Tuesday, 2 September 2014
ESSAY 2 : Sarah Joan Mokhtar
Comic Art Review
"How Was Your Day?"
"How Was Your Day?"
Comic anthology 80 pages, April 2014/ Self-Published
Artists: Wrat, Kuzu, Sapphire, Choo, Fenix, Max, Ashel, Hwei
How was your day today?
Was it exciting and surprising? Perhaps it more mundane and quiet but contained subtle revelation.
"How Was Your Day?" is a anthology of eight short comics by a group of emerging Malaysian talents in the comic art scene. Each piece in this anthology is a stand alone story revolving around this very personal question.
" How Are You Today ?" was launched last April 2014 at the inaugural KLICAF (Kuala Lumpur International Comic Arts Festival) and ambitious event brainstormed from the minds of the organizers of the wildly popular annual Comic Fiesta .
The anthology is self-published ,83 pages long, roughly A4 size , in black/white/grey scale . It features a beautiful full color wraparound cover done in what looks like delicate but gorgeous watercolor by Hwei, the group leader.
One work in particular I would like to highlight is "Rat Race" , an 8 page story by Remeina Ashel Yee. Ashels story revolves around an unnamed longhaired female brunette protagonist who aspires to become an archeologist.
Ashels uses pencil to draw her story in a stylised, visually sophisticated and yet very personal way, imparting the feel of a hand written note. Her character designs are each highly individual and shows a lot of diversity in the casts physical depictions.
Writing and dialogue is sparingly used and quite a lot of information is conveyed by the characters facial expressions, body language and juxtaposition to each other.
She also uses light and shadow to depict the inner emotions and escalating sense of hopelessness. She arranges the panels and composition of her drawings to alternatively convey optimism, doubt, despair, conformity and sense of claustrophobic isolation.
There is also an increasing use of symbols replace words , thoughts, identities and dialogue towards the end of the story that is somewhat unnerving and depersonalising.
I enjoyed this comic very much as it highlights quite a range of emotions and subtleties and invokes a feeling of despair over the unfulfilled hopes and dreams of the masses, indeed ourselves.
I feel it is an excellent reminder of the importance of holding on to the precious soul desires that make each of us unique, and without which, we risk loses the very essence of who we are as individuals and as humans.
I encourage everyone to enjoy this anthology ... It just might make your day.
August 2014
ESSAY 2 : Anis Rozalina Ramli
COMMENTS ON ZAINAL ABIDIN MUSA’S TENGKUJUH
PAINTINGS
Mention the word Tengkujuh and visions of extended rains, flooding and displaced villages come to mind. But Zainal Abidin Musa sees something else in the seasonal rains that pour down on the east coast of Malaysia at each year-end.
His paintings in the “Tengkujuh” exhibition show none of the dreary pictures the media serves up to us: families living in wet, pitiful conditions; roads blocked by depths of water; cars submerged in rising levels of waters. Instead, the scenes come across as romantic and ethereal, a likely reflection of his many fond memories growing up and schooling on the east coast during his important formative years as a young man and a fine art student.
The “Tengkujuh—Jambatan Sultan Mahmud, Kuala Terengganu” painting, for example, presents viewers with a romantic vision of the wet spell through dabs of colour and feather-like strokes that make this ordinary scene take on an almost dream-like and magical atmosphere.
The indistinct shapes and forms present in the scene and the layering of light against dark dabs of colours give a misty, almost winter-like effect. This gauzy effect is evocative of viewing the scene through a curtain of rain. Meanwhile, the ocher strokes give a dappled effect to the landscape, contrasting with the darkness of the day. Viewing the painting reveals real feelings of coolness, dampness and freshness in the air.
The composition of the painting, with a man on motorbike on the left and a van on the right, is balanced somewhat with a mountain rising up off-centre of the canvas. The placements of these different objects on the canvas engages the viewer as part of the painting, as though we, too, are driving down the middle of this puddly bridge, safe and dry in the comforts of our car, making our way towards the end-point, as suggested by the horizontal lines that almost meet in the centre.
The dream-like quality of this piece, achieved through feathery strokes, use of soft and cool colours, and lines which guide the eye pleasingly over the painting, gives off a certain cozy feeling associated with being indoors on a cold, rainy day.
Viewing his paintings in the Tengkujuh series leads one to believe that perhaps not everything is in black and white, not everything is good or bad, or that one thing exludes all other possibilities.
Though not many will agree with Zainal’s take on the monsoon, for the monsoon does in reality take its toll on the economic and social vulnerabilities of east coast dwellers, Zainal’s painting makes us want to consider for a moment that every cloud – even a monsoon cloud – does have a silver lining.
ESSAY 2 : Anwar Azhari
HARMONICS IN
ISLAMIC CONTEMPORARY PAINTING
Figure 1. Sulaiman Esa,
Garden of Mystery/ 1992/ mixed/ 183 x 183 cm
In Garden of Mystery by Sulaiman Esa, the artist produces a diamond shape painting using paper mache on the woven yarn. Colours that he use were soft and harmonize applied with light and soften purplish. With the two big square patterns in this painting. The square boxes in the middle have a four line box shown sixteen pattern in light and white colors. The stars and geometrical pattern in more detail on the right side of this artwork.
Figure 2: Detailing 8 pointed stars
The eight-pointer star is made by joining or overlapping each other in static and dynamic positions. Describe the meaning of the overlapping and rotation of the square. Ikhwan al-Safa said the Ka’bah were found at the center of the world and the revolution of the outermost sphere and other Celestial Spheres around the four elements resemble the rotation of the pilgrims.
In this painting it shows he using and applying Islamic oriented art. He also has used the elements that found in Islamic art such as geometric shapes, repetition, and balanced. The the dark and smooth color that he uses shows, but not looks flat. In this painting he weaves the yarn to show the texture and gives an impact on the center of this painting.
Sulaiman Esa have a good background of studying and knowing art, especially Islamic art oriented. By using his experience and knowledge in material and medium makes his paintings was successful and can be considered a good an example of an Islamic contemporary artwork. His artworks serve a purpose to bring us closer to our creator, ALLAH S.W.T.
