studio LDA :探索就是海阔天空

自己对距离有一种莫名的感觉。就像欣赏遥远半抽象的山水画。总觉得距离给思想很大的空间和发展的可能性。当距离很近时，这种无际的可能性亦随渐渐消失，虽然是更能捉摸得着，或能接近它的兴奋感，然而感觉少了那种海阔天空。探索就是海阔天空。
撰写：look from studio LDA.

studio LDA : Condolence to Yong Ching Sui

“Challenge” 51cm x 61cm oil on canvas by Ching Sui, a Malaysian artist

(Due to the dark painting, it may be necessary to adjusting contrast of your screen to have a better view of the pictures published in this blog.)

23rd May 06 afternoon, I got a message from Hon Loong read “Ching Sui passed away yesterday 6:30pm in Kuching.” That afternoon, my heart just went down and down with the news. I couldn’t quite explain why. After all, I have not even met the artist. I got a painting at his medical fund raising exhibition few months ago. And I read a little about him and know he was a pleasant guy, and I know he made good cakes. That’s about all. That night, I excused myself from the LAM exam group study session to go home earlier. I wanted to look at his painting “Challenge” again.

The painting hung in the store next to our living area. As the store room door was left ajar, light cut right into the store room when I came into the house switching on the living area wall lamp. The store room was barely lit, and I could see the dark silhouette of the canvas hung heavily on the wall. It looked pretty much like the black heavy canvas I first saw during the exhibition, isolated and lonely on a gloomy dimly lit wall. Other than the heavy blackness, I couldn’t possibly make up anything else from the distance. In fact, it’s so heavy, so dark, neither my wife nor I could bear the weight, so we decided to hang it in this store room, where I keep my working tools and books. The store room used only a 60watt yellow bulb, so I brought in a torch light to view the painting.



The pontoon ( partt picture )

On closer look under the torch light now, I noticed the background was filled by a two tiers steep cliff, with a choppy seascape set at the bottom of the painting. There was no sky in the painting. It felt stifled and there was no way out. Right on the top of the cliff, was a little timber shack. I had seen this shack now and then in Ching Sui’s other paintings. I liked to believe it must be somewhere close to his heart, somewhere he was familiar with. Where he grown up maybe? Extending from the shack, there was a timber gangway connecting all the way to a pontoon rest at mid height of the cliff. The platform was dry and covered with colorful shingles barely visible even under the strong torch light. I could not understand why was the pontoon set at this height. I don’t believe the sea water would reach this height even at the highest tide of the year. There was no connection link way from the pontoon to the rough seascape below. So I imagined the swimmer took a cliff dive to jump into the sea. My torch light moved on and shined on to the swimming figure. It suddenly came to my mind that the swimmer after taking the dive, was swimming away from the cliff, in the choppy black sea. And there would be no return.



The swimmer ( part picture )

My friend, rest well. Maybe you could now rest on a pontoon on a sunny day, where the colorful shingles gleam like corals under calm shallow sparkling sea.

look from studio LDA

studio LDA - Dora Maar with cat

"Dora Maar with cat"

So it was auctioned for millions!

I am only willing to pay half of my miserable salary, though; I would still pay half if my salary is a corporate ceo's figure. I think it’s a relative matter. The painting do have certain intriguing and haunting quality.
BUT I certainly won't hang it in my house for I have no affection to the person of this portrait. Besides, it is quite ugly. I mean it is really ugly. I don't think Picasso ever love Dora Marr. She was probably just a tool to his exploration in cubism. Nobody would paint a person he truly loves with such distortion!
The figure with the hat, the cat, and those long sharp nails looked more like a witch to me.

look fr studio LDA