Coffee Shop

1992

 Developed over a few years from 1987 onwards in the Chye Hong Coffee Shop in Bukit Timah, this body of works had a paradoxically short span of presentation when the time came to share it with the public. The exhibition lasted barely three days, but the brevity of the event was largely compensated by its unusual character, considering that the typical Singaporean coffee shop that had inspired this labour of love was turned into a momentary sensorial art installation, food, customers, smells and curry stains included. A friend recently mentioned that this was probably the first coffee shop exhibition in Singapore, and I guess it might well be the case. 

This now long -gone location held an interesting summary of the Singapore society. It most naturally brought together a Chinese family, the owners of the coffee shop who sold drinks, a Malays family and a group of Indian men who served cooked food, all of them living and working harmoniously under one roof. The range of food available was noticeably restricted to these two Muslim stalls, which made the absence Chinese food in a Chinese-owned coffee shop even more remarkable. This Singapore vignette was completed with the patronage of a few western customers from the offices nearby, or to put it otherwise, with just the sprinkling of Ang Mohs needed to lend to this colourful Ice Kachang its full local flavour; and among the Ang Mohs, there I was. I was indeed a regular, often staying for hours after lunch, with my sketchbooks and camera, and a flow of coffee and cigarets to keep the rhythm going, for indeed, there were still ashtrays on the tables, although not for long. The place encapsulated much of what Singapore was at that time, at least all that I loved about it, and this humble coffee shop became a landmark of my life from the late 80s to the mid 90s; by which time someone decided that the whole stretch of shophouses it was a part of had to go. This single line of shophouses along Dunearn Road, mostly from the 1920s, stood across the road from Newton Circus food center, and must have formed an architectural ensemble noticeably unique in the Bukit Timah-Dunearn Road vicinity of Newton Circus even at the time of its construction. It is worth mentioning, comme ça en passant, that the plot of land on which stood this little unassuming gem of vernacular has been left completely empty since then... and it will remain a void of beautiful greenery for god knows how long more. No doubt a condo of some sort is shaping somewhere in the future though. C'est comme ça... c'est la vie as they say in Singapore.  

Over time my attempt at drafting a portrait truly reflective of this multi-faceted universe had pushed me to use a varying range of mediums and techniques; from charcoal to black and white photograph; from Chinese brush to oil and pastel.  This wide variety of works demanded a different mode of presentation. Upon the making and completion of the works, it became clear that there were four clearly distinct styles that had evolved into four separate personalities. They called for four different fictitious characters, markedly contrasted individualities who could rightfully claim ownership of each medium accordingly. And I, Gilles Massot, would for once take a step back and become the organiser of the event; I think I didn't even quite know of the word "curator" back then...


Lu Ma Su

Chinese Brush Painter
​Chinese Scrolls
In any case, this was certainly my most schizophrenic exhibition ever! I even went as far as developing my own technique of Chinese scroll mounting so as to make the rather classical style of Lu Ma Su stands on a par with the works of the other three participants, in particular the more contemporary approach of the expressionist artist Gila Masok and the quiet black and white photographic work of the new Zealander Jill Nasso. The naive Peranakan painter Ma Geylang is another matter. Till to this day I don't quite know where is this undefinable Singaporean Douanier Rousseau coming from; and I am not sure to ever fully resolve the mystery of his existence. He appeared in the pages of my travel sketch books in the late 80s and has been living a mostly independent existence since then; till to this day I find it mostly impossible to control his haphazard interventions. In fact he had even stepped in abruptly and claimed the Gilles Massot's painting  Kopi or Teh, that is the Question as his own. It was first presented one year earlier in the exhibition Singapore Boy, Time Flies with You. But the original sketch was in truth part of the series of charcoal drawing Ma Geylang had patiently developed over the years in that very coffee shop, and he very adamantly insisted that it had to be regarded as part of that body of works and presented under his name. I could not but comply to his request and in truth I had to admit that it made sense upon seeing the painting back in the environment that had inspired it.  As if negligently left resting on a coffee shop table, standing apart on the side of the rest of the show, the painting was undoubtedly a spiritual anchor of the exhibition in the way it lent a gentle metaphysical dimension to what could be too easily be mistaken as mundane environment. Although simple and immediate in appearance, it was as complex and unexpected as he was. It was indeed a Ma Geylang work. 

Jill Nasso

New Zealander Photographer
Black and White Photographs

Ma Geylang

Peranakan Naive Painter
Black and White Drawings and oil painting

Gila Masok

Malay Contemporary Artist
​Painted Photo and Coloured Drawings
​To my delight, the owner of the coffee shop saw no problem in my presenting the works in-situ. We first had a private party on a Sunday afternoon, which was the normal weekly time of rest for the whole coffee shop, after which I could keep the works in place for a couple of days during which the coffee shop was going about its daily business. And so for a few days the images entered in a lively dialogue with the common items, customers, objects and occurrences that had inspired them. The finishing touch to this site specific installation of 2D works was given with the discarded cardboards of the drink crates. Collected right there from the owner of the coffee shop, they were used to frame the smaller works, complete with the round imprints of the cans into the fiber of cardboard. The rawness of the found object material however was reworked with gold leaf and black paint for the black and white works and bright motifs for the colourful works. By now I guess that this could be seen as an early exercise in stylish environmental recycling, although this type of concern too had yet to take hold into the wider concerns of the society, at least locally that is. Anyway it was cheap, practical, stylish and conceptually on the dot. Most of all, it made art come alive. So clever leh....Like that lah! Can't help it.

Exhibition Invite

Installation Views on the 25and 26 May 1992

Lu Ma Su
Chinese Brush Painter

Chinese Scrolls

Jill Nasso
New Zealander Photographer

Black and White Photographs

Ma Geylang
Peranakan Naive Painter

Black and White Drawings

Gila Masok
Malay Contemporary Artist

Painted Photo and Coloured Drawings
Opening party on the Sunday 24 May 1992 afternoon
To all my dear friends featured here, thank you, you know who you are, including the few of you who are already watching all this from the other side of the veil. Love you. 

Newspaper Review and related article

​
​This event was featured in The Sunday Times in May 17, 1992.
(Article) French artist turns the spotlight on kopi-tiam as star of its own show 
​by Yohanna Abdullah.




Article of the traditional Singapore coffee shop published in
​Asian Geographic Magazine, 2006
Related Body of Works: the Tanjong Pagar Station coffee shop black and white prints
I AM MA.
As simple as that.
And I work on the space between things.
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