Terima kasih buat para puteri ku yang sanggup ikut abah berkerja sambil menikmati percutian berkualiti. (Thank you my daughters for your willingness to follow me working whilst enjoying a quality vacation)
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PERCUTIAN BERKUALITI (QUALITY VACATION)
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HOREEEEY!!!
Program Komuniti Bestari SAINS+SENI (Smart SCIENCE+ART Community), Kampung Selat bagan Nyiur, Pulau Dayang Bunting, Langkawi, 18-20 Mei, 2013.
Dengan ingatan kasih buat anak-anak di Sekolah Kebangsaan Selat Bagan Nyiur, Pulau Dayang Bunting, Langkawi.
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MEMBULATKAN NIAT (FOCUSING INTENTION)
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BAHASA BADAN MENCERMINKAN GETARAN BATIN (BODY LANGUAGE REFLECTS INNER VIBES)
Getarkanlah batin yang sihat menerusi bahasa badan anda, tapi bukan macam ni. Ninda saya pernah menepis mereka yang meletakkan tangan di bawah dagu. 90% cara kita bercakap adalah menerusi bahasa badan. Bakinya menerusi bahasa tutur. Apa yang kita tuturkan menerusi bahasa badan kita seharian?
( Emit healthy inner vibes through your body language, but certainly not like this. My grandfather used to swipe those who placed their hands under their chins. 90% of our communication is through body language, the balance is through spoken language. What are we communicating through our body language daily)
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PESANAN UNTUK ANAK-ANAK PROGRAM TEKNOLOGI & REKABENTUK MEDIA BARU.USM.
Walaupun raya lambat lagi, ni nak minta maafla ya, kalau ada minda dan rasa yg tersekeh, tersentuh, tercalar, tercabar, terhantuk, tersadar, terkezut dan terbelahak sepanjang saya memainkan peranan sebagai kuli dan tukang kebun bertuankan anda semua, makan gaji hasil duit rakyat dan duit yuran yg anda semua bayor. Anda semua adalah amanah utk saya, bos saya. Saya cuma panjangkan apa yg telah dibekalkan ayahanda-bonda dan guru-guru saya dulu, yang memanjangkan bekalan guru-guru mereka, yang diwarisi dari wasiat batin Penghulu kita. Kebun saya bukan subur pada jasad bangunan atau nama institusi atau jenama politik. Kebun saya subur dalam minda dan hati manusia manusia seperti anda semua, yang harapnya dapat saya sentuh dengan kasih sayang antara manusia, walaupun nampak dari segi jasadnya brutal. iSyukur dan terima kasih bebanyak kerana menghargai servis saya sebagai tukang kebun anda. Memang sedap pinjam kredit utk layan prasan, tapi kredit hakiki hanya kepunyaan Allah. Terima kasih la doakan saya, memang saya yang suka layan angin ni perlu disejukkan oleh doa-doa anda semua. Itu semua rezeki yang amat saya hargai, jauh melebihi umpan benda. Saya juga amat bersyukur ditemukan dgn anda semua anak-anak baik yg mungkin selalu didoakan baik-baik oleh kedua-dua ayahanda dan bonda anda semua. Sampaikan salam saya pada mereka. Anda semua kini sudah menjadi inspirasi untuk adik-adik junior utk tahun-tahun mendatang, agar Kebun Media Baru ini akan terus subur menjadi oasis lestari yg membawa kesejahteraan dunia-akhirat utk semua manusia dan seluruh alam. Sekian kuliah untuk malam ini.
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FROM MASS TO MULTI MEDIA - MALAYSIAN ART IN AN ELECTRONIC ERA.
From Mass To Multi Media – Malaysian Art in an Electronic Era
This essay was originally published as a hypertext essay in the catalogue accompanying the exhibition Pameran Seni Elektronik Pertama at the National Art Gallery, Kuala Lumpur in 1997. Part of the original text is in Malay, and has been translated here by Sarena Abdullah.
The Beginning
Computers were brought into the field of Malaysian fine arts from outside circles. In 1983, Kamarudzaman Md. Isa, a lecturer in Industrial Design at Institut Teknologi MARA began to use BASIC programming language on an Apple IIe platform with the capacity of 64KBRAM to create images. A year later, he used the same programmingplatform on a Commodor64, to produce the work "Self-Portrait”, which was exhibited at ITM’s Art and Design Faculty. Since dot matrix printers at that time were limited to producing black-and-white prints, Kamarudzaman recorded the images from the computer’s eight-colour display screen in the form of coloured photo prints.
In the late80s, the emergence of digitizers allowed the use of black-and-white cameras with an RGB filter lens to record images directly into computers. At the same time, DeluxePaint software enhanced the capabilities of computers to produce and process images. With the help of Commodore Amiga1000 computer with its 500KBRAM capacity and far more sophisticated color display, Kamarudzaman produced "Cini" (1987) and "Tribute to Father" (1987).
Ismail Zain must be described as the visionary of Malaysian computer art. Although he was not the first to apply digital imaging technology, he was without doubt the first to produce a consolidated body of work in the new medium. He constructed a theoretical framework for the absorption of advanced technology while maintaining a critical disposition. As an artist Ismail Zain was not a victim of the historical time lag, vis-à-vis international trends, that tends to afflict modern art practice in Malaysia. He was alert to new ideas and theories and was able to manifest these in his art well before the ‘dust had settled on them’.
Far from the formal and perceptual concerns of modernist art, Ismail Zain’s work is essentially semiotic in its approach.[1] From the early “Woman Crossing The Stream – After Rembrant” (1967), to the later “The Detribalisatino of Tam Bte Che Lat” (1983), form, content and technique are all put to the service of an articulation of signs. Ismail Zain revealed his grasp of the semiotic implications of the digital image, in his distinction of the manual photo collage from the computer generated one.[2] In a digital collage “there are no harsh outlines”. The new medium is “much more malleable, like clay”.[3] The computer allowed him to dissolve the oppositional or structural aspect of the play of signs and to develop what he called “user friendly” images.
In Ismail Zain’s “Digital Collage”, images and texts from varied sources are merged in order to release their latent meanings. “Al Kesah” (1988), for instance, constitutes a playful yet critical response to the penetration of global mass media into the local culture and consciousness. Ismail Zain was also very critical of the heroic status of the artist and in this series of piquant computer prints, he seems to delight in the downward mobility of the artist that results from the computer’s indifference to skills of the hand. Ultimately, Ismail Zain must, himself, be ‘read’ as a signifier for the transition from formal to contextual concerns and for the criticial assimilation of new technology into Malaysian artistic practice.
The Late Arrival of Video Art
The fact that computer art enters our local scene before video art is a testament to the foresight of Kamrudzaman and Ismail Zain.[4] It is also, however evidence of the unfortunate inertia of the local scene with regard to engaging with experimental and critical approaches.
Liew Kung Yu won a Young Contemporaries minor award for “A Passage Through Literacy” in 1989. In this work, a TV monitor displaying the image of a dancing figure (Marion De Cruz) overlaid with text was contained within the form of a broken egg. This ‘sculpture’ was placed on a low plinth. White cloth wrapped around the monitor emerged from the egg and rose to the ceiling, articulating the space between the sculpture and its site.
The first show of the Galeri Luar Pusat, Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM), curated by Lim Eng Hooi in 1989 included American artist Ray Langenbach’s synchronised video installation “The Language Lesson”.[5] Two ‘talking heads’ on television monitors, mounted on rattan clothes-modeling torsos faced each other across a field of cycling neon lights. The conversation of the two ‘video heads’ one a woman the other the artist, begins as a simple ‘language lesson’ then progressively broaches issues of cultural imperialism, political and sexual exploitation, religious conflict and racism.
Multi Channel Video Installation
Baharuddin Arus presented video art and kinetic sculptures in response to Marshall McLuhan’s notion of “the medium is the message”. His installation works exhibited at USM in 1989 used TV monitors that showed various video footage transmitted simultaneously from a number of different sources, including a live video transmitted by a moving video camera.[6]He exploited this remote technology to control the movement of his sculptures. In this work, Baharuddin used the electronic medium to comment on the medium itself.
Video Art
"Sook Ching" by Wong Hoy Cheong combined live performances, painting and video projection.[7]The video is produced in the form of a historical documentary, recording people's plight under Japanese occupation through the experience of several individuals. This documentary approach tries to legitimize personal history and place it within official national history. Showed for the first time in conjunction with the International Video Art Festival 90, this effort might be seen as an early introduction of video in the context of a multimedia presentation.[8]
Liew Kung Yu’s “Who Am I”, was featured in galleri MIA’s Two Installations curated by Wong Hoy Cheong in 1991. This installation of prayer alters and multiple video monitors set on the floor, was accompanied by a performance and questioned the permanence of Chinese traditions.
Liew Kung Yu’s “Sing a Song for Ah Kong and Ah Ma” initially shown at the Sony Video Art Festival 1994,[9] won first prize in the video installation category at the Malaysian Video Art Festival in the same year.[10] In this work, the domestic TV viewing situation is the setting in which multi-channel video delivers a layered narrative that represents the cultural gap between two generations living under the same roof. Although cultural identity and its transformation with the passage of time are ostensibly the content of this installation, it is the impact of the TV medium itself that is the subject of this reflexive and critical work.
During the Gulf War, Ray Langenbach organised at group show called “Framing War”at the Balai Seni Lukis Negara. Ray himself presented a feedback installation in which a video camera ‘monitored’ the viewer on a TV screen with the text, “Responsible for the War” superimposed across his or her face.
An anonymous collaborative (Ray, Latif Kamaluddin and Gunabalan Krishnasamy) and multi faceted installation at the Balai Seni Lukis Negara in 1992-3, involved the use of video. This unnamed work sought to effect a critique on the facelessness of propoganda as it juxtaposed a humanist response to the deaths of children in Iraq, against the ‘spectacular’ death of the Soviet ideological system.
In an installation at Galeriwan in 1993, called “Mao of All Nations”, a video stream of old films of Mao Tse Tung played in the center of a kolam made with seeds and beans. A ceiling fan threatened to blow away the kolam. At the end of the exhibition, the kolam, which depicted four images of Mao Tse Tung, was taken outside and left for the birds.
“Bernafas Dalam Lumpur”(1994) was a performance and installation work by Noor Azizan Paiman that used video as a recording medium. The work is seen in the form ofa documentation, yet it persists as a medium of expression that has its own visual language.
“White Cloth” by Khairul Aidil Azlin and Hamzah Tahir features a similar approach, except here video has become dominant. This video work won Second Prize in the Young Experimental Video Award category in the Malaysian Video Awards3M VHQ 1994 organized by VideoHeadquarters.[11]
Video also made an appearance as part of "Skin Trilogy" (1994), an experimental multi-media presentation by FiveArts Centre.[12]Based on text by KSManiam and directed by Krishen Jit, its integration of visual and performing arts included the work "Something Fishy" by Hasnul JSaidon. This multi-channel video installation work was one of the elements helping to generate improvisations by the actors, musicians and singers.
Faizal Zulkifli emerged with a one-channel video work that won a small prize in the Young Contemporaries Competition in 1996.[13] His work entitled "No Art Please" caught the attention of the jury with its casual approach, and cynical take on the position of art education in the eyes of society. Although presented in the form of a video, the images were produced by using a computer. Faizul combined the image processing and non-linear editing software on the Macintosh platform to produce his work. His work"Road Runner" exhibited in the same competition, used the analogy of electronic games to describe the obsession of certain sections of society with “speed, racing and numbers”'.
Video in Theatre
If the field of fine art has been somewhat limited by deep modernist traditions and conventions, the performing arts and government and private-sponsored ceremonies have perhaps provided a space for the use of the latest, advanced, expensive technology free from the shackles of history and out dated theories.
It is interesting to consider that the use of video projection in the context of stage performances was triggered and sponsored by the world of politics. For example, in the theatrical presentation "40 Years of UMNO Women" (1989) produced by the CentreStage, director Normah Nordin had no hesitation in marrying video technologies and live performance to bring a Proton Saga out from a video screen on to the stage in the manner of David Copperfield.
Addressing the gap between tradition and the present youth generation, stage production"Rama & Sita" (1995) featured post-industrial and techno-pop scenography as a conceptual backdrop for the borrowed epic. In its staging, Janet Pillai used twenty television monitors, displaying video, computer animation, and other digital and electronic displays, highlighting a new generation operating on cyber technology platforms.
The bold approach in "Rama &Sita" was followed by several stage productions in other theaters combining the use of video or multimedia technology, such as"Storm" directed by ZahimAlbakri.
Light Art
While video and computer platforms have been the main channel of electronic media applications in the context of the fine arts, SyedAlwi Syed Abu Bakarhas chosen to use the flow of electricity through wires and LED as the primary element in his minimalist sculpture. Drawing on religious concepts of time, Syed Alwi’s approach appears to adopt values, ideas and tone of the "East" through the use of electronic light technology.
Computer Art
In the work "Surat Al-Insyirah 94" (1991), Ponirin Amin touched on the relationship between the Qur'an and the computer as a source of information. Here he used Deluxe Paint software on an Amiga platform to produce digital work embedded into woodblock prints. It is interesting to see this spark of technology appearing in printmaking, an established practice with rigid disciplines and conventions. In this work, Ponirin aptly chose two different media that are closely related, either technically or spiritually, to the dichotomy between technology and tradition.
The same situation can be seen in Bahaman Hashim’swork "Virtual Reality" (1993), where he used Adobe Photoshop software on a Macintosh platform to develop work that was presented in the form of silkscreen printing. Bahaman invited the audience to observe the shift in perceptual and representational media from the Renaissanceera (Durer’s prints) to the present period (windows on Macintosh’s computer platform).
In his "In a Minute" (1994) series, Suhaimi Tohid introduced several technical strategies directly related to commentary on electronic media, especially television. Throughhis work, Suhaimi tried to freeze time, with various layers of images that coming through the TV in a certain time frame. A horizontal format was used in order to show the chaotic narrative that has become part of the nature of television. Suhaimi combined the use of televisions, camera photography, computers (Macintosh and AdobePhotoshop software) and silk screen techniques in the production of his work.
"Domino Theory" (1994) by Zulkifli Che'Harris proves that computer animation was not solely created to become slave to the corporate logos that fly across our TV screens. Computer animation and multimedia software are also capable of encapsulating and expressing artists’ personal feelings on issues that affect them. Through this work, Zulkifli has made an interesting comment on the chain effect impact of forest destruction by humankind.
In1994, Hasnul J Saidon used video and computer animation in his installation"Kdek! Kdek! Ong! exhibited at"Culture in Context" in Kuala Lumpur.[14]Based on the Malay proverb "Katak Di Bawah Tempurung", the artist used the animation of a frog trying to escape from his new prison - the television. In another installation "Mirror, Mirroron the Wall..." (1994), a stiff and serious Van Gogh is brought back to life digitally to smile and wink at the audience.
CD-Rom
For Ismail Zain, the computer is the best substitute for the sketchbook normally associated with artists’ or designers’ activities. This concept was clearly expressed in the exhibition "Malaysian Drawings" (1997) where his print works were accompanied by works of younger artists. Niranjan Rajah used the precision and completeness of the digital medium to produce a series of installation drawings (1993), which focus on the importance of design. Hasnul J Saidon exhibited a series of computer printouts(1996-97) questioning the boundaries between digital and hand-drawn painting. Nasir Baharuddin expanded on his religious-oriented conceptual approach through his work"The Sense ofWords" (1997), where the use of computers has enabled him to reject the intervention of artists’ hand(and ego) that might disrupt the flow of spiritual expression.
On-Line
The Failure of Marcel Duchamp/Japanese Fetish Even! went on-line in 1996 and was presented at Galeri PETRONAS as a part of Explorasi in 1997.[15] This work, a harsh parody of Marcel Duchamp’s Etant Donnes, is an extension of Niranjan Rajah’s critical installation practice.[16] While interrogating the ontology of the image in computer mediated communication, this work also attempts to mark the problem of cultural constituencies in the Internet.
[1] In the Saussurean theory of “signs” the individual words that make up “speech acts” gain their meaning in relation to their context. This relatively of meaning led initially to structuralism’s methodical analysis of “systems of signs”, and ultimately, to the dismantling of these systems in deconstruction.
[2] One of the artistic consequences of the mass circulation of printed images was the invention of collage. The artists no longer had to hand-make an image but could now “cut out” two pre-existing images and combine them to generate another. The production of new meaning was achieved by appropriating and recontextualising found or readymade material.
[3] Noordin Hassan interviews Ismail Zain, Ismail Zain Retrospective Exhibition catalogue, National Art Gallery, 1995.
[4] As early as 1965 Korean artist Nam June Paik, who was a part of the Fluxus movement in the United States, had started using the first commercial video camera, the Sony Porta Pack Video as a medium for art. Since then, artists have approached this technology in a number of ways, ranging from electronic image experimentation to body oriented performance art and from conceptual art to video installations. Even the television documentary format, with its apparent verity to facts has been exploited by activist and critical artists to legitimise their messages as well as to parody the mass media.
[5] In contemporary Installation Art, the space and architecture of the gallery or other site as well as the social, political, historical, theoretical and critical contexts of the work are all treated as objects of the presentation.
[6] In the early 1990s USM students made robots which were exhibited at USM museum. In light of Islamic aniconism, the artists approached the simulation of animate beings more “in the manner of their operation” than in terms of their physical appearance. The works included a 10 feet tall Jentayu robot with wings that spread out and flapped and a “human-bot” that echoed human form just enough to provoke a humorous response.
[7] In contemporary Performance art, live bodily gestures are employed to take formal and conceptual ideas directly to the audience, outside the confines of museums and galleries. Unlike the conventions of theatre, here the approach is generally non-narrative and unlike the dramatist, the artist is, normally, the performer.
[8] The Malaysian Video Art Festival ‘90, curated by Dominique Chastres, UNESCO consultant to the Asia Pacific Institute for broadcasting development, brought to Malaysia a challenging selection of international video art. This show was also revealing of the moral and political context within which Malaysian art struggles to find its place. Stephen Teo’s Meditation: India and Aida Buyong’s Lion, Whore, Dinosaur were excluded by virtue of their criticism of “other societies” – Bombay and Venice respectively.
[9]SONYVideoArtFestival,heldatLot 10KualaLumpurin 1994. Forthisfestival, theorganizerlenta video cameratoa selectednumberof individualsfromvariousbackgrounds -theatre, fine arts, architecture, advertising, photographyand so on -toproduceworksaccording totheir own personal inclination. By presenting personal worksinapubliclocation, videocould be watched in a context apart from its common television usage.
[10]Based on the desireto explore video’s potential, MalaysiaVideoArtFestival‘94introducedvariouscompetition categories-computeranimation, experimentalvideo,andvideoinstallation. Thisfestival included workslikeDomino TheorybyZulkifliChe'Harris, Post-Colon…byHasnulJSaidonandSing A SongforAhKongandAhMabyLiewKungYu.
