Malaysian contemporary artist chi too, known for his wry humour, multidisciplinary experiments and deeply personal reflections on everyday life, died in Kuala Terengganu early today (March 7), aged 44.
He was based between Kuala Terengganu and Kuala Lumpur. Tributes from the art community and beyond have been pouring in across social media, reflecting the influence of his work and the warmth of his personality.
Born in Kuala Lumpur in October 1981, chi too (real name Too Chee Hung) – in keeping with his playful sensibility, he styled his name entirely in lowercase – emerged in the late 2000s as one of the most distinctive voices among a younger generation of Malaysian contemporary artists.
His training in mass communication and sound engineering served him well as he entered the worlds of art and activism, two passions through which he challenged, provoked, and inspired.
From his early exhibitions in indie spaces and black box venues to major public institutions and festivals in Kuala Lumpur, the self-taught chi too also gained international recognition.
Working across conceptual art, film, performance, installation, video, sound and text, he developed an offbeat practice that seamlessly bridged the gallery and the nuances of routine encounters.
As he advanced in the art scene, he drew on experiences and connections from his earlier work as a documentary filmmaker exploring environmental and social issues, as well as a public artist leading “community projects” such as Main Dengan Rakyat and Lepark. His talent lent itself equally to collaborative projects and to the solitary demands of the studio, reflecting the dual nature of his artistic sensibility.
His calling card on his website – “can(’t) paint, can(’t) draw, can’t dance” – also served as a playful warning about his unconventional approach to art-making and life.
“As I wasn’t formally trained to develop my technique, I think I’m forced to think harder about the form and medium of what I make,” chi too said in an interview with The Star in March 2015, during his fourth solo exhibition, Like Someone In Love, in Kuala Lumpur.
“Instead of trying to make art with meaning, I try to find the meaning while working through the process of making art,” he added.
This reflected his philosophical mindset for an exhibition featuring 12m of bubble wrap – or 103,200 bubbles, to be exact. He “painted” the works by meticulously injecting acrylic paint into each bubble with a syringe, one by one.
His earlier solo exhibitions - Longing (Blackbox MAP, Publika, Kuala Lumpur, 2011), also shown at the 2013 Singapore Biennale, State Of Doubt (Akiba Art Lab, Tokyo, 2012) and The Artist chi too Looks At Artworks As He Contemplates The State Of The Nation’s Institutions (Art Row, Publika, Kuala Lumpur, 2013) - established chi too as a singular talent in Malaysian contemporary art, making an exhibition with bubble wrap feel like a natural extension of his practice.
His 2013 electrical switchboard installation What Turns Me On, better known as “those %$#@ light switches,” was also acquired by the National Art Gallery.
During this period, he also undertook a research residency in Terengganu to study traditional art-making, which later prompted his move to Kuala Terengganu, with both the East Coast state and Kuala Lumpur serving as his bases in recent years.
Beyond his work as an artist, chi too - never one to remain idle - assumed project management responsibilities for exhibitions at Ilham Gallery and played a key role in fostering a creative community at Zhongshan building in Kuala Lumpur
His final solo exhibition, It Is What Is It: chi too And His Stupid Ideas, presented at The Back Room gallery, Zhongshan building in December 2024, was a full display of his signature visual puns and playful irreverence.
The show - now a poignant reminder - featured utility plastic boxes as memory vessels, yet chi too was never one to be contained.
