VWFA KL presents Malaysian painter Gan Chin Lee’s highly anticipated solo show Soliloquy that presents a personal monologue about Malaysian identity. Across portraiture and genre paintings he reflects upon the enduring theme of race and identity issues woven around politics and multiculturalism that continue to divide and unite the country.

For the exhibition framework, Gan employs the soliloquy, a common device from theatre and literature to present his personal reflections. A soliloquy is where a character conducts a lengthy speech or monologue discussing their feelings, dilemmas, and motives for their actions. Shakespeare is filled with many of these famous speeches such as Hamlet’s To Be Or Not To Be. However, rather than a verbal or textual exchange, Gan instead presents a visual sequence of angst, longing and frustration on the Malaysian condition. Negotiated by the artist’s own personal experiences as a Chinese Malaysian, his genre paintings reveal the frustrations and hopes of the rakyat through the uniquely local setting of the mamak stall. Adding to these conversations are highly emotional portraits of the artist himself and friends that present a subtle combination of anxiety and hope.

Although promoting an expressive type of painterly realism, he punctuates his work with exaggerated perspectives and multi paneled images that create an undulating experience that is at times dreamlike and disorientating. These stylistic preoccupations amplify the shifting perceptions of identity in the country that continue to influence the lives of every Malaysian today.