Haffendi Anuar

Hero Express

2012-02-01T15:30:00.000-08:00

Hero Express

An attractive blonde Chinese woman in a light brown trench coat and cool dark shades quickly and confidently strides through dazzling flashes of coloured lights, undefined figures in-motion, blurry oily faces, and packed neon-lighted alleyways while being accompanied by a dark and upbeat score is the explosive opening scene of the movie by Wong Kar-wai, Chungking Express (1994). The camera follows the domineering woman through greasy streets and tiny dimly lit rooms filled with Indian immigrants and then pans to a rooftop scene that shows the passing of clouds in a deep blue wash that highlights Hong Kong’s crumbling skyline complete with shabby television antennas and rusty air vents. The mood of the kaleidoscopic scene echoes the mood of the period of uncertainty mentioned in Charles Baudelaire’s Salon essay, On the Heroism of Modern Life (1846). Baudelaire states that ‘the great tradition has been lost, and that the new one is not yet established’ (Baudelaire, 1846, p.949) implying a period of vagueness felt by the inhabitants of Paris. The art writer Anne Coffin Hanson mentioned that ‘in France at mid-century there was a sharp consciousness of imminent change’(Hanson, 1977, p.3), while some still believed that the past tradition still provide a model for a new ideal and moral integrity, others feel strongly towards progressing for the better, following diligently to the new and it’s possibilities. The latter feels that there are ‘new challenges to be met for the glory of the country’ (Hanson, 1977, p.3) and this sense of duty and heroism is possibly what is needed to push through that grey hazy period.

Baudelaire argues that his ‘age is no less fertile in sublime themes than past ages’ (Baudelaire, 1846, p.949). He feels that a work of art should resonate the atmosphere of its time. France’s urban heart was going through social and economic shifts thus makes life more complex. John Middleton Murray describes Paris to be in an ‘age of rampant industrialism and violent and abortive revolution; of the hideous and uncontrolled eruption of the great cities; of all squalor of a victorious and hypocritical materialism’ (Murray, 1962, p.94). It was a confusing Paris and painting was also in the same boat. ‘One view held in common by conservatives and radicals alike’ ‘was that art was in a bad state and in urgent need of change’ as ‘what was being produced in the noble manner was of the same quality as the art of the past’ and ‘the old themes were losing their meaning’ (Hanson, 1977, p.4). Art now draws a larger public but is less educated; they are unaware of the biblical and mythological stories of grand historic paintings and do not bother to read the long explanations in the entries of the Salon catalogues. Therefore traditional scenes proved cryptic. Théophile Gautier even said in L’Art Moderne that earlier subjects had so lost their relevance and that ‘historical landscapes were seen as being like wallpapers in provincial inns’ (Gautier, 1856, p.256).

The idea of looking at one’s immediate surroundings championed by Baudelaire can be found in the oil paintings by the heroic painter of wooden life, Edouard Manet. Hanson wrote that Manet was a ‘cosmopolitan with his enthusiasm for life but a flaneur resistance to explosive emotion, equipped with dazzling technical facility might have met Baudelaire’s ideal, but the timing was wrong’(Hanson, 1977, p.21). Baudelaire was aware of Manet’s artistic practice though a huge age gap denies Manet of being an example in his essay The Painter of Modern Life (1964). Nonetheless, Manet used Baudelaire’s writings as a catalyst to examine life in Paris and to fuel his rebellious practice which involves reconciling his love for tradition and desiring to propose a novel outlook.

