One man’s art is another man’s trash. Also, sometimes someone’s art can get chucked in the trash with no explanation.
That’s pretty much what happened to Cheng Yenpheng, whose painting was unceremoniously removed from the National Art Gallery’s Bakat Muda Sezaman (Young Contemporaries) 2013 exhibition, where she was a finalist.
The painting was believed to have been taken down just before the exhibition’s awards ceremony, which was attended by Tourism and Culture Minister Datuk Seri Mohd Nazri Aziz, reported Malaysiakini.
Cheng’s painting features the words “ABU = ASHES” spray-painted across it. The word “ABU” (which literally means “ashes”) is also the acronym of the reformist political movement Anything But UMNO, and it is this implication that is believed to have driven the National Art Gallery to have pulled down the artwork prior to the awards ceremony.
One of the jurors, Nur Hanim Khairuddin, was quoted as saying the Bakat Muda Sezaman jury was surprsed at the removal, and that the National Art Gallery did not give any explanation as to why it was done.
Cheng did not take the removal of her painting lying down, and proceeded to “perform” a protest at the gallery itself, which she has taken to title “This Is My Work. Does Anyone Know Why It Has Been Taken Down?” A video of her protest has been uploaded to YouTube, in which it can be seen security staff attempting several times to make her stop, confiscate the photo of her painting, and to eject her from the premises:
Photo: Bentley Smith / Flickr
Source: The Malaysian Insider
