Feng Shui
Munkao (Malaysia)



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15 – 26 February 2012
10am – 10pm
ION Art Gallery, Level 4, ION Orchard
Admission is free


www.munkao.com


(Co-presented with ION Orchard)


Feng Shui is a meeting point between age old metaphysics of Feng Shui and contemporary art. This exploration sees Munkao, an artist well recognised for his painterly foray into our everyday pop culture, apply Feng Shui principles and imageries to his new series of “painstallations”, “prosperity sculptures” and “auspicious neo-landscapes”.


Feng Shui breaks new ground by inviting a Feng Shui Master to curate the exhibition display based on his expert knowledge of Feng Shui. Through this exploration of a new curatorial strategy, we believe that the viewers' experience of and expectations for the exhibition will be enhanced and challenged.


Relationship to Art & Faith


Feng Shui by Munkao considers, within an exhibition format, an artwork’s post exhibition life within a private collection and the curatorial values that it embodies through the language of popular Feng Shui. It features three series of works, - ‘painstallations’, ‘neo-auspicious landscapes’ and ‘prosperity sculptures’ - all of which draw on Feng Shui imageries as well as utilise its affective register to provoke us into thinking about how an aesthetic object can influence our thinking and feeling.


The exhibition dialogues with the broader M1 Singapore Fringe Festival theme of ‘Art and Faith’ by exploring an alternative curatorial strategy, one that is not govern by academicism or modern day discursive practice. Instead it is based on a completely different metaphysical system and its aesthetic ideals. This is done by inviting a Feng Shui master to hang the artworks based his expert knowledge of Feng Shui metaphysics.


Through this operation, the exhibition brings into relief the pattern of ideological/material consumption, the relationship between art and metaphysics, an incisive observation of popular/mass culture, as it treads the fine balance between humour and farce, complicity and criticality that shape Feng Shui by Munkao’s ability to drive the discussion of ‘art and faith’ by providing both intelligent critique as well as entertainment.


Publicity photos: Eiffel Chong