In the Petronas Art Gallery, I saw Liew Kung Yu’s work, tittle “Cadangan-cadangan Untuk Negaraku” (Proposal for My Country). They are the large-scale collage hanging on the wall, which consist various pictures taken in Malaysia by Liew Kung Yu. By strolling into the details, every photo taken by Liew Kung Yu builds a connection with his audience as the photos taken were all strongly connected to Malaysian.
The first collage I viewed was the “Konkrit Jungle”. My first impression was Liew Kung Yu is trying to share the information of the animals found in Malaysia and they should be appreciate. The background was all filled with Hibiscus which is the national flower and big scale pictures of animals such as Orang Utan, rhino, horses, elephants, giraffes, goats and many more we pasted around and inside a golden frame. The collage also has pictures of tourist taking and being taken photos. All of them shows a expression how they enjoy visiting Malaysia.
Next, I saw the “Metropolitan Warisan” which was quite hard to interpret at my first sight. I wonder what was Liew Kung Yu trying to tell his audience by all pictures of highways, trains, buildings pasted together. I slowly take a look at the buildings, all of it were signature buildings in Malaysia such as the Prime Minister Office in Putrajaya, Twin Tower, magistrate located in front of Dataran Merdeka and Istana Budaya. It also has pictures of our local brand car, Proton Saga which is one of the big hit now. This collage here has awakened me from not noticing how advanced Malaysia has been, and it actually makes me feel proud. In this collage, Liew Kung Yu has included pictures of tourist again, and it shares the information of tourism in Malaysia.
Next, I went to the next collage, “Pantai Gelora Cahaya”. The first impression to the whole picture was a theme park filled with people who are having fun. The culture and history of Malaysia can be found in this collage as pictures of trishaw, boat, sea, and coconut huts. The pictures of tourist in the collage are all enjoying the viewing and having fun at signature places in Malaysia. This collage here reflects another part of tourism in Malaysia which relates to the nature instead of tall buildings in the city.
Lastly, it was the “Bandar Sri Tiang Kolam” collage. The first look on it was five different areas separated in five circles. In the four circles out of five, it contains pictures of houses, while the last circle only contains pictures of pillars. After looking into the details, the houses in the four different circles represent different categories and classes of housing area and people. There were houses from urban area such as the low cost double story houses and beautiful bungalows. Along the frame of the collage, Liew Kung Yu pasted pictures of people from different cultural backgrounds and field in rows. This gave me a perception of Liew Kung Yu was trying to connect people from different categories and classes into one. This reflects the importance of national integration in Malaysia today.
After viewing all of Liew Kung Yu’s work, I see the idea of patriotism. And just like the name of his art work, “Cadangan-cadangan Untuk Negaraku”, he still telling his audience how to make Malaysia a better place and society. He only uses random photos taken from every where he have been in Malaysia and using the collage, he make us see the whole picture by sticking bits and pieces from Malaysia. Liew Kung Yu’s art work has influenced me by changing my view towards my country and I should be proud of Malaysia.
