ARTIST ANALYSIS

“Do people see this as a voucher or a conceptual artwork?”

Drawing inspiration from personal observations and experiences, Vincent Leow (b. 1961) works with several genres and mediums to showcase and express himself through his artworks. Having started his artistic journey primarily through painting as a medium, Vincent Leow has gone on to work with various genres like sculptures, printmaking, video works, drawing and more in the following years. Jumping onto one of his freshest concepts of consumerism and intangible art, the voucher project (2022) was created as part of his exploration of the norms of the social ecosystem and connecting people through art. The project also circles around the idea of art-making that aims to examine the role of the artists, as well as the audience, in art spaces. Further diving into themes of questioning art ownership and their complex cycles.

Displayed in a rectangular setting, arranged in vertical and horizontal rows of eight, each voucher is produced in an A4 size, capping them at 10 framed vouchers. Carefully printed and embossed with each of them having their own silver frame, these limited edition vouchers hold a reserve bid of SGD$200, which will be issued to the collector/buyer during the period of the exhibition. The prints evolve into art vouchers which are valued at SGD$1,000.00 each, printed and numbered, inviting the collector/buyer to openly select the voucher number that they are interested in. Moving forward, upon the selection and the purchase of the voucher, buyers are allowed to purchase any of Vincent’s artworks (from past collections and present) which they may offset a total amount of SGD$1,000 from the original total amount.

In tune with the birth of this project, Vincent investigates and experiments with the social interactions among art, artists and the public. It churns a relationship between art and business, allowing people to view this work as something that is both tangible and intangible in its very process. The work also explores the nuance of the socio-ecosystem and structures within our society today. Furthermore, forming a chain of thought coming from a place of conceptualising and research.

A deep dive into the project’s process looks at the artist's interest in exploring the commercial aspect of art, as ultimately most of the vouchers were all commercially prepared. Vincent had initial thoughts of using letterpress as it is an old method of printing vouchers. However, after realising that certain things cannot be achieved with letterpress itself in terms of details, he had to use a total of 5 different processes in printmaking. The first process was to have the SGD$80,000 watermark as the first layer of print done in silkscreen. To add, Vincent wanted to focus on the border of it which consisted of very fine forms, some of which had the serial number used in the digital print. The art voucher text was printed using letterpress followed by a gold stamp. An embossing process took place as well. As such, the research behind this work mainly analysed the features of what a voucher would look like and what kind of contents could be encompassed in the voucher such as; the terms and conditions to be applied. Vincent wanted to ensure that this work was informal, contrasting how real vouchers had an air of formality by being kept in envelopes. This eventually led him to frame the vouchers in the form of a bond certificate. Throughout this project, Vincent noted that he continuously referred back to specific elements in vouchers such as the “expiry date” and how each voucher could be used by the buyer.

The process also involved discussions with the gallery owner in terms of how long the voucher will be valid for. However, it is important to note the overall objective of the project does not entirely focus on the voucher itself, but on the concept. It highlights both the notions of purchasing art and its usage. In particular, the process captured valuable moments of the public's reaction and participation in art ownership (perhaps without them even knowing). Consequently, this draws attention to the role of art collectors and how they recognise a piece of work; whether they see it as a voucher or a visual art print.

Vincent considers this work a NFT because it represents the nature of only documenting the interaction of the person becoming a part of the work (or voucher) when it is bought by them. Thus, the challenge in this comes from the observation of how people view art and how artists can continue to sustain themselves within the industry. The idea of personalisation also interests him, allowing some of the buyers to make reservations of certain numbers that resonate with them and even securing an auspicious number among the 80 vouchers. Having received the cultural medallion award during the covid period, the ‘voucher culture’ was recognised and inspired him to create a work which displays the act of accessibility in art. When the pandemic hit back in 2020, accessibility could be seen as an obstacle and this was something Vincent’s thoughts circled around.

In conclusion, this voucher project directs us to look at art from different perspectives through collaboration and exchange. It encourages us to foster valuable relationships between the arts, artists and the public. More importantly, it informs our ways of seeing, observing and creating art.

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