In this kind of contemporary Islamic oriented style could bring us a message and remembrance of ALLAH S.W.T no matter what kind of art or media they choose to use. The most important things are, the use of harmonics of colours of Islamic artists to convey their message such as the use of white means ‘nur’ or light.
Anwar Azhari
Kelana Jaya
August 2014.
ESSAY 2 : Lam Shun Hui
Simple Evaluation of Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall
Artist: Maya Lin
Year: 1981~1982(design submission ~ completion)
Location: Washington D.C., United States
It started as a design submitted for a memorial design competition held by US officials to commemorate the Vietnam War. Entry number 1026 was chosen as the winner. The eventual outcome is a black stone wall with a reflective surface, where the names of 57,661 fallen soldiers was carved on. The wall is V-shaped, with one side pointing to the Lincoln Memorial and the other to the Washington Monument. There is also a pathway underneath the memorial wall which follows the gradually ascending wall from one end to the other, where the wall descends underground again.
However, the overall simplistic design and knowledge that the designer is an Asian made both her and the monument subject towards harsh critics. She defended it, and with a compromise of setting up another more conventional memorial nearby, the design got a green light. The critics remained, yet they were short lived, dissolving altogether as the monument proved itself overwhelmingly touching for many visitors.
The over 50 thousand names of war casualties on the wall, the pathway for walking along the monument and the reflective surface of the memorial which was meant to reflect the face of the living on the names of the dead, together, they brought forth not only emotion, but also a process which John Devitt, a veteran himself in the Vietnam war, describes as “healing”.
She shows an understanding of the intense emotions —— the sorrow of war, to be precise—— which she presents and enwraps the viewers with through her work. She also understands the situation as an ethnic race in the US, which means a certain degree of unfairness in attitude from society. She even plainly stated that she would not have won the competition if the participants were not under anonymity during the initial stage of the competition.
The artist took on a different point of view while designing this memorial. While many depicted the outcome of the war, she chose to depict the cost of it. As soon as the design is first revealed to public, it created a turmoil as it was not what many had expected. Its simplistic design did not match their expectations of a grand monument of a war gallantly fought, which is in all aspects, conventional. This is adamant proof of its uniqueness.
This piece is a very astounding milestone for both the art scene and the society, as it somewhat pushed on the boundaries of the public’s views on art, and touched an issue——racism, which are at the time and now still, a very delicate issue among the different races in countries. It might be a side line event to the monument’s “healing” of a lot of broken hearts.
ESSAY 2 : Intan Rafiza
Membaca Breaking Words
Hari ini saya membaca semula karya seni pertunjukkan oleh Arahmaini yang telah berlangsung 8 tahun yang lalu. Pada waktu itu saya menjadi penonton dan pemerhati seni dan pada hari ini saya membaca karya seni ini sekali lagi dalam bahasa penulisan yang ingin dikongsi bersama. Karya bertajuk – Breaking Words yang berlangsung tidak lebih dari 30 minit ini adalah salah satu sarya seni pertunjukkan dalam acara Simposium Seni pertunjukkan Antarabangsa Satu Kali ( Satu Kali international Performance art symposium) pada 6 -9 April 2006 di Kuala Lumpur. Dalam seni pertunjukkan ini, pengkarya seni Arahmaini berdiri diantara dinding konkrit dan penonton. Malah disitu ada sebuah meja yang dialas dengan kain putih, tersusun hampir 20 keping pinggan seramik putih dan sebatang pena.
Hari ini saya membaca semula karya seni pertunjukkan oleh Arahmaini yang telah berlangsung 8 tahun yang lalu. Pada waktu itu saya menjadi penonton dan pemerhati seni dan pada hari ini saya membaca karya seni ini sekali lagi dalam bahasa penulisan yang ingin dikongsi bersama. Karya bertajuk – Breaking Words yang berlangsung tidak lebih dari 30 minit ini adalah salah satu sarya seni pertunjukkan dalam acara Simposium Seni pertunjukkan Antarabangsa Satu Kali ( Satu Kali international Performance art symposium) pada 6 -9 April 2006 di Kuala Lumpur. Dalam seni pertunjukkan ini, pengkarya seni Arahmaini berdiri diantara dinding konkrit dan penonton. Malah disitu ada sebuah meja yang dialas dengan kain putih, tersusun hampir 20 keping pinggan seramik putih dan sebatang pena.
Araimaini mulai berdialog dengan penonton tentang seni pertunjukkan beliau dengan mengajak para menonton menghampiri pinggan yang tersusun dan menulis satu perkataan yang mana sekiranya satu patah perkataan itu membawa makna kepada diri masing-masing dan ianya adalah dianggap kekal.Dialog yang berlangsung hampir 10minit ini dilihat sebagai satu proses interaksi seni diantara pengkarya dan penonton dalam memahami pertunjukkan yang sedang dijalankan. Dan dalam masa dan ruang yang sama, sebagai penonton yang agak hampir di hadapan, saya tidak melepaskan peluang untuk berada dalam waktu pertunjukkan ini berlangsung dengan meletakkan satu perkataan yang sedang bermain dalam fikiran saya dan sejujurnya masih belum pasti adalah perlu atau tidak dalam berkongsi perkataan itu dengan penonton yang ada di situ. Tetapi, sebagaimana saya merasakan dan saya percaya keberadaan diruang sebenar dalam penghasilan karya seni adalah penting dalam berkarya sekiranya seorang seniman benar-benar menginginkan dialog seni dalam mengajak penonton menikmati karya yang ingin disampaikan.
Ketika masing-masing menanti aksi seterusnya dari seniman, saya masih memikirkan tentang bagaimana dan apakah kesan dan impak aksi seni pertunjukkan yang bagi hemat saya adalah satu proses kesenian yang memberi impak kepada penonton tanpa ada paksaan didalam satu ruang kotak putih yang memaksa penonton untuk memasuki ruang. Disini penonton ada pilihan untuk melihat atau beredar sekiranya karya seni itu menganggu sensetiviti individu.