[11]In MalaysiaVideoAwards 3M VHQ‘94,for the first timeaspecial award– Young ExperimentalVideowasestablished to encouragethe participation ofartists not from the industry,video agencies oradvertisingagencies. The first prize was wonbythe work Proclaimby Hasnul J Saidon. The awardalsoattracted a number ofentrieslikeGoodbyebyLohKokChee, and AmalgamationbyFaizalZulkifli.
[12] With the postmodern disregard for formal issues, the categories of cultural production have lost their definition. In the visual arts, “painting” and “sculpture” have been extended to incorporate architecture, text, performance, video and an expanding range of media and approaches.
[13] The annual Young Contemporaries competition organized by the Balai Seni Lukis Negara must be acknowledged for its important contribution to the experimental spirit in the Malaysian Scene.
[14]CultureinContext was held atthe AustralianHigh CommissionKualaLumpurin 1994. Thisexhibitionfeatured experimental works from ITM and Artists in Residence from Australia.
[15]Explorasi, the inaugural show of the Faculty of Applied and Creative Arts UNIMAS, signaled a possible return to the conceptual and critical approaches of artists like Ismail Zain and Redza Piyadasa. The show included installation and video art as well as image processing, CD-ROM, computer animation and on-line works. Of particular interest is Fauzan Omar’s Pattern of the Earth in which the artist integrates painting with multi-channel video. That such an established artist, renowned for his formalist and process-oriented concerns has moved into electronic media must be a sign of the impending paradigm shift in the Malaysian art scene. The show’s catalogue is an interactive CD-ROM.
[16] There has been a conflation of primary and secondary productions in all areas of postmodern culture. Creative work has become multidisciplinary and has made a profound engagement with history and theory. Criticism has, in turn, ceased to be a matter of scholarly arguments about creative sources and has become a euphoric creative endeavor in its own right.
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DARI MASSA KE MULTI MEDIA - SENI MALAYSIA DALAM SEBUAH ERA ELEKTRONIK
Dari Massa Ke Multi Media – Seni Malaysia dalam sebuah Era Elektronik
Hasnul J Saidon dan Niranjan Rajah
Esei ini pada asalnya diterbitkan dalam katalog
yang mengiringi pameran Pameran Seni Elektronik Pertama
di Balai Seni Lukis Negara, Kuala Lumpur pada tahun 1997.
Permulaan
Komputer telah dibawa ke dalam arena seni halus Malaysia dari luar lingkarannya. Pada tahun 1983 Kamarudzaman Md. Isa, seorang pensyarah dalam bidang seni reka industri di Institut Teknologi MARA mula menggunakan bahasa pengaturcaraan BASIC di atas pelantar Apple IIe dengan kapasiti RAM 64kb untuk menghasilkan imajan. Setahun kemudian, beliau menggunakan pengaturcaraan yang sama di atas pelantar Commodor 64, untuk menghasilkan karya Self-Portrait yang diperkenalkan dalam pameran Fakulti Kajian Seni Lukis dan Seni Reka ITM. Oleh kerana pencetak dot matrix ketika itu hanya terhad kepada cetakan hitam-putih, Kamarudzaman mengeksploitasi skrin paparan 8 warna pada komputer tersebut untuk merakamkan imajan yang terhasil dalam bentuk cetakan foto warna.
Pada lewat 80-an, kemunculan penyalin digital (digitizer) telah membolehkan penggunaan kamera hitam-putih dengan kanta penapis RGB untuk merakamkan imajan terus ke dalam komputer. Pada masa yang sama, perisian Deluxe Paint telah meningkatkan kemampuan komputer untuk menghasil dan memproses imajan. Dengan bantuan komputer Commodore Amiga 1000 yang mempunyai kapasiti RAM 500kb dan paparan warna jauh lebih canggih, Kamarudzaman menghasilkan Cini (1987) dan Tribute To Bapak(1987).
Ismail Zain wajar dilihat sebagai sang idealis yang menggagas seni komputer Malaysia. Walaupun beliau bukanlah artis yang pertama menggunakan teknologi pengimejan digital, tetapi tidak dinafikan beliaulah yang mula-mula sekali menghasilkan satu siri karya yang mantap dengan menggunakan medium baru tersebut. Beliau merangka satu struktur teori bagi penerapan teknologi tinggi, dan pada masa yang sama masih mengekalkan sikap kritikal. Sebagai artis, Ismail Zain tidak ketinggalan mengikuti perkembangan gaya-gaya antarabangsa yang cenderung melanda amalan seni moden di Malaysia. Beliau cepat menyedari kemunculan idea-idea serta teori-teori baru, dan berupaya menzahirkan semua ini di dalam karya-karya beliau sebelum lagi kekecohan yang dibawa oleh pelbagai idea dan teori itu menjadi tenang.
Karya-karya Ismail Zain tidak menekankan hal-hal formalistik dan perseptual berkenaan seni moden, tetapi pada dasarnya membawa pendekatan semiotik.[i]Bermula daripada karya awal Woman Crossing The Stream – After Rembrandt (1967) sampailah kepada karya terkemudian The Detribalisation of Tam Bte Che Lat (1983), bentuk, isi serta teknik digembleng bagi membantu proses artikulasi tanda. Ismail Zain memperlihatkan pemahaman tinggi beliau tentang ketersiratan semiotik yang ada pada imej digital bila beliau membuat perbezaan antara kolaj foto manual dan kolaj yang dihasilkan dengan komputer.[ii]Dalam sebuah kolaj digital,“tiada garisan-garisan luar yang kasar”. Medium baru “lebih mudah dibentuk, seperti tanah liat”.[iii]Komputer membolehkan beliau menghilangkan aspek pertentangan atau strukturaldalam permainan tanda, dan menghasilkan apa yang beliau panggil imej-imej yang “mesra pengguna”.
Di dalam siri Digital Collage Ismail Zain, imej dan teks dari bermacam-macam sumber digabung untuk meledakkan makna-makna yang terpendam di dalam imej dan teks tersebut. Al Kesah (1988), sebagai contoh, menyajikan respons nakal namun kritikal terhadap penyusupan masuk media massa global ke dalam budaya serta kesedaran masyarakat tempatan. Ismail Zain juga mengambil sikap yang sangat kritikal ke atas status kewiraan artis, dan di dalam siri karya-karya cetakan komputer yang serba tajam berbisa ini beliau nampaknya seronok menyaksikan penyusutan status artis natijah daripada ketidakpedulian komputer terhadap kemahiran tangan. Akhirnya, Ismail Zain sendiri wajar “dibaca”sebagai satu penanda kepada peralihan dari hal-hal formalistik kepada perkara-perkara kontekstual,dan bagi penerapan kritikal teknologi baru ke dalam amalan senidi Malaysia.
Kelewatan Ketibaan Seni Video
Kehadiran seni komputer sebelum seni video di persada tempatan kita membuktikan betapa jauhnya pandangan serta wawasan Kamarudzaman dan Ismail Zain.[iv]Begitupun, perkara ini juga malangnya menunjukkan keengganan dunia seni tempatan untuk membabitkan kaedah-kaedah berbentuk eksperimental dan kritikal.
Menerusi karya bertajuk A Passage Through Literacy,Liew Kung Yu telah memenangi anugerah kecil di pertandingan Bakat Muda Sezaman pada 1989. Di dalam karya ini, sebuah monitor TV menayangkan imej orang sedang menari (Marion De Cruz) dengan disertakan sebaris teks yang terisi di dalam objek berbentuk sebutir telur yang pecah. “Arca” ini diletakkan di atas sebuah platform rendah.Kain putih yang membaluti monitor menjalar keluar dari dalam telur itu dan naik ke siling, lalu secara tersirat mewujudkan satu ruang di antara arca tersebut dan persekitarannya.
Pameran sulung di Galeri Luar Pusat, Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) pada 1989 yang dikelola oleh Lim Eng Hooi selaku kurator, turut menampilkan instalasi video bersinkroni bertajukThe Language Lesson oleh artis dari Amerika Syarikat, Ray Langenbach.[v]Dua buah “kepala bercakap”muncul dalam monitor televisyen yang diletak di atas dua buah boneka pakaian yang diperbuat daripada rotan. Kedua-dua boneka pakaian itu disusun menghadap satu sama lain di dalam ruang yang disoroti lampu-lampu neon. Perbualan di antara kedua-dua “video kepala” tersebut, yang satu mewakili seorang wanita dan yang satu lagi artis itu sendiri, pada mulanya berkisar tentang “pembelajaran bahasa” yang mudah. Ia kemudian beransur-ansur menyentuh isu-isu yang berkait dengan imperialisme budaya, eksploitasi politik dan seks, konflik keagamaan dan masalah perkauman.
Instalasi Video Pelbagai Saluran
Baharuddin Arus mempersembahkan karya seni video dan arca bergerak dalam menampilkan reaksi beliau terhadap “medium sebagai mesej” yang disarankan oleh Marshall McLuhan. Karya pemasangan yang dipamerkan di USM pada tahun 1989 ini menggunakan monitor TV yang menayangkan video secara serentak dari berapa sumber berbeza, termasuk satu video yang disalurkan secara langsung oleh sebuah kamera video bergerak.[vi]Beliau mengeksploitasikan teknologi jarak jauh untuk kawalan pergerakan arca dalam karyanya.Dalam karya ini Baharuddin menggunakan medium elektronik untuk memberi ulasan terhadap medium itu sendiri.
Seni Video
Sook Ching oleh Wong Hoy Cheong menggabungkan persembahan langsung, catan dan pancaran video.[vii]Video tersebut berbentuk dokumentasi sejarah dan merakamkan keperitan rakyat zaman pendudukan Jepun melalui pengalaman beberapa individu. Pendekatan dokumentari ini cuba memberi pengesahan kepada sejarah peribadi dan meletakkannya dalam sejarah rasmi negara. Usaha ini yang ditampilkan buat julung kalinya sempena Festival Seni Video Antarabangsa 90, boleh dianggap telah memperkenalkan video dalam konteks persembahan pelbagai media.[viii]
Karya Who Am I oleh Liew Kung Yuditampilkan di dalam pameran kelolaan kurator Wong Hoy Cheong bertema Two Installationsyang diadakan di galeri MIA pada 1991. Karya instalasi ini yang memaparkan beberapa buah altar sembahan dan monitor video yang disusun di atas lantai serta sebuah persembahan performans mempersoal kekekalan tradisi-tradisi masyarakat Cina.
Karya Liew Kung Yu berjudul Sing a Song for Ah Kong and Ah Ma, yang mula-mula dipamerkan di Festival Seni Video Sony pada 1994 (9),[ix]telahmemenangi hadiah pertama dalam kategori instalasi video di Festival Seni Video Malaysiayang diadakan pada tahun yang sama.[x]Karya ini mewujudkan suasana menonton TV seperti di rumah, dimana video pelbagai saluran menayangkan sebuah naratif berlapis yang membicarakan tentang jurang budaya diantara dua generasi yang tinggal sebumbung. Walaupun identiti budaya dan perubahannya merentasi zaman nampaknya mengisi pembicaraan karya instalasi ini, namun kesan serta impak medium TV itu sendirilah yang menjadi subjek kepada karya serba refleksif dan kritikal ini.
Ketika Perang Teluk meletus, Ray Langenbach menganjurkan pameran berkumpulan bertajuk Framing War di Balai Seni Lukis Negara. Ray sendiri mempersembahkan sebuah instalasi suap balik di mana sebuah kamera video memaparkan wajah penonton pada layar TV dengan teks “Bertanggungjawab terhadap Peperangan” dikenakan ke atas wajah penonton.
Sebuah instalasi pelbagai faset hasil usahasama beberapa artis yang tidak diketahui nama(Ray, Latif Kamaluddin dan Gunabalan Krishnasamy) di Balai Seni Lukis Negara pada 1992-3 melibatkan penggunaan video. Karya tanpa tajuk ini cuba mencetus kritikan terhadap ketidaktahuan dan anonimiti sumber propaganda tatkala ia menghidangkan sekali, sebagai perbandingan, reaksi manusiawi terhadap kematian kanak-kanak di Iraq dan kematian serba “spektakular” sistem ideologi Soviet.
Dalam sebuah karya instalasi di Galeriwan pada 1993, bertajuk Mao of All Nations, tayangan video filem-filem lama mengenai Mao Tse Tung dipancarkan di tengah sebuah lukisan kolam yang dibuat daripada biji-biji benih dan kekacang. Putaran ligat kipas siling bagaikan boleh merosakkan kolam itu. Di akhir pameran, kolam yang menampilkan empat imej Mao Tse Tung tersebut dibawa keluar dan dibiarkan untuk dimakan burung.
Bernafas Dalam Lumpur (1994) sebuah karya berbentuk persembahan dan pemasangan oleh Noor Azizan Paiman, menggunakan video sebagai media rakaman.Menerusi karya dilihat sebagai bahan dokumentasi, tetapi juga sebagai medium yang mempunyai bahasa pengucapan tersendiri.
White Cloth dari Khairul Aidil Azlin dan Hamzah Tahir juga menampilkan pendekatan yang hampir sama. Perbezaannya, di sini video menjadi media unggul. Karya ini memenangi Hadiah Kedua kategori Anugerah Video Eksperimental Muda dalam Anugerah Video Malaysia 3M VHQ 1994 anjuran Video Headquarters.[xi]
Penampilan video juga menjadi sebahagian daripada Skin Trilogy(1994), sebuah persembahan eksperimental pelbagai media yang diusahakan oleh Five Arts Centre.[xii]Berdasarkan teks oleh KS Maniam dan diarahkan oleh Krishen Jit, penyatuan seni tampak dan seni persembahan ini melibatkan Something Fishy oleh Hasnul J Saidon. Karya pemasangan video pelbagai saluran ini menjadi sebahagian dari elemen yang menjana improvisasi pelakon, pemuzik dan penyanyi.
Faizal Zulkifli muncul menerusi karya video satu salurannya yang memenangi hadiah kecil dalam Pertandingan Bakat Muda Sezaman 1996.[xiii]Karya berjudul No Art Please mendapat perhatian juri lantaran penampilannya yang bersahaja dengan jenaka keanakan yang sinis terhadap kedudukan pendidikan seni lukis pada pandangan masyarakat tempatan. Walaupun dipersembahkan dalam bentuk video, penghasilan imajannya dilakukan di dalam komputer. Beliaumenggabungkan perisian image processingdengan non-linear editing di atas pelantar Macintosh untuk menghasilkan karyanya. Karya Road Runner yang dipamerkan dalam pertandingan yang sama menggunakan analogy “permainan elektronik” untuk menggambarkan kegilaan segelintir masyarakat kepada “kelajuan, perlumbaan dan nilai numerikal”.
Video dalam Teater
Jika gelanggang seni halus agak terikat dengan tradisi dan konvensi modernismenya yang tebal, mungkin dunia pementasan dan upacara pelancaran tajaan kerajaan serta badan swasta memberikan ruang untuk penggunaan teknologi canggih, mahal dan terkini tanpa kongkongan sejarah dan teori lapuk.
Agak menarik juga sekiranya ditinjau bagaimana penggunaan pancaran video dalam konteks seni pentas dicetus dan ditaja oleh dunia politik.Persembahan teater sempena sambutan Wanita UMNO 40 tahun (1989) yang diusahakan oleh Centre Stage merupakan satu contoh. Centre Stage dibawah pimpinan Normah Nordin tidak segan untuk menggunakan teknologi pancaran video dan persembahan langsung untuk membawa keluar sebuah kereta Proton Saga dari layar video ke ruang pentas umpama David Copperfield.
Dalam usaha untuk meniti jurang antara tradisi dan generasi remaja kini, pementasan Rama & Sita (1995) menampilkan konsep sinografi yang berorientasikan post-industrial & techno pop sebagai latar untuk jalan cerita epik yang dipinjam. Pementasan arahan Janet Pillai ini menggunakan dua puluh buah monitor televisyen yang menayangkan video, animasi komputer, paparan elektronik dan digital untuk menonjolkan generasi yang beroperasi di atas pelantar teknologi siber.
Pendekatan berani Rama & Sita disusuli oleh beberapa pementasan lain yang cuba menggabungkan penggunaan video mahupun teknologi multimedia dalam seni teater seperti Ributarahan Zahim Albakri.
Seni Cahaya
Walaupun penggunaan video dan pelantar komputer merupakan saluran utama aplikasi media elektronik dalam konteks amalan seni halus, Syed Alwi Syed Abu Bakarmemilih aliran elektrik menerusi rangkaian wayar dan LED sebagai elemen utama arca minimalnya. Bertolak dari konsep masa bernada keagamaan, pendekatan Alwi seakan cuba menerapkan nilai, idea dan nada “Timur” menerusi penggunaan unsur cahaya dari teknologi elektronik.
Seni Komputer
Dalam karya seperti Surat Al-Insyirah 94(1991) Ponirin Amin, menyentuh tentang hubungan antara Al-Quran dan komputer sebagai sumber maklumat. Beliau menggunakan perisian Deluxe Paint di atas pelantar Amiga untuk menghasilkan karya digitalnya yang digabungkan dengan cetakan kayu. Agak menarik apabila kita berpeluang melihat cetusan teknologi hadir di celah amalan seni cetak yang tebal dengan disiplin dan aturan tradisinya. Dalam hal ini, Ponirin bertindak wajar memilih dua medium yang berkait secara langsung dengan dikotomi teknologi-tradisi sama ada dari segi teknikal mahupun spiritual.
Keadaan yang sama dapat dilihat dalam karya Bahaman Hashim yang bertajuk Virtual Reality (1993). Beliau menggunakan perisian Adobe Photoshop di atas pelantar Macintosh untuk mengolah karya yang kemudiannya dipersembahkan dalam bentuk cetakan sutera saring. Bahaman mangajak pemerhati mengimbas perubahan parantaraan persepsi dan representasi dari zaman Renaisan (gurisan Durer) hingga ke tetingkap pada pelantar komputer Macintosh.
Siri Dalam Seminit (1994) oleh Suhaimi Tohid memperkenalkan strategi teknikal yang berkait secara langsung dengan komentar terhadap media elektronik terutama televisyen. Menerusi karyanya, Suhaimi cuba membekukan masa dan pelbagai lapisan imajan yang datang menyerang minda menerusi kaca tv dalam sesuatu jangkamasa tertentu. Format melintang yang digunakan membantu menampilkan naratif bercelaru yang sememangnya sudah menjadi sebahagian dari tabii telivisyen. Suhaimi menggabungkan penggunaan televisyen, kamera fotografi, komputer (Macintosh dan perisian Adobe Photoshop) dan teknik sutera saring dalam penghasilan karyanya.
