A world to share
Artist Andrew Pok flips through a gallery of memories, every image stirring up a story.
THErE is beauty all around us if we only know how to look. This old saying definitely applies to My World Through Your World ,aphotography exhibition by artist Andrew Pok Chong Boon.
The show features a variety of images, from common household items, street corners to roadside stalls and sweeping landscapes, mostly taken on Pok’s smartphone camera. For this show, he documented his daily experiences from April 5, 2015 to April 4 2016.
“I have always devoted attention to the everyday. In fact, the first step to forming a lasting memory is to pay attention. The ‘everyday’ that I refer to is the trivial, ordinary and inconsequential things and activities that people tend to take for granted. This exhibition is about capturing ordinary life,” says Pok, 54, during an interview at Studios SamaSama in Setapak, Selangor, where the exhibition is held.
“Things that are, maybe, very trivial can transform into something quite extraordinary. Like a leaf. You may not pay it a second look. But when you capture the image with a camera, in a bright place, I think it gives you a nice composition and maybe something to think about. There is insight in this ordinary process,” he adds.
In 2015, Pok’s installation Circumrotation (2009), featuring used shoes, was one of the highlights at the Prudential Malaysian Eye exhibition in Kuala Lumpur. That work explored the human living condition.
Pok, who has been involved in art and design since 1983, has always had that tint of humanity in his works.
The KL-born artist, researcher and writer is now the head of the research and development department at KL’s Dasein Academy of Art, a role he has actively nurtured after he completed his PhD – at the London Metropolitan University – in practice-led fine art research.
As a cross-disciplinary artist, Pok has exhibited locally and internationally, including Britain, Italy and China. On a community level, he is also the co-founder of local art collectives Artsemble and Studios SamaSama.
In late 2016, he was instrumental in the creation of the A Mazing Jetty (wooden installation), a collaborative project in Kampung Terbing runtuh in Johor Baru.
At the My World Through Your World, things are distinctively personal in nature. Pok literally puts his world up on display, offering viewers a glimpse of his daily experiences. His exhibition, featuring 337 photos, carries a theme of mindfulness, and is inspired by social media and how people constantly – or religiously – record their lives.
A huge chunk of the images would not look out of place in a Facebook album.
Some capture Pok’s meetings with his art students, while some of his street photography work is also on parade.
Others are somewhat personal: one photo shows the results of the artist’s recent toe injury.
Curiosity is a big deal with Pok, and he hasn’t forgotten humour in his subjects. There are also closeups of objects, unusual angles and Pok even includes snaps of book pages he finds inspiring.
By investigating the images closely, you will find that many have their own narratives.
An image of child’s slipper, abandoned at a zebra crossing, is a particularly worrying one? What happened?
Pok doesn’t know. He just presented the viewer with a memory.
At first glance, some photos look like they were taken by mistake. Somehow, when all put together, these images take on an understated strength: snapshots representing moments all building up into an intimate look into a person’s life.
“People rely on smartphones more and more to document their lives. This is how memories will be documented.”
One photo with a particular significance to Pok was taken while taking his mother to the hospital.
“It was my mother’s first selfie. And also my first selfie with her,” says Pok, recalling that special shot.
My World Through Your World is showing at Studios SamaSama, 9-2, Jalan 67/26, Taman Sri Rampai, Setapak in Kuala Lumpur till April 15. Open hours: 6.30pm-9.30pm (Mondays to Fridays) and 10am-9.30pm (Saturday/ Sunday). For more info, call 012-695 7971. FB: Studios Samasama.