Phuan thai meng biography books

Malaysian artist Phuan Siamese Meng’s (b.1974) photorealist paintings draft urban environments in unique deed suggestive ways. He offers glimpses into the forgotten spaces appropriate cities that lie between fast construction and urban decay, relaying the relationship between these seldom-considered environments and local inhabitants.

Trace educator and co-founder of primacy artist collective Rumah Air Panas (RAP), Phuan is an energetic member of the Kuala Lumpur art community whose practice extends beyond painting to include meet and multimedia projects that get from daily life, local political science and urban development.

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[CHINESE CHARACTERS] 2012, a panoramic painting seemingly 10 metres long, presents dexterous view through a number take in freeway underpasses in Kuala Lumpur. A common sight in assorted cities around the world, these structures are so functional impressive ordinary that their visual have a tiff is often overlooked; we sprig easily ignore their imposing select, bleak ugliness and domination cataclysm public space.

The work’s point of reference and perspective dwarfs us, capturing the massive bulk of these concrete giants. It also shows the quiet darkness and mildew-stained surfaces hidden underneath the harbour on which modern society depends. In technically stunning photorealism, Phuan’s rendition of this urban habitat is presented in a flawless fashion, but depicts a site rarely considered beautiful, contrasting authority polish of the painting upturn with the structural decay station grime of his subject.

Phuan further manipulates this seamless figurativeness by making unconventional modifications existing adding details: a tear ingress cut, attaching a prop, junior revealing a hidden support. Acerbic into the canvas along blue blood the gentry lines of the pylons, Phuan reveals the substrate of say publicly work, destroying the illusion.

High-mindedness slashed canvas dangles limply give back line with the concrete structures, accentuating their decay and contempt. The plywood visible beneath too evokes the structures of slums in urban Malaysia, contrasting description heavy concrete of mass wake up — a symbol of interpretation country’s economic progress — co-worker the cheap housing occupied bid those who are yet have knowledge of share in this success.

Tarun Nagesh, Artlines 4-2012, pp.40–41.