Domino Theory(1994) oleh Zulkifli Che’Harris membuktikan bahawa animasi komputer tidak semata-mata dicipta untuk menjadi hamba kepada logo-logo korporat yang berterbangan dalam kaca tv. Animasi komputer dan produk dari perisian multimedia juga mampu menyimpan dan menzahirkan sentimen peribadi seseorang karyawan terhadap sesuatu isu mahupun perkara yang menyentuh perasaannya. Menerusi karya ini, Zulkifli membuat komentar menarik terhadap kesan berantaian dari proses pemusnahan hutan oleh manusia.
Pada tahun 1994 Hasnul J Saidon menggunakan video dan animasi komputer dalam karya pemasangan Kdek! Kdek! Ong!yang dipamerkan dalam Culture in Context di Kuala Lumpur.[xiv]Bertolak dari peribahasa Malayu “Katak di bawah Tempurung”, Hasnul menggunakan animasi katak yang cuba keluar dari kongkongan barunya – televisyen. Dalam karya pemasangan yang lain, Mirror, Mirror on the Wall… (1994) Van Gogh yang serius dan kaku di”hidup”kan secara digital untuk mengukir senyuman dan kenyitan mata yang nakal kepada penonton.
CD-Rom
Bagi Ismail Zain, komputer adalah pengganti terbaik untuk buku lakaran yang biasanya dikaitkan dengan akitiviti pelukis atau pereka. Kefahaman ini jelas dilihat dalam pameran Lukisan Malaysia (1997) di mana karya cetakan beliau diiringi oleh karya-karya seniman generasi muda. Niranjan Rajah menggunakan ketepatan dan kesempurnaan medium digital untuk menghasilkan siri lukisan pemasangan(1993) yang menyentuh tentang keunggulan bentuk. Hasnul J Saidon mempamerkan siri cetakan komputer (1996-97) yang menyoal sempadan antara lukisan tangan dan digital. Nasir Baharuddin melanjutkan pendekatan konseptual bernada keagamaan menerusi karyanya The Sense Of Words (1997). Penggunaan komputer telah membolehkan beliau menolak penggunaan sentuhan tangan (dan ego) seniman yang mungkin menganggu kelancaran pengucapan yang bersifat spiritual.
Atas Talian
Karya The Failure of Marcel Duchamp/Japanese Fetish Even!dilancarkan di atas talian pada 1996, dan kemudian dipersembahkan pada 1997 di Galeri PETRONAS sebagai sebahagian daripada pameran Explorasi.[xv]Karya ini, sebuah parodi pedas ke atas karya Marcel Duchamp berjudul Etant Donnes, merupakan lanjutan kepada praktis instalasi kritikal Niranjan Rajah.[xvi]Ia bukan sahaja meneliti persoalan ontologi imej dalam komunikasi berperantara komputer,tetapi juga cuba menyorot masalah wilayah kebudayaan di Internet.
[i]Dalam teori “tanda” Saussure, perkataan-perkataan yang membentuk “aksi pertuturan” mendapat maknanya mengikut cakupan konteksnya. Kerelatifan makna ini pada mulanya menyebabkan munculnya analisa sistematik ke atas “sistem-sistem tanda” dalam kaedah strukturalisme, dan akhirnya, pemecahan sistem-sistem ini dalam kaedah dekonstruksi.
[ii]Salah satu kesan ke atas bidang kesenian hasil daripada penyebaran secara besar-besaran imej-imej cetakan ialah penciptaan teknik kolaj.Artis tidak lagi perlu membuat imej dengan tangan tetapi kini boleh “memotong” dua imej yang sudah ada dan menggabungkan kedua-duanya untuk menjana satu imej yang baru.Makna baru dapat dihasilkan dengan mengambil pakai serta mengkontekskan semula bahan-bahan jumpaan atau bahan-bahan yang sedia ada.
[iii]Noordin Hassan mewawancara Ismail Zain, katalog Pameran Retrospektif Ismail Zain, Balai Seni Lukis Negara, 1995.
[iv]Seawal 1965, artis Korea Nam June Paik, yang aktif dengan gerakan Fluxus di Amerika Syarikat, telah mula menggunakan kamera video yang pertama dikomersialkan, iaitu Sony Porta Pack Video, sebagai medium seni. Sejak dari itu, ramai artis telah menggunakan teknologi ini dengan beberapa cara, daripada pengeksperimentasian imej elektronik kepada seni performans berasaskan tubuh, dan daripada seni konseptual kepada instalasi video. Malah format dokumentari televisyen, dengan kesahihan ketara fakta-fakta yang dipaparkannya, telah digunapakai oleh para aktivis dan artis yang kritikal bagi mengesahkan kerasionalan mesej-mesej mereka dan bagi memparodi serta mengajuk media massa.
[v]Dalam Seni Instalasi kontemporari, ruang dan elemen seni bina galeri atau lain-lain tempat, di samping konteks-konteks sosial, politik, sejarah, teori dan kritikal yang melingkari karya, kesemuanya diangkat sebagai objek-objek persembahan karya.
[vi]Pada awal 1990-an, pelajar-pelajar di USM membuat beberapa robot yang kemudian dipamerkan di muzium USM.Berpandukan konsep anikonisme dalam Islam, para artis ini melihat proses simulasi objek-objek hidup lebih “dari segi fungsinya” berbanding dari sudut penampilan fizikalnya. Karya-karya yang dipamerkan termasuklah sebuah robot Jentayu setinggi 10 kaki dengan sayapnya mengepak keluar dan mengibas-ngibas, dan sebuah “human-bot”, atau robot manusia, yang begitu menyerupai bentuk badan manusia sehingga mencetus respons yang lucu.
[vii]Dalam Seni Performans kontemporari, gerakan tubuh secara langsung digunakan untuk menyampaikan idea-idea formalistik dan konseptual kepada penonton, di luar lingkungan muzium dan galeri.Tidak seperti praktis teater, pendekatan seni performans pada umumnya berciri tidak naratif, dan berbeza daripada para dramatis, artis sendiri selalunya yang melakukan persembahan performans.
[viii] Festival Seni Video Malaysia pada 1990, kelolaan kurator Dominique Chastres, perunding UNESCO kepada Institut Asia Pasifik bagi pembangunan penyiaran, telah membawa masuk ke Malaysia sejumlah karya seni video antarabangsa yang amat menarik dan serba mencabar. Pameran ini juga mendedahkan kerangka moral dan politik yang membantut perkembangan seni di Malaysia.Meditation: India oleh Stephen Teo dan Lion, Whore, Dinosaur oleh Aida Buyong tidak dimasukkan ke dalam pameran ini kerana kritikan mereka terhadap “masyarakat-masyarakat lain” – masing-masing Bombay dan Venice.
[ix]Festival Seni Video SONYdilangsungkan di Lot 10 Kuala Lumpur pada tahun 1994. Untuk festival ini, pihak pengajur telah meminjamkan kamera video kepada berapa orang individu yang terpilih dari pelbagai latarbelakang – teater, seni halus, seni bina, pengiklanan, fotografi dan sebagainya untuk menghasilkan karya masing-masing mengikut selera pengucapan tersendiri. Dengan mempersembahkan hasil kerja peribadi sebegini di sebuah lokasi awam, video dapat dilihat dalam konteks yang menyimpang dari amalan televisyen yang lazim.
[x]Atas hasrat untuk mencungkil potensi video, Festival Seni Video Malaysia ‘94memperkenalkan pelbagai kategori pertandingan – animasi komputer, video eksperimental dan pemasangan video. Festival ini telah melahirkan hasil karya seperti Domino Theory oleh Zulkifli Che’Harris, Post-Colon… oleh Hasnul J Saidon dan Sing A Song for Ah Kong and Ah Ma oleh Liew Kung Yu.
[xi]Dalam Anugerah Video Malaysia 3M VHQ ‘94, buat julung kalinya sebuah anugerah khas – Video Eksperimental Muda telah disediakan bagi menggalakkan penyertaan karyawan yang bukan dari industri, agensi video atau pengiklanan.Hadiah pertama anugerah ini telah dimenangi oleh karya Proclaim hasil kerja Hasnul J Saidon.Anugerah ini juga telah menarik minat beberapa penyertaan seperti Goodbye dari Loh Kok Chee, dan Amalgamation oleh Faizal Zulkifli.
[xii]Ketidakpedulian pascamodenisme terhadap hal-hal formalistik telah menyebabkan pentakrifan mengenai kategori-kategori penghasilan budaya menjadi kabur. Dalam bidang seni visual, istilah-istilah “catan” dan “arca” telah diperluaskan untuk turut mencakupi seni bina, teks, performans, video, dan berbagai-bagai medium serta kaedah lain.
[xiii]Pertandingan tahunan Bakat Muda Sezaman anjuran Balai Seni Lukis Negara wajar disanjung atas sumbangan pentingnya mewujudkan semangat bereksperimen di persada seni Malaysia.
[xiv]Culture in Context dilangsungkan di Bangunan Pesuruhjaya Tinggi Australia Kuala Lumpur pada tahun 1994.Pameran ini menampilkan karya-karya eksperimental dari ITM dan Karyawan Tamu dari Australia.
[xv]Explorasi, pameran sulung anjuran Fakulti Seni Gunaan dan Kreatif UNIMAS, mengisyaratkan usaha yang boleh diambil untuk kembali semula kepada pendekatan-pendekatan konseptual dan kritikal yang diangkat oleh artis-artis seperti Ismail Zain dan Redza Piyadasa. Pameran ini melibatkan karya-karya instalasi dan seni video, di samping pemprosesan imej, CD-ROM, animasi komputer dan karya-karya atas talian. Salah sebuah karya yang paling menonjol ialah Pattern of the Earth oleh Fauzan Omar di mana beliau menggabungkan catan dengan video pelbagai saluran. Peralihan seorang artis mapan, yang terkenal dengan pendekatannya yang berciri formalis serta berasaskan proses, kepada media elektronik tentulah menandakan kemungkinan berlakunya satu anjakan paradigma dalam dunia seni di Malaysia.Katalog pameran itu dikeluarkan dalam bentuk CD-ROM interaktif.
[xvi]Wujud penggabungan di antara karya-karya primer dan sekunder di dalam semua lapangan budaya pascamoden.Karya-karya kreatif mula membabitkan pelbagai disiplin dan melibatkan secara mendalam bidang-bidang sejarah dan teori. Kritisisme pula tidak lagi semata-mata perbahasan ilmiah mengenai asas-asas kreatif, dan ia pun menjadi satu usaha serta kerja kreatif yang serba menyeronokkan.
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REVISITING FAUZAN OMAR : RESONANCE.
FAUZAN OMAR : RESONANCE
Originally published to accompany Fauzan Omar's solo exhibition, 2007.
1.
“FAUZAN OMAR : RESONANCE” presents a repertoire of latest expanded paintings and installations by renowned Malaysian artists, Fauzan Omar. It is a continuation of his previous solo exhibition entitled “Sustainable Development Through the Arts” (SDTA) held last year at the USM-ABN AMRO Arts & Cultural Center, Penang. Since moving to Penang to teach at the School of Arts, Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM), Fauzan has been engulfed by the idea of sustainable development as propagated by the University’s ‘garden concept’ and ‘ESD’ (education for Sustainable Development) initiatives. As a result, his first solo in Penang was distinctively indexed by creative, inventive and intriguing fusion of organic natural objects with used, discarded and found materials. In doing so, he complimented the scientific approach towards the idea of sustainability with his creative, expressive, romantic and intuitive readings.
Through Fauzan’s personal research, exploration, experimentation and interpretation, these materials were de-formed, de-framed and transformed into myriads of 2 dimensional and 3 dimensional artistic forms which include paintings, installations (wall relief installations, floor installations) and wearable art. Other than biting visual impact, the works also teased his audience to ‘re-frame’ their casual reading of nature. His well-known formalistic dexterity and newly-found ‘recycle’ aesthetic were further expanded to lure his audience to ponder, contemplate and dwell into the notions of sustainability, human consumption, and depletion of natural resources.
Initially known for his post-formalist abstract “Layer Series” in the 80s, Fauzan’s subsequent journey in the 90s was marked by his extensive series of technically-demanding, laborious and highly tactile paintings inspired by multifarious forms and characters of his natural and cultural environment. The series came under several sub-themes such as interdependent, diversity, growth, blossom, decay, erosion, and fossil, all of which were expressed through Fauzan’s vibrant color range, rich visual language and explorative tendency in expanding the language and nuances of painting. His commitment towards mounting an exhaustive range of techniques, processes and surface treatments was highly influential. The influence of his acute formalism can be traced in the works of his former students such as Mastura Abdul Rahman, Rozana Mohamed, Mohd Noor Mahmood, Fauzin Mustaffa, Suhaimi Tular, Azhar Manan, Raja Shahriman, Ahmad Shukri Mohamed, the rest of the Matahati members and certainly, the person who writes this essay.
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“Resonance” embodies recent outcome of Fauzan’s unyielding perseverance in expressing his meditation and readings of nature and its intertwining symbiosis with cultural conditioning, values and expression. The word ‘resonance’ connotes several ideas, mostly related to the character or quality of sound. Different resonance suggests different quality of sound, musically known as timbre and tone. ‘Resonance’ can also be explicated in terms of frequency, or the oscillating vibration of sub-atomic particles that emit and absorb energy. In the quantum world of sub-atomic particles, everything exists in an interconnected whole – a symbiotic coherence, synchrony and an infinite symphony of energy patterns. Thematically, resonance implies an attitude or disposition, temperament, personality and even sometimes – ‘nature of a person’. Upon deeper connotation, resonance suggests the malleable aura or a person’s individual ‘energy field’ that connects him or her with others, especially his or her surrounding natural environment. Nature through such reading, is approached as pure energy that ‘resonates’ in many forms – both tangible and intangible, inside and outside.
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Fauzan Omar’s resonance entails the need to journey within, to reverberate in synchrony with the intangible universal energy and remind us to return to our ‘fitrah’ – our true nature. It signifies Fauzan’s submission to the larger inter-dependent whole. Humans, culture and nature exist in a symbiotic wholeness. Through his recent works, Fauzan whispers to us the fact that nature is not merely out there to be artificially represented, but ‘resonates’ deep within our own soul. Perhaps we may be blessed with glimpses of such resonance when we are enveloped by the feeling of awe in the presence of ‘natural beauty’. Such resonance carries us beyond myriads of differentiated and dichotomized forms to reach a sense of oneness.
2.
In comparison to Fauzan’s previous emphasis on the surface quality of painting, his recent works can be read as a study of space. Despite using a deep space perspective in his monochromatic canopy series, the intricate organic patterns of overlapping trees, branches and twigs in multiple tones create an alluring spatial mood and a sense of humility. His more recent atmospheric paintings in various shades of tertiary grays feature shallow space that leaves his audience with an ambiguous field of view. Such space instigates an infinite voyeuristic feel. It also leaves a trail of mystery as if one is meandering aimlessly in a hazy jungle.
Such treatment of space makes an interesting reading when compared to the way space is treated in other forms of pictorial representation such as Persian miniature painting, Chinese Scroll painting and even the local Malay crafts. The reading and representation of ‘natural space’ in various cultural and artistic traditions around the world may come in many interesting forms, all of which may give us a sense of understanding that ‘space’ does not necessarily comes with a ‘vanishing point’ through converging parallel lines as in the commonly-used perspective system. As our natural space is increasingly changing to manufactured space and fictionalized destination, it is important that we have a rather comprehensive view about how we perceive and live with our own space or environment.
The space in Fauzan’s paintings was made more ambiguous through the use of a limited range of highly de-saturated tertiary colors in mostly middle and lower keys registers. Fauzan’s recent palettes are more somber, solemn, subdued and mature, in contrast to his previous vibrant, flamboyant and clashing color schemes. The use of low contrast in rendering images of some plants against the monochromatic backgrounds teases the audience to inspect his paintings closer. Upon a closer look, the surface of his paintings is intricately rich and dynamic. Fauzan’s current paintings emit feelings of contentment and enveloping tranquility. The common temperament is meditative and contemplative, perhaps hinting at an older and wiser Fauzan.
Another aspect of Fauzan’s latest exposition is his focus on trees as his subjects of observation. From a simple or rather literal imitation or representation of trees, Fauzan’s preoccupation has turned to humans’ intervention and humans’ relationship with the generic substance of trees – wood. Eventually, as he explores the various wood-based products produced by human interventions, he began to sense the subtle resonance of different types of wood. He began to notice how such resonance in some forms of wood-based traditional artifacts relate to his own, in some form of invisible quantum communication. In many forms of traditional wood carving, the spirit of the wood (or an energy pattern that it emits or absorbs) is said to reside not only in the object, but more importantly in a combined resonance between the carver and the object (carving). This gravitation towards intangible idea (or quantum energy) rather than the usual tangible form is perhaps traceable in Fauzan’s use of natural objects and discarded wood-products for his installation pieces.
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Fauzan’s installations are expansion of his paintings. His modular installations can be arranged in many different ways, implying several key principles that can be traced in the natural phenomena itself. Amongst them is interconnection, in which a small or micro unit is interlocked with other units to form an ever-changing larger interdependent whole. Each unit can stand on its own while simultaneously exists as a part of a larger macro form. His audience may approach his installations from various entry points, which will induce different viewing experience. Such democratic multiple entry points create a highly interactive and dynamic encounter. Through this installation, Fauzan has expanded the narrow field of engagement with paintings to a larger field of options for his audience to engage with the work. The expanded field in return, induces a sense of infinity. One may feel that the modular units of his installations can be infinitely arranged and expanded without any particular definitive border. By focusing on the principles rather than merely physical representation, Fauzan has brought us to the idea of resonance as a form of ever-changing energy patterns that bind humans with their natural environment.
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Through “Resonance”, Fauzan has merged the observer (himself as an artist) with the observed (his objects of reference and artworks) into a beautiful solo symphony that will hopefully resonate beyond the walls of the Muzium & Galeri Tuanku Fauziah USM. For those who are surrounded by a highly mechanized reading of natural space, such resonance can be a welcoming delight.
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UNDER-DECONSTRUCTION: CONTEMPORARY ART IN MALAYSIA AFTER 1990 (PART 1)
Hasnul J Saidon
(Originally published in Timeline, National Art Gallery of Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur, 2010)
For those who subscribe to a very linear reading of time and notion of progress, contemporary art in Malaysia after 1990 may seem a bit puzzling. In fact, writer Ooi Kok Chuen uses a colloquial term ‘syiok’ as a pun for future shock that the local artists had to encounter as Malaysia engaged with globalisation, free market capitalism and information technology during the 1990s.(1)
If one is willing to forsake one’s dependent on the dominant master-narrative that has been used to construct the history of Malaysian art, one may encounter a contemporary art scene that is marked by ironies, paradoxes and contradictions, as much as probabilities, possibilities and potentials. They are rather prevalent if we look into the fact that even the notions of history, modernism, and postmodernism are not spared from being ‘deconstructed’ and contested. It seems like the discourses of contemporary art in Malaysia since 1990 until today have been ‘under-deconstruction’ and in a state of flux.
