No Photography

It was Sunday, in some countries a traditional day for visiting art galleries and museums. We drove the half hour from our home to Malaysia's National Art Gallery, now cleverly renamed the National Visual Arts Gallery, to see a retrospective exhibition by one Malaysia's elder arts statesmen - Choong Kam Kow. We arrived at lunchtime. We hadn't eaten.

The National Visual Arts Gallery's eternally leaky roof had been replaced, but the cafe had vanished. In its stead was a miniature National Portrait Gallery. We enquired, in the diminutively sparse bookshop outside the main building, but were told that the gallery had no cafe, nor restaurant, anymore. We were advised to drive out from the Gallery's grounds, eat or drink our fill, and drive back. It just didn't seem right somehow. 

There was obviously no chance of a sudden meeting of the like minds of art lovers in the gallery cafe then. No arts bantering, no half serious discussions about art, literature and the current state of philosophy ala Parisian cafe life. The social side of arts was quite obviously not being catered for, in Malaysia's National Visual Arts Gallery.

Before leaving, and despite vigorously rumbling tums, we decided to seek an art book. One of my friends from China had held an exhibition at the gallery, and a book had been produced. I am helping him with some research and sought to purchase his book. The place laughingly referred to as a book shop had fewer art books than most Malaysian book shops, and they have a bear minimum. Many of the books published by the gallery rubbed shoulders with a meagre amount of tubes of paint, other gear more suited to a craft shop and a naked postcard stand. Behind a counter more resembling a miniature fortress stood a bemused sales clerk, who was quite obviously unused to visitors. The majority of the minuscule selection of books were poorly printed (digital printing), while others were 'perfect bound' which is notorious for books falling apart without to much effort. The book we sought, published by the Gallery itself was, of course, out of stock.

Sitting in a dour looking Secret Recipe franchise, some ten minutes from the Gallery, forking a nondescript Malaysian Cornish Pasty into ravenous mouths, we seriously thought about forgoing the pleasure of the eminent artist, and not going back to the National Visual Arts Gallery, but we had left our car there, and were driven by one of our Chinese business friends to seek sustenance.

Pakhruddin and Fatimah Sulaiman (of Malaysian sculpture collection fame) were in the National Visual Arts Gallery foyer when we arrived back after lunch. I didn't get the opportunity to greet them as they were obviously engaged in conversation. So, it was onward to the show…..

And it was about here in my writing, that had I intended to write my review of Choong Kam Kow’s retrospective exhibition. It is absent, due to one zealous gallery guard who prevented me from taking non-flash photographs.

There is no review.

I can never quite understand why some galleries in Malaysia prohibit the taking of photographs. I could understand if they had postcards of the displayed works, and wanted to protect their sales or, like some, sold slides (transparencies) of said artworks for the same reason. Or, and big or, if the gallery sold posters, and again wanted to protect their merchandising, but no. The National Visual Arts Gallery sells very few merchandising items. There were no postcards, transparencies or posters available for Choong Kam Kow exhibition, not even a catalogue or book. I could even understand if signs said no ‘flash’ photography, though there is compelling evidence from 2013, by Dr Martin H Evans (http://people.ds.cam.ac.uk/mhe1000/musphoto/flashphoto2.htm)
that flash photography does no harm to objects in galleries.

Galleries that do not allow photography do themselves a great disservice. In our Social Media crazy age, selfies with an artwork backdrop do more good, via free advertising, than all the paid advertising put together. Casual shots of artwork shoot off across cyberspace within seconds, drawing great interest from recipients, potential visitors to an exhibit. No selfies, no causal shots, no free advertising and the huge gallery opens for no one or, like the Sunday we visited, to a bear handful of people who dropped off the tour bus.