Temu House takes its name from bertemu (Malay for “to meet”)(Photo: Temu House)
Have a lot of things changed for artist in the last two years? Or, maybe not. An exhibition at Temu House in Petaling Jaya titled Everything Changed, Nothing Changed offers visitors a peek into how 12 artists responded to what was going on around them.
Temu House is a new, privately run space that takes its name from bertemu (Malay for “to meet”), denoting a place where people can gather and have conversations over food, the arts and other activities. Meet the artists who will be at the opening of the show on March 5 and find out what moves them.
Graphic designer Amanda Gayle enjoys projects that reframe existing ideas about the world, favouring an unplanned approach inspired by experience and her surroundings.
Amani Azlin, a graphic design graduate of the University of the Arts London (UAL), has photographed and directed campaigns for the local fashion scene since 2017. Using her own experience as inspiration, she explores identity and womanhood.
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Caryn Koh moved from the medical field to art to rediscover her passion. Deeply personal and introspective, her paintings, installations and video art revolve around her childhood.
CC Kua, who did her Master of Fine Arts at Tainan National University of the Arts in Taiwan, invites viewers into her works using colour, bold strokes, imagery and random humour, which children easily dive into, a reviewer wrote.
Art teacher Ho Mei Kei, whose creations incorporate the notion of child play, is said to record emotions, growth and the life process through simple objects around us.
Joanne Loo was a graphic designer, writer and illustrator for four years before she pursued an MA in illustration from Camberwell College of Arts, UAL. Through paintings, illustrations and mixed media sculptures, she examines how personal experiences connect, divide and define human beings.
Louise Low studied contemporary art at the University of Tasmania in Australia. She views art, derived from how artists interpret what they see, feel and encounter, as the window to their soul. “And the soul can be very, very powerful. That’s how artists touch — and move — the world.”
Ong Cai Bin, the gold award winner in the 2017 UOB Painting of the Year (Emerging Artist category), questions and expresses the self through spaces, environments and relationships. “Making art doesn’t make the world understand me better, but it makes me understand the world better,” she writes in an Instagram post.
Sarah Radzi and Syakirah Jaafar studied fine arts at Universiti Teknologi Mara. Sarah uses drawings and paintings to explore her identity through ambiguous figures and space, while Syakirah works mostly on sculptures, creating whimsical visualisations of the female form.
Sheena Liam, who uses the internet moniker Times New Romance, is a fashion model who is equally well known for her embroidered feminine figures with loose braids flowing from the canvas.
Yante Ismail, who is “unapologetically feminist”, creates art related to women’s rights and empowerment and which comments on social issues. She challenges patriarchy and social and religious norms that dictate how women should exist in society.
'Everything Changed, Nothing Changed' will be held from March 5 to April 10 at Temu House (49 Lorong 16/9E, Petaling Jaya). Viewing by appointment only 012 911 8470.
This article first appeared on Feb 28, 2022 in The Edge Malaysia.
