Culture, art, and technology merge in Wong Chee Meng’s “Rasa Sayang” exhibition. The 48-year-old vision-impaired artist didn’t let his condition stop him from creating beautiful pieces that showed his love for Malaysian culture.
When he was 17, Wong was cycling home and met a road accident that damaged his left skull and left his vision impaired. Sometimes, he could see double which makes his life harder. Despite the incident, he’s become an accomplished visual artist.
“Rasa Sayang” takes inspiration from an iconic song with the same name. It means a loving feeling and it shows through his pieces. It’s his expression of love for Malaysian culture and each painting features various Malaysian cultural symbols like the national flower hibiscus, the Malay tiger, the doe, and more.
Confusion and clutter are some of the words you’d use when you see his work, but when you point your camera towards it, the painting comes to life. Augmented Reality (AR) elevates your experience as a viewer as you see the layers of colour gradually paint you a picture of elements from Malaysia.
Look at the photo below. It shows AR doing its work on Meng’s piece entitled, “New Day”. Without the tech, all you could see are LRT doors covered in colours in each window. When you use your camera, the doors open, treating you to a view of a tiger in a bamboo grove, slowly revealing the words, “Selamat Pagi Malaysia.” It symbolizes that Malaysia is moving forward into the future.
“I think Malaysia is filled with positive energy and vibrance,” he said. “We live in harmony and we’re currently moving into the era of New Malaysia.” He said in an interview with FMT Lifestyle.
Wong also described the song, “Rasa Sayang”, belongs to all Malaysians. Just as his paintings highlight the uniqueness of Malaysia as a whole.
Catch his art exhibition at Wei-ling Gallery till August 19.
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