(Being a review of young Malaysian artists . new object(ion) at Galeri Petronas, KLCC.)
The new Galeri Petronas exhibition poses many poignant questions, for instance - what is the object of art, are there new objects of art (Object d’art?) fresh objections concerning art and/or why is there objectification in art. Doubtless the visitor will be unable to find the answers here, but the questions are posed afresh in the exhibition – ‘young malaysian artists . new object(ion)’ at Galeri Petronas, in KLCC, Kuala Lumpur for it is a collection of works by up-and-coming Malaysian artists.
In the sense of a collection it really is a veritable cornucopia of art - all shapes, sizes and pretentions. Some of the offerings will titivate some please, some annoy and others will have the visitor moving swiftly on to a more conducive piece - but that is the innate nature of diverse collections – it is to be expected and encouraged.
One slight grumble - concerning not the exhibition, but the catalogue - it is the image on the very first page of the catalogue which, we are told, denotes ‘Chilli Padi’ and ‘is synonymous with the young and fresh artistic representations showcased in OBJECT(ION)’, It is the image of an open electric blender - spewing blended chillies
I confess to being slightly confused. The Chilli image and metaphor is a good one; however there is scant connection between that image, the slight blurb about it and the actual exhibition. Admittedly red is used as the colour for the catalogue title and some of the internal pages, but you might have expected a little more connection to tie it all together – a chilli on the front cover perhaps. It is also a pity that there is no reference to the maker of that spewing blender image.
The exhibition, we are told, concerns either objects or objections - not chillies, unless, the chillies are the objects, or the objections. Ok, yes I get the concept - chillies equals hot equals bright new things equals new and exciting - but it is a little vague and perhaps needed a tad more thought to bring the disparate elements together. Perhaps it might have been nice to call the exhibition Chilli Padi, or simply Chillies, with a sub-heading of Young Malaysian Artists, maybe in brackets.
But where does the object or the objection come in other than in the internal text. Maybe my brain is too addled by fiery Malaysian sambal, but the discourse around objects, though admirable in themselves, needed to be less objective and more concerning the subject, i.e. the works themselves, which seemed to get lost amongst the intellectual dialogue - no I did not say onanism, though I was tempted. The subject, once covered, could then have meandered concerning the new object/objections, ramble through feminist dialogues of objectification even tipping a sonkok, mὰo zi or turban to Klein’s object theory discourse, if it so desired.
The exhibition has been described elsewhere as ‘brash, edgy and exciting’, which might have been once true, once, some way down the line but, perhaps, Malaysia’s 53rd year of independence from colonial rule deserves new adjectives for new art.
While Zulkifli Yusoff’s Negaraku exhibition, over at The National Art Gallery, celebrates concepts of independence and reminds Malaysians why it is so good to be independent from western colonialism, much of the Galeri Petronas exhibition seems to wallow in what Syed Hussein Alatas calls - the problem of the captive mind.
That is - a mind still held enthralled by its colonial masters in a post-colonial era or, as Alatas puts it, the captive mind is an ‘uncritical and imitative mind dominated by an external source, whose thinking is deflected from an independent perspective’. That is, simply, ‘cutting and pasting’ imagery, notions and ideas from a ‘Modern Art’ whose very foundation has been created, applauded and made significant by a culture which now re-colonises the rest of the world through new media and mediums. That is the real shock of the new.
Having said that, and accepting that all art is mimesis in some shape sense or form, this new exhibition does entertain and provides an eclectic enough selection of 40 young Malaysian artists to have something for everyone. At least one artist in the exhibition – Nurazmal Mohd Yusof (Ali Nurazmal) successfully uses western painting methods, and materials – acrylic on canvas, to deconstruct a colonial narrative with their image of a Malay man as puppet, strings on his fingers being pulled by his ‘colonial?’ masters, in the painting ‘Festival’.
But that, all pervasive, western imagery does seep through; so when confronted by Izzaddin Matrahah’s ‘The Lizard King’ (acrylic and collage on canvas) I must admit that I did a double-take. I was a great fan of The Doors, way back when and so was taken aback to see Jim Morrison and other images, straight out of his ‘The Celebration of the Lizard’, gracing Izzaddin Matrahah’s work. Though, perhaps, not quite so surprised to see ‘that rascally rabbit’- Bugs Bunny appear in Hoo Kiew Hang’s ‘Smiley Bunny’, or Muhd Sarip Abd Rahman’s menacing ‘Storm Trooper’ in his mixed media work ‘Playing with Inte”geli”ty’. These images are, after all, super-glued into contemporary popular culture.
Although the installations are there – from Rini Fauzan Mohd Zuhairi’s ‘Take Heed’ to Tan Nan See’s ‘I Wanna be a Contemporary Artist’ there is nothing indicating the magnificence of those recent installations by Zulkilfi Yusoff, though Liew Cheng Hua’s ‘The Kapitan’ points in that direction.
Some imagery, such as those acrylic paintings by Abdul Aziz Mohd Yusof, are very much of our time and sit nicely within a youth culture enamoured with graphic design, cartooning and comic books. This is work which would not look out of place in the design and illustration magazine - Territory, perhaps sitting alongside the works of Noor Azizan Rahman Paiman, Khairina Khairuddin or Tan See Ling - artists also featured within this exhibition.
The High and Low Art debate has been around probably as long as art itself has. What is fit for the wall or fit for the page – the contest continues, but there is a sense that with former graffiti artists like Jean Michel Basquiat becoming elevated to Fine Art the lines blurred even more, paving the way for young Malaysian artists like Abdul Aziz Mohd Yusof , Noor Azizan Rahman Paiman, Khairina Khairuddin and Tan See Ling to not even consider the boundaries of their work, or where it is more suitably placed – page or wall.
Once again there is little in the way of ‘new media’. Granted there is Wong Eng Leong’s 2 channel video projection ‘Vestige’ and Mohamad Fadly Sabran’s ‘Cyber Electro Evolution’ (mixed media and video projection) but still there is less experimentation than we are led to believe in the exhibition’s promotional materials.
The exhibition is a very small step in the right direction, but Malaysia’s art schools and collages need to get their noses out of western media, and mediums, and look to those more locally found, as well as seriously considering the interplay between traditional and contemporary, new and old media. On a personal note I should like to see young contemporary artists engaging with 3D design, modelling and rendering but not from a design/illustration perspective, but from a contemporary Fine Arts one.
Galeri Petronas continues to produce interesting and thought provoking exhibitions, you may not like all you see, for that is the beauty of it, but you will like some.
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