Richard Koh Fine Art (RKFA) is pleased to announce “Mud & Mashed Hydrangea Leaves And Salad Of Dandelion Greens”, an upcoming exhibition by Malaysian photographer Eiffel Chong scheduled to run from 16 – 30 August 2018 at Richard Koh Fine Art, 229, Jalan Maarof, Bukit Bandaraya, Bangsar 59100, Kuala Lumpur. The exhibition will present a series of multipanelled and large format still life photography works executed during his teaching stint in Thailand last year. The Opening Reception will take place on Thursday, 16 August, from 5 – 8pm.
Encountering anomalies upon returning to a favoured city, Eiffel’s most recent body of works document the shift in his impression towards one of the world’s top tourist destination, Thailand. Invited to Chiang Mai for a 3-month teaching assignment, the artist’s eager visit to the country’s capital resulted him returning with a conflicted internal battle. Coupled with the affirmations around the reason most city folk had decided to move to the outskirts, this prompted Eiffel to embark on a journey to observe and express the shifting worldviews taking place in a foreign environment.
These photography works serve as a documentation of flowers composed in various forms to convey Eiffel’s preoccupation with individuality, life happenings and mortality. These images of flowers: papermade, packed, withering and otherwise deformed, are anything but the general consensus of beauty. The artist’s manipulation and intent is apparent in each heavily manicured arrangement, blown up into larger than life prints that maintain their reality and waning presence.
Eiffel’s floral arrangements, anthropomorphised and staged by the artist to suggest a keen sense of interaction is devoid of human presence. They are executed in an aesthetic stoic and solemn, often familiarly associated with Eiffel’s unique style. Juxtaposed against a backdrop of attention-grabbing colors, the artist’s removal from the artwork beckons for scrutiny, an invitation into an arena that some might deem too close for comfort. A closer look at the suggestive title would unveil the conditions that each flower responds to, a nod to the rollercoaster ride that life hands out to the best of us.
“Mud & Mashed Hydrangea Leaves And Salad Of Dandelion Greens” sets the stage for us to delve further into the artist’s psyche and his ruminations of life through the language of flowers.