Merdeka 57

It was sheer happenstance that I was in KLCC and came across Galeri Petronas and its current exhibition.

Go Block, at Galeri Petronas, features the innovative work of five contemporary Malaysian printmakers – Juhari Said, Kim Ng Peow, Izan Tahir, Zulkifli Yusoff, and Shahrul Jamili, and is guest curated by Badrolhisham Mohd Tahir.

The vivid complexity of print technique and imagery, in the exhibition Go Block, pique the gallery visitor's curiosity as soon as they witness these intellectually stimulating and impressionably memorable artworks. These pioneering, contemporary prints interact with the observer in unique ways, extending beyond the traditional two-dimensional printed form, and reach out in a third dimension to wrestle with our preconceptions of print.

Each of the 5 artists reveal fresh, and very different, ways of thinking about print, printing, and an exploration of relationships between the print medium, that which is printed, and the substrate surfaces they are printed onto. The visitor positively revels in a plenitude of printed textures revealed in two or three-dimensionality, encouraging reconsiderations of previously preconceived ideas and approaches to the art and the craft of print making.

Having admired the exhibition as a whole, it was Zulkifli Yusoff's Merdeka 57 - a contemporary, perhaps avant garde print installation, which attracted my increasingly jaundiced eye and literally stood out to engage me as a gallery visitor.

In its totality, this set piece - Merdeka 57 is comprised of what presents itself to be a minimalist 'theatrical' setting (perhaps a play upon the concept of the theatre of war), with 'walls' painstakingly arranged and printed with signs and symbols from Malaysia's recent past as well as printed film stills featuring the English actor Jack Hawkins.

In front of a very imposing screen-printed wall, subtle décollage layers nestle, adding physical depth to the existing symbolic depth of the fundamental two-dimensional imagery. In the foreground, between the visitor and the background wall, are 3D boxes, covered with screen-printed material. They rest like vacant set props awaiting the imposition of multi-layered meaning within this contemporary stage production. Two 3D constructed 'fruits' sit, one atop of a 3D box and the other is situated between that box and the rear wall. The 'fruit' furthest away resembles an oiled paper umbrella (in the shape of an apple) and the other, also resembling an apple (constructed of printed canvas) stands, on the near box, drawing the viewer's eye through the 'production' and to the additional meaning relayed by the printed walls behind.

On the rear walls a complex system of printed symbols present themselves - ranging from the frequently repeated word 'Merdeka', to the photo-screen printed mono-colour images of betel fruit, sliced apples, and the reverse side of a 1948 Malayan 20 cent coin. Together the printed imagery references that period of Malaysia's history between the incident which the colonial British euphemistically referred to as 'The Emergency' (16^th June 1948) to the eventual gaining of independence and the 'setting free' of that single act of Merdeka itself, on 31^st August 1957.

Merdeka 57 is familiar as it stands as a reminder of other Zulkifli Yusoff's socio- political works, displaying both his deftness and great skill as a social historian and his voice as a concerned commenter. The artist Zulkifli Yusoff weaves a complex, yet subtle, narrative of Malaya under the British. In this imposing work Zulkifli Yusoff uses understated images - from the black and white 'nice cup of tea' image, to the representations taken from the 1952 film - The Planter's Wife, starring Claudette Colbert and Jack Hawkins (directed by Ken Annakin - also called Outpost in Malaya) to narrate both fictional and factual tales of those final days of colonial imposition, and its eventual demise.

This set metaphorical and theatrical piece portrays a Malaya drawing to the end of British rule, sliding inevitably towards Malaya's independence and triumphant cries of Merdeka. Witnessing the oft repeated word – Merdeka, the visitor to Zulkifli Yusoff's work is reminded that on the final day of Malaya's colonial captivity the new Prime Minister - Tunku Abdul Rahman exclaimed Merdeka, Merdeka, Merdeka, Merdeka, Merdeka, Merdeka, Merdeka (7 times) to ecstatically cheering crowds and to an expectant nation.

Standing before Zulkifli Yusoff's Merdeka 57 that very same energy and passion of Tunku Abdul Rahman's exclamation again echoes to embrace the visitor, calling insistently from the printed back wall, and screaming, red, from the 'floor'.

Merdeka 57 is without a doubt an intensely thought provoking piece, with some subtleties requiring more investigation than others, and this is why, of course, the work remains so intriguing to the gallery visitor.

While the very concept of 'art as installation' hails back to Dada and Surrealism - with artists such as Marcel Duchamp with his 'readymades' (1915) and Salvador Dali's 'Rainy Taxi' (1938) Zulkifli Yusoff's work gives a nod to the 1960s and the heydays of Pop Art and contemporary installations. Perhaps Merdeka 57's more immediate forbear is the ubiquitous Andy Warhol, whose screen printed boxes were seen to break down barriers between High and Low, the Fine and the Popular in art.

As a contemporary printed 3D installation Merdeka 57 is reminiscent of 'Pop Art' icon Andy Warhol's infamous screen printed box constructs, like the outstanding Campbell's Tomato Juice (25.4 x 48.3 x 49.5 cm), or colourful Del Monte Peach Halves (24.1 x 38.1 x 49.5 cm), the very realistic Brillo Soap pads (43.2 x 43.2 x 35.6 cm) or the 1963 Heinz Tomato ketchup box (25.4 x 48.3 x 24.2 cm). Many of these works were constructed using polymer paint and silkscreen ink, silkscreen printed onto plywood. Though in this regard the process may be similar, but Zulkifli Yusoff's boxes remain cloaked only in black and white plaid-like material, not the clothes of popular branding.

In this way Zulkifli Yusoff adds yet another dimension to his already complex work. And while on the subject of 1960s artists, there is a faint resemblance, within Merdeka 57, to the posters of Japan's best loved Pop artist - Tadanori Yukoo. Could this, therefore, be a very subtle, covert, reference to the Japanese occupation of Malaya?

In this overview of Zulkifli Yusoff's Merdeka 57, I would be very remiss if I were not mention the works of Malaysia's own Redza Piyadasa in relation to both Zulkifli Yusoff and Andy Warhol.

Piyadasa, in his final and perhaps greatest works - the Malaysian Series (1980- 2005) subverted the later work of Andy Warhol using techniques and colouring reflecting those of Warhol, but seen through Malaysian eyes and with Malaysian imagery. This exquisite artistic baton, dropped at the demise of one of Malaysia's best loved artists - Redza Piyadsa, appears to have been taken up by Zulkifli Yusoff, as demonstrated in many of his more recent printed works, and in the construct of Merdeka 57.

As all artists, to some extent, extract a known truth from here and a suspected truth from there, and, with their experience and great skill create their own unique truth. So it is with Zulkifli Yusoff who has crafted his narrative voice to bring to his 'audience's' attention those multiple images which form Merdeka 57 and 'speak' his message with subtle clarity.

Merdeka 57 may be found in Go Block - February 5th to March 15th 2009 Galeri Petronas, KLCC.