Painted squares of pink and brown are placed onto a gray painted surface which has square cut-outs of identical size. The cut-outs allow viewers to peer inside this painted sculpture and to see themselves reflected back on a shiny surface. Different stripes of colour painted on the inner sides also become apparent upon closer examination. Choong Kam Kow’s aim to create an awareness of object presence in the space developed from shaped canvases into actual sculptural form, called the Sea Thru-Series. He bolstered the actual physical mass of the work while continuing the element of optical illusion. Viewers seeing into the artwork and seeing themselves together with additional paintings on the inside of the work provides a novel form of engagement. Choong has said of the series, “The interplay of solid and void, tactile quality and visual texture, illusional and physical space, real and imaginary forms gives rise to a kind of curiosity which arouses the urge to touch, feel and examine closely.”
