Emil Goh was an artist, designer, traveller, foodie, people person. He was born in Malaysia on 6 March 1966 and studied psychology (Newscastle University) and then Fine Art (Sydney University), developing his practice across different media, particularly video and photography. Emil exhibited extensively throughout Australia and internationally. He moved to Seoul in 2004. At age 43 on 7 September 2009, he passed away due to a heart attack at his apartment in Seoul.
by Ooi Kok Chuen – Malaysian Journalist
Emil Goh has a way of making us more aware of what are perceptibly mundane things in everyday life as if there were some heroic quality in the passive and the inert. How the many things we treat as mere objects or commonplace actions can in moments of sentimental introspective, mean something and something much more.
by Beverly Yong
14 September 2009
Emil Goh (b. 1966, Malaysia) passed away last Monday 7 September at his apartment in Seoul.
Emil was an artist, designer, traveller, foodie, people person. We cannot lay claim to him in earnest as our fellow countryman – Emil really belonged to a broader sort of society, a ‘man of the world’ in a very today sense. Yet there was certainly the Malaysian in him, who loved to eat good food, banter, and kaypohin a positive and creative way. Most of us in Malaysia will only know of Emil through his work, which has been shown intermittently here in curated shows at the Balai Seni Lukis Negara (National Art Gallery) and elsewhere. Some of us know him as the son of the painter Sylvia Lee Goh, who would be touched that those in the art world here, especially artists, have voiced real sadness and shock at the news of his passing.
by Sylvia Lee Goh, Malaysian Artist
4 September 2010
A year has passed in the blink of an eye. The sun still shines. The birds are still singing and pair of squirrels are thrilling in sharp shrieks, oblivious, oblivious.
How is one to encapsulate the whole life of another human being in so many words or in so many pages? Is it ever enough? 43 years is just a memory now, and soon this too will be gone. Only what has been archived, recorded and preserved will stand the test of time. That too, and for how long? Everything is corruptible. Life is but a blink of an eye in eternity.
This is by no means a complete compilation of Emil Goh's exhibitions, works, writings, statements, but we will be researching, as Emil was always generous with sharing information with everyone. We hope you will for the moment accept what we have managed to source in the spirit of sharing good memories of a friend and serious artist whom we all know as Emil Goh. He died loving what he did most, and best.
Emil was a prolific artist. No year would have passed without a few exhibitions to showcase his creative restlessness.
Profile
Emil Goh: 1966 - 2009
Education
1992: Newcastle University, New South Wales, Australia
Psychology / Drama
1997: Sydney College of Arts, Sydney University, Australia
Fine Arts – Photography / Sculpture
2000: Goldsmith College, University of London
M.A. Fine Arts Photography / Sculpture
Foreign exhibitions
Exhibitions
1988: Physician for Nuclear Disarmament at National Art Gallery, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
1990: Little Works at Newcastle Contemporary Gallery
1990: War Paint at Newcastle Contemporary Gallery
1990: Utility Art at Newcastle Contemporary Gallery
1991: Archival Revival at Newcastle Contemporary Gallery
1991: Baru (photographic works) at Cafe Gritz, Newcastle
1991: Pertama at Darby Street Cafe, Newcastle (26 April – 10 May)
1992: Solo, Cathode Ray – performance and video installation at University of Newcastle
1992: Solo at The Brewery Collection, The Brewery, Queens Wharf
1992: Awards, Foto Riesel. Foto Rally Sydney, Student B&W – first prize
1992: Miscellaneous, 2NC ABC AM Madeline Randle Show – art reviewer
1992: Installation, Panopticon, collaborative video and performance at Newcastle University
1992: Publications, Art City, September Editor
1992: Australian Camera, September Portfolio
1992: Commissions, The Brewery Collection
1992: Group Show, Erotic Art at 249 Gallery, Newcastle
1992: Form & Function – "totem" & "vicious" at 249 Gallery, Newcastle (17 March)
1992: Elements at 249 Gallery, Newcastle (8 June)
1993: Relative Perception at Newcastle Region Art Gallery
1996: Above and Beyond at Australian Centre for Contemporary Art, Melbourne
1997: Between at Karen Hamilton Gallery, London
1998: Ways of Being at Ivan Dougherty Gallery, Sydney