Manet clever exhibiting strategy and his ‘eye’ for understanding the current atmosphere of Paris subsequently questions the hierarchy of genre championed by the Salon’s conservatives and the political nature of the exhibition space. When the painting A Bar at the Folies-Bergère (1882) was exhibited at the Paris Salon in 1882, it gave birth to a new hero. The hero or to be more exact, the heroine’s name is Suzon and is depicted as working in the bar, elegantly dressed in a black sombre jacket and face detached from the noisy crowd. An air of melancholia lingers around her like a sombre melody and is made more vivid due to its juxtaposition with the cheerful reflections of the busy scene in-front and lights from the shimmering chandeliers hanging over the heads of the predominantly bourgeois crowd. The painting could be read as a woman alienated from her surroundings and appears as though to be clinging to the bar as she is in a ‘floating existence’ and is ‘drifting about in the underworld’. A lady from the suburbs struggling to pay rent, buy modern outfits for her leisure times and keep herself afloat in the harsh city was given the same symbolic spatial dignity in the exhibition space as the war hero or the important social leader. This overwhelming current of modern life requires courage to brace through. When the painting was displayed in the Paris Salon, a humble figure from a questionable background stood tiredly though proudly next to bold generals, steadfast war heroes and legendary politicians.

Another painting by Manet depicting a modern heroine is Olympia (1863) and is often described as ‘the most Baudelairean of all Manet’s paintings’ (Adler, 1986, p.62). The painting depicts a self-conscious ivory-skinned young prostitute resting on a white soft bed in a simple sparsely-lit interior with a black servant presenting a luscious bouquet of fresh flowers probably from an admirer. An ebony cat with an arched back is depicted in a surprised position at the foot of the courtesan and seems to melt into the darkness. The art-writer Kathleen Adler states that the ‘courtesan, maid, and cat, may be seen as creatures in captivity’ and the prostitute is ‘as much the fierce aggressive kitten, was ultimately powerless, dependant of a protector’s benevolence’ (Adler, 1986, p.62). This image evokes a sense of danger and recklessness in the pursuit of pleasure which ‘offended to the core the double standard of which decreed that bourgeois respectability and illicit pleasures be kept separate’ (Adler, 1986, p.62). Again, Manet who had always considered the exhibition as a battle-ground displayed the painting in the 1865 Salon to challenge the dominant conservative taste of the period and by using a contemporary subject matter of such ‘underworld’ origin, he suggests the public to turn away from cherishing traditional characters and scenes that are no longer relevant in modern Paris but look into the ‘real’ lives and stories happening deep in the belly of their beloved city. Artists, writers and other creative thinkers began rebelliously to question society and culture in a way responding to traditional structures.

The iconic film scene from Chungking Express in the introductory paragraph echoes the build-up of the dramatic period where there is a need for definition of the current reality. Baudelaire’s proposition of the characteristics of the modern hero is re-examined in a contemporary setting by Kar-wai. This changing in perspective is due to a paradigm-shift. Characters in the film, such as the blonde female who turned out to be a drug-dealer played by Bridgitte Lin, float in-and-out of colourful scenes like ghosts in a hungry festival. She comes from the heart of the ‘underworld’ and unwilling to commit in concrete gestures and signs similar to the modern inhabitants of Manet’s painted world but in this new paradigm, defining heroism would not be an easy task. As life is tough in ‘modern’ Paris, life becomes even more complicated in postmodern Hong Kong.

