UK-based artist Adam Chodzko’s latest showing called “but as we looked it suddenly began to change” held at Wei-Ling Contemporary Art Gallery, is a selection of old and new works on the subject of dreams, depicted in a series of videos, drawings, and immersive process-based sculptures.
“I’ve always been interested in the subject of dreaming, partly because as a kid, my intense nocturnal dreams and nightmares were always like the main event of each day, packed with heavy emotions,” he told FMT.
His present exhibition therefore explores the visuality of dreams, the fluid ambiguities of time and place, and the coexistence of multiple states.
The award-winning artist became fascinated with the subject of dreaming, particularly in Malaysia, while researching the cultural practices of the Senoi tribespeople here, an indigenous community known for their exceptional relationship with the dream state.
Through the wealth of Western anthropology studies conducted on the Orang Asli Senoi community, Chodzko learnt of their unique ability to utilise dreams as a means of making social decisions such as when to plant their crops or when to hunt for food.
Coming from a Western culture that tends to avoid discussing dreams, Chodzko was eager to immerse himself in the knowledge and practices surrounding dreams in Malaysia and spent a considerable amount of time living in the country.
“Being somewhere new brings out an aspect of me which I quite like. We can reinvent ourselves and really listen to the place, to get a more vivid perception of the world,” he said. He has lived in Japan, Canada and the United States before as well.
One of his artworks is a collection of 35mm slides of Kuala Lumpur that he discovered near his home in Kent, England.
“I found just by chance that someone very close to my home in England, was selling these 300 slide images of Kuala Lumpur, during a time that I was heavily researching and even dreaming about Malaysia.”
These slides are a collection of amateur photographs taken in Kuala Lumpur and other parts of Malaysia between the 1960s and 1980s by an unknown (likely British) visitor to the country.
This exhibition, featuring artworks created in the days leading up to the exhibition, and based on his dreams while in Malaysia, goes beyond drawings and still art, enticing the visitor with performance-inspired rituals, such as in the piece titled “White Magic”.
His unique artistic process involves allowing his dreams from the previous night, along with his vivid memories of them, to guide his hand and the crayon.
“I really do believe in showcasing the authenticity of my perception and emotions within the dream, so I don’t do any preliminary sketches or a great deal of planning,” he said.
Chodzko orchestrates a thought-provoking performance where a Kuala Lumpur charity shop’s vibrant red garments vanish, only to reappear in the same shop as a breathtaking display of green garments.
The exhibition’s compelling finale unveils the profound interplay of transformation and consumption, leaving visitors spellbound and questioning the cycles of their world.
Chodzko’s ‘but as we looked it suddenly began to change’ is on exhibit from now untill May 27.
Wei-Ling Contemporary Art Gallery
2nd Floor Annexe
8 Jalan Scott, Brickfields
Kuala Lumpur
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