Yeoh Jin Leng

Extract from "Masterpieces from the National Art Gallery of Malaysia"

《Icons And Precious Earth: An Installation》　1991　

Ceramic Sculpture　243.5cm x 91cm x 98cm

Born: 1929

Education:

1952 - Malayan Teacher’s Training College, Kirby, Liverpool

1 957 - Chelsea School of Art, London,

1961 - Hornsey College of Art, University of London

　　Yeoh Jin Leng, besides being an accomplished painter, is also a very talented ceramic artist. And he has achieved a considerable reputation for his hand-made pottery forms and his abstract ceramic sculptural pieces. This work reproduced here is a good example reflecting his sensitivity to the medium. The artist’s deep interest in nature and the environment must explain his interest in organic shapes and forms, as is reflected in his paintings, drawings and also in his ceramic forms. His approach toward creativity has been largely influenced by the interest in vitalistic, biomorphic considerations.

　　Icons And Precious Earth: An Installation is a complex ceramic sculpture that is made up of several different components. The organic pieces include the vertical, rounded cylindrical forms with organic shapes extending from them and the other smaller components which include the dark standing human figures and the flat shapes, scattered across the floor of the platform on which all the forms have been displayed. The impression that one gets is of a strange, surrealistic landscape filled with the tall standing structures that could be representing edifices. These organic towers are interesting for their unusual shapes. Where is this city located? Which time frame describes their existence? One is reminded of those strange cities that one encounters in films dealing with fantasy settings such as in the Hollywood films dealing with the mythical characters Conan or the Beast Master. This is a world of ingeniously designed organic edifices and shapes that is not of our world. The viewer may be reminded of the organic architecture of Antonio Gaudi. There is the same kind of creative invention of abstract, organic environments.