HIDE AND SEEK
Chooi-Ling Keiong
MALAYSIA
Chooi-Ling Keiong is a Malaysia-based visual artist and illustrator. The inspiration for Chooi-Ling’s PARDICOLOR project ‘Hide and Seek’ came from a visit to wildlife photographer Chien C Lee’s exhibition ‘Masters of Disguise’ at GMBB, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Amazed at the incredible camouflage and mimicry employed by insects, reptiles, birds and even plants that had been featured, and particularly inspired by the species hailing from Sabah and Sarawak, Chooi-Ling applied for a small grant from our Creative Arts Fund and started research for her own artwork.
As part of Chooi-Ling’s research for her project she accompanied Vincen Koo (Nature Advisor, Ecologist, Volunteer & Environmentalist) on fieldwork in Tanah Aina Fahad, Ulu Dong, Pahang. Taking the opportunity to interview Vincen, Chooi-Ling asked, amongst other questions, the following:
‘How camouflage can be achieved?
Vincen answered:
There are several ways in which camouflage can be achieved.
Mimicry: An organism may mimic the coloration or pattern of its surroundings, such as a stick insect blending in with a branch or a chameleon changing its color to match its background.
Countershading: Many animals have a darker coloration on their dorsal (back) side and a lighter coloration on their ventral (belly) side, which helps them blend in with the light and shadows of their environment.
Disruptive coloration: This involves patterns or markings that break up an animal's outline and make it harder to detect. For example, a zebra's stripes or a leopard's spots can help them blend in with the dappled light of their surroundings.
Background matching: An organism may match its coloration and texture to a specific background, such as a polar bear's white fur in a snowy landscape or a moth's mottled wings on tree bark.
‘Hide and Seek’
“(The) title of the artwork is ‘Hide and Seek’, it is created by color pencils and watercolor. The size of the artwork is 60cm x 80cm. There are frogs in the painting. Some are hiding, some can be encountered easily. I would like to invite (the) viewer to observe what is hiding in the painting. Like what I did on my fieldwork, to search every inch of the site.”
- Chooi-Ling.
