Lost & Found

Fadillah Karim, Fragile Spinc 

A couple of days ago I took my artist and gallery consultant wife and her Cambodian gallery manager friend to Publika. We were looking for Galleri Chandan. As usual and despite, or was that because of, using Google Maps we, once again, got lost. Publika, in Solaris Dutamas, is not the most user friendly environment to navigate. I have been lost there more times than I can count.

Needless to say we didn’t find Galleri Chandan. Like many galleries at Publika, Galleri Chandan bears a distinct resemblance to Howl’s Moving Castle, insomuch as it never seems to be where you think it will be. But we did find Segaris Art Center. It was a gallery new to us, and therefore exciting  because of that. The gallery was spacious, pleasantly laid out and, as it was a joint show, exciting in its diversity.

Jamil Zakaria|, Kambing Import (Kambing Hitam) 

On show was a wide variety of mediums from fairly traditional figure painting by Fadillah Karim, looking a little like Marvin Chan’s work, but all the better for that, to Jamil Zakaria’s Steel Wire (or is that steel wool) and wood constructed Kambing Import (Kambing Hitam). The later had resonance of the 2006 New Zealand black comedic film also called Black Sheep. Stand Up Comedian by Zaim Durulaman was another striking figurative piece, this time acrylic on jute, but I couldn’t help think that we had been there before.

It was nice to see the artists playing with other mediums, if only to prove that painting still has a lot to offer in this 21st century. Zairin Anwar’s two rubber tube, valve, acrylic and pin hole steel constructions, called Hunny & Bunny & Insecttoid Series ’16’ were intriguing and reminded me of puppets once used by British puppeteers Faulty Optic, in their bizarrely surreal shows, or something that Czech film maker Jan Švankmajer might have created for one of his surreal animated films.

Anwar Suhaimi’s Nothing, constructed from an acrylic sheet through fascinating shadows onto the wall. I would like to have seen more of these, and bigger. Shahrul Hisham, with a ratty piece drawn with ball pen on canvas (no name) reminded we visitors on the strength of good drawing skills, and Haris Abadi’s Cosmic Playground: Symmetrical Overdrive, a construct of LCD (TV) screen, metal and plastic leaves, brought digital video into the mix in a slightly unnerving video sequence where a young girl slowly disappears and constantly reappears from a playground swing seemingly portraying the menace of child abduction, and loss of innocence. 

Haris Abadi, Cosmic Playground: Symmetrical Overdrive 

There was a lot to see, and take in. The staff at Segaris were friendly, but not intrusively so. My main thought was, how could I have missed this gallery! We arrived back home with very warm thoughts of the gallery and exhibits. I wanted to learn more about this gallery I had overlooked. I dashed off an email to gain more information. While I awaited a response, I Googled around the internet, finding a Facebook page and a Blog. Neither told me when the gallery had opened, nor who was instrumental in its planning, other than in some way it belonged to UiTM (that is Malaysia’s Universiti Teknologi MARA). 

An e-catalogue (PDF), kindly sent by a Galley Assistant, provided the necessary images for this piece, but was devoid of any textual information. I shot off another email, 

“Thank you so much for the material you have already sent, and thank you for your time.

I was rather hoping to learn a little about how the gallery came about, who were the instigators and when the gallery first opened, those sort of details.

I think that it is an exciting idea, and wish to learn more so that I can write a balanced piece about my experience there.”

I was directed to the on-line sites which I had already perused. 

And that is the reason that I have been unable, dear reader, to supply you with any background information about the Segaris Art Centre, not even what the name of the gallery represents. All I can say is that the gallery may be found at Lot No. 8, Level G4, Publika Shopping Gallery, No. 1, Jalan Dutamas, Solaris Dutamas, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

Good luck in finding it.