KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 29 — Remember the simpler days in the 'kampung'?
A time when children bathed in the river, climbed up fruit trees and rode bicycles.
A new art book, Let Our Children Dream, is hoping to remind Malaysians of days gone by as Independence Day approaches.
It will showcase 60 original paintings by artist and former Malaysian Investment Development Authority (Mida) deputy Director General Yeow Teck Chai.
An exhibition featuring all 70 of his paintings will be launched in Bangsar Shopping Centre (BSC) on September 6, officiated by Tan Sri Rafidah Aziz.
Artist Ong Soon Keat will also showcase 10 original oil paintings alongside Yeow’s artworks.
The 72-year-old Yeow will donate the proceeds of the book sales and all original artwork towards the Society of the Several Mentally Handicapped (SSMH) and the Free Food Society.
He spoke to Malay Mail and revealed why it was important to support good causes with his art for ‘our children's dreams’.
“As a young boy, I had my own dreams of what I wanted to be as an adult. You have a lot of dreams when you’re poor.” Yeow said.
“Coming from a family of 10, I wondered: Would I be able to leave my small kampung in Kuantan? Will I be able to become the artist or architect that I’ve always dreamed of becoming?”
Yeow graduated from Universiti Malaya in 1974 and joined a government department that was paying one of the highest salaries and at that time, he thought that would be the end of his dream.
However, working in Mida for over 30 years, he found that his creative skills helped him when creating marketing campaigns to attract foreign investments.
“When I retired in 2006 I asked myself: Why not use my talents to raise funds for charity since I don’t need the money from my paintings,” Yeow said.
Yeow was able to hold his first art exhibition Birds of Malaysia, a collection of over 100 watercolour paintings of Malaysian birds, in 2018.
It was a successful launch to his painting career that raised RM280,000 of which 80 per cent went to charity and 20 per cent to cover costs, followed by a book which sold over 3,000 copies.
For his next project, Yeow drew to recreate his younger carefree days as a boy and to remind everyone of their own childhood.
Yeow’s paintings depict playful scenes of mischievous children playing with the backdrop of 'kampung' scenery, some funny, some picturesque, and others a little sad.
It took the work of his book’s editor, daughter Charlotte Yeow, to bring ‘structure’ and context to her father’s artworks.
“People think that children's dreams are their ambitions or careers, but some of them have very simple dreams like having fun with friends or eating pasta,” Charlotte said.
“The first few chapters are more whimsical in nature but dig into what makes our dreams as children: are they our own or influenced by environment and culture?”
Charlotte said the book's last chapter is ‘quite poignant’ as she and her father wanted to show children in more rural and sometimes neglected settings.
"I think it was also important that we showed children who weren’t as fortunate as us, who don’t have access to basic needs like clean water or education,” she said.
"It makes people stop and think about other kids out there who come from low-income families and hopefully the art can move them to take action and support the charities we work with.”
Charlotte highlighted the work of SSMH and Free Food Society to aid mentally disabled children and reduce hunger in Malaysia, both organisations started by Yeow’s former Mida colleagues.
"I feel that children’s dreams and their education are the basis of the future of any country,” Yeow added.
"So it’s important for them to grow in a multiracial multi-ethnic environment and I hope these paintings will convey the beauty of that.”
Let Our Children Dream will be open from September 6 to 10 from 10am to 10pm, with guided tours to children in the afternoons given by Charlotte.
For more information click here.