Michelle Antoinette in her essay Different Visions: Contemporary Malaysian Art and Exhibition in 1990s and Beyond describes the period during the 1990s as being marked by ‘a climate of openness’ where ‘critique in art has emerged’. She further states that it is a period where ‘constant flux and fragmentation is taken as a defining feature of Malaysian culture and society’.(2)
Thus, the term ‘under-deconstruction’ for this essay is used to represent a review or perhaps ‘hyper-view’ of such fragmentation, other than signifying a postmodern’s state of flux that has characterised contemporary art in Malaysia after 1990.(3) This essay will survey some of key issues that are pertinent in discussing about contemporary art in Malaysia after 1990.
1. From Master Narrative to Multiple Discourses
The paradox of deconstruction
Many institutions have acknowledged the role of T.K. Sabapathy and the late Redza Piyadasa, especially through Vision & Idea: Re-looking Modern Malaysian Art (VI), as ‘the seminal art historians’ and ‘key individuals’ in driving the historical narrative of modern Malaysian art. Their books and writings have been referred to and quoted by many writers of the subsequent generations. In fact, Michelle Antoinette has argued that in a certain sense, both Piyadasa and Sabapathy ‘may be regarded as the pre-eminent ‘myth-makers’ of modern Malaysian art history’. (4)
Then again, such ‘myth-making’ recognition and fore fronting of art historians are rather ironic or paradoxical. The irony is apparent if one considers Michelle’s proposition that the ‘art-historical myth-making’ tendency itself has been contested since the period of the 1990s. In reference to Krishen Jit, she uses the term ‘ruptures in myth-making’ to imply the ‘demythifying’ impulse of the younger generation of Malaysian artists. Ironically, despite the demythifying impulse, Piyadasa himself had defended the relevance of myth-making and the role of art museum or institutions in constructing ‘hierarchical order in the discussion of art works’ in his book Masterpieces from the National Art Gallery.(5)
In this regards, Piyadasa stated:
“We may be reminded here that the post-modernist trait to resist and dismantle hierarchies is only possible because properly constructed art traditions and art historical contexts already exist!” (6)
Notwithstanding the presence of deconstructive postmodern stance, the modernist myth-making, albeit in various versions, still persists until today. The interest of the younger artists-writers-curators in using art as a form of social critique and commentary has seemed to ironically induce more myth-making. Despite their fondness in shifting and shackling the master narrative of modern Malaysian art, many more artists, events and moments have ironically been mythified.
Examples of the irony can be traced in several contemporary artworks such as Youthful Contention Not () to Detach from Parental Eclipse (2000) and…Who Gave Birth to the Great White One…?(2002) by Yap Sau Bin, On Air (2002) by Noor Azizan Rahman Paiman and Suhaila Hashim, Rumah(House) (2007) by Susyilawati Sulaiman, and The Artist (2004) by Ahmad Fuad Ariff. These works feature the use of postmodern ideas and strategies such as appropriation, ready-mades, intervention, situational art, mockery, parody, irony, satire and intertextuality in reassessing art history and institutional role in myth-making.(7)
Sau Bin’s …Who Gave Birth to the Great White One…? for example, through a small caption, questions ‘who should be the producer of meanings? Who, in fact, should provide/has provided meaning to the piece of object? Who has conferred it as art?’. Noor Azizan and Suhaila’s work comments on the role of institutions, ‘mythified’ individuals and also petty gossips in creating the narratives of Malaysian art while Ahmad Fuad Ariff’s work ‘mythifies’ himself as a thinking artist. His recent work Interior Design Products for the Artsy and Fartsy People (2006) even made a (rather crude but frank) mockery of modernist artworks by several seminal Malaysian artists, suggesting the dissolution of modernist (or even postmodernist) rebellious impulse and Malay-Islamic nuances into a mere interior product for consumerist end.(8)
Susyilawati’s Rumah(house) provides an intriguing mental pun in regards to the dichotomy between the ‘personal’ and ‘official’ histories and memories. The pun is made more apparent by the close proximity of the house with the dominant presence of two official cultural myth-makers – the National Art Gallery and Istana Budaya of Malaysia.(9)
Another earlier work, Fashion Parade (Smiling Van Gogh and Smiling Gauguin)(1994) by Hasnul J Saidon, appropriates scenes from the paintings of two important icons of Western art history, whilst making a parody of how traces of their influence have been locally domesticated, neutralized, commodified and ‘mythified’.(10)
These artworks ‘directly and indirectly implicate institutional roles in the increasingly complex matrix of cultural contestation’.(11) In questioning and deconstructing, they have now been infused into the history of modern Malaysian art and may ironically themselves be ‘mythified’ in the future. Thus, it is not a surprise ‘that even the most uncompromising dissident and critic (within the context of Malaysian art history) can be framed, neutralized, championed and ironically welcomed with a red carpet.’(12 ) Nevertheless, beyond the paradox of deconstruction, these artists have shown an interest in ‘critical reassessments of the history that came before them’ as described by Michelle:
“Evidently, the examination of Malaysia’s art history –that is, art production and reception in the Malaysian context – has increasingly preoccupied many artists in recent times. In the process, localised discourse of art history and theory have been appropriated as tools for investigation by contemporary artists who seek to question existing artistic and social histories which nevertheless continue to inform their present-day art making context”.(13)
The ‘Other’ Narratives
Other than the above-mentioned irony or paradox, several artists and writers have also responded to, if not refuted Piyadasa and Sabapathy’s version of history. Their efforts may imply that there is no singular master-narrative that can be taken as the official or absolute history (thus seminal art historians or myth-makers) of Malaysian art.
One example is Social Responsibility in Art Criticism (Or Why Yong Mun Sen is the Father of Malaysian Painting) by Dr.Tan Chee Khuan. Whilst defending Yong Mun Sen as the ‘father of Malaysian Painting’ and emotionally refuting some remarks in VI, Dr.Tan Chee Khuan offers his own account on the history of ‘Malaysian painting’.(14)
Dr. Tan Chee Khuan himself was indeed very active in self-publishing several books during the 1990s, perhaps signifying a different trajectory (from Piyadasa and Sabapathy) in approaching the history of Malaysian art. Amongst his long list of publications is 200 Malaysian Artists which contains A Comprehensive History of Malaysian Art, written by Ooi Kok Chuen. Through this essay, Kok Chuen narrates his version of Malaysian art history complete with detail listings of seminal figures and important moments.(15)
Other prominent Malaysian artists such as Jolly Koh and Lee Kian Seng had also published their writings, providing yet other ways of reading and engaging with Malaysian art. In his essay Some Misconceptions in Art Writing in Malaysia, Jolly Koh criticises Piyadasa and Sabapathy’s explication of abstract expressionism:
“It could be said that T.K Sabapathy and R. Piyadasa have dominated art writing in Malaysia for most of the 70s, 80s, and 90s. It could also be said that their writings, especially as they pertain to the artists of the 60s, are inadequate. Also, up till now, nobody has disputed their views regarding those artists of the 60s. On the contrary, their mistaken views that the Malaysian artists of the 60s were Abstract Expressionists are generally accepted.”(16)
Jolly Koh further claims that:
“In the case of art history as practiced by art historians, one of their main roles is to explain how and why artistic styles evolved. In this sense of art history, Malaysian art has no history, for any stylistic changes that occur in Malaysian art is not a result of anything occurring within Malaysian art but is a result of stylistic changes that occur abroad.” (17)
Jolly also refutes Piyadasa and Sabapathy’s inclusion of academic and naturalistic painters such as Raden Salleh, Abdullah Ariff, Lim Cheng Hoe and Hoessein Enas as modern artists. He further proposes the need to properly distinguish Modern art from Western art. The ethos of modern art, according to Jolly is ‘one of rebellion against tradition and to forge something new and radical. Modern art is also anti-naturalistic and is opposed to the rendering techniques of naturalistic painting.’(18)
Along the line of providing ‘other narratives’ is a book written by Ahmad Suhaimi Mohd. Noor’s Sejarah Kesedaran Visual di Malaya (The History of Visual Awareness in Malaya) which contains well-researched materials on other obscured narratives in regards to the early history of Malaysian (or Malayan) visual culture.(19) Suhaimi’s thesis proposes the importance of Malayan’s earlier illustrations as the catalyst for visual culture awareness in Malaya, thus also a significant prelude for the infusion of Western naturalism and modernist art in Malaysia.
Other than the late Piyadasa and T.K. Sabapathy, even the role of the National Art Gallery (NAG) of Malaysia as the caretaker of history and major repository for Malaysia’s modern and contemporary art, was not spared from being refuted, questioned and deconstructed.(20) In addition, the emergence of internet-based forums, chats, and websites such as kakiseni.com has further fueled a hyper-view of opinions and narratives about the Malaysian contemporary art practice.
These are several examples of ‘other narratives’ or discourses that suggest an impulse during the 1990s and beyond, to contest any ‘authoritarian’ and hegemonic approach towards history. Even though some of their propositions and contestations can be further argued, they may pave a way for further research and other ways of reading the history of Malaysian art. They have also indicated a shift from Piyadasa’s version of ‘master narrative’ to multiple narratives or discourses, a shift that probably the late Piyadasa himself might have anticipated and appreciated. Despite the shift from singular to hyper-view and regardless of whatever view one may have about him, the name ‘Piyadasa’ will probably remain as an enigmatic presence in the history of Malaysian art.
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UNDER-DECONSTRUCTION: CONTEMPORARY ART IN MALAYSIA AFTER 1990 (PART 2)
2. Preludes to Postmodernism
In fact, today’s postmodern stance can be traced back to the 1970s. Even though these artworks have been usually framed within a modernist construct of art historical narrative, upon current reading, they can be taken as instrumental in paving a way for the emergence of postmodern ideas in the 1990s.
The linearity and singularity of master narrative in art historical writing may also obscure several interesting aberrations or smaller narratives. In revisiting modern art in Malaysia through postmodern lenses, one may discover that there are many key artists and artworks that can be taken as preludes to the Malaysian contemporary art after 1990. Some of them can also be taken as the seeds of postmodern ideas and strategies that have become so prevalent in the 1990s and beyond.(21)
In fact, today’s postmodern stance can be traced back to the 1970s. Even though these artworks have been usually framed within a modernist construct of art historical narrative, upon current reading, they can be taken as instrumental in paving a way for the emergence of postmodern ideas in the 1990s.
In this regards, Michelle Antoinette writes:
“Interestingly, earlier discourses and practices of conceptual artists in the 1970s, such as Redza Piyadasa and Sulaiman Esa, and the Malay-Islamic art movement of the late 1970s and 1980s – both concerned with critiquing Western discourses of art history and instilling a more localized story of art – now form the very focus of these postmodern investigations” (22)
However, the focus on Redza Piyadasa, Sulaiman Esa and Malay-Islamic art movement might have obscured the fact that there was also another prevailing interest in contesting (or negating) Western aesthetics. One example is the interest in revisiting Malaysia’s (and Southeast Asia’s) rich multicultural traditions, which still persists until today.
Such cross-cultural interest can be traced back to artworks such as Patrick Ng Kah Onn’s Spirit of the Earth, Water & Air (1958), Latif Mohidin’s Pago-pago in the 1960s and Langkawi series in the 1970s, Anthony Lau’s Spirit of Fire, (1960), Nik Zainal Abidin’s Wayang Kulit Kelantan (1961), and Chuah Thean Teng’s Musim Buah(1967). These works can be taken also as preludes to postmodern revaluation (or negation) of Western modernism based on both local and regional terms.
Other preludes include new ways of exploring three dimensional forms in space through installations by Lee Kian Seng, Zakaria Awang, Ponirin Amin, Zulkifli Yusof and Tan Chin Kuan; a shift from intuitive to figurative approach, which entails the use of collage, appropriation, intertextual and semiotic reading, and social commentaries as championed by Nirmala Shanmughalingham; impulse towards fundamental visual language through minimalist approach; and the inclusion photographic art as espoused by Ismail Hashim, Eric Peris and Yusoff Othman.
Several other tendencies can also be read as preludes such as exploring new materials for paintings that was driven by Fauzan Omar, Mohd Nasir Baharuddin, Jailani Abu Hassan, Akif Emir, Romli Mahmud, Fauzin Mustaffa, Taufik Abdullah, and Mohd Noor Mahmud; the use of computer, video and electronic media as sparked by Kamarudzaman Md. Isa, Ismail Zain, Ray Langenbach with his students in Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) and Liew Kungyu; convergence of artistic disciplines as propelled by the Anak Alam, Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM) students, Centrestage Performing Arts and Five Arts Centre; the use of human figures as metaphors and sites of discourse by artists such as Zakaria Ali, Zulkifli Dahalan, Dzulkifli Buyong, Amron Omar, Zheng Yuande and Wong Hoy Cheong; and neo-expressionist impulse by artists such as Yusof Ghani, Ahmad Shukri Elias and Riaz Ahmad Jamil.
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UNDER-DECONSTRUCTION: CONTEMPORARY ART IN MALAYSIA AFTER 1990 (PART 3)
3. Another Prelude - Rethinking ‘Malay revivalist proclivities’
Which master narrative?
i. Search for Malay ‘roots’ (1970s) and
ii. ‘Malay-Islamic revival’ in art (1980s) (24)
1990 was partly imagined than factual, as the following sections will elaborate. In addition, reference to Piyadasa’s personal take on such revivalist proclivities, especially in relation to UiTM, should be done in comparison to the late Ismail Zain’s essay Masa Depan Tradisi – Dikhususkan Kepada Pengalaman Kuno di Malaysia (The Future of Tradition – Focusing On Primitive Experience in Malaysia) and Syed Ahmad Jamal’s Rupa & Jiwa (Form & Soul).(27)
Ismail’s works Permukaan Dalam Ruang # 3 (Surface in Space) (1969) and The Wayang Story – Yield, yield (1970) for examples, despite their apparent reference to the shadow puppet tradition and Malay domestic space, contain traces of his early interest in the semiotics of Malay visual nuances within a modernist context. Syed Ahmad Jamal’s Rupa & Jiwa as well as his work Tumpal (1975), despite their Malay postures, were presented within a highly Western modernist gallery context.
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UNDER-DECONSTRUCTION: CONTEMPORARY ART IN MALAYSIA AFTER 1990 (PART 4)
Echoing and Responding to the perceived hegemony of ‘Malay revivalist proclivities’
“He would continue to note how the policy would also affect the artists associated with UiTM’s School of Art & Design set up in 1967 exclusively for Bumiputera, that resulted in the institute becoming the “epicenter of Malay revivalist proclivities in art during the late 1970s and 1980s”’.(32)
“As artist and writer Wong Hoy Cheong argues, figurative representation in particular for artists from UiTM is a means to challenge the institution’s tenets, they are “not against Islam as much as they are against the non-orthodoxy of the figure””.(33)
“The interview was significant for its speculative yet productive discussion on abstract art, ‘new art’ and the local context, and the return of the figure as a way to reinitiate connections with a broader public discourses.”(35)
“The figure is one of the the things that make the difference. (…) they want to assert themselves into the mainstream. (…) Some are conducting a genuine rebellion, particularly the young artists from ITM. They are tired of doing art totally through the traditional and Islamic perspectives.”(36)
“Bayu’s precarious talent had been evident in his highly charged figurative works, to be seen in contradistinction against the conservatism of many artists affiliated to ITM at the time.” (37)
“The 1980s saw a society that had become more stifling, conservative and smug. The country went through cultural, economic, political and judicial crises one after another. Art and education were petrifying under the National Cultural Policy and purist interpretations in the name of Islam.”(38)
“Redza Piyadasa described the situation of Malaysian art as being a blinkered ethnocentric perspective.”(39)
“After the 1969 riots and the Malay Congress of 1971 there was an increased focus (as well as government-directed patronage) on Malay culture. This led artists and especially those who were dependent on the government for employment to explore Malay themes to the exclusion of all other aspects of Malaysian life”.(40)
These are several examples of English-speaking voices at the forefront of Malaysian contemporary art discourses that represent a reaction to the perceived ‘hegemony of Malay nationalistic forces’ (if not Islam). The fact that the Malay revivalist proclivities could also be read as another impulse to question Western discourses of art history (as proposed by Michelle) has somehow been neglected.
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UNDER-DECONSTRUCTION: CONTEMPORARY ART IN MALAYSIA AFTER 1990 (PART 5)
4. The Other Stories as Preludes to the 1990s
Obscured Versions of UiTM During the Late 1980s
Despite Piyadasa’s seemingly acute elucidation (and its echoes by other writers), his narrative of the so-called UiTM-centered Malay revivalist proclivities is also not entirely correct.
For example, a survey of artworks produced by UiTM students from 1980 until 1990 according to artist Fauzan Omar (who lectured at UiTM in the 1980s), reveals a diverse range of styles and approaches, including the use of figures. Students such as Amron Omar, Rosli Mat and Samjis Mat Jan, were known and admired for their skill in rendering figure as a subject.(49)
Amron’s Pertarungan II (1980) and Potret Diri (1982), as well as Samjis’s Rendezvous (1984)are several examples of interest in the use of figures amongst UiTM students.
‘Figurative drawing’, as informed by Fauzan Omar, was not discouraged. It was even taught by artists such as Fauzan himself, Amron Omar and Hasnul J Saidon in the late 1980s. Senior or advanced drawing class ran by the late Ismail Zain for example, used live model. Even artist Ahmad Shukri Mohamed of the famous ‘Matahati’ group, who was a junior student in 1988, admitted that he had volunteered as a ‘live model’ for Ismail Zain’s drawing class.(50) There was a period in which the use of figure in drawing class was dropped, but according to Fauzan, it came out of personal interpretation, not institutional directive.
Figure was also featured in the artworks of other UiTM students during the late 1980s. Amongst them include Azimah Ahmad’s Siri ‘Kool and the Environment’ (1985),Zulkifli Mat Shariff’ Harapan (Hope) (1986), Noor Aishah Abd. Rahman’s Under One Roof (1986), Hasnul J Saidon’s Orang Ulu – Rhythm & Dance (1987), Mohd Amin Busu’s Boy From Lenggong (1988)and Blind Jennie (1989), Haron Mokhtar’s Siri Jugra (1988), Abu Sareh Haron Untitled (1989), Romli Mahmud’s Songket dan Kimono (1988), Mohd Zaki Ghazali’s Rumah Nenek Tak Ada Letrik (Grandmother’s House Has No Electricity) (1989) Raja Shahriman’s early mutant figures in early 1990s, Hamidi Basar’s Bas Mini (Mini Bus) (1991) and Hamdan Shaarani’s Pasar Tani (Farm Market) (1992).(51)
In addition, several artists in the late 1980s were already using figure in their artworks such as Raja Azhar Idris’s Momba (1980), Norma Abbas’s Something To Tell (1982), Zheng Yuan-De’s He Who Was The Hero Just Now (1984), Yusof Ghani’s Hilal (1987) and Siri Tari – Bahjat (1988), Ahmad Azhari Mohd Noor’s Potret Puan Marina Yusof (1987), Sylvia Lee Goh’s Young Family (1988), Chang Chin Huat’s Untitled (1986) and Goh Ah Ang Pergerakan (Movement) (1989).(52) If there was a lack in the use of human figure amongst Malaysian artists then, it was probably due to the popularity and commercial appeal of international abstract style and water-color paintings more than due to the Malay-Islamic nationalistic forces. In fact, one may propose that the marginal use of human figure during the 1980s can be attributed to the forces of the market more than other factors.