Mungkin pada waktu itu saya berada di ruang hadapan, saya tidak melepaskan peluang untuk menulis sesuatu yang mana pada waktu itu ada satu perkataan yang bermain difikiran saya tetapi saya masih belum pasti adalah ialah sememangnya pada fikiran saya ianya adalah satu kejadian yang paling kekal.
Malah keberadaan seniman dalam berkarya juga adalah antara titik penting yang menjadi paksi kejayaan atau kegagalan satu karya itu dinilai dalam masa yang sama.
Kembali kedalam ruang aksi seni pertunjukkan Arahmaini, diwaktu 10 minit terakhir, seniman beraksi membaling kesemua pinggan-pinggan seramik kearah dinding yang mana ianya memberi impak bunyi dan secara visualnya pinggan telah pecah. Malah ada juga pinggan seramik yang tidak pecah yang mana saya anggapkan sebagai nasib baik kesan dari momentum yang berbeza bila dibaling seniman. Dan setelah kesemuanya selesai, pinggan dari tulisan saya yang tertulis ‘MATI’ adalah satu-satunya yang masih elok dan tidak celaka. Ah, sekiranya MATI adalah kata yang kekal, adakah kesenian yang kita junjung akan berada di titik kematian? Dan adakah saya bersedia untuk menerima kata mati sebagai satu keberadaan seni yang hadir dalam ruang seni kini. Apabila pengkarya hanya menjadi tukang tiru dan tukang tampal tanpa ada jiwa dan hubungan keberadaan dalam ruang?
'Ianya mungkin dalam tindakan yang paling mudah untuk membuat karya seni yang responsif kepada penonton adalah untuk membayangkan pengaruh yang berlangsung dalam dua arah,yang mana ianya bertindak antara satu sama lain dalam keadaan semasa’ muka surat 190-191, Sally O'Reilly, the body in contemporary art.
‘perhaps the simplest way to make an artwork responsive to its audience to imply that influence operates in both directions, is to programme it to respond to human presence’-page 190-191,Sally O’Reilly, The body in contemporary art.
ESSAY 2 : Ili Farhana
Akbar
Baik Mati Adat Dari Mati Anak / 2008/ Cetakan kayu atas kertas/ 30 x 33cm
Menanam itu melawan adalah antara idea disebalik karya cetakan kayu Akbar “Baik Mati Adat dari Mati Anak”. Akbar atau lebih dikenali Bebe, adalah seorang seniman Indonesia, yang dulunya aktif bergerak bersama Taring padi, sebuah kolektif seni yang tidak asing dengan idea-idea karya yang mengunakan seni sebagai senjata untuk membangun kesadaran publik tentang isu-isu hak asasi, politik Indonesia dengan mempamerkan karya seni langsung ke ruang awam.
Tetapi berbeda dengan proses kerja Taring Padi yang biasanya dikerjakan secara bersama, karya ini adalah karya seniman yang di hasilkan pada 2008 setelah beberapa tahun tinggal di Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Karya yang berukuran 30cm x 33cm yang dihasilkan diatas kertas, baginya adalah sebuah ekspresi peribadi yang mempersoalkan tentang gaya hidup masyarakat urban yang mana keperihatinannya tentang isu kemampanan masa depan. Karya ini tidak dipamerkan di galeri tetapi dipamerkan di social media pada “wall” dan mencapai ke audiance melalui “newsfeed” social circle nya, yang menurut saya menarik untuk dibincangkan untuk memahami konteks karya yang harus dilihat dalam konteks sekarang.
Jika kita melihat karya, imej figura yang ditengah menjadikan titik fokus pada karya. Peletakan text di atas membentuk komposisi symmetries membawa kita ke ruang kiri dan kanan yang mana, pada sebelah latar belakang kiri, kita boleh melihat imej kilang, keluarga dan simbol golden arch dan berbeza dengan yang kanan adalah imej gunung, sawah padi dan petani.
Seniman masih mengunakan pengunaan imej-imej kontras pada latar tengah di bahagian kiri dan kanan, iaitu terdapat iaitu perumahan pangsa/flat pada bahagian kiri dan disebelah kanan pula, imej rumah kampong. Pada latar hadapan kiri, kita melihat seorang gadis yang sedang makan hamburger dan latar depan kanan adalah imej keluarga yang sedang makan bersama.
Karya ini mengunakan satu tonal dan pelbagai jenis goresan yang bagi membentuk rupa dan bentuk terperinci pada karya. Jika kita lihat imej-imej di sebelah kiri lebih terang jika dibandingkan yang kanan.
Apakah hubungan kata-kata “Baik Mati Adat dari Mati Anak” dengan isu kemampanan ? Kenapa seniman memilih makanan sebagai subjek yang ingin diketengahkan? Kita tidak dapat dinafikan walaupun perbedaan pandangan, politik, kepercayaan, atau agama dan sebagainya, ada satu hal yang menghubungkan kita semua iaitu, makanan. Makanan adalah keperluan asas. Makanan adalah dasar bersama kita. “Adat” dalam konteks karya ini adalah norma atau kebiasaan kita. Apa yang boleh dikupas adalah tentang bagaimana pembangunan dan kemajuan serba instan ini merosak alam. Seniman mengolah goresan dan sisi kanan adalah lebih gelap. Ini boleh diinterpretasikan seolah budaya kebersamaan semakin ditinggalkan.
Kembali kepada imej figura tengah yang mendonimasi karya ini, seniman telah deconstruct ikon yang mana walaupun tanpa mengunakan warna merah dan kuning atau tanpa simbol golden arch pada bajunya secara automatic pikiran kita mengidentifikasikan sebagai Ronald Mc Donald. Ini kerana pemikiran kebanyakan dari kita telah disuapkan pada kita sebagai makanan harian kita terutama yang tinggal di urban. Ia semacam makanan akal dengan atau tanpa kita sedari.
