What initially intrigues the tentative viewer of Nik Rafin's paintings, is the vibrancy of the colours that the artist has chosen to speak for his feelings. No tablet or computer screen viewed JPEG, or four-colour print reproduction, is able to fully satisfy that sight, or capture the sheer beauty of the work of art as you gaze wistfully before it. Catalogues and brochures, as important as they are, and as expansive and informative as they are, cannot compete with being face to face with a work of art. This is true of meeting an object, soon to be desired, in an adroit artisan temple set aside for such adoration (e.g. Artisan Fine Art Gallery).
Eckhart Tolle has mentioned that “Presence is needed to become aware of the beauty, the majesty, the sacredness of nature.” That presence exists in the uniqueness of the moment when attending a work of art. It is a, practically, sublime moment of ‘viewing’ which in Sanskrit is ‘Darshan’ , and in Japanese ‘Satori’. Walter Benjamin, (in “The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction”, 1936) states that “The presence of the original is the prerequisite to the concept of authenticity.’ In other words, we can only be certain of authenticity, or ‘realness’, when we are in the presence of the actual work of art. Likewise a work of art reveals its own ‘realness’, its own narrative and not simply a mirroring of its surrounds or of society (Plato’s mimesis).
This uniqueness of the viewing moment, of the gaze if you will, is especially true when in the company of the vibrant paintings created by this up-coming artist Nik Rafin. Rafin studied in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and brought a soul full of experiences back from America to his motherland, Malaysia. Practising variously as a graphic artist, illustrator as well as a fine artist, Rafin has nursed a bond with the simplicity and cleanness of line work and a need to give depth and volume to his acrylic painted canvases. The fusion of the woven and inherent depth of barely seen imagery demonstrates itself in Rafin’s ‘Mindscape' and ‘Earthscape' series. In these there is an intermingling of circles, demi-circles and oblique abstractions, which the artist holds together by an entanglement of strands which could, in a creative future, become the double helix of the painter’s own DNA.
In his earlier works, Rafin has rendered visual ‘dances’ of line, exploring colour and shape relationships (Earthscape Series) with the need for a definitive subject matter. At times he has injected subjects into his work, melded them with the abstract and, as time has progressed, we see more and more subjects resonating with the vibrancy of his abstractions. His timely paintings of ‘8 Wild Horses’, coming in the Chinese year of the horse, reflects the multicultural nature of Rafin’s home country - Malaysia. The horses prance and dance, some spot lit in white, manes flowing to the energy of the canvas, others turning heads in the mid-ground, neighing, stallions rampant with the luxury of their freedom. Other horses, tamed for the race, remind the visitors of Malaysia’s love for the racing horse. Another eight horses, this time ridden by diminutive jockeys, their boots standing in race stirrups set high near the lightweight saddles, thunder in the race. Orange abstractions, circles, weave, help place the browns of the horses and lighter colours of their riders.
Rafin’s canvases portray the swift energies of constant movement. Gazing at Rafin’s work, you might wish to recall those images of the Italian Futurist painters Natalia Sergeevna (The Cyclist, 1912 - 1913), and Pablo Piccaso’s friend Carlo Carra (The Red Horseman, 1912) as they attempted to capture movement onto their canvases. Carra, like Rafin, was intrigued with the motion of horses, painting them time after time (The Horsemen of the Apocalypse, 1908, Horse and Rider, 1913, Pursuit,1915). Could we, perhaps, refer to Rafin as a new Malaysian Futurist, painting fluidity and the grace of movement? Rafin, like Carra (Football Match,1934) renders all the rush of the football tackle, as his colourful footballers (Football Celebration, 2014) dash towards the viewer from out of the rich tapestry of a green woven background, their rush and their deftness as sportsmen revealed in Rafin’s painting.
Throughout these more recent images, Rafin has intricately rendered an organically woven background into his energetically multiple-layered paintings. A background, perhaps representative of weft and warp of life, a weaving together of intricate and infinite narratives with his graphically complex strands. Together, it is those myriad painstakingly painted strands which adhere the narrative to the artist's telling yarn (story).
It is with these deft, carefully placed and carefully chosen, ribbons of colour that the artist becomes a wanton weaver of skilfully chosen cultural narratives. The artist images the strength and the resilience of fully engaged riders, as they push their burdened beasts to the all-important finish line. Rafin reveals the dedication, and power, of race horses galloping, legs pounding, stretched at full thunder of hooves with lust for the race, at one with their mounts. In other scenes, Rafin presents the explosive energy of the dhol, dholak and tabla with their high energy beats vibrating a rhythm to which the movement of Bhangra dancers (2014) cavort. Rafin is a precise painter.
In other, older, heads stylistically Rafin’s works might remind gallery visitors of The Beatles' (black and white) 'Revolver' album cover (1966). The popular music hero foursome, peeking from Klaus Voorman's sublime illustration of strands of graphic hair. The visitor may gaze and remember the painted (not photoshopped) works of Makinti Napanangka, revealing the aborigine Women’s Hair String Ceremony (karrkirritinyja) for, according to Paul Klee, ‘drawing is simply a line going for a walk’, and this is something that Rafin delights in, amidst the spaces of his wonderfully woven, acrylic strands.
The artist Nik Rafin, is a delicate delineator. He is an enricher of sight, with canvases spinning multifarious multicultural tales of Malaysia, from the hoof pounding thrill of Penang races to ebullient Bhangra dancers leaping from the Punjab. It is as if art historical (Italian) Futurism has liaised with an Asian present, producing a fresh style which becomes engaged with all the excitement and dynamism of carefully captured movement.
Whatever the painterly references of these stimulating works, there is little doubt that the artist, Nik Rafin, has successfully captured all the exertion, endurance and potency of a variety of figures in movement. He has put before us remarkably stimulating colours, against a sublime background of an essential weave. It is for us to gaze into these works, become one with them and discover the artist’s movement and imagery.
No comments:
Post a Comment