Influenced by the Dadaism movement, Fadly Sabran’s work consist of living beings being turned into mechanical absurdity, with an aim to portray humans as unthinking robots, his initial study employs pasted photoengraving as collage technique. The technique used is assemblage that combine video, sound, light, kinetic, movement, motion sensory and digital collage. The works are designed to be interactive, participatory, dynamic and customisable in anticipation by the shape of things to come
This podcast is brought to you by ThreeSixty Art Development Studio … ‘Harnessing Malaysian Talent on the World Wide Web’.
” Laughter is a moment when our mind refuses to reason. When we are puzzled by certain things, our mind simply doesn’t want to struggle, or perhaps we don’t know how to think, therefore we just want to forget it.
Artists are the kind of people who always like to reveal to the simple, innocent and humble souls the never-ending illusion of our lives.
I paint people laughing, whether it is a big laugh, a restrained laugh, a crazy-laugh, a near-death laugh or simply laughter about our society: laughter can be about anything”
So this is how it all began: I was thinking that the image of a laughing face ought to be perceived as an assurance that things would get better: that a future life could be as rewarding and meaningful as the Buddha promised. I decided that my laughing faces would be my own personal reminder of our situation, and which would be easily understood by people around me, and ordinary folk, too, who had learned to laugh because they understood that any other response was futile” Yue Minjun
Yue Minjun is widely acclaimed as one of China’s leading painters—one of the four modern-day Chinese masters known affectionately and humorously as the “sidajingang,” or the four cornerstones of contemporary Chinese art, an elite which includes Wang Guangyi, Fang Lijun, and ZhangXiaogang
I appreciate artworks with attention to detail and visual commentary. It reflects dedication, patience and intellectual thought, the three fundamental ingredients (in my opinion) to be successful in anything that you do. During my recent visit to Tujuh Bintang Art Space in Jogjakarta, I came across ‘Merdeka’ by Budi Ubrux.
Budi paints figures that are mummified in ‘daily newspapers’, expressing his concerns that if we were to rely literally on the information carried by our daily newspapers (which are often sensationalised) we will be absorbed into mediated realities, blinding us from the truth and blocking us from a balanced interpretation of the real world.
I marvel at his patience and technical proficiency in meticulously detailing the ‘text lines’ and capturing the light and shadows to project the crumple, crease and irregular folds of the body-wrapped newspaper.
He has also intelligently chose the right headlines and pictures to subtly communicate its sensationalized and dramatic nature.
My interpretation of this work is a group of men posing to celebrate their phenomenal conquest (or success), or what they perceived as such, in mediated reality. The reality or truth is in the fish, who is being conquered and being used as an object of pride and will end up being consumed.
Tujuh Bintang Artspace, a new art gallery in Jogjakarta celebrates its maiden exhibition by showcasing 38 contemporary Indonesian ‘all-stars’ artists. Log on to http://tujuhbintang.com/ for more information.
“There isn’t a single person or landscape or subject which doesn’t possess some interest, although it may not be immediately apparent. When a painter discovers this hidden treasure, other people are immediately struck by its beauty” (Pierre Auguste Renoir)
Impressionist art as I understand it, is about the thrill and delight of the visual sensation. It took me awhile to understand that to appreciate an impressionist painting is to take a few steps back and enjoy the broken colors to fall into place to form the subject of beauty right before your eyes.
I often wonder whether it is my eyesight that is taking its time in absorbing the colors or my brain in registering and digesting it.
The power of concentration and observation is compelling in the impressionist artist. The understanding of colors and light and how this is recreated with paints and brushes on canvas is truly an innovative visual thought.
Razak Abdullah paints directly from nature and celebrates this technique of expression to achieve the color blends and capture the energy behind the subject. In conversations with him on his work, you can feel the thrill of his intimacy with the subject matter. His animated descriptions and detailed understanding of the layers and relationship in nature, expresses his faithfulness to and enjoyment of the vibrancy of the subject, as tasted through his eyes.
His impressionist art has now taken another dimension. He invites us to appreciate the symphonies of light and color under the sea in his Portraits of Bidong series. It is a pleasant departure from the normal impressionist landscapes as the colors and light are ‘tasted’ through underwater vision.
Illumination under water depends on the thickness of the layer and the reflection and scatter of light rays in the water. Sunlight is reflected in by the surface of the water. The amount of refracted light not only depends on the angle between the rays and the surface of the water but also in the quantity of the air bubbles in the surface layer that have been formed by the motion of the water.
Razak’s underwater panorama would have been an interplay of light and color dancing to the tunes of these refractions and the vibrancy of life under the sea.
He seeks to convey this impressions to us, communicating the delightful sensations and inviting us to delve, observe and celebrate the colors and energy of nature.
“It is on the strength of observation and reflection that one finds a way. So we must dig and delve unceasingly”, (Monet)
Razak Abdullah’s Potraits of Bidong will be on show from August 12, 2008. The images of the artwork are the copyright of the artist. No part or image may be reproduced by any process without written permission of the copyright owners.
Still on the perspective of the world, we found this artwork entitled “and our world is still alive” by Aminian Tahamtan from Iran as part of the ’International Posters for peace, social justice & the environment 1965-2005′ show.
The words forming the ash of the cigarette read from top to bottom: Agony, Sorrow, Pain, Hatred, Hesitation, Envy, Hopeless, Fear, Dirt, Prostitution, Wound, Wretchedness, Madness, Isolation, Wrath, Grudge, and Fatal. The progression begins at the top (the reason for being a smoker) and consequently burns down to the filter (the result of being smoker).
Intrigued by the definition of the world map in the work ‘Peta Mimpi’ by Hasanul Idris (see previous post). The Thr36ixty5ive team searched the web for other perspectives of the world. The world as mapped by McDonalds and Starbucks gives us an idea of global and geographical influence and monopoly. Modern-day commercial colonisation.
“I employ my position as a spectator of global issues related to war, terrorism, super-power alliance, and regimented ruling for this series of artwork. I am interested in the images that typically related to war such as weaponry, aircraft and tanks, in combination with images of toys, flowers, birds, Bali offering and images that imply happiness, freedom and hope. These subject matters, derived from the bombardment of mass media, have become my main tools in expressing my concerns towards the turmoil of war and its casualties. I organised my composition by playfully selecting images that can make my painting appears like an interesting and almost decorative piece of art. I always try to create pleasing (but mocking) game-like and playful look by arranging overlapping and intersecting the silhouette and patterns of the images. The ambiguity of the purposes of the shapes and pattern suggests some hidden agendas”
HASANUL ISYRAF IDRIS
Hasanul Isyraf Idris (b.1978) is a graduate of Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM) who has been known for his pop-oriented artworks since he emerged into the local art scene in 1999. His works has been selected for the Malaysian Young Contemporaries in 2004,2006 and 2008. This work in currently on show at Galeri Chandan, Bukit Damansara www.galerichandan.com
