Extract from "Masterpieces from the National Art Gallery of Malaysia"
《SEA Thru-flow 3》1974 Wood and mixed media construction 30cm x 121cm x 15cm
Born : 1934
Education :
1961-Taiwan Normal University, Taipei, Taiwan
1968-Pratt Institute, New York
Choong Kam Kow, like Tang Tuck Kang and the other Malaysian New Scene artists, subscribed to the more analytical, non-emotional and non-symbolic approaches in creativity inspired by the Neo-Constructivist tendencies of the Seventies. Rejecting the gestural marks of the expressionist artists, the artist has constructed five undulating forms that have been brought together to form a composite whole. The work was designed to be hung together on a wall or exhibited side by side on the floor. This work is actually an “object” rather than a sculpture in that it is self referential and does not depict anything outside of itself. Neatly cut holes have been made on the forms to emphasise the intrusion of real physical space and this has heightened its identity as a “Thing”. It is, in essence, a minimalist form existing in the same space as the viewer. The highly polished surfaces suggest an industrially “finished” look and character.
This work was one of the small numbers of significant art works that had emerged within the local art scene during the Seventies that had drawn attention to the “real” rather than the illusory in art practices. It belonged to the small number of challenging environmental works that had anticipated the later Malaysian involvements with installations during the mid-Eighties and Nineties.
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