1999: Perspecta at Sydney Museum
Solo exhibitions
1991: Baru Photographic Works at Café Gritz, Newcastle
1991: Pertama at Darby Street Café, Newcastle
1992: Cathode ray – performance and video installation at University of Newcastle
1992: Elements – video installation at 249 Gallery, Newcastle
1997: The Couple (New Australia) at 200 Gertrude Street, Melbourne
Selected group exhibitions
1990: Warpaint at Newcastle Contemporary Gallery
1990: Little Works at Newcastle Contemporary Gallery
1990: Utility Art at Newcastle Contemporary Gallery
1991: Postcards from the Edge at Watt Space
1991: Archival Retrieval at Newcastle Contemporary Gallery
1992: Musewelbrook Photographic Award at Musewelbrook Region Art Gallery
1992: Watt Postcards at Watt Space
1992: Erotic Art at 249 Gallery, Newcastle
1992: Focus at Watt Space
1993: Seven Second Memory at Airspace, Sydney
1992: Form and Function "Totem" and "Vicious" at 249 Gallery, Newcastle
1994: Extra Terrestrial, Experimenta 94 at Centre for Contemporary Photography, Melbourne
1995: Anonymous / Rediscovered at Linden, Melbourne
1995: Fear Inc. at First Draft, Sydney
1996/97: Above and Beyond at:
1996/97: Serial Kids at Australian Centre for Contemporary Art, Melbourne
1996/97: Modern Star Series at Next Wave Festival, Melbourne
1996: Hearsay at Australian Centre for Photography, Sydney, NSW
1997: Forming the Line at Hales Gallery, London
1997: Still with P. Brassington, M. Fairskye, Emil Goh and H. Nankin in Sydney
1998: Star Projects at No. 7 Kunstskdemiets Udstillingssted, Copenhagen
1999: Din at Studio 4 x 4, Amsterdam
2000: Grazing with Emil Goh & Lisa Cheung at Chinese Art Centre, Manchester, England
2000: The Palace of Exaggeration & Everything at Grey Matter, Sydney
2000: Flow at National Art Gallery, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
2000: Sydney! Vienna at Akadamie Fur Bildendon Kunst, Vienna
2001: "Buddha" Past, Present, Future at Art Gallery of New South Wales
2001: Maapoi at Brisbane Powerhouse for the Arts
2001: Contagion at N.Z. Film Archives, Wellington, New Zealand
2001: New Releases at Gallery 4A, Sydney
2001: Sunburn at Hamburg ( K3 ) Kampnagel, Germany
2000: The Thing at 33 Sydney Artists in Vienna
2002: Solo by Emil Goh at Boutwell Draper Gallery, Sydney
2002: Deskjob at Mori Gallery, Sydney
2002: Re / Map at Laforet Museum, Kokura, Japan
2002: European Art Festival at Osnabruck, Germany
2002: Re / Map Art Show at Kitakyushu
2002: Blinc at G 39, Cardiff, Wales
2002: Still Life (video exhibition) at Scott Donovan Gallery
2002: Mini – a survey of Emil Goh's works 1996 – 2002 at (CACSA) The Contemporary Art Centre of South Australia, Adelaide
2002: European Art Festival at Osnabruck, Germany
2002: Remake at Airspace, Sydney
2002: Public Programme Video Screenings at Biennale of Sydney
2003: Jakarta International Video Art Festival at Gallery National, Jakarta
2003: Wish You Were Here at Firstdraft Gallery, Sydney
2003: Location, Location at Australian Centre for Photography, Sydney
2003: Housewarming at Parasite Art Space, Hong Kong
2003: Creating Heaven on Earth at Casula Powerhouse, Sydney
2003: Fruits at Powerhouse Museum, Sydney
2003: Entroducing at Factory, Seoul
2003: One Night Stand (Australian & Korean video art screenings) at Ssamzie Space, Seoul, South Korea
2003: Discussion Island at Video Art in Age of Channel Hopping
2004: The Sneeze 80 x 80 at Loraini Alimantiri Gazonrouge, Athens
2004: Mix – Ed at Sherman Galleries, Sydney
2004: Busan Biennale at Busan Metropolitan Art Museum, Busan, South Korea
2004: Episodes at Cheong Art Centre Gallery
2004: Vacation, Projection Series 7 at Govett-Brewster Art Gallery, New Plymouth, New Zealand
2004: Busan Biennale (group exhibition) at Busan Metropolitan Art Museum, Busan, South Korea
2004: Standing by 000 at Gallery Sup, Seoul
2004: Slow Rushes at S. M. C. CAC, Contemporary Art Centre, Vilnius, Lithuania
2004: New Drawing... The Line Fell Off the Page at UTS Gallery, Sydney
2004: Process at Asia – Australia Arts Centre, Sydney
2004: Interlace (video installation)
2004: Entroducing at Factory Arts and Crafts, Seoul
2004: 720 & 576 at Phatspace, Sydney
2005: Jakarta International Video Festival at Ruangrupta, Jakarta
2005: Seoul - Until Now at Charlottenborg - Upstilling, - Sbygning, Copenhagen
2005: Open Letter at Metropolitan Museum of Manila, Manila, Philippines
2005: You are Here at Valentine Willie Fine Arts, Kuala Lumpur
2005: Open Letter (group exhibition) at Asia – Australia Arts Centre, Sydney, Australia
