CK's House of Stars

Most of my pals know that im too selective to attend any exhibitions and write a review, but CK's work is an exception. I took some time drafting this before i leave for my logistic,recee mission for INSAF. This piece will be published in his catalog. Have fun reading. 

Act One - The Rock Stars
This time CK’s lovable characters is playing the irreplaceable Freddie Mercury, the late Prince, Bowie, Slash and of course our local hero - Sudirman[i]. Their album unites half of the world population, we memorize their lyrics, sang their work loudly in the car, in the shower, stop whatever we are doing when radio played their tracks. Not forgetting making us weep in cold silent grief when they left us.
So what is the connection between these rock stars – which is painted on our Astro[ii] dish, displayed in the iconic now forgotten Chinese New Village set-up[iii]?
The answer lies in technology and music. Both of them have a magical power that any politicians doesn’t have which is uniting us mortal humans. The invisible phantom democratic power tool that able to unite and destroy us. When we are in a rock concert, we couldn’t care less asking where you come from, asking what race are you except giving nods of approval and rock gestures while waiting for our cultural god to appear and bring us to heaven.


How wonderful when technology able to make a 30-year-old Mexican and a guy from Subang Jaya joined in unison to have an argument through Youtube’s comment section. The power of the Internet.

When these rock icons music appear, any divisive lines that separates us are gone. Our religion is Purple Rain, we sang whole-heartedly Mama….i killed a man in Bohemian Rhapsody. We screamed in union “where do we go now” in Sweet Child O Mine, people just start to sway to the crowd - gyrating when Bowie’s legendary track Let’s Dance is on.
Technology invades us, becoming part of us - interesting to see that technology too making us becoming less human. People no longer pick up their smart phones to answer a call but instantly replying to whatsapp. Our local mamak shop getting silent as everyone staring blankly at his or her smart phone.

Act Two - Teletubbies.
Therefore, from rock stars we jump forward to meet the Teletubbies. Seriously, im not a huge fan of these colorful scary characters, I find it disturbing when it became a huge hit, children from all around the world can sing along to their songs. I cannot be judgmental as my late dad wondered too when I hummed Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles theme song.


CK placed these Teletubbies[i] a form of commentary based on our local political scenario. What I need to highlight here is CK does not criticize; the Teletubbies here are filled with various cultural tit-bits, lingos, gestures and props, which I find sly and intelligent.

Anyone who follows our local political narrative can be easily depressed; we are taken to a huge ride to nowhere, filled with heartaches, terrible plot twists, betrayal and reunion, which George RR Martin will approve. It’s just too bad we don’t have flying dragons. So when I gave up on finding logical sensible answers to these, I will head home.

Act 3 - Home 
There is a big difference when we have a place of our own and a place we call home. A home is where everything is right even though if it’s not perfect. A home is our sacred place. You can’t change this. Same thing with our country, so if I’m born in Malaysia, I can’t change it.  You can be in the foreign land for years, learning their language, being an expert but you will never be one of them.
That is the fact.
When people starts to enquire, discourse, to find a formula or a standardized form, image or language to represent Malaysia. It’s futile. This notion helps to shape as a grand narrative for this exhibition. How? Let’s put it this way, Malaysia is CK’s and my HOME, both of us are born and working here. We listen, can talk English with a weird accent, wear the latest season of ZARA, have sushi for dinner, shop at Daiso won’t change the fact that we are still Malaysians. Let’s not confuse about being patriotic, nationalistic and loving your country ok. 


Home is the place where you return, everything is familiar, where everyone knows you and loves you. For me - it’s the place where my parents are. When I opened the gates and these two familiar loving faces greeted me, I feel good. The smell, those little objects, the furniture doesn't change or if it moves to a spot, you will notice it immediately.
Home is your spiritual ground, football players goes to the extra mile when they play at their home ground, the opponents sense a different vibe just when they step unto their space, so winning against them is something to cherish upon.

Home - the place you grow up - where you invested half of your formative years to form your identity, your outer and inner self. You can’t change that. Just like Superman always flies back to Smallville rather to Fortress of Solitude when he needs the extra support. Like how Peter Parker always returns home after battling the Sinister Six to the comfort and warmth of Aunt May instead of Mary Jane.
That is why, we always will return Home either to heal, to get something we need.

So we listen to Bowie, to Prince, we come from different races but at this present moment we are standing here, we grew up and invested years of our lives here in Malaysia. There is no absolute need to tattoo the flag on our forehead, dress, shouting, thumping our chest, dress up to say we are Malaysian. Honestly, we can’t run to any foreign country as centuries ago – our great awesome forefathers battled the waves, armed with concrete willpower set their foot unto this land and call it home.
My notes here are simply to conceive a plot - cobbling all these images together to be like a music album.  What is nice here, we are now in CK playful imaginative home which he called………………..House of Stars. 


click here to read CK's other exhibit


[i] Teletubbies is a British pre-school children's television series created by Ragdoll Productions' Anne Wood and Andrew Davenport. The programme focuses on four multi-coloured creatures known as "Teletubbies," named for the television screens implanted in their abdomens. Recognised throughout popular culture for the uniquely-shaped antenna protruding from the heads of each character, the Teletubbies communicate through gibberish and were designed to bear resemblance to young children.

[i] Dato' Sudirman bin Haji Arshad (25 May 1954 – 22 February 1992) was a Malaysian singer and songwriter. He had started his career after winning the Bintang RTM on 11 August 1976. Also, he is the title holder of "Asia's No. 1 Performer" on 19 March 1989 as he won the '‘Asian Popular Music Awards'’ competition in Royal Albert Hall in London.[4] He was known as the "Singing Lawyer", the "People's Singer", the "Patriot Singer" and the "Elvis Presley of Malaysia".
[ii] MEASAT Broadcast Network Systems Sdn Bhd (or better known as Astro) is a Malaysian direct broadcast satellite (DBS) Pay TV service. It transmits digital satellite television and radio to households in Malaysia and Brunei and has operations at the All Asia Broadcast Centre located in Bukit Jalil, Kuala Lumpur and MEASAT in Cyberjaya. We will scream in agony as the connection signal will be lost due to heavy rain.
[iii] The purpose of the new villages was to segregate the villagers from the early Malayan Races Liberation Army insurgents, which were led by the Malayan Communist Party, during the Malayan Emergency. It was part of a military plan devised by British General Sir Harold Briggs shortly after his appointment in 1950 as Director of Operations in the anti-communist war in Malaya.

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