Featuring about seven large works, the exhibition traces her journey from the most difficult years to a more stable period of healing, growth, and motherhood.
The title takes inspiration from Maurice Maeterlinck’s play “The Blue Bird”, in which two children go in search of happiness. Cheong reimagines the story as her own path of guiding her daughters towards safety and light.
Cheong, 44, has lived with schizophrenia since her early 20s. The condition was particularly pronounced after the births of her daughters about 10 years ago but, thankfully, she found strength in art, treatment and meditation.
Today, Cheong is well recognised in the art scene. She was the grand-prize winner of the UOB Painting of the Year (Malaysia) in 2018 – the same year she joined the UOB-Fukuoka Asian Art Museum’s residency programme in Japan.
One of the most striking works on display is “Me and the Wolf”. Using watercolour and some acrylics, it shows a woman standing across from a wolf on its hind legs. The woman is Cheong herself, while the wolf represents the mind.
“All the delusions, thoughts about the past and the future, just come and go. If one day we are eaten by the wolf, it would mean we have lost ourselves,” the artist explained.
In the painting, the woman looks away from the wolf and towards the viewer. “I’m trying to convey that we should all live in the present,” she added.
Another key piece is “You Are Me”, a watercolour-and-ink work showing two sides of herself: a large face with an angry red expression, and another calmer face in cooler tones.
“I used to be a very angry person,” she admitted. “My doctor told me that if I was constantly angry, I would never get better.”
Anger was not the only emotion she felt: at one point, she was so overcome with fear that she would lose her family – so much so that she could not even walk or talk.
“Dream” was painted when her daughter was very ill and her husband had lost his job. It shows a woman with several heads on one body, riding on a horse.
The artwork depicts the chaos of struggling with too many thoughts at once. “In confusion, we lose our way and our head is actually our enemy,” Cheong noted.
Meanwhile, the horse represents her artistic skills, carrying her forward through the challenges. Cheong said she also found solace through meditation.
In “Take Me to the Moon”, a black-and-white ink drawing, she and her two daughters ride a wolf-led sledge towards the moon. Here, the wolf is no longer frightening but supportive.
“Some energy, some power helped me to be a good mother, to take care of my kids,” she expressed. “This was when I learnt to cook for them, bathe them. It’s almost like the wolf is the hand of God.”
Reflecting further on her condition, Cheong shared that art has been a lifeline that helped ensure her mind did not “go everywhere”.
Indeed, many of the works are pen-and-ink drawings made up of repeated lines and marks, which help her focus.
Her process is unusual: in watercolour works, she begins by making random splashes on the canvas, then shapes them into animals or figures. In ink drawings, she always starts with the eyes and builds the rest around them through repeated strokes.
And while she acknowledges there is no complete recovery, she is grateful that she now lives with more stability.
The centrepiece of the show is the titular “Blue Bird”, which shows Cheong as a bird shielding her daughters, their faces enclosed within her wings. Smoke enters her head and leaves through her mouth before transforming into a deer.
“The smoke is like all the thoughts that come from the universe, some negative … after meditation, it goes out transformed into good,” Cheong said.
She concluded: “I actually believe that everybody is a blue bird, because everyone can confront their own problems and stay resilient.”
Cheong Kiet Cheng’s ‘Blue Bird’
When:
Until Sept 27
Where:
Wei-Ling Gallery,
8 Jalan Scott, Brickfields,
50470, Kuala Lumpur
For more information, visit Wei-Ling Gallery’s website, or follow her on Facebook and Instagram.