"The qualitative draughtsmanship in Boo’s works show a keen observational attitude becoming of both the thinker and the painter. Consequently, the renditions that apply swabs of pigment to drive form and contours, illustrate the rapid nature of transformation and change: that light changes a space every single moment of the day and the night; even artificial light, suffuses the localised environment with a staging effect that renders the mind inert but still curious. The eye travels as much as and as far as light does: this is how painting of this traditional kind or convention, responds well to the current and ever contemporary concept of how we see and why we see, what we see and why it is possible we understand what we see."*
Preamble
Bridget Tracy Tan
Director
Institute of Southeast Asian Arts & Art Galleries
Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts
* from catalogue for The New Cathedral solo exhibition 2012
Preamble
Bridget Tracy Tan
Director
Institute of Southeast Asian Arts & Art Galleries
Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts
* from catalogue for The New Cathedral solo exhibition 2012
The Twelve Apostles
What Sze Yang has embarked on is a never-ending exploration, whereby paintings constitute apt footnotes to our tumultuous world, as well as the means and strategies for rediscovery. In The Twelve Apostles, we see what appears to be the sort of small, plastic stool found in countless homes. On closer inspection, however, the stool is reminiscent of the structure of a cathedral. It has an arch on each of its four sides, with the top corresponding to a celestial vault. A stool serves to complement the structure of the human body by providing height and the means for rest; the titular apostles are similar in the sense that, to the seekers of Truth, they represent temporary repose to the weary, as much as they are
(metaphorically) a lamp for guidance and a sweet spring in the desert. It is laudable that Sze Yang has managed to find and make use of such a link between the two, which one would normally imagine to be totally unrelated to each other.
Chua Poh leng, Lecturer, Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts, 2011
What Sze Yang has embarked on is a never-ending exploration, whereby paintings constitute apt footnotes to our tumultuous world, as well as the means and strategies for rediscovery. In The Twelve Apostles, we see what appears to be the sort of small, plastic stool found in countless homes. On closer inspection, however, the stool is reminiscent of the structure of a cathedral. It has an arch on each of its four sides, with the top corresponding to a celestial vault. A stool serves to complement the structure of the human body by providing height and the means for rest; the titular apostles are similar in the sense that, to the seekers of Truth, they represent temporary repose to the weary, as much as they are
(metaphorically) a lamp for guidance and a sweet spring in the desert. It is laudable that Sze Yang has managed to find and make use of such a link between the two, which one would normally imagine to be totally unrelated to each other.
Chua Poh leng, Lecturer, Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts, 2011
The ExtraOrdinary
The artist’s other recent works also signal a return to simplicity. He turns away from landmark architecture to deal with the most ordinary and common little objects in life. Resultant works like Extension Cord, Fire Extinguisher, Measuring Tape, Pencil Sharpener and Salvation (lady's handbag) either unveil the “as-is” nature of things or lead us to perceive deeper meanings (or broader implications) through the titles or otherwise.
Notably, trickles from a flat brush on the canvas contribute to the variegated visual polyphony, particularly by underscoring the impermanence and vulnerability of being in the phenomenal world. After all, the painted images could have ceased to exist in a moment of inattention as fluids flow over them by accident, rendering forms unrecognisable.
Chua Poh leng, Lecturer, Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts, 2011
The artist’s other recent works also signal a return to simplicity. He turns away from landmark architecture to deal with the most ordinary and common little objects in life. Resultant works like Extension Cord, Fire Extinguisher, Measuring Tape, Pencil Sharpener and Salvation (lady's handbag) either unveil the “as-is” nature of things or lead us to perceive deeper meanings (or broader implications) through the titles or otherwise.
Notably, trickles from a flat brush on the canvas contribute to the variegated visual polyphony, particularly by underscoring the impermanence and vulnerability of being in the phenomenal world. After all, the painted images could have ceased to exist in a moment of inattention as fluids flow over them by accident, rendering forms unrecognisable.
Chua Poh leng, Lecturer, Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts, 2011
The Space In Between
"If we could, freed from both delusions that the world can be coherently ordered under a single center and that the old center must be replaced to a new one, learn how to actively accept and maybe even participate the endless play of changing seat among multi-perspectives between the national and the global, the inner and the outer, etc, landscapes in the mist might come out as the countless possibilities. Boo Sze Yang's Magic-Eye-like canvases, demanding constant readjusting focus, could be read as one good instrument to show that kind of our current circumstances".
Landscapes in the Mist, catalogue essay, Chung Yookyung (Art History · Lector of Sungshin Women's University)
"If we could, freed from both delusions that the world can be coherently ordered under a single center and that the old center must be replaced to a new one, learn how to actively accept and maybe even participate the endless play of changing seat among multi-perspectives between the national and the global, the inner and the outer, etc, landscapes in the mist might come out as the countless possibilities. Boo Sze Yang's Magic-Eye-like canvases, demanding constant readjusting focus, could be read as one good instrument to show that kind of our current circumstances".
Landscapes in the Mist, catalogue essay, Chung Yookyung (Art History · Lector of Sungshin Women's University)