I thought Lau Mun Leng's Length 1 show was good. The Nyoba dancers on opening night were a nice touch. They did interpretive dances with burn_ibiza playing in the background. It was kinda mesmerizing watching them interpret the sounds through their bodies. A lot of it was clockwork-like motion which was indeed very fitting with Mun Leng's artworks. Maybe this will make more sense as you read on.

This time I'm not quite sure how to describe Mun Leng's work; I only know how I feel when faced with it. On an intuitive level, I like it immensely. Her drawings have a rawness to them and this has partly to do with her use of charcoal, rough paper, reminding us of primordial man's mark-making on caves. She also arranges the marks within authoritative shapes like the pyramid and circle. I think the drawings work best on large scales (there are large pieces at the show) because each mark of hers is like a quark. Her large drawings therefore carry - I mean, project - much energy. It's repetitious, it's rhythmic: like the heart pulses of every minute, the footsteps we take, the revolutions of a watch's hand.

To me, her oeuvre speaks of lifespans (this one's named "Length", an earlier work was "Limit"), memory (the drawings done with oil will eventually stain and change colour & shape), Time (the process of drawing each mark is as much the subject as the end product) and perhaps, this may be my existentialist take on it, but, perhaps it speaks of the triviality of life.

Consider how the graph papers are filled up with meaningless etches and stains; I think of these as anti-measurements and anti-charts. She uses the 'n' and 'u' letters of her typewriter as patterns, abandoning their function as alphabets and emptying them of meaning through use of repetition and arrangement. If life is meaningless, why not fill it up with repetitive stuff and make that its meaning? Well, this is what I see in Mun Leng's drawings. They imitate the rhythm and rituals of everyday life, and the comfort found in the repetition.

Length 1 is on til 3/1/2004 at n desire studio, 3-3 Lrg 6b/91, Tmn Shamelin Perkasa, 56100 Cheras, KL. If you get lost, ring 03-92829643/012-3759315, or just consult the slightly disproportionate map at www.geocities.com/lmlselectedwork. Oh and bring some money lah, got derma box lah. Ok?
 

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