2005: Seoul – Until Now (group exhibition) at Charlottenborg, Kobenhavn, Denmark
2005: Seoul – Until Now at Contemporary Korean Art Kunsthal Charllotnborg, Copenhagen
2005: Slow Rushes (group exhibition) at Artspace Newton, Auckland, New Zealand
2006: Syncity at Australian Centre for Photography, Sydney, Australia
2006: Play (portraiture & performance in video art from Australia and New Zealand) at Perth Institution of Contemporary Arts, Perth, Australia
2006: Scape 2006: – don't misbehave! at Scape Biennale of Art in Public Space, Christchurch, New Zealand
2007: The One and the Many at Griffith University, Dell Gallery, Queensland College of Art
2007: Selamat Matang ke-Malaysia
AustralianPhotographers.org
The main focus of Emil Goh’s practice is the details of living in cities. In 2000, he made his first between video, which showed a series of 360 degree video panoramas of different apartments and their window views in London (followed by between (Hong Kong) 2002 & between (Seoul) 2004).
The following year, he started his series of video snapshots or long photographs that were closer to 60 seconds than 1/60th second (Styrofoam 2001, Mall 2001). He then began concentrating more on his still images like the Lantern series, 2002 (glowing after-hour office blocks) & bldg 2003 (light trails of birds above a skyscraper).
'RE/MAP 2002 in KITAKYUSHU' is the exhibition that had been held from April 27 to May 12 at Laforet Harajuku Kokura.
Wednesday, 11 October 2006
Emil Goh says: I have been photographing cyworld users in their minirooms & offline spaces.
And next week I will show a work done in my "officetel" (office-hotel=a korean type of dwelling for mixed use), mirroring my miniroom.
My main reasons for doing this work is a fascination of how much young Koreans live online plus the variety of accommodation types that exist in this city (from regular 3-4 bedroom family apart).
by Josh Rubin in Culture
13 October 2006
Fascinated with how many young Koreans construct lives online, Emil Goh started photographing users of Cyworld, a virtual community that allows users to create rooms using various skins and other icons of furniture and appliances. In Goh's work, these imagined universes are perfect counterpoints to explore the many different living situations in Korea.
by Im Sun-young
20 October 2006
Emil Goh has reaaranged his actual room to resemble his miniroom on Cyworld in his work “miniroom.”
With the largest number of Internet users and broadband Internet connections per capita in the world, contemporary Korean can no longer function without the Internet and its culture is becoming increasingly pervasive. For a month and a half until Nov. 28, seven young individual artists and one art group will display 10 works which reflect these phenomena. The exhibition, titled “R U Logged On ^^;?” is at the Ssamzie Space, a gallery located near Hongik University, northwest of Seoul.
Wednesday, 30 September 2009 at 7.00 pm at 19 Jalan Berangan, 50200 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
An evening in memory of Emil Goh (1966-2009) who passed away on 7 September 2009.
by Poketo
10 September 2009
Today, I woke up to the shocking and very sad news of our friend and Poketo contributor, Emil Goh passed away on 7 September 2009. This sudden news sent shivers through me.
We first knew of Emil through his flickr, Superlocal. We were so taken by his beautiful photography. He captured the everyday world so beautifully. No frills, no effects, his pictures truly captured the colors, feeling, people, and the unique way he experienced a place. He showed us a Seoul that we had never experienced and wanted to visit.
by Taro Shinoda. Tokyo, Japan
First, I need to apologise for my poor English
because my first language is Japanese.
Emil and I first met in 2001.
I was in Sydney for a show at the Museum of Contemporary Art.
I met Emil at the opening reception.
He just came over to me with a smile.
On the next day, he showed me around Sydney.
Immediately we became good friends.
I was there only for a week but
I still have good memories of Sydney,
because from him.
by Alison Carroll & Sarah Bond
Asialink, November 2009
Emil Goh died suddenly on 7 September, in Seoul, South Korea, aged forty-three, of a heart attack.
We can hardly believe he was forty-three, as he was always seemingly, endlessly youthful: enthusiastic, engaged, dynamic, funny; always knowing the latest trend, where to go, what to do, who to meet, and, as the tributes to him all say, where to eat.