Focus: Artist Chang Fee Ming
Art Republik learns to kick back and enjoy the simple things in life with Chang Fee Ming.
Chang Fee Ming (b. 1959) is a Malaysian artist who is one of Asiaās most accomplished watercolorists. He portrays the life of ordinary people he meets in his coastal hometown of Terengganu and on his travels of rural Southeast Asia in his elaborately detailed, intensely coloured paintings.
From 14 April to 17 July 2016, an exhibition of Changās works will open at Bank Negara Malaysia Museum and Art Gallery in Kuala Lumpur. Showcasing Changās pieces portraying Terengganu from 1978 to the present, it will include both large-format and small watercolour paintings, mail art and sketches, with most of the major works on loan from collectors.
The title of the exhibition, āSelaut Kasih Sepantai Sayangā, or āOceans of Love, Shores of Affectionā, is chosen by the artist from āKesian Diaā, a poem by the late poet J. M. Aziz, who wrote about the common people and their natural surroundings in Terengganu. āIt is actually a rather common prose used in Malay writings to express the extent of oneās love,ā Chang says.
The exhibition is Changās love letter to Terengganu and its people, who continue to inspire him in both art and life. āIt is an opportunity to showcase the stateās many unsung heroes ā the courageous, but simple people ā from fisher-folks on the coast, to those that live further inland among tall giants of the jungle bordering the great mountain ranges ā whose every day struggles do nothing to tamper their warmth and generosity,ā says Chang. āLiving in Terengganu gives me the opportunity to be in touch with a lot of people especially the fisher folk. Through our conversations together, I understand what life is and all this give me ideas to paint and also how to be a person.ā
The fishing village was where the self-taught artist, who dropped out of school at 17, began sketching. Later, in the late 1970s and early 1980s, Chang earned his living at his brother-in-law’s signboard shop and it was through him that Chang had the opportunity to meet the Singaporean artist Siew Hock Ming and other artists from the Equator Art Society, a group founded in Singapore in 1956 whose artist members painted in the social realist style. Chang followed them on their painting excursions and learned their techniques by observation, furthering his education as an artist.
In many of Changās works in the exhibition, the faces of his subjects are not seen. Rather, in beautiful, serene compositions that focus on telling details, one sees the weathered hands of a Muslim man sitting to pray in āZhuhor Across The River In Decemberā or the dangling swollen feet of a grandmother at rest with her family in āThe First Day of Adilfitriā. Explaining this stylistic choice, Chang says, āFrom a pair of hands or feet, the audience can have more space to think or feel after viewing the painting. This is unlike a painting with faces, where the audience will tend to seek to more or less know from the expression of the people in the painting.ā
And with regard to the vibrant and greatly detailed batik that often take center stage in works such as in āAt Duskā¦ Nanyangā and āGarden by South China Seaā, Chang explains his nostalgic love for the beautiful fabric, interwoven with his fond memories of Terengganu in yesteryears. āIn the market, the floral batik design that Malay women wore blended so well with the fruits and vegetables for sale that it was like being in a tropical garden. Even the fishermen woreĀ colorful batik sarong for fishing. So, when they were at work such as pulling the boat, the image of the batikās reflection on the surface of the sea water created an amazing illusion of colors.ā
*For more information, please visit www.museum.bnm.gov.my
Story credits
Text byĀ Nadya Wang
This story was first published in Art Republik.