Karya ini juga memperlihatkan unsur-unsur protest seniman terhadap budaya konsumerism, dengan menggunakan tanda pangkah pada baju, dan makanan instan. Ia bukan saja menunjukan seniman menolak makanan instan tetapi boleh dihubungkaitkan dengan argumentasi anti-corporation atau anti-kapitalis. Dalam konteks kehidupan seniman yang juga aktif membangun kesedaran tentang mengenal makanan, perkebunan organic dan permaculture menurut saya karya ini bukan hanya berfungsi sebagai ekspresi peribadi tetapi mengkritis tentang norma-norma kebiasaan hidup kita.
Anak dalam hal ini adalah metafora kepada masa depan. Buat saya, karya ini memberi perspektif yang menarik kerana ia tidak hanya memaparkan sisi gelapnya apa yang di amati oleh seniman tentang apa yang berlaku di persekitarannya tetapi menawarkan perbandingan antara baik dan buruknya. Ia membuka persoalan-persoalan kepada pengamat tentang gaya hidup kita dan cara kita melihat konteks hidup kita. Karya seni tidak memberikan solusi pada permasalahan tetapi buat saya imej petani yang sedang menanam adalah satu simbol aksi yang kuat dimana kita boleh menginterpritasikan sebagai simbol kepada sesuatu yang mampan adalah lebih dari mengkonsumsi dan membeli.
Kita boleh juga melihat seolah seniman cuba menyampaikan idea yang mana untuk menjaga kemampanan masa depan adalah kembali ke akar kebersamaan. Kemampanan masa hadapan hanya akan terjadi jika itu di lakukan bersama, persoalannya apakah kita mampu melihat itu, dan apakah kita mau bergerak bersama pada saat budaya individualistik semakin kuat mengakar pada diri kita.
ESSAY 2 : Hamidi hadi
KELAM
Sulaiman Esa
Waiting for Godot I/ 1977/ Gurisan (Etching)/ 55 x 39cm (Koleksi BSLN)
Kelam, boleh sahaja kita kata ianya sesuatu fenomena ruang. Sesuatu yang samar, kegelapan, membayangkan suatu keadaan yang kurang jelas kelihatan pada visual mata kasar, bagaimanapun secara realiti ia dipercayai wujud dalam ruang. Mungkin sahaja karya ini suatu penyataan ada dalam ruang peribadi seniman atau penghayatan seniman terhadap fenomenologi ruang masyarakat. Konotasi perlambangan ini merujuk kepada karya Sulaiman Esa, bertajuk “Waiting for Godot I”. Karya cetakan gurisan, bersaiz
55 X 39cm , dihasilkan menggunakan media kertas yang bertarikh 1977.
Menghayati karya ini yang kelihatan sederhana tetapi sarat dengan beban dalaman pengkarya yang akhirnya dimuntahkan melalui satira yang penuh sinis dan pedas. Karya yang dipapari warna gelap yang dominan yang tiada garisan horizontal dan vertical yang boleh dijadikan paksi jasad atau figura agar duduk tetap. Justeru ia menghasilkan kesan atmosfier yang mencair, tidak tetap dan terapung dalam ruang yang tidak pasti. Ditambah secara fizikal melalui karya ini, dua elemen yang jelas iaitu elemen cahaya dan bayang serta garisan sisi figura yang terputus-putus antara latar dan jasad .Karya dihiasi dengan corak ( boleh jadi corak Arabes) yang dipercayai dari seorang kaligrafi islam iaitu Naji Zain Al-Din. Corak “Wa La Ghaliba illah Allah” yang membawa maksud “ There is no winner but Allah”. Yang dijadikan latar dibahagian belakang figura seakan seorang wanita yang tanpa pakaian dibahagian hadapan. Boleh sahaja kita membayangkan satu posisi drama atau teater setting dalam karya ini.
Karya ini dihasilkan dengan mempamirkan kesan dramatic yang dihasirkan dari perbezaan cahaya dan baying menghasilkan kesan ketegangan walaupun ianya disusun secara simetrikal.
Dilihat dari aspek ruang waktu karya ini dihasilkan , iaitu pada tahun 1977. Dan ketika ini berlaku satu fenomena seniman melayu di Malaysia menghasilkan drama yang bergaya absurd disekitar 1970an dan 80an. Gaya karya ini dipengaruhi oleh karya Samuel Beckett. ‘Waiting for Godot” yang menjadi cerminan kepada satu fenomena masyarakat eropah ketika itu hilang kepercayaan dan curiga terhadap makna pegangan agama yang telah lama. Tafsiran ini ,. Ini tidak dapat terlepas dari pemikiran Sulaiman Esa . walaupun ianya hinggap sekejab dalam pemikiran seniman , ianya meninggalkan kesan yang mendalam pada seniman dan penghayat. Karya ini dirasakan bercampur baur antara unsur pasti dan tidak pasti, keliru dalam jangka masa yang panjang menjadikan emosi semakin tegang, terdesak, marah dan sesak nafas seolah-olah terdesak mencari ruang yang lega, lapang yang penuh cahaya.
ESSAY 2 : Grey Yeoh
Observations on Shirin Neshat's "Women of Allah" series, 1993 - 97.
In my years as an arts observer, nothing I've seen comes close to the strong confrontational presentation of the antagonistic relationship between women and religion at Shirin Neshat's ink on photography series titled "Women of Allah". This series of photographs taken from 1993 to 1997 which mostly had arabic painted over by Shirin herself with ink demonstrate the complicated and often forceful nature of the abstract thing called religion imposed onto the body of women, particularly in Islam. However, viewing the series today in 2014, not only do these views of her's from two decades ago still stands, but I find it extends to other religions as well. From Buddhism to Hinduism to Christianity and other major/minor faiths around the world, religion are more often than not very patriarchal and expect the women to follow, blind with faith.
The images compiled and then edited by Shirin Neshat show a collection of black and white photography of concealed (either by textile or by the cropping of the camera lens) body parts of women - or models assumed to be women. The reason I argue that is because some images don't directly reveal the gender of the model hence provide an interesting layer of anonymity towards Shirin's subject, but at the same time informs us that while the main message she wants to put across concern mainly of women hood, other gender may also suffer from such impositions. This is evident in the artwork number 4 where the hands of a person formed in a prayer like gesture lacks the sleeves of a woman's burqa, where a woman under the strictest Islamic practice must cover up her aurat (or her nakedness) in order not to tempt Muslim men.
