Tung Yue Nang, Cambodia
artcommune gallery presents Life by veteran artist Tung Yue Nang. Tung (b. 1959, Singapore) has secured a reputation, over the past decade, as an accomplished draughtsman and ink painter with a recognisable landscape style that is stupendously rich in detail yet delicately poetic in its espousal of Chinese ink-and-brush aesthetic. However, Photography, as much as painting, has been a constant in Tung’s life as an artist. In the period of 2000s, the passion he reserved for photography even took precedence over painting and he devoted well over a decade to mostly travelling and developing a body of photographic work.
Life is Tung Yue Nang’s first solo photography exhibition and focuses on an aspect of his work that is less well known and exposed to the public. This curated showcase of 60 photograph prints at artcommune gallery features locales and topics spanning 6 countries – China, India, Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia, and Singapore. While these works constitute but a fraction of Tung’s dedicated engagement with the medium, they bring to sharp focus some classically human themes that have always preoccupied him – beauty in the mundane, family bonds, the interior lives of ordinary people, old-world values in a changing society, childhood innocence, the resilience of life, and the quest for spirituality.
Tung has chosen ‘Life’ as the exhibition title, for the simple and important reason that life is the subject of his photography. Life as experienced and pursued in different parts of the world, which he feels immeasurably fortunate to have encountered, and at times lived amongst. Like the pilgrim in search of meaning, truth, and spirituality, but with a recording instrument that apprehends moments from the quotidian to the transcendental, his push of the shutter is guided by a yearning to situate one’s understanding of and exchange with the world. The show is accompanied by a 95-page catalogue containing over 60 photographs, including all the works on exhibit. In addition, a handful of Tung’s signature ink landscapes will also be on display, providing audience an interesting window as well as point of departure for comprehending Tung’s artistic philosophy, techniques, and approach to each medium.
Unlike painting, which allows Tung to purposefully reference and reconstruct reality by taking in and leaving out things to compose an ideal image-world, street photography is anchored by unpredictability and instantaneous responses. There is the challenge to conceive from an unconstructed mise-en-scène, with the hope of capturing at a stroke, the delicate balance that upholds the dynamics interweaving people, things and environments.
For instance, while in in Siem Reap, Cambodia, Tung captured first-hand how locals in the countryside were left to cope with flash floods that destroyed their homes and further diminished what were already scant possessions. In one image, children swim in the water and laugh on as they cling to the rear of a half-submerged lorry that struggles to ferry the villagers to dry land. Another reveals a lady lounging indifferently on her bed, watching the television in a half-submerged room lined with pails. His images highlight how resilient ordinary people, and even children, can be in the face of hardships.
Official Opening with Artist in Attendance: Saturday, 11 May, 3pm – 6pm
Venue: artcommune gallery, 76 Bras Basah Road, Carlton Hotel, #01-01 Singapore 189558
When: 11 - 26 May 2024, 12noon - 7pm