The idea that ‘figurative representation in particular for artists from UiTM is a means to challenge the institution’s tenets’ is preposterous, if one refers to UiTM in the late 1980s. The discouragement (of figure) and encouragement (of Malay-Islamic decorative impulse), according to Fauzan Omar, were never the official tenets of UiTM.
Another survey of artworks produced by lecturers from UiTM during the same period reveals diversity of styles, medium and approaches as well. Artworks such as Ruzaika Omar Basaree’s Dungun Series (early 1980s), Ponirin Amin’s Alibi Catur Di Pulau Bidong (Chess Alibi in Bidong Island) (1980), Fauzan Omar’s Layer Series (1981), Awang Damit’s Harapan (Hope) (1982), the late Joseph Tan’s Dungun Memories (Hill of Thyme) (1983), Zakaria Awang’s Arrahman (1982), the late Ahmad Khalid Yusof’s Jawi and Nature 13 (1984), Ariffin Ismail’s Taming Sari III (1987), Yusof Ghani’s Siri Tari (late 1980s), Hashim Hassan’s Penceroboh (The Intruder) (1987), Raja Zahabuddin Raja Yaacob’s Indraputra (1988), Yusoff Othman’s Pulau Pangkor (1988), Kamarudzaman Md Isa’s Tribute to Bapak (1989), Ham Rabeah Kamarun’s Globe (1990) Wan Ahmad Mohamed’s Chamber of Fertility (1990), and Choong Kam Kaw’s Image 90-1 (1990), reflect diversity.
With such a diverse range of strong personalities (and artistic ideologies) it is certainly too simplistic to suggest that there was a sign of ‘master narrative’ enforcing a ‘politically-defined cultural vision’, founded on ‘Malay-centered discourse and dominance’. There was indeed a sign of academic and artistic interest in researching Malay tradition and Islamic spiritual sources in UiTM, as with many other interests or proclivities, something that should be encouraged in any academic institution.
‘Underpinnings of modernist movement’, according to artist Fauzin Mustaffa (who was a student in UiTM from 1984-1988) and Raja Shahriman Raja Aziddin (who was a student from 1986 – 1990), were not rejected.(53) They were in fact taught in the liberal arts component by lecturers such as Amina Syed Mohamad, Mulyadi Mahamood, Abu Talib, Usop Kopratasa, Khalil Imran, Mohamed Ali Abdul Rahman, Jahani Ali and Dzul Haimi Md. Zin. Western-derived idea of modernity was also not rejected. It was included in the syllabus, including Western philosophies and aesthetics. Visiting and guest artists from outside, including from the ‘West’ were invited to give talks and workshops.
‘Prescriptive, abstract approach to art making, founded on Islamic religious and design principles’, as admitted by Fauzin and Raja Shahriman, was indeed exposed to students. But so did abstract and semi-abstract approach founded on Persian art, Indian portraiture, Japanese wood print, Chinese landscape painting, Southeast Asian traditional art, tribal art from Sarawak and Sabah, representing interest in studying a ‘broad-based multi-cultural’ Malaysian and Asian heritage. According to Fauzan Omar, even expeditions were organised, including to some remote areas in Sarawak and Sabah to expose students to ‘other’ cultures.
Akif Emir’s Home To Let : Rent, Free of Charge (1987), Fauzin Mustaffa’s Alam Fana Series (late 1980s) and The Lost Horizon II (1991), Mohd Noor Mahmud’s Imej Series (late 1980s) and Cave Series (early 1990s), Hasnul J Saidon’s Orang Ulu – Rhythm & Dance (1987), Romli Mahmud’s Songket dan Kimono (1988), Azhar Manan’sSarawak-September 1989 – Aku Lihat Warisan Yang Hilang (I saw a vanishing heritage) (1991), Ahmad Shukri’s Cabinet Series in early 1990s, Bayu Utomo Radjikin’s Bujang Berani (Brave Bachelor) (1991) and Haslinda Abdul Razak’s The Ceremony (Baba Nyonya) (1995) represent a cross-cultural approach towards ethnic subjects. The so-called ‘new notion of Malay-ness, as the defining cultural paradigm’ and ‘the emergence of a new Malay-dominated force within the Malaysian art scene’ were certainly not able to deter these UiTM’s graduates from engaging in a ‘broad-based multi-cultural’ Malaysian (or Asian) heritage.
Unfortunately, these ‘smaller’ stories have been rather obscured in most of the major English-speaking discourses on contemporary art in Malaysia.
Other trajectories in UiTM in late 1980s as preludes to the 1990s.
Instead of rejection as implied by Piyadasa, Western-derived idea of modernity was actually questioned and debated in UiTM, something that should be encouraged in any academic institution. The late Ismail Zain (who was a visiting lecturer) for example, according to Fauzin Mustaffa and Raja Shahriman, was persistent in encouraging students to question blind adherence to Western modernist movements, especially abstract expressionism. He was more concerned with the ‘lack of critical attitude’ and ‘intellectual discipline’ in the modern art scene of Malaysia then. Consequently, he encouraged questionings and ‘self-critical tendency’, ‘in earnest’.(54)
In addition, Ismail Zain was also more interested in globalization, semiotics, collage, cross-cultural experience, multi-culturalism, hybridity, juxtaposition, mass media, information theory, and cultural anthropology. He was in fact, already experimenting with digital collage, which can be considered as a very important prelude to the use of new media in the local contemporary art practice. Through his highly investigative and semiotic approach towards drawing, students were challenged to critically read and decode visual texts.(55)
There was a shift in UiTM in the late 1980s, but not just a shift towards a ‘new notion of Malay-ness as a defining paradigm’. Instead, the shift in UiTM was represented, amongst many, by an interest in expanding new materials, exploring new language of painting, printmaking and sculpture, as propagated by Fauzan Omar and other new lecturers who just came back from oversea education such as Zakaria Awang, Ponirin Amin, Yusof Ghani, Awang Damit, and Ariffin Ismail. In fact, according to Zulkifli Yusof, his foray into installation can be credited to Zakaria Awang’s early guidance and encouragements in the late 1980s.(56) Even expressionist impulse itself, was recharged by Yusof Ghani and several other students such as Ahmad Shukri Elias and Riaz Ahmad Jamil. Several students were also influenced by the works of Awang Damit.
Fauzin and Raja Shahriman further added that it was during the late 1980s that non-conventional materials were explored by UiTM’s fine art students, while alternative methods of presenting artworks were employed to question the modernist conventional demarcation of fine art practice. Installation art and alternative print were also explored. Other than Ismail Zain’s foray into computer art, Kamarudzaman Md. Isa and later Ponirin Amin were also exploring the use of computer as an image-generating and editing machine.
The result of such shift can be traced in mixed-media work of Jailani Abu Hassan’s Catan Orang Kampung (Village Folks’ Painting) (1985), Nasir Baharuddin’s mixed-media entitled Dari Satu Keujudan (From One Existence) (1984), Bahaman Hashim’s emboss print Nusantara II (1984), Awang Damit Ahmad’s Trajedi (Tragedy)1 (1985), constructed painting of Romli Mahmud’s Akhirnya ke Kamar Jua (To the Bedroom at last)(1986), a modular sculpture/installation of Ramlan Abdullah entitled Bersatu Aman (Unity Peace) (1986), Tengku Sabri Tengku Ibrahim’s experimental cast prints in 1986, Akif Emir’s mixed-media House to Let, Rent Free Of Charge (1987), Zulkifli Yusof’s installation Tanpa Tajuk (Untitled) (1988), and Dari Hitam ke Putih (From Black to White) (1989), Zainon Abdullah’s installation Makanan (Food) Series I,II,III (1988), Tumian Jasman’s blown up pepsi cans installation called Kebudayaan (Culture) XVI (1989), Che Zulkarnain Abidin’s wire mesh installation entitled Computer Brain I,II,III (1989) nasi lemak’s installation of Din Omar’s Kepelbagaian (Diversity) (1990), Juhari Said’s innovative woodcut prints Garden in The Sky (1990) and Kilimanjaro in Nagasaki (1991) and Azman Hilmi’s Simbol Ekspressi Watak(Symbol Expression Character) (1992).(57) As affirmed by artist Sharmiza Abu Hassan (UiTM student from 1990-1994), these works are not conservative by any standard (or in comparison to Bayu Utomo Radjikin’s ‘highly charged figurative works’ as implied by Ahmad Mashadi).Some of them were even given awards.
Another example includes Hasnul J Saidon and Faizal Zulkifli’s foray into digital and video art in the 1990s, which can be traced back to Ismail Zain’s Digital Collage and Kamarudzaman Md. Isa’s experiments with his Amiga computers. Ahmad Fuad’s witty visual pun and play of semiotics in his recent Recollection of Long Lost Memories series (2008) can be traced back to Ismail Zain’s drawing class. Ahmad Shukri Mohamed’s interest in employing myriads of non-traditional media in his paintings such as Target Series Camouflage II (1994) can be traced back to Fauzan Omar’s influence. This post-formalist exploration of non-traditional media in paintings was also engaged by his students such as Fauzin Mustaffa and Mohd Noor Mahmud and later carried by younger generation of UiTM graduates such as Mohd Azhar Manan, Wan Jamarul Imran, Nur Hanim Khairuddin, Noor Azizan Rahman Paiman, Rosli Zakaria, Sharmiza Abu Hassan, Suhaimi Tohid, Sabri Idrus, Hamidi Hadi, Daud Abdul Rahim and Ahmad Zuraimi Abdul Rahim. Despite the notion that ‘art and education were petrifying under the National Cultural Policy and purist interpretations in the name of Islam’, these graduates were able to churn out (during and after UiTM) engaging and innovative works that are certainly not ‘conservative’ or ‘petrified’ at all.
Another interest in UiTM includes collaborative multi-arts projects that were organised to combine fine art, music, theatre and design into experimental performances. Exhibition openings were complimented by acoustic performances. Experimental events were presented, such as Gempita, Ledak Lintar and Kom-X where fine art students co-mingled with students from other departments to engage in cross-media or cross-discipline projects. Ahmad Shukri Elias for example, created a series of triangular sculptures that were presented in a form of installation as well as body and light performance (performed by Zainal Alam Kadir, now a popular Astro personality) in 1986.
Several UiTM graduates continued to engage in other forms of art, such as theater, music, film and video projects with Centrestage Performing Arts under the tutelage of Normah Nordin and Najib Nor. Echoes of such interest in experimental cross-disciplinary projects and narrative impulse can be traced in the profiles of artists such as Ahmad Shukri Elias, Hasnul J Saidon, Ahmad Fuad Osman, Bayu Utomo Radjikin, Hamir Shoib, Masnoor Ramli Mahmud, Nur Hanim Khairuddin, and Kamal Sabran.
Not all Malay Malaysian artists today who received their initial exposure and formal training from UiTM during the 1980s were conservatives or subscribed to the so-called ‘Malay revivalist proclivities’. Even if they did, it was geographically and culturally inherent and inscribed by their upbringing, more than ‘by politicized, ideological considerations rooted in the new post-Cultural Congress governmental policies’. Malay-ness, as with Chinese-ness or Indian-ness or Iban-ness, will persist regardless of whatever economic and socio-cultural policies a nation can come up with. In fact, the search for one’s ethnic root and spiritual anchor is a common theme amongst artists all over the world. It has to be respected, if not encouraged.
Unfortunately, such narrow framing of UiTM and its students in the late 1980s may undermine (hopefully not on purpose) their role and position in churning out new trajectories for the contemporary art practice in Malaysia after 1990. If there was a discouragement towards the use of figure, or enforcement to conform to Malay-Islamic decorative impulse in UiTM, it was probably out of individual dogmatic interpretation, jealousy and personality clashes, which were prevalent in UiTM, as in other institutions.
UiTM itself (not just the fine art department), as with other institutions, has had its own fair share of other issues and inter-personal problems in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Overt conservatism and dogmatic interpretation of Islam did appear and manifest in several forms, but certainly not to a point of generalizing ‘many artists affiliated to UiTM’ as conservatives. The notion of ‘Islamization’ in UiTM itself was not highly singular, but involved many different interpretations. In fact, hegemony of any form in the arts, will normally invite counter-reaction or rejection. Then again, even the notions of conservatism, Malay-ness and Islamization (that celebrates diversity) should not be equated with anything of less quality or negative. They should be noted and respected.
Jailani Abu Hassan for example, states:
“That’s the most intimate thing you do, it’s not pretentious, it’s what you are, it’s what you’re made of, its where you come from, that’s the cultural, identity thing. But I’m not trying to portray the Malaysian Identity, I’m not trying to answer to the National Cultural Congress.”(58)
Jailani’s repertoire of paintings and drawings for examples, despite their cosmopolitan stance and urban feel, deeply reflect his socio-cultural and ethnic upbringing. Bomoh Hujan (Rainmaker) (2004) and Panglima Lubalang Daik (2006) are two examples of Jailani’s penchant in expressively using his formalistic virtuosity to reflect upon his cultural upbringing.
Piyadasa’s take (and its echoes) on Malay proclivities were probably framed by events that had more bearing in the larger economic, educational, social and cultural repercussions of May 13th. 1969, rather than what had actually transpired in UiTM during the late 1980s. The scenario therefore, was painted with large and broad strokes that might have sidelined ‘other’ smaller but yet, important stories. In fact, some of them were quite instrumental in opening a path for new ways of making and looking at contemporary art practice in Malaysia after 1990.
Along the line of providing the ‘other’ stories about UiTM during the late 1980s, it is highlypertinent to also unveil obscured narratives or stories that had transpired at another important art school in Malaysia, the Malaysian Institute of Art or MIA. MIA, in comparison to UiTM, may perhaps be taken as the ‘epicenter’ of Chinese proclivities – a kind of structuralist’s binary pairing that was instrumental in providing the basis of new impulses for contemporary art in Malaysia after 1990.
Nevertheless, it is also pertinent for any potential researcher and writer to be equipped with first hand primary data, other than being fluent in Chinese language (Cantonese, Mandarin, Hokkien), in order to make substantial claims or construct a credible narrative about MIA during the late 1980s. This essay is admittedly lacking in this aspect, which hopefully will be complimented by future research by other credible candidates.
It has to be noted that both UiTM and MIA should not just be taken as merely the epicenters of ethnic-based proclivities, but also the epicenters of other proclivities that were instrumental in driving the contemporary art practice during the early 1990s. Instead of employing a binary pairing, both may be taken as the repositories of perhaps many more smaller but intertwined stories or narratives that may have been obscured by the dominant master narrative of Malaysian art. Other than deconstructing certain ‘myths’ and stereotypical framework, these smaller stories may provide more examples of early responses of UiTM and MIA-linked artists to the emerging postmodern conditions brought about by globalization, free market capitalism and information and communication technology.
What about the Malaysian Institute of Art (MIA)?
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UNDER-DECONSTRUCTION: CONTEMPORARY ART IN MALAYSIA AFTER 1990 (PART 6)
5. The Catalysts of Change in the 1990s
The Imperatives of Globalization
Niranjan Rajah in Gema:Resonance exhibition catalogue, explains,
“In fact, the artworks in this exhibition reflect the reactions of Malaysian visual arts towards Postmodernism. There is no more impinging nationalism in determining the official contexts for the artworks. They reflect maturity and confidence of the country as a whole in encountering the local and international visual arts contexts.”(59)
In another essay, “Towards A Southeast Asian Paradigm : From Distinct National Modernism To An Integrated Regional Arena For Art” Niranjan writes:
“What is necessary, to serve both as a bridge and as a barrier to the inevitable globalization of Southeast Asian art, is a strong regional arena. Indeed, the challenge for future curatorship in the region lies in transcending individual nationalism and in negotiating curatorial protocols that will enable the sharing of artistic values, resources, expertise, infrastructure and finances” (60).
The dichotomy between local and global, as well as the growing interest in regionalism, has created a climate marked by ironies, paradoxes and contradictions and much as probabilities, possibilities and potentials, as mentioned earlier. The impinging notion of neo-imperialism brought about by globalization for example, has been answered by an adoption of a post-colonial-reflex or awareness. Ismail Zain referred to this as ‘critical regionalism’ in his Digital Collage (1988) solo exhibition catalogue.
The late Redza Piyadasa had dedicated one special chapter in his Rupa Malaysia to elaborate on the imperatives of globalization, free market capitalism and information revolution. For Piyadasa, it is important for non-Western artists to chart their own path and claim their own position by being critically engaged in the larger regional and global contexts of contemporary art practice.(61)
In encountering the imperatives of globalization, even the notion of postmodern itself has been questioned, if not mocked. Zainol Abidin Shariff for example, made the following (cynical) remarks about entries in the Malaysian Young Contemporaries 1994:
“Hooray for good old postmodernism!(at its worst). “Old” did you say? (Never mind about the “good”.) Why not? Does not “post” mean “later”? In postmodernism, one can get born at 42 years off age. And go through middle age crisis before 30! Could it be that when that happens to a “young contemporary artist”, when she or he is full of “angst” and clear about what she or he is not clear about, then she or he stands a good chance of winning the major prize?”(62)
As Malaysia braves the challenges of globalization and free market liberalism, the fate of her rich and diverse cultural traditions may be uncertain, or perhaps bleak. Will such traditions be marginalized, sidelined or pushed to the periphery with the influx of globalization? What will be the reaction of Malaysian contemporary artists towards globalization?
Notwithstanding these questions, the borderless mantra of globalization and deconstructive nature of postmodernism have lead to a growing pressure for local artists to adopt a more trans-national and regional stance in engaging with the contemporary art. Initially, artworks with social context and strong political stance (in both local and global contexts) began to gain popularity in the early 1990s. Definitive and prescriptive definition of cultural identity began to be contested, if not redefined within the larger regional and global contexts. Several Malaysian artists began to map their position within the cultural challenges of ‘new order’ globalization (or ‘gobble’ism for some).
Instead of relying on Euro-American art centers, more local artists (and curators) began to gravitate towards regional galleries and museums in cities such as Brisbane, Sydney, Fukuoka, Osaka, Tokyo, Oita, Shanghai, Beijing, Singapore, Bangkok, Jakarta, Bandung, and Jogjakarta. More and more local artists began to be active participants of regional exhibitions, festivals, exchange projects and residencies.