Shirin Neshat creates obvious visual tension in this series of work where in most photos she had her models carry a gun, the ultimate symbol of aggression and antagonism. The delicateness of women placed immediately next to something so hard draws the viewers into an uncomfortable and unsettling feeling. Yet she does not reveal the intention of the gun - but let viewers decide whether it’s an instrument of protection or destruction. In one of her photos she had her model stand very firmly looking straight into the camera holding a rifle pointing upwards in between her eyes. The model is expressionless yet her eyes convey a sense of seriousness. It is in this picture that you - the viewer - must decide whether she is to use this rifle - and by extension the religion - as a weapon to destroy or as a symbol of resolute or defiance. The power and role of the gun is questioned as well, as in some photos, the gun stands out in white among the black background, while in others are black when put against the skin of the models.
Another reason why I think that Shirin Neshat wants the viewer to feel uncomfortable, but yet not aggressively antagonistic is shown through the expressions of her models in the series. Not one of the models were shown or directed to portray emotions of suffering. There are no obvious physical signs of duress or injury. In fact, in pictures where the models' face are exposed, they show signs of acceptance and of a culture accustomed to. The only thing that betrays this notion is through the eyes of the models in certain pictures that almost quivers with fear.
The artist made the series of photography as a direct comment on women's role in the Iranian Revolution, 1979 as a result of her exposure towards wartime photojournalistic images of the Iran-Iraq war a few years earlier. One the few signs of a good art is how it can withstand the effects of time - and certainly I think that her comment in this series of photographs does that very well. Not only that looking at the photographs today shows how relevant and forward thinking an artist that she is, but it also inversely shows how little the world have moved forward when it comes to the notion of gender equality and the politics in the body of the woman.
Religion of the Abrahamic faith are told through the aeons to be led by men. Women are encouraged, sometimes told and instructed to follow men, sometimes blindly. Notwithstanding, other religions of the world treat women in almost the same way, requiring them to submit without question.
In our world today, some Malaysian communities (the Minangkabau and the Bidayuh culture for example) that have been traditionally matriarchal have been turn on its head, to be led by men in the society through the introduction of religion. Images and anecdotes of Malayan women in history have been whitewashed because supposedly it does not fit into the new image the current government that wants to portray as a moderate Islamic country.
Very recently, there was an article that went around the newswire where it disclosed the roles that muslim women play in the Syrian war, as comfort women, and as reported, Malaysian Muslimahs were part of this group of women. Looking at the series of photography by Shirin Neshat immediately brought to fore the role of women during war times, either as forced companions or as soldiers. It made me, and I hope the other viewers, question the motivation of these women.
Looking at Shirin Neshat's photos, I conclude very quickly that these photos will never be shown in Malaysia. Our leaders' fear of discourse on the topics of religion put everything to a halt. It freezes our advancement in society, in civilisation and of nationhood.
At the end of looking at Shirin Neshat's powerful images, I am left with these questions: Are they compelled to follow religion so blindly that they ignore their basic fundamental of what it is to be a woman, what it is to be human? What kind of power does religion have over us? What is the purpose of a religious war / jihad? Self preservation or expansion? What is the role of religion?
- Grey Yeoh
HOM Art Trans Workshop
ESSAY 2 : Adam Shahrum
What does it mean to be an “outsider’ artist?
Adam Shahrum bin Zainal Abidin
BA (Hons) Fine Art
Unit 4 Essay 2
23 April 2014
Outline
I. Introduction
A. Artist Statement: There is an advantage of being an “outsider” artist because it pushes the boundaries of how art is meant to be perceived
II. How an “outsider” artist views and interprets what they see
A. Fiona Tan’s artwork:The Changeling
III. By using “Hybridity” as a form to communicate with different cultures
A. Rasheed Newsome’s Shade Composition 2012
B. Kejak or Balinese Monkey Dance with Federico Fellini’s Sytropism
IV. Conclusion
“No name is yours until you speak it; somebody returns your call and suddenly, the circuit of signs, gestures, gesticulations is established and you enter the right to narrate” (Bhabha, 2010, pg. xxv). Starting with this quotation from Homi K. Bhabha makes me wonder weather if it is true for a person who has moved from one familiar culture to another can actually be heard. Especially with artists who have the time to experience, explore and absorb such different atmospheres and have new ideas. How then when making artworks from what they are accustomed to change by the new world that they are experiencing? There are sometimes questions or fears of what they are showing could be either exotic or unfamiliar which distance themselves from an identity of whom they are representing and what they might loose. For my thesis, I will argue that there is an advantage of having to create an artwork that is different and not be identified to a particular region, ethnicity or style because to negotiate what it means to be an international, transnational or an ‘outsider’ will then push the boundaries and limits to what art is perceived as and what the artworks can do to create new bridges of not being placed in a particular group and space.
