{"id":7537,"date":"2015-10-30T12:40:26","date_gmt":"2015-10-30T04:40:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/weiling-gallery.com\/gallery\/?post_type=portfolio&p=7537"},"modified":"2015-10-30T12:40:26","modified_gmt":"2015-10-30T04:40:26","slug":"read-artists-statement-marvin-chan","status":"publish","type":"portfolio","link":"https:\/\/dev08.mm-sb.com\/web04\/portfolio-item\/read-artists-statement-marvin-chan\/","title":{"rendered":"Read artist\u2019s statement \u2013 Marvin Chan"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Marvin Chan, b.1972
\nSelf studied
\nLetters to my unborn child
\nmercurial times<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

Process<\/span>
\nI began working on these paintings when Jessica and I
\nwere contemplating having children. This of course brought
\nmany things into consideration such as the social-political
\nclimate at present, our welfare and the future.<\/p>\n

This also made me revisit previous works I had created,
\nsuch as the immaculate politician, perpetual child and
\nthe evil-good doer, which represented an aspect of the truth,
\nthere exists others.<\/p>\n

Everything has at least two aspects to it
\nand this creates a need to find balance, between now and then,
\nthe urgent and the important and essentially what my sensibilities lead me to.<\/p>\n

This force me to examine the feasibility of my career as an artist
\nand what it means, because almost every aspect of life has a
\nconnection with commerce, and commerce is never simple.
\nMuch like life.<\/p>\n

The beginning and now<\/span>
\nIt started in 2005, in a workshop on using the human body as
\nvisual motif and how various ideologies and political forces
\nshape attitudes toward our bodies. While it dealt mainly with
\nidentity, this offered me an avenue to view a more intricate
\nworking of society in this country and how it all weaves into
\none entity called Malaysia. It was the beginning of my quest
\nfor truth.<\/p>\n

Coming close to three years, what I had hoped for turned out
\nquite the contrary. Apart from being layered and complicated,
\nsociety is further tempered by the complexities of life. There
\nis not one way in working it out, but many, the fact remains
\nthat truth is contained in vario-aspects.<\/p>\n

What appears to be justified in one aspect is not in another,
\nand in this age of reason, humanity is faced a questionable
\nchallenge to make sense of everything.<\/p>\n

Why?<\/p>\n

Logic and life<\/span>
\nWhile logic ensures a consistency parallel to scientific methods,
\nlife is not something we can predict, not when the only constant
\nis change.<\/p>\n

Through processing the time and space that I belong to and the issues
\nsurrounding it, these works, have distilled into intimate accounts
\nof my time, reflecting the climate from the perspective of matters that
\nare closes to me. While it does show my smallness, it also reveals
\na larger, universal need for care and love.<\/p>\n

Mercurial times<\/span>
\nIn these times everything is challenged, companies designed
\nto last 100 years crumble, ideologies are replaced or amended
\nand the human race takes on the challenge of holding
\non to old values while in the relentless pursuit of progress and change.<\/p>\n

Values are challenged constantly and the outcome, becoming
\never more obtuse. We no longer have the convenience of oneness,
\nit is replaced with division and the revelation of mixed motives.<\/p>\n

These are mercurial times.<\/p>\n

The works<\/span>
\nThe pieces are evolving spaces on which I balance a cocktail of
\nemotions and observations. In the process, I lay out disparities
\nin perspectives, made up of actual and perceived truths,
\nfocusing more on how it feels like to be human, an artist, friend,
\nhusband and hopefully as a father.<\/p>\n

I believe that reason will do more damage to humanity as it continues
\nto seek answers, It takes over much of what is needed to be felt.
\nThe fact remains that there are no empirical evidence to how life
\nwill become, or how good things will get.<\/p>\n

In spite of breakthroughs and revolutionary ideas, there will always
\nbe suffering, as there will be joy and happiness. There will always
\nbe conflicts and resolutions caught in a constant oscillation and the art
\nI create reflect how it affects me, in your space.<\/p>\n

In my smallness I find the magnitude at which life operates,
\nand only in its daunting shadow can I share my stories.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/section><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","tags":[],"portfolio_entries":[5],"class_list":["post-7537","portfolio","type-portfolio","status-publish","hentry","portfolio_entries-news-2"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dev08.mm-sb.com\/web04\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/portfolio\/7537","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dev08.mm-sb.com\/web04\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/portfolio"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dev08.mm-sb.com\/web04\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/portfolio"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dev08.mm-sb.com\/web04\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7537"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dev08.mm-sb.com\/web04\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/portfolio\/7537\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dev08.mm-sb.com\/web04\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7537"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dev08.mm-sb.com\/web04\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7537"},{"taxonomy":"portfolio_entries","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dev08.mm-sb.com\/web04\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/portfolio_entries?post=7537"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}