Joel recently bagged the 27th UOB Painting of the Year competition with his body of work, Anatomical Fantasies of Meat. This generated quite a big wave of debate within our little island, where many felt that a photograph should not win the competition and that they are too grisly to be considered art. Parallels were drawn with Damien Hirst, but conceptually, they are very different.
TOP TO BOTTOM, (from “Anatomical Fantasies of Meat“)
© Joel Yuen, 2007
Frankly speaking, I think these set of work is amazing. The prints are even more breathtaking (and they are available in limited editions at 2902 Gallery). Being the unprecedented winner with a photographic work in a stuffy “painting” competition, he has helped pave the way for the elevation of photography’s status, here in Singapore.
And I say, it’s about time! It’s beneficial on many folds - our society needs to lighten up and to be educated that photography goes beyond happy snapshots and glitzy fashion shoots. The general public recoils at anything that deviates from the mainstream, often not engaging art on a higher cerebral level. We need greater traffic flow at our exhibitions, we need people to look and go beyond the surface.
But of course, this is coming from a cranky guy with a migraine in the morning. I’m sure things are slowly changing and people are opening up. I shall leave this hanging here while I go visit the doctor for my pills. Anyway, congrats to Joel once again, I do hope he doesn’t melt under the pressure of controversy.
Well.To a certain extent, I agree with what you’ve said about the public and photography. Perhaps its the spontaneity and incredibly easy access to photography that people never really did consider it art, especially the locals.To them, good art is about things looking beautiful.Anything that doesnt aint good.But I guess our perception of art here has been pretty limited to Salon style paintings and stuff. Never has photography been included. Look at the primary school art lessons. I’m not sure about now, but in my time there was no photography included, even though it was pretty accessible. It wasn’t even included in the lower sec art lessons. So we cant expect too much from the locals because I guess a big portion of them are as apathetic to art as they are about American politics.
Of course the piece creates controversy! Which I think is what makes it strong, outstanding. But honestly, it aint all that grisly. At least to me, in BnW. If there was the color of blood maybe thats where the grisliness sets in.
Of course these pictures aren´t about meat are they?
And they are tremendous visually.
Isn´t it great that people create these things despite what (all through time) is supposed to be “art”?
If Singapore is as culturally stiffling as rumoured, the good news is that eventually this will, paradoxically produce some grat reactive creativity.
Perhaps I`m being abit too clichéd here… great photos anyhow.
Personally, I think that things are slowly changing here, attitudes are changing and people are getting liberated.
jc: I’m sure some reactive creativity is being stirred at the moment.
I was impressed with Joel’s work. He deserves to win. Turning chicken feet into visual art is fantastic and no easy feat! I always believe a good artist can turn any subject into art.
When I organized my AseanArtToday show at Earl Lu Gallery, Lasalle-SIA in August 2001, Francis Ng showed a piece of photography “Constructing Construction #1″ and this very work went on to win the Philip Morris Award that year. I’m a little disappointed that after 7 years, photography as an art form has still not taken off in Singapore. Tay Kay Chin has partly explained to me why. But, I do feel optimistic that the entire region of Southeast Asia is fast catching up. I’m beginning to see many young artists using photography as a medium. There are now more and more contemporary photography shown in galleries in Bangkok. A big one is coming on September 18 called PhotoArtAsiaExpo2008 with artists from many Asian countries including Singapore’s Sherman Ong and Jason Wee.
Jaffee Yee
PhotoArtAsia
Publisher/Editor-in-Chief