POLLY @ THE STONEWALL HOTEL

MUSE feature article extracted from SX NEWS Thursday 24th February 2005 pg.34

LOCAL ART FOR LOCAL PEOPLE
Artist Raymond Chai's snapshots of the community

WRITTEN BY : JASON CORNWALL

Well Mardi Gras Festival is in full swing, with shows and events popping up like mushrooms. Something which is going on right now though is a common feature of festivals I love, be they theatre festivals, art festivals, or homo festivals, and that is art and performance in unexpected places. Theatre in a nightclub, a DJ on a balcony, sculpture on a headland, or an art exhibition in a bar. Currently on show in the Colombian Hotel Lounge Bar (to use the technical term) is the work of local artist Raymond Chai. The exhibition is entitled BOYY FREEDOM and is the artist's way of capturing and celebrating the freedom of gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender and queer lifestyles. Originally from Malaysia, Chai has been painting Sydney since 1988, with his work frequently being exhibited in bars, restaurants and cafes over the last decade. Some may remember his images of James Dean at the Shift and on Taylor Square.

I wanted to do something about the local community, says Chai, to capture the streetscape and the lifestyle and the local culture, people expressing themselves as they are and as I see them. To capture who they are, what they are and what they do. I always see and observe the locals who are happy, relaxed and free, and I want to capture images that reflect the spirit and energy of this community, with individual freedom of self-expression, love, joy and happiness. Chai is also an interior designer, photographer and architect, who started painting images of queer culture when he came out.

His architectural background is clear in his work, structure and form is emphasised to highlight contrasting colour, shape and movement, or in his own words he seeks to accommodate historical, cultural, social and sexual expression within modernism. His love for architecture is evident not only in the clean and familiar lines of well known interiors, from the Oxford to Stonewall, the Albury and the Shift, but also as structures relate to the grander landscapes of Sydney Harbour, Woolloomooloo, Balmoral Beach and Neutral Bay. His BOYY FREEDOM exhibition captures the essence of Darlinghurst and Oxford Street. They are about buildings and people and creating the vibrancy of the streetscape and the public space. It's also about how the architecture interacts with the people, the trees and the landscape.

His artwork is indeed vibrant and beautiful, capturing his subjects, warts and all. He cites a broad range of influences. There's the essential Sydney of Brett Whiteley, the swirling lines and night skies of Vincent van Gogh, the vivid oil colours reminiscent of Henri Matisse's Fauve period, the bulging groins and broad shoulders of Tom of Finland and the unapologetic culture of Andy Warhol. We see everything from the glittering nightlife and the ecstasy of freedom and emotion to the bustling streets, and the peculiar liminal quality that Oxford Street possesses at night. Walking on the footpath, you're always in between, in transit, and there is constantly that searching, a longing and need to belong, to let go and truly be yourself. Inside the many ports of call on the strip is where warmth and true freedom of expression lies, while outside, you are who you know.

The figures in Chai's artwork capture an ideal male image, all the necessary parts accentuated, giving them a kind of fetishised and otherworldly beauty. But they exude the comfort that comes from being in one's own world. A portrait of the classic drag queen, Polly, captures all the glamour and glory, beauty and bitchiness in one single pose.

I always find it a particular pleasure to see familiar places and people captured in art or film. In Chai's paintings it's features like the open windows lined with people at the Colombian on a rainy night, Centrepoint Tower silhouetted in the background, the Tailor Square sign and the fountains foaming on the ground below. Good artwork should show the artist's world, through their eyes. It should allow us to briefly capture their vision, and hopefully let every individual person see their world from a different perspective. Art is incredibly subjective, and we all know what we like. For me Chai's work depicts a world I'm not necessarily immersed in, and one I don't personally identify with completely, but looking through his eyes one has the liberty to find the joy and freedom it holds for others.

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