Richard Wong - Mountain Man

黄振景 - 恋雪山人

Richard Wong Chin-Kim is a Malaysian artist who indulges in memories and mindscapes.He is an artist drawing on the artist within and drawing on the right side of the brain. His approach in art is that of the right-mode --- intuitive, spatial, onoverbal, simultaneous and perceptual.

In his abstracted mindscapes based on submerged memories of places seen, noted and processed, the sub-conscious is permitted to roam. The artist is a much-travelled person, roaming Planet Earth in search of art and collectibles, tea and sympathy and Shaolin martial art and health-cum-longevity. As an individual, he is interested and interesting, keen to share his multifanous interests, which ranged from watercolour-painting to Chinese tea-ceremony, with others.

Lingering memos and memories of China, Nepal, India, Australia and so forth provided the impetus to launch his series of dreamy, lyrical mindscapes.

In his classic, The Meaning of Art, the late great Sir Herbert Read posited: "We must not be afraid of this word 'abstract'. All art is primarily abstract."

In his elucidating tone, understanding Abstract Art, Frank Whiford opines: Whether the word abstract or a synonym is used, a definition remains difficult, perhaps impossible to achieve. Just as all art is primarily abstract, all abstract art is, in a sense, representational. Some abstract paintings intentionally allude to aspects of the familiar world; others unintentionally evoke them! It is difficult to invent an image which will not remind viewer of something. The urge to see a face in every circle is irresistible. Even a perfect horizontal line bisecting a rectangle will look like a landscape."

Leonardo da Vinci, in his Notebooks, noted: "It should not be hard for you to stop sometimes and look into the stains of walls, or ashes of a fire or clouds or mud or like places in which you may find really marvellous ideas."

In Richard Wong's abstraction, the landscape is the basis of his theme. The mindscapes are derived from the various components of the lands and forms of the sky, land and sea punctuated with mists, rocks and erosions which served to enrich the textural images. The mindscapes represent his cryptomnesia or concealed recollection burst forth in terms of glows, flows, cracks, stains, veils, dribbles, dots and splashes resulting in positive and negative textural effects that recalled the Abstract Expressionist renditions of Jackson Pollock, Mark Rothko, Morris Louis, Helen Frankenthaler and Sam Francis in variations. In his visual essays, there is the rhythmic beat of the forces of nature that spells poetry.

Employing oil and acrylics on canvas and equipped with brushes, pallete knives for various textural effects, Richard Wong concocted a variety of images that, seen in the light of da Vince's slant, are a notion of poetry in motion. Altogether the marks and stains challenge one of a variety of reading of places evocative and poetic.

Frank Whiford reminds us: "Abstract art approached with an open mind can suggest entirely new ways of seeing. Knowledge, of the painter's ideas and intentions, experience, gained from looking at pictures, and open-mindedness: these represent the viewers' contribution, the key to forming judgments and enjoying abstract art."

Back in 1890, Maurice Denis noted perceptively: "It must be remembered that any painting - before being a war horse, a nude woman, or some anecdote - is essentially a flat surface covered with colours and arranged in a certain order."

In conclusion, kindly allow me to share with you a thought from the poet Percy Bysshe Shelly:
The mind in creation is as a fading coal which some invisible influence, like an inconstant mind, awakens to transitory brightness; this arises from within....and the conscious portions of our nature are unprophetic either of its approach or of its departure."

Verily, truly. food for meditation.

Teng Chok-Dee
Lecturer-Curator
LaSalle-SIA,
a college of the arts,
Singapore

In his personal sojourn to seek for perfection and nature's pristine and untouched beauty - a journey akin to James Hilton's quest for Shangri-La, the lost paradise on earth, Richard Wong's journey has now taken him to the surreal world of steep mountains and deep valleys with its heart-stopping visage of sheer vertical cliffs and deep plunging valleys and cascading waterfalls found only in this remote southwestern corner of China. In the province of Sichuan - China's largest province bordering the province of Yunnan to the south and Tibet to the west, near the upper reaches of the Yangtze River, the region known as China's Hidden Heart and which is home to many of China's ethnic minorities.

From April to June 1998, Richard Wong had started his sojourn from Chengdu, home of the great Tang poet Du Fu (712-770) and the capital of Sichuan Province. From there, he slowly made his way through the quaint remote villages situated at the foothills of the Qionglai Mount Range on the Alba Plateau. Using the local means of transport, the old and rickety trucks salvaged from old army trucks left behind by the Allied forces during WWII when Kunming was the most important transit stage of the old China - Burma Road, he traversed along the long and winding mountain roads towards Yunnan Province in South West China passing through the old Southern Silk Road, to see for himself the "Lost Paradise" before it is "discovered" and spoilt by the hordes of tourist that would soon swamp this remote corner of the world.

Broke and feeling a little homesick by now, Richard Wong had to break journey but he vowed to return to continue his personal quest for his Shangri-La.

Captivated and enchanted by what he saw, Richard Wong soon felt restless and was eager to continue his sojourn. So in October 1998, he flew to Chengdu once again, to take the high road - but this time northwards for he had set his eyes on Kunlun Mountain. (Kunlun Range) venerated throughout China as the birthplace of China's two great rivers, the Yellow River to the north and the mighty Yangtze River to the south.

Then from Lhasa in Xizang (Tibet), he traversed westwards towards the Karakorum Shan in South West Xinjian Autonomous Region and hence to his destination of Qogir Shan (Mount Qogir). There, he trekked the land of jagged mountain peaks and spare mountain hamlets nestled in between deep clear lakes which turned into shimmering glaciers of sheer white ice with all shades of white in winter from zinc white to grey white - which provides a sharp contrast to clear blue skies and the changing golden hues of the leaves of autumn. He continued his journey to Nepal where he made his last stop at the base camp of Mount Everest.

Entranced and captivated by what he saw, Richard Wong has tried to transpose onto canvas, the vivid and austere of what he calls "White Paradise" - a mindscape so alien to the lush tropical colours of his native land of Malaysia. Here, as far as the eyes could see were the far pavilions of sheer gleaming glacial tops glistening in the sun in the distant mountains. All these, the eyes of Richard Wong have seen - these visages of magic that he calls his "White Paradise" - not far from his paradise on earth, his Shangri-La.

C. K. Tan
a collector,
Calgary, Alberta.

Richard Wong’s inspirations are largely derived from nature’s pristine and wondrous beauty which had enthralled him in his travels throughout the countries of the Pacific rims and many other Asia countries including Yunnan, Tibet, Nepal and Silk Road – China.

The call of the mountains, this time the lure of the Rockies of Canada, has proved too irresistible for Richard Wong, the intrepid Mountain Man, to ignore. Having trekked the lonely and desolate mountain ranges of the Himalayas and the Kunlun Shan located in Sichuan, Province of South West China in the late 1990’s Richard Wong is off again, this time westwards to the Rockies of Alberta, Canada. Along the way, he will no doubt make a detour to the Okotoks and Lake Louise with its sheer and transparent water, glistening in the sun like diamonds and the mirror image of the surrounding mountains transposed on its calm waters.

And now the admirers of Richard Wong’s artistry and creation will no doubt forget the hectic hustle and bustle of life to pause, reflect and admire the true wonder and glory of one of nature's greatest creation, the Rockies of Canada.

The exhibition will be held from the 11th June till 25th June 2012
Venue: TOP ART GALLERY,
20-22, Jalan Bayu Tinggi 6, Taman Bayu Tinggi, 41200 Klang, Selangor D.E.
E-mail: zhenjing55@hotmail.com
Opening daily from 11.00 A.M. to 6.00 P.M.

Admission is Free