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by Kwok Kian Chow You Can Order and Eat Char Kwey Teow Matthew Ngui's work, combining installation and performance, deals with communication at several levels - between the viewer and the work (including the artist as a part of it), between the venue of exhibition and venue of art production, between mismatches of reality, illusion and perception surrounding the work. Often, the generation of shifting meanings is the interrogative objective of the work itself. Like many Singaporeans, Ngui travels widely and lives and thinks in different cultures. Perhaps the mismatches between formulaic notions of cultural traditions and contemporary values, realities and experiences are a common experience of Singaporeans, whose island nation is a multicultural society dynamically interacting with a multicultural world. A state of cultural flux and hybridization which is problematical from the point of view of hegemonic cultural mainstreams, is actually educational and fulfilling in sincere human relations. Ngui captures this process of human communication through installations involving documentation and objects from the venue of the exhibition and the venue of the artist's origin. The installation then becomes a new space for human communicative activities. The objects and channels (such as plastic tubes which viewers must speak through and a computer keyboard separated from its monitor so that what is typed is not seen and vice versa) create situations of communication and miscommunication, system and rapture within the viewer and between the viewer and the art work. Ngui's work often involves cooking, which is one of the most fundamental of human activities and yet one of the most culturally specific. In Ngui's words, "it is because of this intrinsic participation in a wider game that much of the art work is focused onto the very particular smaller but interesting bits of culture which are often overlooked... but are major players..." Through performative works such as cooking, and communicating realities, illusions and perceptions of the same, meaning becomes a self-reflexive phenomenon which expresses and generates culture simultaneously. |
Chronology
| Born in December, 1962 in Singapore, where he lives and
works. He graduated from the Singapure University and has a
post-graduation degree from Curtin University in Australia. He
participated in solo and group exhibitions especially in Australia
and
$ Exhibitions 1995 Canberra National Sculpture Forum, April House, with Rick Hadlow, Canberra, Australia. 1994 Hanvier Than Air, Lloyd, with Rick Hadlow, Perth Institute of Contemporary Arts, Western Australia, Australia; Tugmaan/The Ties That Bind, Perth Institute of Contemporary Arts, exchange with artists, Western Australia, Australia; Manila, Philipines; PICA Boans, with Margaret Roberts, Rick Hadlow, Boans Warehouse, West Australia, Australia; Icons to Irony, Another Chair..., with Rick Hadlow, Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital annual exhibition. 1993 You can order and eat delicious tried rice, performance-installation PICA, Western Australia, Australia. 1992 The Third Artists' Regional Exchange (ARX3), Perth Institute of Contemporary Arts, Western Australia, Australia; 3-O Illusion, Festival of Perth, Galeríe Düsseldorf, Perth, Western Australia, Australia; Singapore Arts Festival Fringe, Work Process and Concept, Singapore; Matthew Ngui, Selected Works, National Museum Art Gallery, Singapore; Orientation, Artrage Festival, Fremantle Art Centre, Fremantle, Western Australia, Australia. 1991 Woodsworks, Art and Technology Festival, Curtin University, Western Australia, Australia; A Passage of 4 Sunsets, video installations, Welshpool, Western Australia, Australia. 1990-91 Bits of the Western Australian landscape, Chilimony Stud Farm, Lucky Bay and Lake Baladlie, Western Australia, Australia. Performances 1996 The Cutting Edge (no not the Arts Festival), The Yang Family, with Ong Keng Sen, Theatreworks, Amoy Street, Singapore. 1995 Artspace, Sydney, Australia. 1994 Opening of 25 Years of Performance Art, Perth Institute of Contemporary Arts, Western Australia, Australia. 1993 Bodies of Knowledge Seminar, with Michele Theunisson, Department of Communications and Cultural Studies, Curtin University of Technology, Western Australia, Australia; In the Dark, Illusion and Reality, Perth Institute of Contemporary Arts, Western Australia, Australia; Disk Readings Nov, Arcadia Hotel, Western Australia, Australia. 1992 The Third Artists' Regional Exchange (ARX3), Perth Institute of Contemporary Arts, Western Australia, Australia; Singapore Arts Festival Fringe, Hong Bee Warehouse, Singapore. 1991 Stuart Sherman's 4th Spectacle, Perth Institute of Contemporary Arts, Western Australia, Australia; In the Dark Performance Series, Perth Institute of Contemporary Arts, Western Australia, Australia. Awards 1995 Conference Grant, Western Australian Department for the Arts, Western Australia, Australia. 1994 People's Choice, Shire of Mundaring Art and Craft Acquisition Exhibition, Western Australia, Australia. 1993 Annual York and Craft Awards Exhibition, Highly Commended. 1992 Scholarship Grant, Curtin University of Technology Overseas, Western Australia, Australia; National Arts Council, Training Grant, Singapore; National Arts Council, Project Grant, Singapore. 1991 Hugh Child Memorial Award for Sculpture, Curtin University of Technology, Western Australia, Australia; Jacksons Fine Art Prize for Drawing School of Art, Curtin University, Western Australia, Australia. |
