Photo Exhibition
Place: KLPac, Jalan Strachan, off Jalan Ipoh (tel: 03 4047 9010), 10 to 10 Daily
Open discussion with photographers: Sat. & Sun., 22 & 23, KLPac, 2to 4 pm.

What is death?

This is a question that confronts everyone as it is at the heart of humanity. There are those who believe that after death, there is nothing, and there are those who believe it is the exit to another life. But the real answer is finally unknowable – for no one has been there and come back to tell us what it is.

What may survive after death are memories, some of which are concretized in photographs. Photography has a tremendous power to preserve private memories and perpetuate the ‘life’ of a departed one. They record moments and emotions that can be revisited by the person looking at them.

Exits presents two photographic views of death by Peter Tan and his wife Wuan, and by Victor Chin, focusing on their mothers as subject.

Their photographs share publicly their private experience without eliciting voyeuristic responses. They show their grief over their respective mothers’ deaths and how they have come to terms with their loss. They show how deeply they care about the subject and handle the raw witnessing of death with tact and artistry. Their images initiate an important dialogue about life and death, and explore the relation between the two.

Peter and Wuan contribute 20 photos of Peter’s mother’s wake and funeral proceedings in Penang and also of her when she was alive. The photographs are selected to work in pairs or in combinations of a few. This sort of juxtaposition stimulates a reading of the pictures more complex than if they were to be read one at a time.

Victor provides 20 black & white photos, taken over a period of 44 days, of his mother in a coma and on her deathbed in a Petaling Jaya hospital. They sensitively capture details of the different parts of her body as she went through rigorous medical treatment. We are invited to enter into the final moments of another life which may, in some way, resemble our own.

Contact persons:

Peter Tan, hp 016-2022601, www.petertan.com, He is a fulltime blogger & advocate for disability issues. He is a wheelchair user. Wuan works in a bank.

Victor Chin, hp 016-2680258, www.victorchin.com, He is a freelance painter/photographer/writer. He paints abstracts, photographs uncommon subjects and writes about art and cultural topics. (MySinchew)