Exhibition
Hysterically Optimistic
Azrul Azrai Mohyi, Eric Quah, Jane Stephanny, Ong Cai Bin, Syukur Rani, Tang Hon Yin, Wong Woan Lee
6 – 20 March 2021
“Life isn’t about waiting for the storm to pass. It’s about learning to dance in the rain.”
– Vivian Greene.
Most of us are not unfamiliar with a quote like this, while it popularly demonstrates a degree of optimism, from a cynical point of view it risks sounding like the chicken soup for the soul.
The circumstances mankind is confronted with since 2020 to date, need no more elaboration. Contrasting the epochal backdrop of health crisis, climate calamity, political turmoil and trembling globalisation rolled into one, this exhibition is riveted to the the innate sense of biophilia in human beings. Amidst the overwhelming catastrophe where it is easier to be foiled than to weather, how does man cling on to the nature of seeking life? Is survivorship a will and a skill by instinct, and if not, how does the thinking process look like?
We invited artists from various demographic background to respond to the challenges of our time, and to shed some light on how they tread towards the end of the tunnel. To rock between the vulnerability and the composure, the artists edged from self-inquiry to worldly matters, from the domestic space to the panoramic horizon and from the conclusory past to the imaginary future. The resilience they express in common is fluid yet adequate as a foundation of continuous repartee on what living, and life itself, really entail.
It is perhaps insane to stay alive and be hopeful, yet such hysteria may be a necessity to get us through.