was pronounced in anger, and the fear found no comfort in the empty bed. It is like a movie, I know. It is not real, I know. It is Death. Somehow, the maternal instinct is determined to bring death to life. 

Like Psyche, a journey to the Underworld seems inevitable...

digital print on fabric, embroidered and sewn by artist, 3.5 x 1.5 m

shots captured during sewing process

把死生回來，黃錦樹在他的小說中建議。 現實中流產的生命和愛情，就在藝術的想像里回魂吧。 

the Individual and the collective

How does it feel to be part of them?
They need me. Or perhaps, I need them more than they do.
In either case, please do not separate us.

Saturday composition

- Raindrops vaporizing at different speed, Seputeh

- Rectangular in perspective made of pig skin, Seputeh

- Dusk drawing on broken glass, Rawang

- Magnificent yellow hibiscus in NEC college, Kajang
- Another angle of rectangular in perspective, Seputeh

- Tropical fruits in Sotheby's auction catalog, Singapore

- Interior Orchids in morning light, Singapore

A step further toward the visible

 To read "The Shape of a Pocket" by John Berger.
Be a receiver.

去趕集的小動物

Motivated Gorilla.

Who shall follow me?

Animals on way to rally.

 The Mimesis of Resistance. 
“IF we cannot defend it in reality, we defend it in mime.” Stuart Hall
By defending in mime, the reality becomes imaginable/possible.

Photoquai 2011 - Artist's Complete Selection

Museum du Quai Branly, Paris, France

Workers from Côte d'Ivoire preparing the show before the opening

"mer.rily" in the museum's garden, installation view

In total, 13 diptychs are shown at a calm passage.

M written on slate found in the garden.

The 3rd edition of PHOTOQUAI biennial exhibition of world images organised by the musée du Quai Branly in Paris takes place on the quays of the Seine alongside the musée du quai Branly and in the museum’ gardens from 13th September to 4th December 2011.

Three Malaysian photographers (Minstrel Kuik, Khee Teik Pang, Tan Chee Hon) are selected after having encountered with the Curator Françoise Huguier in Kuala Lumpur early this year.

Below is the complete selection that I have proposed to Photoquai. The choice of diptych was originally not a formal consideration but to provide the audience a more complete narrative by showing more images extracted from the series "mer.rily, mer.rily, mer.rily, mer.rily" that I have been working on since 2007.

Online Reviews:

http://zhuangwubin.posterous.com/photoquai-2011

http://www.bonjourparis.com/story/photoquai-2011-paris-photography-exhibit-musee-bra/

http://thestar.com.my/lifestyle/story.asp?file=/2011/10/2/lifearts/9536439&sec=lifearts

http://lalettredelaphotographie.com/archives/by_date/2011-09-14/3755/malaysia-minstrel-kuik

Distinguish photographs

I can start to tell what are the two kinds of photographs that can be distinguished in the contemporary photographic scene. One is about VISION & TRUTH, the other is about VISUAL & TRICK. However, the latter seems to form a dominant majority.

Paris to and fro, 2011

The photograph is taken at my balcony at Seputeh with a traveler's toothbrush, a seashell in a plastic container, a French can food, an Eiffel Tower 's key chain in a glass and a bottle of honey collected by the Corsican bees. 
My tongue no longer misses the French cuisine.
I am finally cured! Yeah, I should name the photograph as "The Mother Tongues Tower". 
What do you think?

Merdeka Quartet, 1957-2011

 
The One and The Three (Apples) 

  
The Yellow Line and The Future

 
The Passport and The Tanjung Pagar Railway Station 

  
The Elephant and The Colonizer

Happy Birthday to Malaysia!

The March in Kuala Lumpur, 9th July 2011

Bersih! Bersih!
Hidup Bersih!
Bersih! Bersih!
Hidup Rakyat!