Institutions such as Fukuoka Asian Art Museum, Queensland Art Gallery and Singapore Art Gallery began to attract artists and curators from all over the Asia-Pacific region by organizing regional events, exhibitions, art exchange projects and competitions such as the Asia-Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art (APT), Fukuoka Asian Art Triennial, Gwangju Biennale, Philip Morris ASEAN Art Awards, 36 Ideas From Asia,Oita International Sculpture Competitionand many more.
Concurrently, the National Art Gallery of Malaysia continued to collaborate with local and international partners in bringing exhibitions from other countries, while at the same time, bringing out works by Malaysian artists by organizing exhibitions outside Malaysia such as Continuities: Contemporary Art of Malaysia at the turn of the 21st. Century at Guangdong Museum of Art, China in 2004. Several other regional projects such as Project Pre Fx Pt (1994), 12 ASEAN artists (2000), and Wahana (2003/04) involved collaborations between galleries, artists, curators and writers from the South East Asian region. Upload:Download (U.D)(2003) an internet-based project and Off Walls Off Pedestals (2003) an open space installation exhibition, involved collaborations between artists from Japan and Malaysia.(63)
Several Malaysian artists began to chart their international careers after being selected or receiving invitations to participate in the-above-mentioned exhibitions. Amongst them include APT alumni such as Sulaiman Esa, Liew Kungyu, Mastura Abdul Rahman, Eng Hwe Chu, Wong Hoy Cheong, Hasnul J Saidon, Fauzan Omar, Raja Shahriman Raja Aziddin, Yee I-Lan, Fatimah Chik, Tan Chin Kuan, UNIMAS artists, Simryn Gill and Noor Azizan Rahman Paiman. Other artists such as Chuah Chong Yong, Chang Yoong Chia, Faizal Zulkifli, Zulkifli Yusof, Susyilawati Sulaiman, Nur Hanim Khairuddin, Hayati Mokhtar, Nadiah Bamadhaj and Nasir Baharuddin, have also been selected and invited to exhibit their works in other international exhibitions outside Malaysia since the early 1990s.
In addition to the above-mentioned artists, several others such as Tengku Sabri Tengku Ibrahim, Ahmad Fuad Osman, Roslisham Ismail, Tengku Azhari Tengku Azizan and Multhalib Musa had participated in residency programs in countries such as Japan, U.S.A, Poland and Australia. Some of them have had their artworks bought by galleries in other countries, including Singapore and Japan. Many more young Malaysian artists such as Yap Sau Bin, Tan Nan See, Goh Lee Kwang, Sand T, and Chong Siew Ying have been active in exhibiting (some even working) outside Malaysia. All these artists have now become the epitomes of Malaysian artists’ engagement with globalization.
Artists such as Wong Hoy Cheong, Zulkifli Yusof and Susyilawati Sulaiman for examples, represent the ‘success stories’ of Malaysian artists for being selected to exhibit their works in prestigious international expositions such as Venice Biennale and Documenta. Many others such as Ramlan Abdullah and Multhalib Musa have won international awards for their sculpture work. Despite some alarming remarks on globalization, it has nevertheless opened-up new possibilities for Malaysian artists to enter the world stage and acquire an international profile.
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UNDER-DECONSTRUCTION: CONTEMPORARY ART IN MALAYSIA AFTER 1990 (PART 7)
Free Market Capitalism
Forces of free market capitalism should also be taken into consideration in reading contemporary art in Malaysia. As the world becomes one market, demands for artworks from Asia are growing. The growth is further fueled by the shift from national to multi-national capital. The ‘ecosystem’ of the global and regional economy cannot be simply brushed aside. Art markets in China and Indonesia for example, have been booming rapidly in recent years. In fact, the ‘reservoir’ of Malaysian contemporary art market has to be seen in relation to the regional and global market. The participants of the local ‘reservoir’ has to engage with their ‘international counterpart; they can’t hide under the coconut shell anymore.(64)
The economic setting during the eighties until late nineties in Malaysia had created a competitive contemporary art market in Malaysia - aggressive, progressive, innovative, thriving, heated and never short of ironies and polemics (65) From being marginal initiatives that rely on government funding, the Malaysian contemporary art scene was gradually boosted into a thriving business enterprise before the balloon burst in the late 1990s. Luckily, this was only a temporary setback. In the past few years, the market has resumed its thriving disposition. Artists, especially those who belong to the ‘cult of the young’ have increasingly been taken as brands (superstars, cultural heroes) striving for a commercial success and fledging career in the competitive art scene.
Nonetheless, the ‘ecosystem’ of international art scene in the era of globalization can also be ironic and paradoxical. Often, the pros and cons are entwined and partitioned by a very delicate veil. For example, even ‘leftist’, ‘non-commercial’ and ‘non-conformist’ stance can possibly be exploited as a viable form of brand positioning (or ‘differentiation’) to increase market value. Such stance can also be augmented by the tendencies of the international art circle (and English-speaking discourses) in highlighting artworks with socio-political bend.
Despite their sometimes postmodern, alternative and critical stance, many local artists have begun to turn into full-time professionals, thus entailing them to be highly perceptive towards the forces of the market. Many have learnt to be fluent in dwelling with the economics of income, earnings, revenue, proceeds, turnover, profits and loss, as much as branding and promotional strategy. The act of creating is not anymore contained within the contexts of idea, concept, form, aesthetic, emotion and personal sentiment, but must also include perceptiveness towards the engulfing market, and the ability to network or ‘get connected’ with the ‘right cluster of people’. Even the notion of success itself is not anymore dependent on the quality of the artworks, but also the ability to rapport with major players and movers in the art market.
Several artists may have even learned to look at their artworks (perhaps themselves too albeit discreetly) as a commodity striving for a competitive market value, sometimes at the expanse of personal sentiment and emotion. Spiritual, social, artistic, cultural values and the general significance of critical knowledge might have been subtly spread thin, or re-branded in order to be more hip and competitive for the open market.
Consequently, several artists and curators have established a close rapport with commercial galleries and individual collectors, creating a matrix of players and movers that have been at times intertwined or overlapped. Clusters of players and movers were formed, most of the time by shared sentiment. Other than artists, the players and movers include gallery owners and promoters, curators-writers, buyers or collectors, and individuals in the media (editors of magazines, newspapers, websites, etc). Initially the clusters were distinctively demarcated by institutional, commercial and alternative fronts. Over the years, the clusters have been at times fused, with players and movers moving in and out of these different fronts. Academicians have sometimes been roped in if needed, to provide additional validation, if not credibility. English-speaking foreign curators-writers have also sometimes been invited, again to add more value and credence.
The matrix of contemporary art in Malaysia today is marked by contesting fronts and territorial forces, based on combinations of different agendas and sentiments. At times, they may appear elusive or obscured. At some other times, the agendas and sentiments may appear explicit and obvious. Sometimes, common agendas have been set to allow different clusters and fronts to work together for common causes. At some other times, specific agendas have been set, creating a clear demarcation in terms of preferred artists, type of art works, genre, style, themes, issue and sentiment. Many sentiments and personalities may at times clash, creating a thriving art scene that has never been short of drama and intrigue, as much as gossips and petty talks. SMS and MMS have further fueled a more speculative environment in which image, posture, impression, assumption and perception may be taken as the basis of popular discourses on contemporary art in Malaysia.
Galleries such as Petronas Gallery, Wei Ling Gallery, Valentine Willie Fine Art, Art Salon, Taksu Gallery, RA Fine Art, Artcase,12 Artspace, and Pelita Hati House of Art have been active in exposing and promoting contemporary Malaysian art and artists. More new galleries have emerged in the past few years, including in other cities such as Penang and Johor Bharu. By working with several international partners such as Australia High Commission and the British Council, these galleries have also served as a bridge between artists and collectors and have been instrumental in providing exposure and financial stability for contemporary artists.
In compliment, private collectors such as Fatimah & Pakhruddin Sulaiman, Aliya & Farouk Khan and Dr. Steve & Rosemary Wong have begun to build their own substantial private collections of contemporary Malaysian art. In fact, private collectors have at times influenced the market too. In addition, it can be argued that some of the best contemporary artworks (especially paintings) produced since the 1990s, can be found in the private collections of private collectors rather than institutions. Other collectors such as Ng Sek San & Carolyn Lau, Angela & Hijas Kasturi, Raja Ahmad Aminullah and the late Rahimie Harun have (had) been quite influential in augmenting the productivity of contemporary artists and playing a highly pro-active role in enriching discourses as well. In recent years, more young professionals are beginning to collect contemporary artworks.
As a result, contemporary artists are no longer solely dependent upon government support. In addition, they can also rely on corporate patronage, sponsorship and purchase from corporations such as Tenaga Nasional Berhad, Petroliam Nasional Berhad (Petronas), Sime Darby Berhad, Esso Malaysia Berhad, Shell Malaysia, the Phillip Morris Group of Companies, Penjanabebas, as well as several commercial banks such as Bank Negara of Malaysia, Malayan Banking Berhad (Maybank), Public Bank, Bank Bumiputra (now CIMB), Oriental Bank, Hong Leong Bank, Hong Kong & Shanghai Banking Corporations (HSBC) and ABN-AMRO.
In doing so, they have to operate within an urban and international context as dictated by the ebbs and flow of free market capitalism and the novelties of information and communication technology. They also have to be media savvy and smart in branding or positioning themselves. Even trans-national cosmopolitan lifestyle itself has to be adopted since it can be perceived as a form of industry and a money making business. Anything local may be perceived as parochial.
Gallery-oriented trends of commercialization and corporate endorsement have also been at times entwined with government validation as epitomized by several projects organised by the National Art Gallery of Malaysia. Several exhibitions such as 12 ASEAN Artists (2000), and Identiti: Inilah Kami (Identities:Who We Are) (2002) for examples, involved collaborations between Valentine Willie Fine Art Gallery with the National Art Gallery and support from corporate sponsors. Interestingly, the National Art Gallery had been used as a venue for solo exhibitions of several artists who might have been labeled as ‘dissident’ or not conform to the so called government-prescribed notion of national art.
Increasingly, it has become more pressing to identify the clusters or constituents (groups of key players and movers) within the matrix of Malaysian and Asian art markets. Even the role of the National Art Gallery in ‘value-creation’, legitimizing or validating artists and art works has to be seen in relation to this matrix. Perhaps, it is now pertinent for these constituents to be looking at ways of working together in a more pro-active and supporting manner in order to create a dynamic and thriving market for Malaysian contemporary artists beyond the Malaysian border.
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UNDER-DECONSTRUCTION: CONTEMPORARY ART IN MALAYSIA AFTER 1990 (PART 8)
Absorbing Future ‘Syiok’ – The Impact of Information & Communication Technology (ICT)
The novelties of information and communication technology and the emergence of new media have provided another important context for the contemporary art practice in Malaysia. Technology has provided a platform for global networking, enabling artists to form a web of non-hierarchical relationship or multi-directional link with other artists around the world. Such link has instigated cross-cultural encounters, creating a more inter-connected or inter-dependent environment for artists to steer their career. They have begun to embrace a set of new paradigm, marked by convergence, virtual presence, hybridity, interactivity and modularity.Websites, blogs, chartrooms, online videos, virtual galleries, online database, sms, and mms have provided free access to myriads of information for artists, especially those of the younger generation.
Several artists have responded by using new media technology itself to make their works. Others have responded by expressing their feelings and thoughts on the impact of new technology. Art establishments, institutions and commercial galleries have also responded by organizing exhibitions, projects, developing website, online tour and database.
Ismail Zain’s Digital Collage (1988), a solo exhibition consisted of his experimentation with computer image editing, can be taken as the early trailblazer of electronic art (e-art). It has also been acknowledged for introducing new theoretical frameworks for contemporary art practice. Other artists who had started to engage with the use of computer and media technology during the late 1980s include Kamarudzaman Md. Isa, Ray Langenbach (and his students at Universiti Sains Malaysia/USM) and Liew Kungyu.(66)
Since 1990, artists such as Wong Hoy Cheong, Hasnul J Saidon, Niranjan Rajah, Faizal Zulkifli, Masnoor Ramli Mahmud, Ahmad Fuad Osman, Noor Azizan Paiman, Nadiah Bamadhaj, Yee I-Lan, Hayati Mokhtar and Nur Hanim Khairuddin, due to their multidisciplinary stance, have also used video and digital technology in their works. Chuah Chong Yong, another contemporary artist, even employed the use of fax print for his work Pre War building for Sale: Welcome to the Era of the Biggest, the Tallest and the Longest (1999). Other artists have also responded to media technology and the emergence of cyber world. Ahmad Shukri’s Insect Diskettes series II (1997) and Long Thien Shih Bar Coded Man (2001) are two examples.
Younger artists such as Kamal Sabran, Roslisham Ismail, Emil Goh, Sharon Chin, Vincent Leong, Lau Mun Leng, Liew Teck Leong, Low Yii Chin, Hasnizam Wahid, Muhd Faizal Sidik, Rini Fauzan, Tengku Azhari Tengku Azizan and Goh Lee Kwang have also been known through their multi-dimensional works that involve the use of digital video, digital photography and printing, digital music/sound composition and MMS technology. UNIMAS graduates (Anuar Ayob, John Hii, Helena Song, Ling Siew Woei, Ting Ting Hock), Roopesh Sitharan, Fariza Idora AlHabshi, Diffan Sina, and Ily Farhana Norhayat represent a new breed of young artists who have used video and ICT-based technology in their artworks.
Video art has been quite a regular feature of many contemporary exhibitions in Malaysia since 1990. Unfortunately, there are not many writings about video art practice in Malaysia. Furthermore, other than the National Art Gallery and Universiti Sains Malaysia, other institutions or private collectors have not been known to collect video art. Despite such limitation, video art in Malaysia emerged years before her neighboring countries, through the work of Liew Kungyu, Passage through Literacy (1989).
In the past few years, video has also become an instrumental tool for art collectives, cultural activists and groups, alternative spaces as well as small scale exhibitions, private screenings and community projects, with collaborative engagements and networking that often reach beyond the national border towards regional collaboration.(67)
Amongst the significant exhibitions that focus on media and ICT-related art forms are International Video Art Festival (1990 & 1994), 1st. Electronic Art Show (1997) and Flow/Arus (2000) organised by the National Art Gallery of Malaysia, the annual Malaysian Video Awards (started in 1994) organised by the Malaysian Video Awards Council, Sony Video Art Festival (1994) organised by Sony Corporation, HYPErview (1997) a solo exhibition of electronic arts by Hasnul J Saidon, X’plorasi (1997), and Jambori Rimba (1997) organised by the Faculty of Applied & Creative Arts, Universiti Malaysia Sarawak (UNIMAS). UNIMAS had also developed and launched a web portal and online discussion forum called E-Art Asean Online in 2000 (now defunct) while its artists were invited to participate in the Screen Culture and Virtual Triennial sections of the 3rd. Asia-Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art (1999), organised by the Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane, Australia.
Another notable project is Kamal Sabran’s experimental performance of live acoustic with computer music composition and multiple video projections based on sounds from the outer space, held at the National Planetarium of Malaysia. The performance, called Sonic Cosmic (2006) was a result of ‘Zamalah Karyawan Tamu’ - a unique and newly-established ‘art meets science’ residency program pioneered, sponsored and organised by the Agensi Angkasa Negara (ANGKASA), Ministry of Science and Technology Malaysia.
The residency echoes similar note to another project initiated by the same agency. It was an art-science expedition and exhibition program called Alami – Science Inspires Arts co-organised by the Agency with the National Art Gallery.
Several artists such as Nur Hanim Khairuddin has produced video pieces that respond to media imperialism, hegemony and control, and lamented the impact of popular culture and rampant consumerism towards contemporary experience. Some have brought up several questions regarding Malaysia’s engagement with new media technology. How do we face the emergence of net or cyber generation? How do we engage with the future consumers of new media technology and the future prosumers of global lifestyles? How do they differ from the previous TV or mass media generations?
Despite these questions, it has to be noted that the reluctant few (institutions related to the arts) that have been sluggish in responding to the paradigm shifts brought about by ICT are at risk of being left-out or deemed as irrelevant. In fact, those that have been rather over-critical and skeptical towards new media technology have begun to accept its impact, as indicated by the recent results (and early repercussions) of the Malaysia’s General Elections.
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UNDER-DECONSTRUCTION: CONTEMPORARY ART IN MALAYSIA AFTER 1990 (PART 9)
6. Key Developments after 1990
Multiple and intertwined trajectories
Malaysian contemporary art scene in the past 15 years, especially during the 1990’s, has been predominantly preoccupied by ‘future shock’ brought about by the above-mentioned catalysts of change. In responding to the above-mentioned catalysts, artworks by new generation of Malaysian artists that emerged during the late 1980s and 1990s, have reflected an emergence of various intertwining and multi-disciplinary trajectories for contemporary art practice in Malaysia, thus making the process of identifying, demarcating or classifying contemporary art works more difficult to handle. Amongst the most identifiable key trajectories are:
Angst-ridden expressionism - Expressionist impulse driven by loud and dark existentialist rage, angst, boldness, immediacy and urgency, mostly employing international neo-expressionist style and using human figure as a central subject-matter
Formalist expressionism - A slightly softer or sober combination of surrealist, pop, lyrical and romantic version of neo-expressionist style, using an eclectic combination of human figure, landscape and objects, signs and symbols as subject matters
Neo-dada - inclination towards a mixed bag of comedic absurdity, ponderous literalism, indiscriminate appropriation, random deconstruction and a riots of mockery, satire, parody and cynicism, mostly through installation, performance and site-specific experimental works
Conceptual – a more cerebral, investigative, research-based, methodical, inter-textual, deconstructive and semiotic approach, with a touch of humor, parody, satire and even mockery.
Post-formalist concerns – continuation of experiments and explorations with new materials and techniques of painting, sculpture, drawing and printmaking.
Key Themes – social concerns and reflecting postmodern encounters
The future shock in the 1990’s was marked amongst many, by a sudden pressure to change. It has also brought changing lifestyles and unveil critical issues related to the politics of representation, identity, culture, ethnicity, religion and gender in Malaysian and the Southeast Asian region. Repercussions of globalization, media imperialism, sustainability of the environment, impact of new media, and even the historical and stylistic notions of modern art itself have been used as issues of concern.
In Malaysia, the term ‘issues based art’ (IBA) has been coined to explain artworks with more pronounced political and social concerns.(68) Contemporary works done by many Malaysian artists and others from the Southeast Asian region since the early 1990s have also been marked by IBA as well. But certainly not all engaging art must be a politically and socially ‘issues based
art’. Furthermore, contemporary art in Malaysia since 1990 has also been diverse, and accommodative to works that feature other concerns such as aesthetic, tradition and spirituality.