Firstly, starting with a person who migrates to a new country, there is foreignness to where the person is. The artist could be considered an ‘outsider’ or foreigner with the customs and traditions involved. With this it is an advantage. Taken from an understanding of John Clark’s essay on Asian Artist As Long-Distance Cultural Specialist In The Formation Of Modernities, explains how the artist becomes a “technical specialist” of having local visual outlook with the “other” and moving back into the world that is either new or imagined (Clark, 2013 pg. 21). It is an interesting perspective to how artists who does not have a sense of seeing what is normal or not normal for viewing is picked up and can be used differently adapted to the beholder. An artist who over the years acknowledges and realizes the potential of being an outsider even though living and being in a country for so long is Fiona Tan. In 2006 Tan exhibited The Changeling in different galleries around the world, the work consisted of more than 200 portraits of Japanese schoolgirls from the 1930’s, to be used as a video installation with having local actors from the following country to speak in the native language for the voice-overs and narrate a fictional story of the girl, her mother and the girl as a grandmother (Lo, 2014, pg. 62). What I find interesting and described from Jacquline Lo’s essay, Moving Images, Stilling Time on Fiona Tan’s work is the need for an outsider who does not share the same interest or ideology presented from the space the nation is projecting to create new forms of understanding and movement to a different location from the archives of history presented. Looking back at Tan’s own historical background gives an indication to how she would be preferred to be described as a “professional foreigner” and not be categorized into one particular type of artist. This was discovered by Tan when she was making a documentary called May You Live in Interesting Times, it consisted of Tan traveling to China Indonesia, Scotland and Australia to interview her Chinese relatives and ask ‘Family or culture: Which determined my identity more? (Lo, 2014, pg, 57). What is shown by Tan’s The Changeling, is the combination of the representation of the schoolgirls in their formal and structured setting to the narration of actors especially with their ascent to allow a better understanding of the works for the viewer to connect to with the intentions of Tan and Lo describing as:
“The diverse sets of spatial-temporalities converge in the gallery, where biographical time and fictional space rub against time and historical place to foreground diverse and contending co-presence not usually permitted in official political discourse.” (Lo,2014, pg.63)
There is a connection with Bbhaba’s use of liminal-space for artists to use or looking to comprehend to. It is a term used by Homi Bhabha as a third space that the artist uses to see how they see world which first, not their familiar world, secondly the world that they are in now and thirdly a world that is only to them as how they see in the new world with their eyes, very similar to Clark’s description of the “technical specialist” but more on the space itself. I do question however when allowing a ‘local’ actor to play the roles of the schoolgirls, does it then losses it’s meaning when a different language is used or connections between the imagery and the actor to the viewer as it only relates to the normal behavior of the relations they have and not the picture itself because the whole idea is to allow the outsider to speak and make the local understand the difficulties and challenges faced with how people relate to one another.
This then directs us to when a person slowly or easily adapts to the new environment or surroundings they are in. Do they then deconstruct and reconstruct the space they are in? If so, is integration a way at looking of allowing two cultures to combine to create a new type of space. “Hybridity”, the term used by Homi K Bhabha as a way to have more than one culture for a person to live in could be the answer as it is a very interesting term for an artist to use as well. Whereby using two mediums that are totally different to one another that is from different cultures and combining to communicate new ideas with ways of releasing tensions or understanding to what the art is to the space that it is shown. It is a form of progression and confronting what we are facing with in todays world as earlier noted by Lo. An artist who created and highlighted the potential of creating such movement to me was Rashaad Newsome with his Shade Compositions 2012 video of live performance at SFMOMA screened at the Carroll/Fletcher Gallery exhibition recently. The video consists of a group of performers dressed in fashionable clothing to create a sound score of repeated gestures of dissatisfaction or annoyance which was conducted by Newsome himself with a Nintendo Wii remote for him to dub and control the sounds that were recorded. Newsome explains his process on Vimeo whereby he was dealing with the non-verbal communication and body language of African and Latino women in different parts of the world. He noticed the similarities with the sounds and body language they made when recording and making his earlier Shade performances. The uses of different sounds and tones worked quite well and it is very interesting to see how possible it would be to show that diaspora of cultures to have a resemblance and especially when he incorporated other different types of races as well. For the SFMOMA show, it was a site-specific show with the identity of the people in San Francisco where he notice local populations of Koreans and Philippines playing a part to the city of San Francisco.
With the use of taking and making new identities relates similarly to the Kecak or Balinese Monkey Dance by Balinese men to how the performance itself has changed and adapted to other forms. A brief history of the performance itself as it was to tell stories from the Ramayana tales which, consists of a group of men that is around 200 circling in a group and chanting the word tjak in different tones and movements for one hour. Micheal B. Bakan observes the differences of when the Kecak is used in a film score to which has no indication towards the identity of the music is when being played in an European and American film in his essay on The Abduction of the Signifying Monkey Chant: Schizophonic Transmogrifications of Balinese Kecak in Fellini’s Satyricon and the Coen Brothers’ Blood Simple. What was interesting from this essay is when he uses the phrase ‘schoziphonis mimesis’ for which he explains from Steven Feld:
“For Steven Feld, the phrase ‘schizophonic mimesis’ encompasses ‘a broad spectrum of interactive and extractive processes’ that ‘produce a traffic in new creations and relationships through the use, circulation, and absorption of sound recordings’ (Feld 2000, 263). Consideration of these processes compels us to ask ‘how sound recordings, split from their source through the chain of audio production, circulation, and consumption, stimulate and license renegotiations of identity’ (ibid.).” (Bakan, 2009, pg. 85)
With this, Bakan makes the comparison of Federico Fellini’s 1969 film ‘Satyricon’ where in the scene of a student facing against a mighty gladiator. The setting itself is set like the Greek mythology with the battle between Theseus and the Minotaur in a Labryinth complemented by the soundtrack of the Kecak that only plays when the student is facing danger and when trying to flee the music disappearing and appearing whenever the gladiator is near (Barak, 2009, pg. 93). The music makes the whole atmosphere tense and thrilling but to be subjected into a violent theme totally changes the whole context of the music itself. To what the Kecak is actually meant for has no resemblance with the image that is projected to what Bakan is arguing for with the ‘schiz schizophonic mimesis’ theory.
Looking back to The Changeling and Shade Composition 2012 makes a substantial idea for why there is a need to look differently as works from the past and to change the perspective of it. The integration and hybridity involved in making art can have the consequences of maybe being generic for society but there will be always a negative impact to whatever is being change for either the sake of good or bad. There is though an important element that is highlighted by John Clark’s essay, he describes when artist are ‘motile’ is in fact a further than being mobile however applying the movement as well but virtually moving as well with that visualized imaginary because to move in ones imagination space is much more complex for creation in any space the artist is in (Clark, 2014, pg.22).
