Wei-Ling Gallery’s annual 18@8 exhibitions have always been highly anticipated as they bring to the forefront a selection of the country’s most compelling and interesting artists all working within the perimeters of a theme or the exploration of an idea but more importantly allows them the freedom to experiment and encourages them to think out of the box.
The 18@8 series is now into it’s ninth edition after its inaugural debut in 2005 which featured 18 artists at No.8 Jalan Scott (the Gallery’s address).
In 2006 the second installment of 18@8 KUL-KHI was presented at the Amin Gulgee Gallery in Karachi, Pakistan while 2007 saw the exhibition back on home soil. In the following two years the exhibition took on a new twist. 18@8-Vice and Virtue in 2008 saw nine selected artists creating two works each corresponding to one vice and one virtue. In 2009, 18@8 1Malaysia:Beyond the Canvas the artists were asked to express themselves outside the confines of the canvas to document their ideas of what 1Malaysia stands for through a central ‘transportation’ theme. Absolut 18@8 saw the artists working on Absolut bottles which were then auctioned off in aid of the SPCA and the following year the gallery and artists worked with IDN to raise RM90,000 for ACRES through the sale of 18 Robonut toys.
This year the gallery will only be working with 12 selected artists in a collaboration with FURLA, the Italian premium leather goods and fashion accessories brand, who will be providing 12 of their coveted Candy Bags to the artists to work on. These ‘art’ bags will go up for auction in December 2013.
For this year’s 18@8 Mirror, Mirror on the wall the main idea stems from the state of the world today and how social media has changed people and the way they view themselves.
The idea or concept of narcissism all began with the Greek myth of Narcissus who in a nutshell, was so enamored by his own reflection in the water, eventually bringing upon his death, as a result of him being completely unable to take his eyes off of himself.
In the world that we are living in today with the rise and growth of social media and networking, narcissism or traits tied to seem ever more prevalent in most individuals. It seems like we’ve come to a point where self-validation is achieved through one’s popularity on social networking sites and forums. One particular study has even presented the fact that, “young people are just completely convinced that in order to succeed they have to believe in themselves or go all the way to being narcissistic”.
To this end each artist has been asked to explore the idea of self-love (be it narcissism: egotism, vanity, pride, selfishness, grandiosity, erotic gratification derived from admiration of one’s own physical or mental attributes, self-adornment, obsession with perfection, acceptance from one’s peers, the list goes on) and come up with one major work which would reflect this theme.
This year’s list of 18@8 artists are:
Ivan Lam, Anurendra Jegadeva, Choy Chun Wei, Yau Bee Ling, Wong Chee Meng, Hamidi Hadi, Azliza Ayob, Ilham Fadlym, Zulkilfi Yusoff, Sean Lean, Cheng Yen Pheng, Kim Ng
With support from FURLA, SNAPPERS and Alexis
