For our final show of 2024, chi too will be returning to The Back Room for his ninth solo exhibition, It is what is it. As a collection of stupid ideas brought to life, theexhibition is a return of sorts, back to the 2010s when chi too first started practising as an artist. This was a time of playful happenings, absurd performances, and meticulously made objects. It was also a moment of community and experimentation. chi too was variously part of a sometimes artist collective, an art rock band, and the organising committee for a festival as part of a fictitious North Korean art collective. However, after this period his absurdities became less public. Instead, they manifested behind closed doors in the studio, where he set to work making conceptual paintings with strict rules.
Now at the end of 2024, It is what is it puts chi too back in the spotlight, to revamp a certain time and energy. Despite being an introvert, he has decided to host a party. Mainly performative in nature, most of the works won’t exist until opening night. On that evening, gallery goers can expect a race to the finish of unravelling packing tape, karaoke word puns between Tina Turner and Elton John, and indoor fireworks. A collection of publicly donated IKEA SAMLA boxes will also be on display, complete with existing personal contents, as a window into people’s lives. Post-opening night, only a curious hangover of residues will be left, remnants of the best party most people will never know about.
As a trip down memory lane, It is what is it serves as a reminder of how wit and humour are indispensable parts of chi too’s work. His brand of visual punning and playfulness brings a refreshing break from the seriousness of Art. And this is theheart of chi too’s show, a reminder to play and be stupid, to find authenticity in experimentation and community in fun.
Opening reception: Saturday, 7 December 2024, from 7pm onwards
Exhibition dates: 7 – 22 December 2024
About the Artist
chi too (b. 1981, Kuala Lumpur) is a self-taught multidisciplinary artist whose practice demonstrates a confident exploration of humour, satire, and visual poetics.
He has exhibited and performed locally and internationally. In 2017, he was an artist-in-residence at the NTU Centre for Contemporary Art, Singapore, and in 2011, he was selected as a Nippon Foundation Asian Public Intellectual (API) fellow. Including the present exhibition, chi too has had nine solo exhibitions to date: A Sea of Despair and Delight, The Godown Arts Center (2023); It Will Be Noisy, Messy, and Very Touchy-Feely, The Back Room (2022); 95, The Zhongshan Building (2020); Sometimes When We Touch, OUR ArtProjects (2018); Like Someone In Love, Lostgens' Contemporary Art Space (2015); The Artist chi too Looks at Artworks as He Contemplates the State of the Nation’s Institutions a.k.a. How Can You Be Sure, Art Row @ Publika (2013); Longing, Black Box, MAP @ Publika (2011), all in Kuala Lumpur, and State of Doubt: Seven Actions Towards Dilemma, Art Lab AKIBA in Tokyo, Japan (2012).
He has participated in group exhibitions in Kuala Lumpur, Jakarta, Singapore, Taipei, and Japan. The most recent of these include ROH Projects @ Art Jakarta 2024; Unbearable Lightness at ROH Projects, Jakarta (2024); and Titik, Garis, Bentuk: Drawing as Practice at ILHAM Gallery, Kuala Lumpur (2024). In 2022, he was featured in the publication, Prime — Art's Next Generation by Phaidon, a compilation of “the most exciting rising stars in contemporary art” featuring 107 artists born since 1980.
Installation shots
Photos by Kenta Chai.