Chang Fee Ming's watercolors set a new standard

Chang Fee Ming's watercolors set a new standard

Carla Bianpoen, Contributor/Jakarta

Chang Fee Ming's Mekong Series in watercolor, pen and ink will
open at the Galeri Nasional on Aug. 2, officiated by the
Indonesian ambassadors to those countries through which the
Mekong flows, along with art lover tycoon Jusuf Wanandi.

The 12th longest river in the world and known as the Mother of
Waters, the 4,800 km Mekong sustains over 60 million people by
providing food, water, transportation and many other daily
necessities. The river runs from its source on the Tibetan
Plateau through China's Yunnan province, Burma, Thailand,
Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam.

Chang's series also includes studies and sketches in ink on
stamped postcards, receipts and other ordinary scraps of paper.

As the forces of development and progress seep into even the
most remote corners of the world, including the lands of the
Mekong, his drawings may be the first -- and last -- to capture
in an Asian perspective the rapidly disappearing, traditional
peoples of the Mekong.

Created during three-month jaunts over several years, these
works are made even more valuable because of the spirit behind
them. As Chang said: "To travel, see and paint is a way of
learning, a life philosophy, a value that shares the romance and
nostalgia of a time when artists dreamed of discovering new lands
and cultures and to paint them." Further, he wanted to express
his feeling of belonging to Southeast Asia.

Luminous, sometimes somber, but always intense, the
watercolors portray people, places, communities and cultures
that, in the face of modernization, carry on their traditions and
customs. Much of this is revealed in Chang's detailed depiction
of the traditional dress, sashes and textiles that personify the
tribal and traditional peoples he met during his travels.

While these rustic images may conjure nostalgia, Chang has not
closed his eyes to the political turbulence and ensuing trauma of
the region, which continues to this day. The Scar, Tonle Sap and
Cambodia 2000 embody these concerns.

The series, comprising 30 small portraits, 26 large paintings
and 14 small watercolors, is the fruit of Chang Fee Ming's
extraordinary exploration with watercolor.

Says Malaysia-based visual artist Wong Hoy Chong: "By playing
with both thin and thick layers over the pigment, Chang has found
ways to overlay translucence over opacity and vice-versa, such
that the final painted surface is incredibly tactile and
material, but without losing the glowing transparency afforded by
watercolors. In a way, he worked in a process much like that of
an oil painter, manipulating the translucence and opacity
inherent in the pigments and dyes."

From a distance, some of his work look like oil paintings,
particularly his large drawings and sketches.

His past work carries a touch of photographic realism, but
some new development is apparent in this series. Omen, Tachileik
and Myanmar 2003 are all atmospheric and infused with emotion,
the last featuring a woman looking sorrowfully over a lush
landscape under a darkening sky. Meanwhile, Lines of Life, Chiang
Khong and Thailand 2002 stand testament to his skill in bringing
out texture with the minutest details.

He has captured a broad range of facial expressions in his
Mekong portraits of both young and old -- a new feature in
Chang's work, according to exhibition curator Beverly Yong.

"Previously, the vast majority of his works have shown at most
the torso or the lower half of the human figure, focusing on
clothing and feet," she said.

Chang was born in 1959 in Kuala Terengganu, Malaysia. Growing
up on the coast, said Yong, he learned at a very young age to
harness his medium to portray the changing degrees of a day or
the ebb and flow of the sea. He has become fluent with the many
variations of light in Asia and its gradations of density to
capture the gradients of temperature and luminescence into a
sensual impression of a particular place.

The idea for the Mekong series began while Chang was
conducting research for another series and coalesced as he delved
deeper into the region, exploring the links between the
Terengganu and Mekong peoples. In particular, he studied the
Muslim Cham, who came from Vietnam and Cambodia and settled in
the northern Malaysian Kelantan and Terengganu states, and the
Muslim Yunanese, traces of whom have also been found in
Terengganu.

His search is ongoing, and there is no guessing as to the
extent to which Chang's watercolors will evolve in the future, as
even now, he seems to be setting a new standard in watercolor
paintings.

The Jakarta leg of the touring exhibition, which started in
April in Kuala Lumpur and was held at the Chiang Mai Art Museum
in May, is organized by Valentine Willie Fine Arts Malaysia in
cooperation with Kupu-Kupu Art Project Management.

A Touring Exhibition of the Mekong Series by Chang Fee Ming will
run from Aug. 2 through Aug. 11 at the Galeri Nasional Jakarta,
Jl. Medan Merdeka Timur 14, Gambir, Central Jakarta. Phone: 021-
34833954