So there could be a limitation to how an artist to create and relate to the works they are doing. However if to be different is difficult to mold into a classification or sending a message through is a problem then it will be creating a two-way communication instead of accepting the works into belonging in one category. With that thought however, it would take a long time as history has shown throughout with the time and movement of ideas to be accepted but even then how much would it be shown or accepted. Or to even use history might not be the answer at all to it because it can be changed, manipulated or erased in time by the ones who hold authority. However with the amount of visual archiving that technology has given us. The reconstruction of images and ideas will always develop into new imagery to what both Fiona Tan and Rashaad Newsome have made. Understanding what a culture is and how to adept it to and artist’s own benefits could be useful to show a way of communicating to the audience. It can though be considered a specialty or even exotic to which then does break down that barrier. Going back to my first quotation from Bhabha, it would be an accurate statement to where making the right noises or actions will lead to an acknowledgement or recognition when entering a different space and using the mediums to make a discussion of the things we do or see are not always parallel to everyone’s perception.
Bibliography
- Bakan, M. C. (2009) The Abduction of the Signifying Monkey Chant: Schizophonic Transmorgrifications of Balinese Kecak in Fellini’s Satyricon and the Coen Brother’s Blood Simple [Online]. [Accessed 21 April 2014]. Available from World Wide Web: <http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/17411910902778478>
- Bhabha, H. K (2010) The Location of Culture. Cornwall: TJ International Ltd.
- Clark, J. (2013) Asian Artists As Long Distance Cultural Specialist In The Formation Of Modernities. Krisher. O, Nakamura. F & Perkins, M (eds). Asia through Art and Anthropology: Cultural Translation Across Borders. London and New York: Bloomsbury. Pp. 19-32.
- Carrollfletcher (2014) [Online]. [Accessed 18 April 2014] Available from World Wide Web:
< http://www.carrollfletcher.com/exhibitions/24/works/image_two534/>
- Lo, J (2014) Moving Images, Stilling Time [Online]. [Accessed 5 April 2014]. Available from World Wide Web: <http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09528822.2014.880552>
Adam Shahrum bin Zainal Abidin
BA (Hons) Fine Art
Unit 4 Essay 2
23 April 2014
Outline
I. Introduction
A. Artist Statement: There is an advantage of being an “outsider” artist because it pushes the boundaries of how art is meant to be perceived
II. How an “outsider” artist views and interprets what they see
A. Fiona Tan’s artwork:The Changeling
III. By using “Hybridity” as a form to communicate with different cultures
A. Rasheed Newsome’s Shade Composition 2012
B. Kejak or Balinese Monkey Dance with Federico Fellini’s Sytropism
IV. Conclusion
“No name is yours until you speak it; somebody returns your call and suddenly, the circuit of signs, gestures, gesticulations is established and you enter the right to narrate” (Bhabha, 2010, pg. xxv). Starting with this quotation from Homi K. Bhabha makes me wonder weather if it is true for a person who has moved from one familiar culture to another can actually be heard. Especially with artists who have the time to experience, explore and absorb such different atmospheres and have new ideas. How then when making artworks from what they are accustomed to change by the new world that they are experiencing? There are sometimes questions or fears of what they are showing could be either exotic or unfamiliar which distance themselves from an identity of whom they are representing and what they might loose. For my thesis, I will argue that there is an advantage of having to create an artwork that is different and not be identified to a particular region, ethnicity or style because to negotiate what it means to be an international, transnational or an ‘outsider’ will then push the boundaries and limits to what art is perceived as and what the artworks can do to create new bridges of not being placed in a particular group and space.
Firstly, starting with a person who migrates to a new country, there is foreignness to where the person is. The artist could be considered an ‘outsider’ or foreigner with the customs and traditions involved. With this it is an advantage. Taken from an understanding of John Clark’s essay on Asian Artist As Long-Distance Cultural Specialist In The Formation Of Modernities, explains how the artist becomes a “technical specialist” of having local visual outlook with the “other” and moving back into the world that is either new or imagined (Clark, 2013 pg. 21). It is an interesting perspective to how artists who does not have a sense of seeing what is normal or not normal for viewing is picked up and can be used differently adapted to the beholder. An artist who over the years acknowledges and realizes the potential of being an outsider even though living and being in a country for so long is Fiona Tan. In 2006 Tan exhibited The Changeling in different galleries around the world, the work consisted of more than 200 portraits of Japanese schoolgirls from the 1930’s, to be used as a video installation with having local actors from the following country to speak in the native language for the voice-overs and narrate a fictional story of the girl, her mother and the girl as a grandmother (Lo, 2014, pg. 62). What I find interesting and described from Jacquline Lo’s essay, Moving Images, Stilling Time on Fiona Tan’s work is the need for an outsider who does not share the same interest or ideology presented from the space the nation is projecting to create new forms of understanding and movement to a different location from the archives of history presented. Looking back at Tan’s own historical background gives an indication to how she would be preferred to be described as a “professional foreigner” and not be categorized into one particular type of artist. This was discovered by Tan when she was making a documentary called May You Live in Interesting Times, it consisted of Tan traveling to China Indonesia, Scotland and Australia to interview her Chinese relatives and ask ‘Family or culture: Which determined my identity more? (Lo, 2014, pg, 57). What is shown by Tan’s The Changeling, is the combination of the representation of the schoolgirls in their formal and structured setting to the narration of actors especially with their ascent to allow a better understanding of the works for the viewer to connect to with the intentions of Tan and Lo describing as:
“The diverse sets of spatial-temporalities converge in the gallery, where biographical time and fictional space rub against time and historical place to foreground diverse and contending co-presence not usually permitted in official political discourse.” (Lo,2014, pg.63)
There is a connection with Bbhaba’s use of liminal-space for artists to use or looking to comprehend to. It is a term used by Homi Bhabha as a third space that the artist uses to see how they see world which first, not their familiar world, secondly the world that they are in now and thirdly a world that is only to them as how they see in the new world with their eyes, very similar to Clark’s description of the “technical specialist” but more on the space itself. I do question however when allowing a ‘local’ actor to play the roles of the schoolgirls, does it then losses it’s meaning when a different language is used or connections between the imagery and the actor to the viewer as it only relates to the normal behavior of the relations they have and not the picture itself because the whole idea is to allow the outsider to speak and make the local understand the difficulties and challenges faced with how people relate to one another.
