Nah Yong En: Going Somewhere To Go Somewhere

We are honored to announce the opening of Nah Yong En’s solo Exhibition “Going Somewhere to Go Somewhere.  Nah Yong En stayed Fukuoka as a visiting artist by the FAAM’s Visiting Artist Support Programme with the UOB’s grant from 8^th November to 10^th December.

He strolled around the streets and town of Fukuoka and filmed took many photographs within a limited time of one month.  This exhibition shows a series of paintings and photographs made through his stay in Fukuoka.

Artist’ s Statement
I came to Fukuoka looking out for the various rhythms and light of the place.These I experienced, and much more.The Japanese culture in a many ways is very future oriented. Many can testify to the Japanese’ s people’ s kindness and courtesy, which I have greatly experienced throughout my stay here. I have also seen their discipline and the respect they have for their work, no matter what kind of jobs they are. Till the present, these are still very much genuine and not at all formalistic. Such thinking or actions often do not bring about immediate benefits at times, and they are done very much in the perspective of delayed gratification, in view of benefits that do not come immediately. Such future oriented mindsets exceedingly valuable, they allow us to choose the long term ‘best’ over an instantaneous ‘good.’
However, I do wonder – what if the future benefits prove to be uncertain, or never arrive? If incidents occur that challenge this belief system, would there be a greater unshakeable future hope to hold onto? Or, would people
simply turn to a present oriented mindset of immediate gratification or fatalism, which might cause the earlier mentioned values to be very much lost?
Thus, my set of artworks “Going somewhere to go somewhere”. I hope you enjoy the photographs and paintings – the rhythm, light, and the in between moments. I enjoyed Fukuoka (and Kumamoto and Yufuin, in my short trips there) immensely. But as we move along in life, may we pause and consider, amongst all, what is the eternal unshakeable hope of which we might live our lives upon.

Nah Yong En
Born in 1986 and lives in Singapore.  Currently studying art at master’s degree, Lasalle College of Arts, he won a Platinum Award at the 30^th UOB (United Oversea Bank, Singapore) Painting of the Year Competition with a work of photography combined with painting.