Artist: MOHD FUAD BIN MD ARIF
Title: “For the love of Gold”
Size: 82 cm x 82 cm x 26 cm
Material: Glass, aluminium frame, skull & 8k gold
Art takes place within power associations and is always a political phenomenon. There are two type of political dominion in art but I’m more interested in the politics that deals with the struggle of meanings and power. In art, the artist’s intentions and the viewer’s interpretations meet and clash (whether it is coming from the public viewers or the artists’ community). Art keeps talking about values and ethics; about what is important or whose art is ‘artier’. That is why it is always a political struggle. Thus power for me is an unconscious tactical maneuver that artist do and create to get advantages over the idea of what makes them different. Thus most artists are actually inclined to take on a political quality, although we often see artist as detached from politics parse. We all must understand that creator of a work of art has power over the viewers particularly when the viewers do not use the power they are entitled to, neither questioning the given or trusting their own interpretations (which is for me another issue that needs to be discussed and looked into). But still, this is by no means a simple hierarchical position, as the viewers may disagree with and give their own observations. It may well be that an artist can recognise aesthetic triumphs while ignoring society, but to unruly disregard concerning social matters is ironically also a political position.
Artist: NADHIRAH BINTI ANUAR
Title: “I dreamt a dream, a little dream”
Size: 21 cm X 29.7 cm ( 4 pieces )
Material: Paper, lino ink, acrylic
Experience has increasingly changed the level of my creativity and innovation for the last decades. Each year brings with it a whole new set of ideas. I remember when I started to draw a prince and a princess, and fantasise about a world full of fairies where I can be anything I wanted under my mom’s favourite table. As I grow older, age and the real world enveloped me with more concerns than just a pencil and paper. I started to pay more attention on pop-up books. It helped me develop and explore new ideas. It taught me to see something from a different angle, from a wider perspective and to be more creative. Caught between subconscious and conscious mind, past and present, a mix images of fantasy and the real world were created. I really enjoy the process of putting thoughts into printmaking and juxtapose the prints with pieces of papers that were parallel folded, angle folded, printed and combined together in transforming a creation of art. The idea of transforming two-dimensional images into three-dimensional shapes starts when observing the daily struggles of most people.
Artist: MOHD SAHARUDDIN BIN SUPAR @ SUPAH
Title: “Internal No.7”
Size: 3 Panels with overall dimension: 193 cm x 122 cm x 13 cm
Material: Metal & 2K paint
When looking at a piece of artwork, we tend to focus on the surface of the work. Our judgment is usually based on what is obvious without taking into account the meaning behind it. This feeling of dissatisfaction is what drove me to create this piece. It is about exploring the innards of an object. My experience with using glass and its transparent nature has an influence in the creation of this work. Glass though solid, allows us to see what is inside. This creates a kind of subconscious feeling similar to what one might experience under water. I invite the viewer to explore the perforation on this metal sculpture and ‘float’ into a space that transcends the ‘box’ that is the boundaries of the sculpture. The viewer is free to make up whatever they desire.
Artist: AHMAD SYAKIR BIN HASHIM
Title: “You complete me”
Size: 152 cm x 137 cm
Material: Acrylic on canvas
I stop painting subjects and just paint objects. Painting objects are more interesting because they are there. I do not need to ‘impose stories’ about objects that I want to paint. If I want to tell stories it is better for me to write a novel or do a storybook. Objects on the other hand, have their own inner self that is ‘always’ interesting when painted. David Hockney painted a mundane series of his own dog and somehow it became interesting. Furthermore, I assert as a painter, one does not need to impose a particular look onto his/her painting anymore; the artworks function depend on the painter’s objective, which differs from time to time. Because of this, painters need to constantly question why they are painting and continue to work in the wider (art) system in order to make their paintings ‘possible’ and anti environment. For me an artist should not start with an end in mind. Making art is an ongoing endeavour. A movie that has no conclusion is more interesting than a concluded one. Sometimes we need people to hate what we are doing in order to make a point about how art can be appreciated in another possible way.
Artist: MOHD YUSOFF B ERMAN SHAH
Title: “Night fo-rest”
Size: 61 cm x 40.7 cm
Material: photopaper
There are parallels between film and photography. One of which is the existence of a focal point on the subject. Another is the use of ample lighting to create the appropriate mood. Thus, the photographic works of Gregory Crewdson, Jeff Wall, Recepp BG, David Lachapell and Cia de Foto have opened up a whole new dimension for me to dabble in this kind of art. I tend to play with images that have a cinematography look. They appear as though they were stills from a film or drama. The whole image appears to portray a moment through ‘live candid’ when in fact it was reenacted. The resulting image produces a narrative whereby this ‘fiction’ becomes some kind of reality in the eyes of the viewer with me as the creator. For example, a studio imaging process uses a human model as its main subject, it is different from the type of imaging that I do because my technique does not have main subject. All the elements in the picture support each other to create that cinematographic look. What I like about the experience is the experiment with all kinds of resources and also the feeling of uncertainty. I would like to encourage the viewer to create their own ‘stories’ that may be influences by the individual’s own past experience and curiosity. Most of my works are not narratives rather they are standalone scenes and not part of a sequence like in movies.
Artist: ED ROGER
Title: “Dadum”
Size: 91 cm x 122 cm
Material: Acrylic on canvas
Images have been my curiosity, for where they belong, and how they came to be in our experience as human. We have been celebrating images merrily in the visual culture, and they haven’t stopped dancing on different surfaces (from the cave to canvas, frescos, prints, and lately on digital medium). The sight, according to Descartes, is the noblest and most comprehensive of the senses, because it guides us to the intellectual discipline of making sense of the world. Hence comes the saying, seeing is believing. However, belief only starts where the reason ends, says Einstein. As an art student, I find myself troubled by the question of what else can be done on a panel of canvas. Therefore I return to the basic problems that most artists face: the aesthetic decision for a pictorial composition. In my observation, I find it intriguing, how we have to select a good picture, nicely composed, to be framed. Physiologically, when our eyes see, they do not bind to rules of composition because possibilities of composition are unlimited. I painted the rejected photograph to let picture-making to celebrate itself, not like a portrait which celebrates the sitter. The behaviour of the composition itself becomes my subject matter, not any of the objects, which happens to be in the panel. This is not a new problem though; Degas did it a long time ago with his ‘cut-off’ ballerinas. The act of choosing spontaneous snapshots, to celebrate its mundane setting, has a little portion from Duchamp’s ready-mades or Courbet’s the Stone Breakers. That’s what my work is about. To be reflective through my paintings, they represent my curious situation, both as a man and an artist. As an artist, I don’t know what to paint. As a man, I don’t know where I am.