Home: A Look Inward

Home: A Look Inward

A s many of us had been staying home and staying safe, the lockdown has had a significant impact on all of us. Whether it’s in Hong Kong, New York, London or anywhere in the world that has felt the effect of the global outbreak, being confined within our homes has certainly forced us to reconsider our relationship with our surroundings – these interiors that now serve as living quarters and perhaps work space, as well as a virtual and makeshift classroom, art gallery, health club, music venue or gathering place. It has made us aware of the meaning of home, the significance of these spaces we inhabit, and what they reveal about our values.

From the Modern and Contemporary Southeast Asian Art sale, which is open for bidding until 10 June, several featured artists explore a view of domesticity in its many forms, whether it is expansive inner explorations in Danielle Tay’s Keeper of Hopes or what it means to spend time together/apart with family in Ripple Root’s A Love Contained. The house in Tay’s collage painting stands in distinct contrast from the outside world, and yet a closer investigation of the interior reveals an expansive space full of activity and motion, as if the home were a metaphor for the mind with its experiences and memories.

A Love Contained also shows a paradoxical separation in the home, as Ripple Root depicts a family together in the frame yet contained literally in Peranakan vessels, and thus apart. In the Time of Quarantine is a series that examines the idea of the family unit and belonging. Re-imagined in a quintessentially Southeast Asian context, these containers take the place of high-rise urban apartments, but the idea remains the same.

Meanwhile, the sense of isolation and dislocation is palpable in S. Dwi Stya Acong’s 2020, in which a lone man stands shirtless amid a cityscape of abandoned urban high-rises. In Eko Nugroho’s The World Words Series (Religion as Weapon), a man hides his face behind a banner that read “Religion as Weapon.” The effect is also an unsettling sense of alienation within a domestic setting.

In the sale, two nudes – one by Walasse Ting and the other by Le Pho – portray frank suggestions of bedroom intimacy, as both subjects are postured in a way with legs open to provide a clear view of their female sex. Another aspect linked to the concept of home is as a place of conjugal bliss. Away from the intrusive gaze of strangers, the bedroom scene depicts femininity and eroticism in full bloom. The subject in Le Pho’s sketch for an esoteric nude holds in one hand a flower of pure white. Flowers, which are also featured in other works by Le Pho and Walasse Ting in the sale, have long associations with sexuality, love, domesticity and various emotions.

On the other hand, the flowers in Genevieve Chua’s Untitled (Still Life) have a different emotional valence and might be interpreted in a number of ways. The cool interior and unusual arrangement of flowers all suggest an unconventional perspective of home.

現代及當代東南亞藝術

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