Generally, artworks since the 1990s feature multiple engagements of Malaysian artists with several key issues or themes. In expressing their thoughts and feelings on these issues, they have become the epitome of modern and postmodern encounters that reverberate with ‘clashing voices, contradictions, suspicions, skepticism, angst, paradoxes, cynicism, ironies and all the typical markings of a rapidly changed post-industrial, media and market-driven society’.(69)
These key issues will be further discussed in tandem with several works and artists in the following part 7.
Sentiments and Working Strategies – Oscillating Between Modernism and Postmodernism
The sentiments and working strategies of many contemporary Malaysian artists that emerged in the 1990s have been generally informed by post-modern irony and paradox. The irony and paradox have been marked by post-modern raves where loudness, irony, parody, sarcasm, cynicism, satire, pun, intervention, subversion, protest, and mockery have been favored. Pastiche, appropriation and deconstruction have also been employed as working strategies.
Several Malaysian writers such as Zainol Abidin Shariff, Dr. Tan Chee Khuan, Niranjan Rajah, Zanita Anuar, Safrizal Shahir and Sarena Abdullah have given their comments about Malaysian version of post-modern raves.(70) Several writers have associated it with the age of ‘anything goes’ in which everything can be continuously deconstructed or turned into a spectacle, superficial façade, endless play and pastiche.
Consequently, several young Malaysian artists have been showing their interest in riding on the riddles of postmodern dissonant raves. The raves have been amongst the most common sentiments used by many contemporary Malaysian artists, especially through installation or other alternative art forms. These raves have seemingly become a ‘house style’ for many young artists in Malaysia, especially in the 1990s.
Such ‘house style’ has to be read within the framework of several key theories. Generally, the term postmodern has been used to explain and identify some of the key changes and repercussions of globalization, free market capitalism and ICT revolution. It many ways, it has been employed to explain some of the new trajectories in the Malaysian contemporary art practice after 1990. The term, other than signifying a break from the framework of modernist art historical narration, also signifies several paradigmatic shifts in the way contemporary art is approached.
Postmodernism itself, is a lengthy if not paradoxical subject to be discussed in this essay. Furthermore, it can be argued that most of the contemporary art works in Malaysia, despite its postmodern posture and appropriation of deconstructive stance, have mostly been framed within the context of modernist ‘mythifying’ impulse as discussed in the earlier section of this essay. Even some of the so-called alternative methods of making art have eventually been framed by gallery-based modernist context, with individual artist being very central in the discourses.
In fact, postmodern traits, upon reaching a sign of hegemonic or dominating presence, may eventually be deconstructed and contested. The sustained presence of highly modernist, conventional, narrative and realistic painting, as well as aesthetic abstraction, is suggestive of such contestation. Artists like Fauzan Omar, Yusof Ghani, Jailani Abu Hassan, Hamidi Hadi, Daud Abdul Rahim, Sabri Idrus, Wong Pern Fey, and Choy Chun Wei are amongst the major proponents of painting in the contemporary Malaysian art practice.
There has also been a lingering desire for a sense of centrality or pillar in discussing about Malaysian contemporary art, providing another example of ironic reaction against postmodernism. Beverly Yong for example, states:
“I think some sort of art destination, some respectable pillar would centre the idea of art in our society.”(71)
In fact, modernist context is still needed to sustain the market value (and thus the career) of contemporary Malaysian artists, no matter how postmodern she/he wants to be.
New Forms of Expression and the Sustainability of Painting
Contemporary Malaysian artists have also displayed an interest in exploring new and multi-dimensional ways of making art, including alternative use of video and industrial materials, as well as installation, site-specific and new media technology. The following is a list of several non-conventional forms that have been employed by several contemporary Malaysian artists after 1990:
Installation art including site-specific
Video art and video installation
Web or internet art
Interactive CD
Sound art and sound installation
Light art
Performance and situational art
Digital photography and alternative prints
Artist’s book
Graffiti
Ready-mades, ephemeral, intervention art
Expanded painting
Children’s and naïve art
Quilt
Fax
Mobile phone
The annual (now biennale) Malaysian Young Contemporariescompetition cum exhibition organised by the National Art Gallery of Malaysia continues to serve as the venue for young Malaysian talents to showcase cutting-edge works.
Despite the emergence of these non-conventional, experimental, multi-disciplinary and alternative new forms, traditional forms such as painting still persist. In fact, painting (in its many variations) has continued to play a central role as an important form of contemporary expression in the Malaysian art scene.
Emergence of New Writers-curators
The multi-tasking tradition of writer-curator-artist was later carried by younger artists such as Nur Hanim Khairuddin and Yap Sau Bin. In addition, since 2005, Nur Hanim has been publishing another art magazine called Sentap! which was selected to be included in the magazine section of the recent Documenta 2008 exposition. Both Nur Hanim and Sau Bin have also been active in the so-called alternative art spaces, the Rumah Air Panas and Yayasan Kesenian Perak respectively.
For the past few years, young writers such as Carmen Nge, Sharon Chin, Li-en Chong and Adeline Ooi have also been active in writing reviews of exhibitions. On the other side of the spectrum are gallery-based writers-curators such as J.Anu (Petronas Gallery) Shahnaz Said (Petronas Gallery, now freelancing), Beverly Yong (Valentine Willie Fine Art), Zanita Anuar, Ameruddin Ahmad and Majidi Amir (all with the National Art Gallery) who have written in exhibition catalogues and curated several exhibitions. Others such as Safrizal Shahir, Zainon Abdullah, Badrolhisham Tahir, Sarena Abdullah, Izzadin Matrahah, M. Hijaz, Suhaimi Md. Noor, Mohd Johari and Zulkifli Mohamad are university-based writers who have also begun to make their mark in the local art writing scene. Younger writers such as Tan Nan See, Tan Sei Hon, Roopesh Sitharan and Nizam Esa represent a new generation of writers that will hopefully sustain and further augmented the discourses of contemporary art in Malaysia and beyond.
The writings styles and curatorial approaches of all the individuals mentioned above have also been diverse, ranging from light writing for public reading to academic approach for specialized target readers. Their writings may also differ in terms of language, content, method, argument and sentiment, depending on institutional, commercial and alternative forces. Thus, their writings have become a part of territorial contestations within matrix of Malaysian contemporary art scene.
Even though the mother-tongues of many Malaysian contemporary artists are Bahasa Malaysia and Chinese, most writers ironically prefer to write in English to increase visibility and numbers of readers. In fact, it can be argued that English art writings by certain clusters of writers have been perceived as the major source of reference on contemporary art in Malaysia. Nevertheless, it has to be noted that several writers have been known to write only in Bahasa Malaysia and Chinese language. Chai Chang Hwang for example, has been active writing in Chinese publications, while Hasmi Hashim and Azman Ismail write reviews and commentaries in Bahasa Malaysia. Others such as Zanita Anuar, Hasnul J Saidon and Nur Hanim Khairuddin have been writing in both Bahasa Malaysia and English.
Curatorial issue and the quality (and quantity) of art writing in Malaysia has been under constant criticism for the past few years. The fact that not all writers were formally trained in art history and curatorial studies indicates the need for institutions of higher learning in Malaysia to provide formal training in art management, art history, curatorial studies and art writing at undergraduate and graduate levels. Until now, none of the existing institutions in Malaysia provides specialized undergraduate and post-graduate degree programs in these critical areas. Another lamented fact is that not many local writers are interested in writing for international publications, thus making contemporary art in Malaysia less visible in the international platform. Furthermore, several curators and writers are also attached to private galleries, thus rendering their reviews and writings questionable.(72)
Notwithstanding the criticism, these writers-curators have in many ways, contributed in enriching the discourses of contemporary art in Malaysia since 1990.
Emergence of New Spaces & Young Movers
For the past few years, several Malaysian artists have begun to establish their own ‘abode’ or some sort of personal sanctuary as an alternative space to not only produce their artworks, but also exhibit them. Perhaps ignited by the need to be independent and free from institutional trappings and commercial constraints, the sanctuary normally serves as a space with multiple purposes. By having his or her own space, the artist aspires to enjoy artistic liberty and creative freedom minus suffocating institutional politics and stagnating bureaucratic policies to abide to. Other than as a home or personal dwelling space, the sanctuary can also serve as a studio, a workshop and an exhibition space, sometimes complimented by a custom-made garden, a resource room, and an open space for myriads of activities.
In some cases, the sanctuary was purposely built or set-up outside the city (KL) parameter as if to function as a site of rejuvenation. Romantic and cliché it may sound, there will always be this tempting and alluring desire amongst urban artists to escape the rampant yet seductive consumerism that typifies Malaysia’s rapidly changed post-industrial, media and market-driven cosmopolitan society – a society struggling to adapt to the challenges, irony, contradiction and concurrent paradox of pre-modern, modern and post-modern values.
Renowned Malaysian printmaker, Juhari Said for example, established his abode Akal di Ulu to function as a home or a house for himself and his family, his workshop, studio and an open gallery as proven through his innovative international Off the Wallsculpture exhibition. The exhibition also engaged his immediate neighbors and local community as an integral part of the project. His sanctuary has also been used as training site for several potential young artists as well as a site for young people’s art camp. By doing so, Juhari has extended the pretext and context of ‘fine art’ practice beyond the confine of a gallery. Not all the pretext and context can be safely demarcated within a ‘wall’ or a ‘frame’ of a ‘picture plane’ or ‘painting format.’ Most will probably fall outside the secured vision of fine art as a practice safely demarcated by the modern tradition of drawing, printmaking, sculpture and painting. It may also fall outside the revered proclamation of fine art or modern art as a generic term for a proper entry into the contemporary art practice.
Several more artists have established their own alternative space for independent art practice, critical discussion, public education and exhibition. Amongst them include Matahati’s Matahati Hom, Ahmad Shukri’s and Umi Baizurah’s Patisatu Studio, Roslisham Ismail’s Parking Project and Hamir Shoib’s Gudang. Other young movers such as Yeoh Liang Heng, Tan Sei Hon, Hasmi Hashim, Rahmat Haron, Susyilawati Sulaiman, and Muid Latiff have formed collectives or alternative fronts such as Rumah Air Panas (RAP), Shiemaya-Art-tria, Spacecraft, Lost Generation Space, Yayasan Kesenian Perak, Komuniti Jalan Kempas, Universiti Bangsa Utama, Urban Creatures, Wondermilk, Space in Cheras and Digital Malaya.
These ‘independent’, self-funded collectives have churned out several experimental projects that have not only signified an increasing interest amongst younger generation of Malaysian artists in political and community activisms, but also in issues that transcend ethnic proclivities. These interests can be traced in several projects organised by the collectives such as Artists’s Pro Active’s Apa?Siapa?Kenapa? (What!Who?Why?)(1998), Shiemaya-Art-tria’s Apa Gendai (2000), RAP’s SPACE(S) Dialogue & Exhibition(2003), Lost Generation’s Notthatbalai Festival, and Spacekraft’s Chow Kit Fest. The National Art Gallery of Malaysia had also responded to the need to provide a space for experimental project by funding Sonneratia (2001) and (2003), a youth art camp and exhibition.(73) The maneuver of these alternative fronts is marked by some of the paradigm shifts listed in fig.1.
Emergence of New Institutions
Other than UiTM and Malaysian Institute of Art (MIA), the emergence of several new government universities and private art colleges have also contributed towards opening other trajectories in the practice of contemporary art post 1990, especially in regards to new media.
The Faculty of Applied & Creative Arts, Universiti Malaysia Sarawak (UNIMAS) for example, was very active in engaging, researching, exhibiting and publishing new explorations in electronic arts and new media from 1994 until 2000. In fact, artworks by several students and lecturers from the Faculty were exhibited in the Screen Culture and Virtual Triennial sections of the 3rd. Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art in Brisbane, Australia in 1999.
The Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) in Penang, other than re-establishing its Art Centre as The School of Arts, has also recently renovated and rebranded its Museum and Art Gallery as Muzium & Galeri Tuanku Fauziah in facing the imperatives of the 21st. century. Other than actively organizing exhibitions and outreach activities, the gallery has also revitalized its purchasing activity by collecting contemporary video and digital-based works by Malaysian artists.(74)
Several other institutions such as The Centre for Advanced Design (Cenfad),Faculty of Creative Multimedia, Multimedia University, The One Academy, Limkokwing Institute of Creative Technology (now a university-college), and New Era College of Art & Design, have contributed in encouraging new ways of engaging with the contemporary art, such as new media, installation and cross-disciplinary approach. Indirectly, these institutions may potentially be instrumental in charting new narratives and discourses for the practice of contemporary art in Malaysia in the future. Several significant paradigmatic shifts in these higher institutions of learning in response to the imperatives of change may also contribute in providing new momentum and fresh impulse.
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UNDER-DECONSTRUCTION: CONTEMPORARY ART IN MALAYSIA AFTER 1990 (PART 10)
7. Discussions of key artworks
Neo-expressionist impulse, Malay angst and dilemma
Thematically, most of the seminal contemporary artworks produced by Malay artists such as Zulkifli Yusof, Bayu Utomo Radjikin and Raja Shahriman Raja Aziddin during the 1990s were initially placed and read within the context of ‘angst’ which according to Wong Hoy Cheong, ‘is a sensibility so much a part of modernism and an inevitable outcome of modernity’.(75) In comparison, Niranjan Rajah, in his book Bara Hati Bahang Jiwa, contextualizes the angst within the notion of semangat (life force) as well as the tension between amok (sudden burst of violent emotion) and adab (following a certain code of behavior) that typifies the works of several contemporary Malay artists in the 1990s.(76)
The early version of neo-expressionist ‘angst’ can be traced in the works of Yusof Ghani, Ahmad Shukri Elias and Riaz Ahmad Jamil. The neo-expressionist undertone of Shukri’s Larangan (Forbidden) series and Riaz’s Larangan Hilai (Forbidden to Laugh), Larangan Jerit (Forbidden to Scream) and Larangan Pandang (Forbidden to see) can be taken as early preludes to loud angst-ridden theme that has characterized the works of several other Malay artists in the 1990s such as Ahmad Fuad Osman, Hamir Shoib, and Masnoor Ramli Mahmud. These artists, together with Bayu Utomo Radjikin and Ahmad Shukri Mohamed, have been popularly known as Matahati group that emerged in the early 1990s.
Other than responding to the notion of culture and identity, future shock and post-modern raves, some of the more surreal and abstract angst-ridden works of the Matahati artists reflect a trajectory that seems to be moving away from the external cultural conundrum to an inner voyage, suggesting a more personal and idiosyncratic journey into the subconscious. They also resonate with a sense of cathartic release and usually lean towards a much darker personal sentiment. Such rendition emanates a haunting feeling of despair, hopelessness, alienation, sorrow, anguish, desolation, misery and sadness.
The Matahati group itself has been very prolific in organizing solo and group exhibitions as well as local and regional collaborative projects since its formation in 1989. The repertoire of their productive output has also been marked by social commentaries, skillfully expressed with loud and an expressive sense of angst, rage, rawness, boldness and urgency. Branding themselves almost like a group of 1980s Malay rock band, their illustrious career as a group (as well as individual artist) has been captured by a major retrospective, organised by the Petronas Gallery in 2008, which was also held concurrently in three other venues – Matahati Hom, the Annexe Gallery and 12 Art Space.(77)
J. Anu refers to Matahati’s neo-expressionist trajectory as a ‘much more confronting version of a Malay aesthetic – one that is less concerned with niceties or politeness’. While acknowledging the Matahati artists as a part of ‘key influences in the rise of figurative social commentary that has dominated Malaysian art, particularly Malaysian painting since 1990s’ he proposes that their readings of issues ‘are told from their very distinct Malay-Muslim and incidentally South East Asian point of view, symbology and visual vocabulary’.(78)
Zulkifli Yusof is another prominent Malay artist who has emerged into the contemporary Malaysian art scene during the late 1980s with a prolific series of emotionally-charged constructivist installation. Zulkifli himself has been read by several writers as an epitome of Malay angst during the late 1980s and early 1990s. Locally and internationally acclaimed, Zulkifli’s expressive impulse, urgency and boldness in responding to several pressing socio-political issues related to the emerging ‘new Malays’ have been noted by many critics. His aversion towards the abuse of power amongst Malay bureaucrats and aristocrats has been expressed through a wide range of cynically caricatured characters in his paintings and sculptures.(79)
His installation Don’t Play During Maghrib (1996) which was shown at the Venice Biennale in 1997, can be read as a visual pun and parody of a Malay folk taboo, which is captured by the title itself (children are not allowed to play outside the house at dusk when evil forces are abound). Upon closer reading, the work unveils Zulkifli’s fondness in making a mockery of moral hypocrites (who despite their pious exterior and moral sermons, posses certain bad traits, including subscribing to religiously prohibited social activities after dusk). Recently, he has shifted into a more architectonic paintings based on Malay literatures and colonial history.
Raja Shahriman is another epitome of Malay angst who emerged during the early 1990s. Shahriman’s repertoire of battling iron warriors in various mutated forms displays his impressive skill and mastery of medium, which in his case, scrap metal bits. Known for his dramatic, liveliness and energetic rendition of human forms in forceful combating postures, Shahriman’s gothic-like expression reveals an interesting counter-point to the stereotypically polite demeanor of the Malay socio-cultural nuances.(80)
The other side of angst-ridden and neo-expressionist impulse is an inclination towards comedic absurdity, ponderous literalism, schizophrenic appropriation and random deconstruction as epitomized by the works of Noor Azizan Rahman Paiman. His recent drawings and paintings (2007/08) feature random quotations and absurd characters that relate to the political economy (if not absurdity) of mass media.
Artists such as Tengku Sabri Tengku Ibrahim, Hasnul J Saidon, Mohd Nasir Baharuddin, Juhari Said and Suhaimi Tohid have been known for their less expressive but more cerebral, methodical and investigative approach in articulating modern and postmodern encounters.
Their works, whilst being rather less loud or attention-grabbing, are marked by a more conceptual and inter-textual semiotic approach, with a touch of humor, parody, satire and even mockery. In addition, their artworks are best read in tandem with theories related to semiotics, information system and the political economy of global media, and now, the Islamophobia of post 9-11 Islamic fundamentalism cum terrorism.
Along this line, it has to be noted that Malay-Muslim artists of today have to encounter misguided fear, resent, prejudices and stereotypical labeling of Muslims as terrorists (or potential terrorists) and Islam as a breeding ground for religious intolerance, both inside and outside Malaysia. Conversely, they also have to encounter their own misguided prejudices towards the ‘others’, and of the position of their ‘special privileges’ in an increasingly globalized and plural world. Intra-religiously, they have to confront and respond to hate-preachers, dogmatist killers and intolerant bigots within the Muslim communities.
