작품 상세

Thanks for the mammaries, no pun intended. Chan Kok Hooi’s art obsession with this prominent part of a woman’s anatomy with blue aureoles is nothing sexual, but more a turn-off and a comment on current events, with a blue-star sapphire (or is it a blue diamond?) pendant in view. The breasts are taken as a metaphor of Mother Nature or a country being nurtured but here, the aureole studs look like rashes of pustular wounds, dripping revulsive liquid.There’s the phrase ‘milk of human kindness’ in Shakespeare, and another work in the series mentioned ‘milk of melancholy,’ but what does ‘secret milk’ portend? Kok Hooi won the Mayor of Beppu Prize in the Beppu Art Biennale in Oita, Japan, in 2005 and a winner of the Malaysian award of the Asean Art Award in 2003. He also won a prize in the Taichung Print and Drawing Biennial in Taiwan in 2006. He was a finalist of the Sovereign Asian Art Prize (Hong Kong) from 2007 to 2009, and the Louis Vuitton Art Prize (Hong Kong) in 2007. He won the Juror’s Award in the Young Contemporary Artists (Bakat Muda Sezaman) competition in 2006-2007 and was placed among the Top 3 (2D category) in the 2004 competition. He was awarded a Royal Overseas League scholarship for residency in Arbroath,Scotland, in 2009. His other residencies were at Galeri Petronas (2008), ABN Amro Malihom (2007 and 2008), Gwangju (2012), Red Gate Gallery, Beijing (2009), and Vermont Studio Centre in the United States in 2007. His solos were Imitating (Red Mill Gallery, Vermont Studio Centre, USA, 2007); Photo Store (Feijacun Village, under Red Gate Gallery, Beijing, in 2008); I See(k) You: Recent Works (Galeri Petronas, Kuala Lumpur, 2010); You Are Carnivores (Pierogi Gallery, New York, 2010); and Sell Out (Art Seasons Gallery, Singapore, 2012).