Written by Sukhbir Cheema
When Poesy Liang was a young girl, her father had cashed out of a business partnership before the company went public.
Her father spent the majority of his money on container loads of maritime artifacts. He had a dream to open three maritime curiosity shops under The Red House label.
“These shops were located at Sg Wang Plaza, Asia Jaya, and the large flagship was on Jalan Barat,” Poesy tells me, adding that these shops were great attractions during the 1980s.
While initially starting out the business with hopes of making it big, dark storm clouds soon swirled above Poesy’s home. Her father’s daring business adventure didn’t take off.
“He hardly sold a thing and that’s what eventually diminished our financial freedom. He didn’t realise that he was an artist. He didn’t really recover from this.”
To make matters worse, Poesy became paralysed when she turned 17. There were tumours in her spinal cord and doctors didn’t expect her to walk ever again.
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There was still hope. Little did many know, Poesy’s mother was a gifted healer. She was traditional Chinese medical practitioner and was constantly learning and improving her skills.
Gradually, through word of mouth, more and more people began flocking to her to be healed. They didn’t mind paying her so long as she did an honest job at healing them.
“When we came into financial trouble, her journey as a healer kinda blew up,” Poesy said. There came a point she would attend to 300 patients per-day!
“Over a few years of very hard work, she was able to buy our current family house in Imbi and paid off my father’s deficits.”
For Poesy, she was back on her feet at the age of 19.
“I started appearing on television for commercials from 14 years old, and I’ve been financially independent since that age. I have been in many industries and did many things in the three decades before becoming a full-time artist in 2009,” the 45-year-old said, adding that she has diverse experience in architecture, business, media broadcasting, and the luxury industry.
However, the tumours returned when she was 28, leaving her paralysed after another invasive surgery. Just like her mother, Poesy fought on and now is able to walk but with reduced sensation. Her eyes serve as a guide for every step she takes.
Remarkably, Poesy continued focusing on improving herself. Today, she is a composer, artist, and jeweller who is trained in classical Chinese art. She has numerous art projects under her belt from musical compositions, to art installations the likes of the iconic Harry Putter aka the Rooftop Cat, and numerous charity-related projects.
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Yet, something was missing despite the numerous art installations Poesy had made in her 12-year journey in art. As much as Poesy and her family were out of the woods, her childhood memory, that of her father’s failed business kept gnawing at her.
The collection of maritime artifacts that her father had placed in a makeshift attic space pleaded to be redeemed.
It was always a huge burden to the family, literally hanging over us. It represented my father’s shame, I saw him as a broken man when I was 5 years old. He never recovered and became bitter as I grew up,” Poesy revealed.
Her father fell into depression and this plunged Poesy’s family to sorrow. Her house no longer felt like home. It was more like a shelter consisting of an unhappy family.
But her love for film sets kept Poesy going during that trying period.
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“I saw film sets transform and was blessed to work with gifted film directors of the time. I also had some incredible artists who were my teachers from 6 years old onwards,” she said.
Little did Poesy know, her experience in the filmmaking industry would play a big role in her art installations.
“I was shaped with ideas that were not going to be widely accepted and I grew up to be okay with that,” she said.
With an ambition to restore her father’s dignity, Poesy pursued to become an architect. Her aim was to transform her family home along with her father’s maritime collection.
“I could see how the family house can stage an incredible installation with them. So I set about putting it together over the years, earning money to make things happen, finding the right people who helped make my ideas happen,” she said, adding that the process took many years.
“I’m not sure this will help my father heal, but it sure brought about my own healing.”
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This is not the first time Poesy will be staging The Pirate’s Daughter. She had in fact first displayed these artifacts between 2008 and 2021 at her family house. What makes the current installations different this time around is that it’s a lot more immersive and picturesque.
Courtesy of a grant she obtained from the Cultural Economy Development Agency’s (Cendana) Arts Venue Recovery Programme, Liang has transformed Abundantia, a 3000 square feet industrial space in Sungai Buloh into an underwater graveyard of a pirate’s plunder.
The concept of the installation centres on dark themes such as loss and grief. That said, Poesy intends to capture the feeling of redemption and solace, two extremely crucial emotions that are relevant during the pandemic.
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“The Pirate’s Daughter is a pavilion-sized installation. It depicts the underwater graveyard of a pirate’s plunder, where countless fallen ships and souls of sailors who lost their lives rested in peaceful melancholy to a heartbroken tune by the pirate’s daughter,” Poesy’s description for the art installation reads.
The installation consists of 62 ship wheels, 38 storm lamps, seven ship oars, three hunting spears, three Western swords, one oriental sword, two trumpets, and other maritime artefacts that were collected by her father nearly 40 years ago.
Accompanying the installations will be a tune titled Forgotten Star which Poesy had composed in 2014. It’ll be auto-played on a broken grand piano.
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Poesy is currently providing virtual tours to curious art and history lovers. If you’re interested, you can get in touch with Poesy through Instagram and Facebook. The Pirates Daughter will be exhibited until the end of 2021 before it’s moved to a different location.
All images in this feature were supplied by Poesy Liang.
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