The definition of the word “sculpture” had been a malleable one in contemporary artistic practice. Since the breakthrough of conceptual art in the West, diverse and differentiated objects have come to be known as “sculptures”. Ready-mades, assemblages, and installations are what that is fashionable in the museums and galleries. In attempts to question what art is, the conceptual artists moved towards impermanent and non-representational objects; the traditional sense of sculptural endeavours, those of carvings and modelling, castings and figurations, was for a while deemed out-dated, and the virtues of the sculpted, expressive 3-dimensional forms devalued.

The situation here is not dissimilar.

Under such circumstance, Chee Kiong’s love for the tangible form was however, unshaken. Not intentionally, but his first one-man show “Sculpture” turn out to be a confrontation to this phenomenon. Incorporating powerful technical skills and artistic thoughts, the sculpted forms of his radiate distinct aura, and would captivate the attention of any being. Chee Kiong had proven that the charm of the tangible form is not exhausted, not is it perishable.

The men first fell in love with clay when he was a student at the Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts. With his benefactor-teacher, Mr. Chern Lian Shan, he first started sculpting in the realistic and expressionistic manner. The earlier works included in this show are robust, corporeal, and invested with forceful vitality. Apparently showing a passion for dynamism of forms in movement, these ambitious figures expand boldly across space, entangling and struggling for state of equilibrium, and seeking to engage the viewer’s full attention. The figures, which the artist call “images of the self”, are representations of his inner world revealed – the world in which he dauntlessly seeks to defy the law of reality.

Romantic and expressionistic indeed, that recorded the sentiments of a troubled soul – in this case a soul stifled by the pressures of contemporary society, a soul searching for the self, and a soul searching out for courage. One is emotionally aroused while viewing these works.

It is worth mentioning that although Chee Kiong’s work has its roots in the traditions, he in never a conformist to conventions. In fact, he often take liberty with his end-works – cutting, slicing, mutilating them, and even reworking and reassembling the whole form, denying what has been established in the earlier stage.

One have to take note that this is no process of “deconstruction”, nor “dematerialization” that the avant-gardes so embraced.

On the contrary, Chee Kiong’s sculptures remained to be materialistic forms that require the viewer’s interaction with its very entity. Chee Kiong has intended volumes of sensations, and forms that will evoke feelings in the literal sense. They do not pretend to be metaphysical, nor metaphorical, although at times one is being lured to think of its symbolic meanings.

The recent works show an even greater degree of his adventurousness. The sensuous, wilfully tinted bodies are accompanied with fashionable and exquisitely designed plinths; some lie on or are reflected by mirrors, while others rest upon clear, water-filled fish tanks. These interesting assemblages add to the work a sort of surreal and conceptual quality. They provoke the viewer’s power to question; on the other hand, they are faced with the subjective plastic creation of the artist, on the other, confronted by objects and materials that point to an artificial world. This juxtaposition fives rise to tensions from which the ponderability of the original form is heightened and extended.

Being much more tranquil and subtle, the recent works also indicate a more reflective and contemplative state of mind of the artist.

A person who is sentimental in nature, Chee Kiong do not theorize nor philosophise his works – he creates. Feelings, expressive urge, and natural instincts are what set him to work on his clay. The word “sculpture” for him undoubtedly meant more than merely referring to a three-dimensional form; it is while kneading and modelling that his unconscious self is released. Process of casting and reassembling then make concrete the unleashed. Clay and form are thus vessels for his emotions and thoughts. Upon accomplishment of the procedural transformation his heart and soul is eased.

By bringing the old and new works together, Chee Kiong presents us a visual journal of his artistic and spiritual journey. He invites the viewers to share with him the therapeutic experience while looking at and feeling the forms that were once caressed by him or once caressed him.

At a generation when all system of beliefs has been shaken and shattered, it is a blessing, that Chee Kiong has found his own faith. And perseverant as he is, he will surely further surpass himself one day.

Tan Yen Peng, 2002