Chen Min Suen
A Fivefold Path (2022)
Bamboo, sound pieceA Fivefold Path is an attempt at renewing the link between the bamboo tube zither (pratuokng) and the Chinese zither (zheng). Believed to be one of the main predecessors of zheng, pratuokng also has a pentatonic scale. Throughout thousands of years, the pratuokng masters have multiplied the richness of Borneo’s culture through their unique creations with the pentatonic instrument.
The attempt to play the broken pratuokng is a creative process of restoration initiated by the artist – a practitioner of zheng.
Lapisan (Layers) (2022)
Bamboo charcoal on hemp paper
Hemp paper is often used in the wrapping of commodities such as Chinese tea for protection during transportation. When used in layers, hemp paper reduces the recognisability of the objects beneath it. The opaqueness of the layers invites an attempt to form a relationship when a viewer's curiosity is piqued.
Using the hemp paper that protected the artist’s object on the way back from Borneo as a surface for exploration, the work is developed through drawings with bamboo charcoal and attempts to extend the viewer's curiosity and inclination to identify.
Chen Min Suen is a Malaysian visual artist who has a background in philosophy. Interested in the idea of perception and phenomenology, Min Suen's artistic research meditates on the phenomenological observations germane to the materiality of everyday life.
Her art practice ruminates on in-depth observations processed through her being in the physical realm. Through attempts to initiate a dialogue – through the realisation and representation of the perceived experience – Chen seeks to discover the connections innate to the state of being.