For Perth International Arts Festival, Singapore-born, Australian-based artist Matthew Ngui is bringing together two decades of his work in an exhibition entitled ‘Points of View’ at the John Curtin Gallery. The title reflects his ongoing engagement with points of view – be they spatial or cultural. His gentle, witty and thought-provoking works have featured in numerous exhibitions nationally and internationally, including the Venice Biennale (2001), San Paula Biennale (1996), Documenta X (1997) and Cities on the Move (1997-1999).
Despite worrying that it’s mildly uncool to say it, Ngui admits that he’s really enjoying coming home, especially returning to Curtin, whose drawing lecturers were instrumental in developing ‘that process of drawing, of observing and drawing out something from a space and then translating that into an artwork,’ which he identifies as central to his practice.
Entrenching art in the sphere of everyday life is a significant aspect of Ngui’s practice. Rather than creating static museum pieces, he creates work that is interactive and often performative, as he believes that ‘that’s when the art is, the constant interaction between the viewer and myself and what’s there in the space.’
Playfulness is a central strategy Ngui uses in engaging the audience. He explained, ‘I’ve always wanted to try to make works that, at the risk of looking a bit daggy, or comical, or a bit of a magical trick, try to bring people in at different levels.’
This playfulness by no means indicates a lack of conceptual depth, however. For example, in his works that rely on anamorphosis – where images are apparent only from a particular point of view despite not necessarily being created all on one flat plane – he relies upon ‘the idea of a point of view, that may apparently make sense, but once you step out of that, it’s actually a different space and one has to then relearn things or re-look at things to make sense of it.’
Within the gallery walls at John Curtin, he is working to create two quite different spaces, explainging that ‘One would be an open bright space which is, I hope, going to be related to the vast landscape of Western Australia. Then there’ll be a second space which will be much darker, not in an evil sense, but just in the sense of les light where I think each of the works, being image or light based, would then be moulded. So, it becomes very distinct and hopefully beautiful. I think the thing of the landscampe and the sublime is still something very important for me. It’s still something that makes you wonder, something that you stand in front of, like a large wave or even a salt lake, and just wonder at the beauty of it.’
Matthew Ngui, ‘Points of View’ is at John Curtin Gallery as part of the Perth International Arts Festival from February 8 – March 20, 2008. www.johncurtingallery.com.au