The intellectual complexity of the period is explained by Terry Eagleton as ‘a style of thought which is suspicious of classical notions of the idea of universal progress or emancipation of single frameworks, grand narratives, or ultimate grounds of explanation’ (Eagleton, 1992, p1-19). This attitude is further fuelled by feeling of scepticism of modernity’s heroic masculine gestures for progress and truth (examples of the female characters in Manet’s paintings that are under the gaze of the male artist) and ‘sees the world as contingent, ungrounded, diverse, unstable, indeterminate, a set of disunified cultures or interpretations which breed a degree of scepticism about the objectivity of truth, history and norms, the givenness of natures and the coherence of identities’ (Eagleton, 1992, p1-19). Eagleton explains that this way of seeing ‘has a real material conditions: it springs from an historic shift in the west to a new form of capitalism- to the ephemeral, decentralized world of technology, consumerism and the culture industry, in which the service, finance and information industries triumph over traditional manufacture, and classical class politics yield ground to a diffuse range of ‘identity politics’ (Eagleton, 1992, p1-19). He further concludes that ‘post-modernism is a style of culture which reflects something of this epochal change, in a depthless, decentered, ungrounded, self-reflexive, playful, derivative, eclectic, pluralistic art which blurs the boundaries between ‘high’ and ‘popular’ culture, as well as between art and everyday experience’ (Eagleton, 1992, p1-19). Thus the classical ‘centered sytem’ does no longer exist; there is no longer a noble end or a higher purpose to be fulfilled. A ‘self-reflexive’ hero is not such an honourable hero. A protagonist that changes his cause everyday seems like an undependable character. Jirina Siklova in her essay Courage, Heroism, and the Postmodern Paradox (2001) which talks about political heroism in Czech Republic in the mid-1990s argues that ‘in postmodern times we are therefore obliged every day to decide repeatedly whether our actions are right or not. It is tiring. We suffer from a dearth of unquestioned rituals’ (Siklova, 2004, p.144). An instant reaction of a heroic act requires a internalized system of values that is rigid and structured or an endeavour to achieve a specific goal that is deemed imperative enough to sacrifice other values require a belief that one is truly right. Siklova states that ‘where such goals require courage or even heroic actions, scepticism is an insurmountable obstacle’ (Siklova, 2004, p.144). The woman with the blonde wig said to Cop 223, played by Takeshi Kaneshiro in a shadowy bar scene, that people’s characters are always in a state of flux and ‘that knowing someone doesn’t mean keeping them. People change. A person might like pineapple today and something else tomorrow’.Thus if the hero might not be a person as he or she in unstable emotionally, could it then be an object that is emotionless? Could it be a large object that contains a large number of other objects and people such as a city?

Chungking Express tells two stories of lovelorn Hong Kong policemen that are woven together into the fabric of the urban soul. The first, Cop 223 (Kaneshiro) is a regular at the Midnight Express takeaway has been abandoned by his long-time girlfriend and sadly counts the date for their possible reunion by purchasing and consuming tinned pineapples of a specific date which is a favourite food of his former lover. He then met a blonde-wigged drug dealer (Lin) that becomes his new love-interest. The second is about Cop 663 (Tony Leung), who also is a regular at the takeaway joint and had been dumped by his air hostess girlfriend and mourns the loss by talking to inanimate objects in his tiny flat such as a ragged towel and a used bar soap. He then met Faye (Faye Wong); a free-spirited girl that sneaks into and fills the cop’s apartment with new objects of her own such as canned food, goldfish and towels. The cop eventually catches her while in his apartment though she escaped. A request for a date by the cop was later unfulfilled as Faye quits her job at the Midnight Express and became a stewardess bound for California. A year passes and she returns to the takeaway bar to find that the cop is the new owner. The film ends with an unresolved enigma of their future.

Hong Kong was in a peculiar state when the movie was filmed. Surprisingly, echoing the cultural and social mood of Paris during the time of Baudelaire, Hong kong in the mid-1990s, was according to the writer Janice Tong as ‘experiencing the state of its own disappearance’ and a ‘shroud of uncertainty has bathed the city-state since the 1984 Sino-British Joint Declaration returning Hong Kong to China’ (Tong, 2003, p.19).

Sean Radmond, in his film analysis of the movie stated that people in Hong Kong are ‘perceived to be always on the move, rushing about, on their way to work, to eat, to buy, to sell, in a city where so much on offer is equivalent of the world’s fastest fast-foods’ and that it is ‘an unstable place and the people are unstable within it’ (Radmond, 2008, p.22). It is ‘in this city of aching dreams, people suffer an identity crisis, very much like the city itself- caught between East and West, Cantonese and Mandarin, tradition and modernity, independence and governorship, wealth and poverty, nothing sit easily in/on Hong Kong’ and ‘its mix of people, its unresolved history, its break-neck trajectory, its commodification, its teeming spatial organization and its ‘collective’ identity crisis is central to the way, Chungking Express can be read and understood’ (Radmond, 2008, p.27). The modernist’s ‘floating existence’ is exaggerated and zipped as explained by Tong as a ‘place we find a mobile state of rupture where images, space, time, characters and narratives fold in upon each other, weaving a skein of images that threaten to slip from our gaze’ (Tong, 2003, p.54). This postmodern Hong Kong seems like as unstable as the characters that inhabit it but there must be a set of constants that govern its logic and it must have affected the way the inhabitants function.