This then directs us to when a person slowly or easily adapts to the new environment or surroundings they are in. Do they then deconstruct and reconstruct the space they are in? If so, is integration a way at looking of allowing two cultures to combine to create a new type of space. “Hybridity”, the term used by Homi K Bhabha as a way to have more than one culture for a person to live in could be the answer as it is a very interesting term for an artist to use as well. Whereby using two mediums that are totally different to one another that is from different cultures and combining to communicate new ideas with ways of releasing tensions or understanding to what the art is to the space that it is shown. It is a form of progression and confronting what we are facing with in todays world as earlier noted by Lo. An artist who created and highlighted the potential of creating such movement to me was Rashaad Newsome with his Shade Compositions 2012 video of live performance at SFMOMA screened at the Carroll/Fletcher Gallery exhibition recently. The video consists of a group of performers dressed in fashionable clothing to create a sound score of repeated gestures of dissatisfaction or annoyance which was conducted by Newsome himself with a Nintendo Wii remote for him to dub and control the sounds that were recorded. Newsome explains his process on Vimeo whereby he was dealing with the non-verbal communication and body language of African and Latino women in different parts of the world. He noticed the similarities with the sounds and body language they made when recording and making his earlier Shade performances. The uses of different sounds and tones worked quite well and it is very interesting to see how possible it would be to show that diaspora of cultures to have a resemblance and especially when he incorporated other different types of races as well. For the SFMOMA show, it was a site-specific show with the identity of the people in San Francisco where he notice local populations of Koreans and Philippines playing a part to the city of San Francisco.
With the use of taking and making new identities relates similarly to the Kecak or Balinese Monkey Dance by Balinese men to how the performance itself has changed and adapted to other forms. A brief history of the performance itself as it was to tell stories from the Ramayana tales which, consists of a group of men that is around 200 circling in a group and chanting the word tjak in different tones and movements for one hour. Micheal B. Bakan observes the differences of when the Kecak is used in a film score to which has no indication towards the identity of the music is when being played in an European and American film in his essay on The Abduction of the Signifying Monkey Chant: Schizophonic Transmogrifications of Balinese Kecak in Fellini’s Satyricon and the Coen Brothers’ Blood Simple. What was interesting from this essay is when he uses the phrase ‘schoziphonis mimesis’ for which he explains from Steven Feld:
“For Steven Feld, the phrase ‘schizophonic mimesis’ encompasses ‘a broad spectrum of interactive and extractive processes’ that ‘produce a traffic in new creations and relationships through the use, circulation, and absorption of sound recordings’ (Feld 2000, 263). Consideration of these processes compels us to ask ‘how sound recordings, split from their source through the chain of audio production, circulation, and consumption, stimulate and license renegotiations of identity’ (ibid.).” (Bakan, 2009, pg. 85)
With this, Bakan makes the comparison of Federico Fellini’s 1969 film ‘Satyricon’ where in the scene of a student facing against a mighty gladiator. The setting itself is set like the Greek mythology with the battle between Theseus and the Minotaur in a Labryinth complemented by the soundtrack of the Kecak that only plays when the student is facing danger and when trying to flee the music disappearing and appearing whenever the gladiator is near (Barak, 2009, pg. 93). The music makes the whole atmosphere tense and thrilling but to be subjected into a violent theme totally changes the whole context of the music itself. To what the Kecak is actually meant for has no resemblance with the image that is projected to what Bakan is arguing for with the ‘schiz schizophonic mimesis’ theory.
Looking back to The Changeling and Shade Composition 2012 makes a substantial idea for why there is a need to look differently as works from the past and to change the perspective of it. The integration and hybridity involved in making art can have the consequences of maybe being generic for society but there will be always a negative impact to whatever is being change for either the sake of good or bad. There is though an important element that is highlighted by John Clark’s essay, he describes when artist are ‘motile’ is in fact a further than being mobile however applying the movement as well but virtually moving as well with that visualized imaginary because to move in ones imagination space is much more complex for creation in any space the artist is in (Clark, 2014, pg.22).
So there could be a limitation to how an artist to create and relate to the works they are doing. However if to be different is difficult to mold into a classification or sending a message through is a problem then it will be creating a two-way communication instead of accepting the works into belonging in one category. With that thought however, it would take a long time as history has shown throughout with the time and movement of ideas to be accepted but even then how much would it be shown or accepted. Or to even use history might not be the answer at all to it because it can be changed, manipulated or erased in time by the ones who hold authority. However with the amount of visual archiving that technology has given us. The reconstruction of images and ideas will always develop into new imagery to what both Fiona Tan and Rashaad Newsome have made. Understanding what a culture is and how to adept it to and artist’s own benefits could be useful to show a way of communicating to the audience. It can though be considered a specialty or even exotic to which then does break down that barrier. Going back to my first quotation from Bhabha, it would be an accurate statement to where making the right noises or actions will lead to an acknowledgement or recognition when entering a different space and using the mediums to make a discussion of the things we do or see are not always parallel to everyone’s perception.
Bibliography
- Bakan, M. C. (2009) The Abduction of the Signifying Monkey Chant: Schizophonic Transmorgrifications of Balinese Kecak in Fellini’s Satyricon and the Coen Brother’s Blood Simple [Online]. [Accessed 21 April 2014]. Available from World Wide Web: <http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/17411910902778478>
- Bhabha, H. K (2010) The Location of Culture. Cornwall: TJ International Ltd.
- Clark, J. (2013) Asian Artists As Long Distance Cultural Specialist In The Formation Of Modernities. Krisher. O, Nakamura. F & Perkins, M (eds). Asia through Art and Anthropology: Cultural Translation Across Borders. London and New York: Bloomsbury. Pp. 19-32.
- Carrollfletcher (2014) [Online]. [Accessed 18 April 2014] Available from World Wide Web:
< http://www.carrollfletcher.com/exhibitions/24/works/image_two534/>
- Lo, J (2014) Moving Images, Stilling Time [Online]. [Accessed 5 April 2014]. Available from World Wide Web: <http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09528822.2014.880552>
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