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Exhibition Statement
During the Covid lockdowns, I began to discover the Internet country. Avenues for connection, exploration, and autonomy exist there. Through online platforms, I navigate new territories without being fixed down by the confines of geography and institutions. I prioritize personal purposes and autonomy; I want my art practice to be meaningful on my terms.
The Internet—linked through cables across different countries and international seas and satellites—becomes a pathway for transcending these boundaries. “Traveling” the Internet has been shaping an identity of sorts for many of us. It could even influence presidential elections like in the US, so why not see how it can help me shape an artistic identity? It might be a way out of a physical, geographical frame, and the constraints imposed by art key holders.
In my travels, I explore ways to exist beyond established structures. I have to re-evaluate pigeon-holed definitions created by institutions of what a contemporary art practice worthy of attention is and simply focus on doing what I do. The contemporary art world is complex yet narrow and constrictive, even toxic. I like fewer structures and hierarchies. As much as possible, I want my art practice to circumvent barriers thrown up by curators, museums, galleries, villager egos, racism, language etc.
Through the Internet passport, I travel virtual and physical landscapes. I do what I know how to best, that is to paint. I pack some painting techniques and ideas and concerns from my past, and I see how these work in the new country I am going to. I explore the idea of painting on-site in mental exile.
Google Maps is one of my best friends. It is an ally, my compass, guiding my journeys alongside an array of social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, search engines, YouTube, etc. And so, my new pursuit begins, both virtually and physically.
The Internet gives me suggestions for physical routes. As I explore the world, I find fewer barriers. I meet audiences who engage with my works-in-progress, some even become my friends. I met a French cook who wanted to pass me her secret recipe! Isn’t this what art and living are all about?
This exhibition has been quickly put together while the works took quite a few years to prepare. My paintings have become lightweight and portable. The world is dynamic and changeable; I want to shed my burdens and become porous to find new spaces for practice.
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Looking at the South China Sea. The Sea has No Country.
I prayed about what was next and felt led to look at the seas. The forces of nature know no borders. They do what they want. It rains one minute, and the sun shines the next. The wind sweeps and overturns what it wishes. No country can own the weather, so why claim the seas?
Looking at the South China Sea is based on a few trips to the coasts of the South China Sea. I searched for places facing this hotbed of contestation and observed the dynamics of nature. Painted on the spot, the works are tinged with the smell of sea salt and adventure. At times, I was trapped in remote locations; other times, sandflies party on my legs while I chased the seas along beaches.
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Ng Joon Kiat
Lit Cities, 2013This work hopes to look at the lack of identity of major cities in an increasingly globalizing world. While city-planners envision profit-driven expansions of a city, what is the imagination of space by the majority who is confined in small pigeon-hole living spaces? Perhaps we still hope and imagine even if it is fictional. With the visually polished looking plastic appearance, this work hopes to bring about questioning issues related to the disparity between our fictional ideals of cities of hope and that of the materialized state of cities. I find the medium of painting a very suitable tool in exploring this sense of the fictional.
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The Not Singapore Art Project: Migration to the Internet Country and Portable Identity.: Some paintings at play: A flash solo by Ng Joon Kiat
Past viewing_room