The character Faye illustrates the ‘modern hero’ in a new context. As a ‘postmodern heroine’, her daily habitat and situation are surprisingly similar to Suzon’s, the character in Manet’s painting. While Suzon is placed behind a glittery counter, Faye is stuck behind a greasy one subsequently also serving something unhealthy, oily American quick takeaways. The both seemed trapped and powerless in their existence. While Suzon’s bar is elegantly European in its decor, Faye’s slimy metallic counter-top and glass counter hold advertisements from Coca Cola, with menu of unwholesome Western food and the air is repeatedly poisoned by a Western song from the mid-1970s. The recurring song is California Dreamin and alludes to her dreams of escaping to California and leaves her immediate reality to a place that is freer. A post-modern hero may jump ship and abandon his or her cause at any time, never tied to a cause. This phenomena could be explained in term of time and space, and that ‘our entire contemporary social system has little by little begun to lose its capacity to retain its own past, has begun to live in a perpetual present and in a perpetual change that obliterates traditions of the kind which earlier social formations have had in one way or another to preserve’ (Jameson, 1985, p.125). Is this un-heroic symptom suffers by Faye carved by the conditions of living in the city? Her desire to leave is due to her condition of being quicksand in a greasy mindless job but regardless she still returned, though in a new uniform (airhostess) and job that allows to escapes whenever she desires.

Olympia’s heroic gesture and femme-fatale personality are interrogated by Kar-wai’s character of the confident drug-dealer in trouble. The self-assured concubine, with a dominant gaze and supple skin showing openly is compared with the unnamed blonde criminal who is contrastingly layered like an onion by her striking wig, dark shades and trench coat in comparison to the naked prostitute. Her dominating character controls her surrounding though when a drug trafficking exercise turned sour, she becomes like a woman who is trapped and hunted, almost like Olympia’s kept position. Both represent characters that exist at the fringe of society, from the dark and grimy ‘underworld’, whether stark naked or clothed, exposed or hidden, their existence is due the nature how society functions.

Both cops in the movie allude to the stereotypical masculine nature of heroic modernism though in contemporary times, these male figures, instead of upholding law, fighting for truth or committed to protecting society, are busier trying to fill their hearts with love or lusting over real and fake women. Their responsibilities as male heroic figures are challenged by meaningless selfish acts they commit on a daily basis. The male modern artists’ gaze apparent in Olympia and A Bar at the Folies-Bergère are echoed especially in the beginning scene when Cop 223 was distracted by a blonde female mannequin carried in street while he was escorting a hooded criminal thus allowing him to escape. Self-interest prevails over selfless heroism. Their presence in the city creates awareness that there is law present but this is just a façade as they will not implement them.

Kar-wai’s fast-paced film illustrates a city teeming with life as scenes appear cluster phobic and packed from frame to frame. People live in small areas in the concrete jungle and their interactions with each other create complex and deep though fleeting relationships. The city constructs lives, realities, desires and futures. It’s the power of the city to influence the inhabitants’ lives and the scale of it justifies it as a ‘heroic’ object that vomits a ‘heroic’ stream or current that act as mini arenas for valiant acts to happen. It’s a single object that itself constantly changing and in return creates a fluctuating society within its ribs that seems to viciously spin in constant circles.

