Isolation House, 2025
Chong’s work evokes the forgotten histories of what was known as “New Villages” in Malaya in the 1950s. These internment camps were created to counter guerilla warfare by the communists. About 500,000 people were forcibly resettled where poor living conditions led to many deaths.
Unlike the rational clarity of a map or textbook, Chong places us in a labyrinthic encounter with New Village signboards. Wrong turns, dead ends, and incomplete views create a semiological nightmare of fragments, signs and meaning. History is incomplete when you’re standing inside.
This historical lacuna points to something much more fundamental to all of us. It is about ways of looking, of how the gaze shapes our relationship to the Other, whether it is simply another human, the colonial object, or even Nature.
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Chong Kim Chiew (b. 1975, Malaysia) explores the nation as an ideological, political, and aesthetic construct through diverse mediums and methods. He views materials as dynamic, fluctuating with their environment and open to reinterpretation.
A graduate of the Guangzhou Academy of Fine Art (BFA, Oil Painting), Kim Chiew has exhibited widely in Malaysia since 1994, with international showcases in Singapore, Australia and France. His works are part of the Singapore Art Museum's permanent collection.
Unlike the rational clarity of a map or textbook, Chong places us in a labyrinthic encounter with New Village signboards. Wrong turns, dead ends, and incomplete views create a semiological nightmare of fragments, signs and meaning. History is incomplete when you’re standing inside.
This historical lacuna points to something much more fundamental to all of us. It is about ways of looking, of how the gaze shapes our relationship to the Other, whether it is simply another human, the colonial object, or even Nature.
***
Chong Kim Chiew (b. 1975, Malaysia) explores the nation as an ideological, political, and aesthetic construct through diverse mediums and methods. He views materials as dynamic, fluctuating with their environment and open to reinterpretation.
A graduate of the Guangzhou Academy of Fine Art (BFA, Oil Painting), Kim Chiew has exhibited widely in Malaysia since 1994, with international showcases in Singapore, Australia and France. His works are part of the Singapore Art Museum's permanent collection.
Artist:
Chong Kim Chiew
Mixed Media
Dimensions variable
Chong Kim Chiew
Mixed Media
Dimensions variable