When I was asked to write about these three artists and their first exhibition together, I was thrilled because I knew each of them personally. But as I interviewed each of them separately and spoke to them at length about their work and experience, it became clear that I had a huge responsibility in conveying their thoughts on art and their works to a larger audience. Zainal, Tuan Azhar and Suhaimi have been friends since their days of studying fine art at ITM but parted ways upon graduation. Each embarked on their own personal and artistic journeys that took them across the seas, over land and through the passage of time…and naturally, when all three came together for this exhibition, they each showed such vastly different works and artistic personalities.
As a fresh graduate in the 1980s, Tuan Azhar explored the rich art history of the cities of Europe, an experience that reinforced the classroom theories he was previously taught. Returning to Malaysia, he worked from a base in Kuala Lumpur and later in Kijal, Terengganu. Most recently, he moved to Langkawi, where he spent some years observing and absorbing the quirky and interesting beach and local culture of the popular tourist island, and documenting them in his drawings and paintings. Suhaimi A. Wahab also traveled across Europe and the South East Asia region, visiting art galleries, meeting artists, and basically living the bohemian life of an artist. Closer to home, he found his “muse” in Krabi, a small and quiet but beautiful coastal town in Thailand. This was years before it became the tourist Mecca that it is today. The geographical landscapes and coastal colours here have been the inspiration for many of his works till today.
Zainal Abidin Musa took a rather unconventional turn upon graduation due to necessity. Disregarding the artist’s way of life, he went into the corporate sector, working in the stressful advertising industry. He finally left after almost 20 years, and pursued his artistic interests in the east coast islands of Terengganu. There, he studied the colours of the sunrise and sunsets, the quality of shadows and light moving across the water, and once again, fell deeply in love with his childhood passion of painting. Although their individual journeys -- across continents and time -- have been far-removed from each other, a more important observation is their common divergence from the trends of the contemporary art scene.
They unconsciously detached themselves from popular art developments and whatever else was going on in the Malaysian art scene. This allowed them to be unencumbered by the expectations of the art circle, i.e. fellow artists, art galleries, art collectors, art critics, etc. Giving full rein to their inner creative self, each artist pursued art “as they wished.” I understood, then, that for these artists, the process of painting – the enjoyment derived from the act of putting paint on canvas, mixing colour, sketching details -- was just as important as the final framed piece of art. In the end, their disregard for what their peers were up to freed them from the impositions of mainstream art trends, perhaps resulting in honest and sincere expressions of their artistic selves.
Lautan Tiga sees the three artists converging on one platform to showcase their accumulated histories and experiences from traveling around the world and how their respective journeys, both personal and artistic, have had a profound impact on the works they now produce. These works are filled with pure emotions, and convey a raw sincerity and honesty that reflects the artists’ pure enjoyment of the entire process of creating. Because of the distinctive paths each artist took, their works are naturally very unique. This was my experience in seeing the three artists’ works in the following order: Suhaimi’s, Zainal’s and then Tuan Azhar’s. Suhaimi’s works have an almost meditative quality about them. The compositions are distinct – there is subject matter, which is the focal point of the painting, and the space surrounding it. The two pieces I viewed had a certain “landscape” quality about them in the way that there were horizontal strokes suggesting water and generally round shapes suggesting outcrops of rocks – scenes that refer to Krabi’s limestone karst islands.
Another characteristic of Suhaimi’s works is his technique of applying colour. In some places, he utilizes a “wash” technique that results in very watery, diluted colours with paint running off at the bottom. It gives off the feeling of incompleteness, an “unfinished” quality. Having known Suhaimi, this aspect of his painting is not a reflection of laziness. He just prefers things to be as close to natural as possible and simply detests overly glitzy, shiny perfection. Perhaps it can be concluded that this is the style he developed out of necessity from those years travelling Europe where time wasn’t available in abundance and he had to work quickly to complete his watercolour paintings and sketches.
It is also interesting to see Suhaimi’s strong, bold strokes, some of which are rendered in one swift movement. Some of these strokes happen to merge into a “face” that is almost Buddha-like, suggesting Suhaimi’s keen interest in the Thai culture. From Suhaimi’s melancholic paintings to Zainal’s cheerful ones. To appreciate Zainal’s paintings in Lautan Tiga, it’s important to know that for many years, Zainal painted mainly the landscapes of Malaysia in an Impressionist style – the beach scene, the sunrise, the rivers, etc. In Lautan Tiga, the works presented still have a landscape composition to them albeit in a more abstract form. And so, the viewer can still identify in these paintings aspects of the landscape -- the horizontal planes, the roughly 25:75 ratio of land and sky, the swirling colours suggesting the sun, the lines of green suggesting growth, etc.
It is interesting to note that the colours used here are the same ones used in his landscape paintings, i.e. the violets, the greens, the blues, etc. And even though the works are not photographic images of landscapes, one can still see or sense the sun-dappled leaves, the dark shadows, the movement of wind, the wild bushes, growth of new shoots, etc. in these works, perhaps indicating Zainal’s experimentation to take his landscape paintings to the next level. If previously, Zainal’s landscape paintings were reminiscent of Impressionist works, the collection on display here are evocative of Fauvism’s brilliant colours but with more depth and layers than the flat works of the Henri Matisse-led movement.
With both of Zainal and Suhaimi’s works, there are spaces on the canvas where one can rest the eyes. In Tuan Azhar’s works, however, all space is utilized with the artist’s brushwork and colour. After viewing the first two artists’ works, the audience will be somewhat taken aback by the full-blown effect of what seems to be Tuan Azhar’s unbridled emotions. Mystical, passionate, emotional, fantasy – these are all words that come to mind upon viewing Tuan Azhar’s works. For such a soft-spoken individual and a man of few words, his paintings certainly speak volumes of his “jiwa besar.” Perhaps there is much that Tuan Azhar wants to say and everything is poured out onto the canvas instead. Therefore, it is not surprising to feel very strong emotions in Tuan Azhar’s works – feelings of sensuality, anger, fear, passion, etc. And at the same time, the works ignite various feelings in the viewer, too, making them feel fearful, captivated, obsessed, mesmerized, etc.
His works can be viewed over and over again, and each time, they will surely reveal something different. At first glance, the lines in one painting may seem like a hypnotic whirlpool, while a closer observation might reveal the elusive image of an eagle swooping down on a prey. Perhaps this suggests the many layers and feelings that lie beneath the calm exterior that the artist Tuan Azhar projects to others. I hope that this short write-up has done justice to the artists and their works and captured not all but some of what they have tried to say. As art is a subjective and interactive matter, I leave it to you, the viewer, now to find that common ground with each artist from which you can begin to understand the artist and relate to his works, and perhaps derive your own personal meanings or pleasures from his works.
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