Tengku Sabri’s installation Inside Series : Mari Kita Berperang Lagi(Lets Have Another War) (2002) reflects his cynical response to the U.S.A sponsored ‘war against terror’ by reconstructing a fake toy missile for his children to play with (whilst making a parody of associating terrorism with Muslims).(81) Hasnul J Saidon’s video installation kipASAPi (1999) on the other hand, raises the problem of ‘truth’ in today’s complex streams of broadcast and interactive media, in the context of the Malay political crisis in Malaysia.(82)
Mohd Nasir Baharuddin’s Iqra’ (1995) for example, features the use of text, photography and found objects in articulating the verse Iqra’ in the holy Quran that translates as ‘to recite’ or ‘to read’. Nasir’s deployment of conceptualist’s style indicates a shift from Malay ethnic vocabulary, geometry, calligraphy and craft tradition to a more contemporary expression of everyday reality in manifesting the spirit of Islam. Juhari Said’s Katak Nak Jadi Lembu (The Frog Wants To Become A Cow) (1998) on the other hand, features a use of bold woodblock graphic images to visually re-interpret traditional Malay proverbs with a touch of humor, parody and contemporary nuance.(83)
Suhaimi Tohid’s Journey (2001) refers to a double-edged sword and ‘devious and dubious nature of global economy most specifically in the form of foreign loans that developed countries normally offered to most developing Third world countries’.(84) Another work that reverberates with similar sentiment is M.O.U. Takkan Melayu Hilang Di Dunia (Malay Will Never Cease to Exist) (2006) by Hazrul Mazran Rosli. His sentiment reiterates an under siege fear of the ironic impact of globalization and free market capitalism towards the Malay community (and their nationally protected political, economic and cultural privileges).(85)
Multhalib Musa’s keris-laden By Default (2002), makes a parody of the over-simplistic notion of Malay communal emblem and ethnic symbolism while Sabri Idrus’s Bangau oh Bangau (2004), uses a Malay colloquial folk song or lullaby to subtly comment on an endless bureaucratic blame game that is prevalent in many public departments.(86)
Nur Hanim’s installation Laga-laga (2002) and video art called se(RANG)ga (2005) comments on the power of global media in demonizing Islam. Her works echo ‘the growing distaste for media imperialism and how the hegemony of global media capitalizes on conflicts to achieve economic and political domination. Nur Hanim’s works make a wry comment about fabricated reality, which seems to affirm the post-modernist’s proposition that we live within the sway of mythology conjured for us by the mass media, movies and advertisements.(87)
Over the past few years, other younger generation of Malay artists such as Roslisham Ismail, Khairul Azmir Shoib, Kamal Sabran, Fathullah Lokman, Rahmat Haron, Tengku Azhari Tengku Azizan, Zaslan Zeeha Zaini, Muhd Sarip Abdul Rahman, Aswad Ameir, Saiful Razman, Hazrul Mazran Rosli, Md Farid Abdul Jalil, Yusri Sulaiman, Ilham Fadhli Shaimy, and Samsuddin Abdul Wahab have been making their presence felt in the contemporary Malaysian art scene today by engaging in broader issues of concern.
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UNDER-DECONSTRUCTION: CONTEMPORARY ART IN MALAYSIA AFTER 1990 (PART 12)
8. The Future Stance
In such a postmodern’s state of flux, under-deconstruction and fragmented scenario as presented by this essay, can there be a glimpse of a common anchor in discussing about contemporary Malaysian art after 1990? With a ‘hyper-view’ of contesting territorial forces, opinions, narratives, stories and trajectories, one may find it rather puzzling to make a conclusive statement about one’s encounter with the Malaysian contemporary art scene.
For someone grounded in the established canons and tradition of modern art, the probable answer might be a pessimistic and flat NO! Those who hold on to a secured vision of fine art as a practise safely demarcated by drawing, printmaking, sculpture and painting will be subjected to an unpleasant encounter. In fact, those who have been fertilising their ‘ground’ with an idealised vision of narrow ethnocentric utopia will probably be heart-broken as they encounter the many facets of contemporary art in Malaysia.(100)
For a generation conditioned by capitalist free-market liberalism and globalization (gobble-lisation and its impinging consumerist imperatives in all fronts), the answer is probably in questioning the question itself! Is there a ‘standard’ or a ‘ground’ to return to in this age of fragmentation? What are the constituents within the matrix of Malaysian contemporary art? Is the matrix firmly established and fixed or changed according to the ebb and flow of ‘capitals’, parading under so many different pretexts?
Too much questioning…too little comfort. Symptomatic of postmodern encounters.
Questioning, contestation, fragmentation, flux, and deconstruction may not be suggestive of gloomy days ahead. Instead, they may suggest numerous potentials and possibilities, in which anybody may claim his/her stake and proposition, chart his/her future and create his/her own niche in a fluid and open field. Perhaps, the future stance for contemporary art practice in Malaysia will be determined by the way all the present and future key players and movers respond to the several paradigm shifts listed in fig.1.
Perhaps, after undergoing uncomfortable and disturbing deconstruction, we will hopefully witness an emergence of a new phase of creative practice in Malaysia. By then, hopefully, the art scene will not be under-deconstruction anymore.
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UNDER-DECONSTRUCTION: CONTEMPORARY ART IN MALAYSIA AFTER 1990 (PART 11)
Echoes of Resent, Reasserting the ‘Others’ and Reclaiming History
The above-mentioned trajectories of a new generation of Malay artists have also been complimented by a diverse range of new trajectories chartered by young non-Malay Malaysian artists since the 1990s. Despite the diversity of their output and stance, most of their artworks have been stereotypically placed as echoes of lingering resent towards the so-called hegemony of Malay-Islamic nationalistic force. The resent was indicated by the sprouting of artworks with a very strong socio-political stance. In this regards, Michelle Antoinette writes:
“A key concern of these artists was indeed to open a space for Malaysian artists of non-indigenous backgrounds – as evinced, for instance, by the efforts of Wong Hoy Cheong, Tan Chin Kuan and J.Anurendra. Alongside this objective was a need to forge an aesthetic sensibility (taken up by indigenous and non-indigenous artists), which was different to the earlier Malay-Islamic styles and reflective of avant-garde, postmodern orientations.”(88)
For Niranjan Rajah, ‘the expressions of identity amongst later generations of Chinese Malaysian artists must be set within the ethnocentric anxieties of the deepening communalism of our society’.(89) In this regards, Piyadasa wrote:
“Given the nature of multi-ethnic reality of the contemporary Malaysian situation, it is only to be expected that alternative artistic perceptions and re-definitions of the issue of national cultural identity will emerge. And these perceptions may not be in tandem with politically dominant officially-sponsored Malay-Islamic perceptions. They may be reactionary and in opposition to the officially prescribed idea of cultural identity and an officially politicized version of Malaysian history even. Marginalization will and does encourage reactions on the part of those artists who feel ethnically marginalized. And this has happened in recent years with the emergence of a significant number of younger non-Malay artists who have consciously projected non-Malay themes and issues in their art works.”(90)
Piyadasa had also credited Wong Hoy Cheong for the above-mentioned ‘impulse’ and even proposed that ‘the presence of newly-returned U.S. trained artists, Wong Hoy Cheong, at the MIA, during the early 1990s, as a teacher, proved consequential to the search for a more assertive Chinese-ness’. For Piyadasa, ‘this search for a Non-Malay point of view may be viewed as a counterpoint to the Malay-Islamic impulses.’(91)
It is interesting to note that in narrowing the output of young non-Malay Malaysian artists that have emerged in the 1990s as ‘the counterpoint to the Malay-Islamic impulses’ (or in giving Wong Hoy Cheong the credit for asserting ‘Chinese-ness’), Piyadasa might had again sidelined other possible readings on the output of these artists. Furthermore, the role of Malaysian Institute of Art (MIA) as well as other important individuals, events and moments (that were integral to MIA during the late 1980s) might have been obscured.
Certainly, many other things (or other proclivities) had transpired in MIA other than responding to the Malay-Islamic impulses. Reducing MIA and output of non-Malay Malaysian artists as an alternative to UiTM and the Malay-Islamic impulse is rather simplistic and confining (to a constricting ‘binary opposition’) reading. Artists whose artworks do not fall within such binary reading, may indirectly be sidelined. As pointed earlier, other smaller narratives in regards to MIA in the late 1980s and early 1990s should be further researched and forwarded.
Nevertheless, despite recently moving to many other trajectories, the works of artists such as Wong Hoy Cheong, J.Anu, Tan Chin Kuan, Liew Kungyu, Eng Hwe Chu, and Chuah Chong Yong, have usually been read by many writers within the context of resent towards ‘politically dominant officially-sponsored Malay-Islamic perceptions’, reasserting the ‘others’ (meaning non-bumiputera/indigenous Malaysians), and reclaiming their position and role of ethnic minorities in the history of Malaysia.
Wong Hoy Cheong’s Migrant Series (1994) for example, according to Michelle:
“…presents the social history of his own family’s migration to Malaysia, but also symbolizes, more generally, the story of the Malaysian Chinese diasporas and their role in building the Malaysian nation. Replete with political commentary about social displacement, class conflict and colonial influence, the charcoal drawings of the Migrant series also illustrate Wong’s forceful reassertion of the importance of figuration in producing socially-relevant art.”(92)
Through his multi-dimensional installation Re:Looking (2003), which was shown in the 50th.venice Biennale of 2003, Hoy Cheong ‘rewrote history, proposing that Malaysia had conquered the Austro-Hungarian empire. To this end, he created a fictitious historical record, doctored archival photographs and enlisted prominent Austrian and Malaysian historians to take part in a fictitious documentary video discussing the conquest and its implication on modern Austria and Malaysia.’(93)
Known for his commitment in making research-intensive and socio-politically-charged artworks, Wong Hoy Cheong has also been tagged with many other different labels for his multifaceted roles in the Malaysian art scene post 1990. His diverse range of highly critical and internationally acclaimed multi-dimensional artworks have been locally and internationally exhibited, represented and explained by many local writers such as Laura Fan, Beverly Yong, Adeline Ooi, and Carmen Nge.
Despite his critical stance towards the establishment, Hoy Cheong’s artworks have ironically been included in the Permanent Collection of the National Art Gallery. In fact, he had organised several important exhibitions and experimental projects, including his own solo exhibitions in the National Art Gallery. He was even ‘mythified’ as ‘the most interesting and innovative artist of this era’ by The Encyclopedia of Malaysia (2007).
J. Anu, since the late 1990s, has already been known for his emphatic portrayal of Indian clichés, sadly taken by many as ‘by-default’ setting for the daily drama of a large majority of Malaysian Indian community. His Indian Couple (2001) and Running Indians and the History of the Malaysian Indians in 25 clichés (2001), provide a more ethnically, culturally, politically and locally-specific index for his viewers to decipher. Without going into further reading of his signifiers, Anu’s chosen subject is itself a statement of intent and reflective of ‘insignificant’ others in the social fabric of Malaysian society.
Another artist that has engaged with the issue of the ‘other’ identity is Liew Kungyu, a graduate from Malaysian Institute of Art (MIA), who has been known for his inventive visual wit in making wry socio-political comments through his intricately elaborate kitschy artworks. Liew Kungyu’s Hungry Ghost Festival, Penang (1995) and Cheng Beng Festival, Kedah (1996) for examples, ‘appropriated images relating to Chinese tradition and custom and the impact of modernity, cleverly marrying humorous kitsch excess with cultural critique.” (94) Kungyu’s repertoire of artworks has also been diverse and multidimensional.
Kungyu’s wearable-art and performance piece Puteri Oriental for example, was carefully articulated in a very cunning and witty manner, usually defying the weightiness of the issues of tradition and consumerism at hand. Puteri Oriental features a seemingly ‘oriental’ princess dressed in what appears to be a traditional oriental costume, walking and interacting gracefully admits shopping malls crowds. Upon closer look, it was apparent that the costume was made of urban detritus from the fast-food industry’s ‘throw away’ advertisings and packaging. Kungyu fondness in making a cunning mockery and witty parody can also be traced his installation Wadah Untuk Pemimpin (Gifts for the Leader) (1999), in which Mahathir’s leadership is cynically translated into ‘altars of political worship’.
The other version of cunningness can be seen in Niranjan Rajah’s provocative and hard-hitting digital photography Telinga Keling(Keling Ears) (2002) that touches on the delicate inter-ethnic relationship and stereotyping in Malaysia. The word Keling is considered as a degrading slur towards the ethnic Indian community. By compositing his ears as a local delicacy, Niranjan unveils a commonly veiled racial sentiment towards the Indian community in the use of such word as a name for a local Malay delicacy. Niranjan’s threatening facial expression with his eyes opened wide further adds a twist to the drama, as if daring anybody to use similar term straight to his face. Despite its serious racial and social undertones, the work is also witty and cunning.
On the other side of wittiness and cunningness is a dark, gloomy, dramatic and sometimes bleak surrealistic expression of anguish and despair as epitomized by Tan Chin Kuan’s The Soul Under Midnight (1996) and Eng Hwe Chu’ The Great Supper (1999) (both also graduates of MIA). These works, as described by Michelle Antoinette, reflect their ‘sense of cultural anxiety and alienation as a Chinese in Malaysia.’ Additionally, Hwe Chu’s work implies another layer of feminist undertone with the inclusion of her self–portrait in the pictorial field.(94)
Chuah Chong Yong’s Pre-War Building For Sale (1996), and his other Pre-War Building series deal with the issue of built heritage years before the emergence of the National Heritage Act. His installation and performance piece Pre-war Building for Sale; Poh Tor (1999) touches on the notions of ‘loss and preservation, permanence and ephemeral, through the reconstruction of ‘incense houses’. His use of incense houses (which were later burnt) further signifies the fate of the cultural site (related to the Chinese) ‘in the face of capitalist development’.(95)
Tan Chin Kuan’s mixture of surrealistic and social realist rendition is also apparent in Chan Kok Hooi’s skillfully executed The Sour Milk of the Milky Way (2005) while Hwe Chu’s feminist and home setting undertones can also be traced in Yau Bee Ling’s Working Hard At The Kitchen (2005). Another young talented artist who has also been known for her exceptional skill in picturing the ‘insignificant others’ (in this case, an abandoned and alienated old Chinese man) is Wong Woan Lee, as displayed through Someone Forgotten (My Reflection in the Mirror) (2000).
These are several examples of contemporary artists and artworks post 1990s that have been predominantly considered as a part of the ‘periphery’ or the ‘otherness’ of Malaysian art. Many writers have framed their endeavors as reactions to the so-called ‘politically dominant officially-sponsored Malay-Islamic perceptions’. Nevertheless, most of these artists are today very much a part of the center or mainstream contemporary art, if not ‘mythified’ and made dominance by the level of exposures, coverage, achievement, acknowledgement and success gained by the artists themselves, in both local and international platforms. In fact, resents and dissents can be ‘staged as a part of dissident politics that ironically generate heated art markets and fabricate international brand star/cultural heroes.’(96)
Beyond Polarity
Malaysia’s socio-cultural sphere has always been plural and diverse. With the increased intertwining of common issues of concern, more and more Malaysian artists of the new post 2000 generation are engaging in issues beyond specific ethnic concerns. Not all artists are preoccupied by the need to assert their ethnic identities through their artworks. Some of the more recent trajectories of contemporary Malaysian art today, have moved beyond the confine of ethnic proclivities, and have shifted to common issues of local and global concerns such as education system, fate of Malaysian diverse traditions, cultural pluralism, rapid urbanization, intervention of institutional control, social ills, rampant consumerism, social alienation, environmental degradation, gender, and many more. Furthermore, the notion of the ‘other-ness’ itself is very relative, slippery and always in a state of flux. Beyond the trappings of institutional politics and ethnic polarity, their artworks reflect a generation in search of its voice and struggling to adapt to the challenges of the 21st. century, impinged by the contradictions between local and global imperatives.
Artists such as Ivan Lam, Yap Sau Bin, Bibi Chew, Chang Fee Ming, Kow Leong Kiang, and Tan Vooi Yam, have been known for artworks that that cut across ethnic-essentialism. Yee I-Lan’s Through Rose-Coloured Glasses (2002) and Symrin Gill’s Small Town at the turn of the Century (2002) are two examples of works that engage with the notion of identity with a more inclusive and multi-cultural approach. Artworks by other artists that feature similar cross-cultural impulse include Kelvin Chap Kok Leong’s Belawing, Keramen, Mamat (1995), Shia Yih Ying’s Penghormatan Untuk Alam Yang Kian Pupus (1997), Lee Chee Siong’s Who Are You, Where Are You From, Where Are You Going To?, (1998), J. Anu Tribute, (2004) and Chin Kong Yee’s Hari Kuninggan Procession,(2005). Zanita Anuar outlines this interest as being ‘mindful of a local-regional perspective in the strive to understand Malaysia’s post-colonial identity…’(97). She further proposes that:
“If art is to function as a rheostat in a way that it becomes the instrument to allow the multiplicity of artistic current to thrive by varying the resistance of the homogenizing global circuit, then Malaysia must maintain the rheostat well” (98)
This form of cross-cultural eclecticism unveils an interesting postmodern paradox which in turns, has instigated a return to what was previously tagged as ‘pre-modern’ or ‘primitive’ traditional art.
Works by women artists that emerged during the late 1990s and early 2000 such as Susyilawati Sulaiman, Sharmiza Abu Hassan, Shia Yih Ying, Chong Siew Ying, Noor Mahnun, Nadiah Bamadhaj’s, Hayati Mokhtar, Fariza Azlina Isahak, Fariza Idora AlHabshi, Diffan Sina, Umi Baizurah and Ily Farhana Norhayat, have further suggested that meaning about a particular subject or subjects can be constructed as a system of patriarchal (man/male) and institutional thinking to a point that the thought system be taken as natural or inevitable. They also imply that media, images and objects have become sites of contestation in which the notions of culture, nature, lifestyle, education, gender, ethnicity, identity and spirituality can be artificially constructed, exploited and hyped to feed a targeted mass and market.
Even Matahati artists who were popularly known for their Malay angst impulse in the early 1990s have indicated a shift in their recent works. Bayu Utomo’s London-inspired paintings in his recent solo exhibition Mind Your Gap (2007), Ahmad Fuad Osman’s paintings based on his sojourns in Vermon and South Korea in his solo exhibition Dislocated (2007), and Masnoor Ramli’s expedition-inspired artworks in his Bumi Manusia exhibition (2007), can be taken as examples of a significant shift to a more articulate, cross-cultural and semiotic approach towards painting.(99). Moving away from their earlier neo-expressionist impulse, paintings in these exhibitions reflect a more temperate treatment in capturing their personal experience of cross-cultural encounters and cultural dislocation.
Another example is Susyilawati’s installation and performance piece Emotional Library (2008), shown in Documenta 2008. It used what she termed as an ‘intention space’ to explore the innate power of intention and notion of energy transfer in intimate encounters. Using her two books cum diaries on imaginary friend and botany as catalysts, Susyi created an enclosed (yet transparent in certain parts) circular space within the public space of the exposition to allow her visitors to enter her space and interact with her and her books.
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