The residence of artist Yeoh Jin Leng is a treasure trove of his artworks and precious finds from many years of globetrotting. Drawings and paintings adorn the walls while various sculptures find their place on bookshelves filled to the brim with reading materials and photographs. Amid the greenery of his garden is a working area where he creates pottery and sculptures before baking them in a home-made kiln. I discover during my brief visit that his home represents the many hats he wears — that of potter, painter, sculptor, writer and art educationist.
“Growing up, I loved drawing and painting. My English teacher encouraged me to prepare the backdrops for our school plays and so on,” he reminisces. But it wasn’t until he majored in art at the Malayan Teachers College in Kirkby, Liverpool that he truly immersed himself in it. Upon his return, Yeoh was posted to Kuala Terengganu, a place he holds dear and which forms the landscape for some of his early works. “Oh, I loved that place!” he exclaims. “The lovely sea, island and kampung ... I love nature and that was where I developed [my style] and decided to pursue art.”
Today, at 88, the former school teacher is one of the forerunners of the Malaysian art scene. “Things have changed since the early years... Due to greed and the desire for riches and power, we have a society where the majority does not understand the arts,” the art pioneer laments, comparing the present with the good old days when, he opines, race and politics did not create a divide in the artistic community.
Ipoh-born Yeoh’s passion for art and love for travel are somewhat intertwined, with the latter often providing inspiration for his works. “I look at things naturally, in their environment, and find inspiration in whatever shapes and colours I see,” he says. The list of places he has visited is long, but some remain close to his heart, warranting a revisit every now and then. One such place is India. “Having travelled around Asia, I found that the source for many cultures and traditions is India. I looked at Hindu mythology and settled upon The Dance of the Gopis and connected and compared that with developing Asean countries such as the Balinese traditions in Indonesia,” he says referring to his 2007 exhibition, Shringara Rasa Leela, Dance of the Gopis, A Path and a Meeting.
Yeoh believes that there is an artist in everyone. While treading carefully on the ultimately subjective definition of art, he has some advice for budding artists: “I encourage young people to travel, not to travel and stay in big hotels but in ordinary, simple ways and [venture] into each region. This way, you will start to develop certain ideas and themes for your own artwork.” He adds that the Asean region is rich in cultural heritage and the arts such as traditional weaving techniques. In 2006, Yeoh showcased some beautiful textiles through My Pride and Joy – Collection of Asian Ceremonial Textiles from his private collection. He has been quite an adventurous traveller since his younger days — a photo of him post-diving in the English Channel marks one of many such occasions — and prefers to take the road less travelled as far as tourism is concerned.
Yeoh’s latest endeavour is Jin Leng, Together With Almarhum Sultan Ismail Nasiruddin Shah, an exhibition organised by NN Gallery in conjunction with DiverseCity Kuala Lumpur International Arts Festival 2017. DiverseCity is the festival partner and sponsor. The venue sponsors are The Edge Galerie and Matrix Concepts Holdings Bhd.
Chendering, 1963, oil pastel on paper
The exhibition builds on the common interest in Terengganu by the late Sultan Ismail Nasiruddin Shah of Terengganu, who was also the fourth Yang di-Pertuan Agong, and Yeoh.
Sultan Ismail was an avid shutterbug who learnt to develop photographs under the tutelage of a retired Japanese photographer and founded the Camera Club of Terengganu. In 1959, he was inducted as an Associate of the Royal Photographic Society of Great Britian and received the Fédération Internationale de l’Art Photographique award from Switzerland. His set of photographs form part of this exhibition.
As for Yeoh, his works focus on his personal journey such as his sculptural Apsaras series, together with never-before exhibited drawings of Kuala Terengganu when he started his career as an art educator. “It is a stack of drawings I did in 1962 when I was posted to teach at the Sultan Sulaiman Secondary School. I used my free time after school to create sketches and drawings — I found about 50 of them — of the east coast,” Yeoh says.
Visitors to the exhibition can look forward to an art talk by Yeoh and Raja Ihsan, the grandson of Sultan Ismail and custodian of the photographic archive.There will also be workshops on Blindfold Clay and Pin Hole Camera, where a fee will be charged. A guided tour of the exhibition is also available.
Yeoh hopes the arts will continue to benefit generations to come as it gives them a sense of pride. “They [arts students] become part and parcel of the environment, be it with the people or the landscape… Art education has been thrown out of the education system, and replaced with more, what some would say, important subjects such as technology, maths and science for the economic growth of this country. But what do you get in the end? A society that does not have the warmth or self-pride [of being] a Malaysian or part of the Asian community. I think the arts gives a very beautiful sense of identity to any country,” says Yeoh.
