The artist’s statement

English

As an artist from Malaysia, I always believe in expressing and sharing what I experienced along my journey as a Malaysian artist. I grew up in a large family with pigeons as pets. In art, one can enjoy a kind of freedom: Thoughts can fly as freely as the pigeons. They, the pigeons that fly into the common folks’ homes and often seeking dwelling place in the temples - become one of the images that I capture in my paintings, and I love to express this type of freedom of thoughts as an artist from Malaysia.

White pigeons symbolize peace and freedom, intimate to people, thus become one of my most preferable themes.

In art, there is a sense of susceptible tender, like the saying in a poem: “The breezes cease but the flowers are still falling, the birds chirp but the mountains are even more serenade”. The cooling freezes still while the pretty flowers fall gradually; birds in the mountain streams brought out the serenity.

I, choose both figurative and abstract ways of expression, thus painted this romantic and sentimental “Pigeons Series”. In submerging mysticism, stalk but rigid, cheerful and melody, in passive yet active, to create a contrasty artistic affection.

I believe, through the abstract expression, it can allow more mental innovation, extends artistic dimensions. And through the perception of artistic colours, brush touches, rhythms and elements of space, one can extract the enjoyment of beauty to achieve a spiritual sublimation — a humble art contribution from an artist from Malaysia.

—from Artist’s statement in Praise of Pigeons Catalogue

中文画语

身为一位来自马来西亚的画家，我希望能通过画和大家分享马来西亚画家的所见所闻。我从小就在一个热爱养鸽子的大家庭长大，和鸽子结下了不解之缘。在艺术中可以享受某种自由：思想可以像鸽子那样自由翱翔。素来，即飞入寻常百姓家，又常在圣洁清静的庙宇栖身踱步的鸽子，已成为我捕捉的画面之一，我希望能让更多人感染这来自马来西亚的画家的自由感受。

白鸽象征和平与自由，且极之品易近人，故成为我喜欢的创作题材之一。

艺术中的意境美，有所谓：“风定花犹落，鸟鸣山更幽” 的况味。习习的凉风已静止了，而美丽的花朵却缓缓的掉落：山间鸟鸣，更能衬托深山的清幽寂静。

我选择以具象和凑向的表现手法，绘成了这一批焕发着浪漫与抒情调子的“鸽子系列” ，在沉著而神秘，平稳而明快，欢愉的节奏中，画面寓动于静，并营造出强烈的艺术感染力。

我相信，抽象表现更能开拓人们的创意思维，衍生了艺术的空间，在纯粹艺术的色彩，笔触，韵律，以及空间的元素中摄取美的享受，使身心灵获以升华 — 这是来自马来西亚的画家对艺术界的一点点贡献

—载自画语，鸽之颂