Postmodernity has created a shift in perception of heroism and that the characteristics of the modernist heroes are questioned. It’s harder to be heroic than before. Scepticism over truths and grand narratives make great heroic acts impossible to encounter therefore maybe we should appreciate smaller heroic acts or merely just kindness to each other at any given moment that are created by the fact that people live closer to each other. Though the interactions are always fleeting and short such as holding the door for a stranger, these instances stop this swift current of life for a split second for us to realize that our social condition and reality which is due to our immediate urban architecture need to be re-evaluated and appreciated. We need not be self-enclosed and lonely amidst strangers like our modern heroine Suzon but create links with our immediate surroundings. As confessed by the young lovelorn Cop 223, the sparse condition for him to rapidly fall for a woman is to be physically close to her for as much as 0.01 cm and for a blink of an eye, these conditions are sufficient enough for intimacy to be kindled and the seed of love to be planted.

Bibliography

Books and journals.

Adler, K. (1986) Manet. Oxford: Phaidon Press Limited.

Baudelaire, C. (1846) On the Heroism of Modern Life, Salon of 1846, Complete Oeuvre.

Eagleton, T. (1996) The Illusion of Postmodernism. UK: Blackwell Publishers.

Gautier, T. (1856) L’ Art modern. Paris.

Hanson, A. (1977) Manet and the Modern Tradition. New Haven: Yale University Press.

Jameson, F. (1985) Postmodernism and Consumer Society, Postmodern Culture. London: Pluto Press.

Murray, J. (1962) Baudelaire, A Collection of Critical Essay.New Jersey: by Prentice Hall

Radmond, S. (2008) Studying Chungking Express. UK: Auteur Press.

Siklova, J. (2004) Courage, Heroism, and the Postmodern Paradox. Social Research: An International Quarterly. Volume 71, Number 1 /spring 2004. Page135 – 148.

Tong, J. (2003) Chungking Express: Time and its Displacements in Berry Chris (ed.) Chinese Films in Focus: 25 New Takes, London: BFI.

World Wide Web document.

Jones, J. (2000) Portrait of the Week. [internet]. Availabe from [Accessed 19 January 2012]

Film.

Chungking Express. (1994) Directed by Wong Kar-wai. Hong Kong: Jet Tone Production Co. [Video: DVD].

Works of art.

Manet, E. A Bar at the Folies-Bergère (1882), oil on canvas. London: Courtauld Institute.

Manet, E. Olympia (1980), oil on canvas. Paris: Musée d'Orsay.

2012-01-30T18:15:00.000-08:00

Screen-printing workshop

2012-01-23T16:14:00.001-08:00

Reworked

2012-01-18T17:09:00.000-08:00

2012-01-11T11:48:00.000-08:00

Drawing installation 2012

Industrial paint on handmade paper

Variable sizes

Kings Cross, London

2012

Chungking Express (1994)

2012-01-11T11:46:00.000-08:00

I've recently purchased this Wong Kar-wai classis online and it will serve as a research topic for a presentation. I'm all excited to watch it.

Box for making copies of disparate objects that create physical limitations and hinders craft IV

2011-12-20T04:54:00.000-08:00

Installation, Dec 2011, King X

2011-12-20T04:40:00.000-08:00

Statement 2011

2011-11-30T17:59:00.001-08:00

Box for making clay animal figurines that subsequently create physical limitations and hinders craft.

The initial idea for the ‘box’ (box for making clay animal figurines that subsequently create physical limitations and hinders craft) is to create a vessel to make ‘art’ in, to challenge myself to create a less ‘organic-looking’ object and to work in a different way than previous methods. It was originally a ‘prop’ in a process of material play. It was assigned to play a role of a stage, a raised platform, a pedestal, a catalyst, a cave or a highlighter that elevate or conceal a specific act of making and working.

Walter Benjamin in his ‘Illumination’ essay states that art’s origin is through secretive rituals that happen in concealed spaces such as caves and that only a few privileged individuals other than the artist can bear witness. The ritual of making in my practice is hidden behind the walls of the ‘boxes’ and only my hands could view them. Though the ‘box’ conceals the magic of making and elevates the process of material play (clay), it also hinders the creative process such as blocking-off or allowing partial sight, limiting manual dexterity and controlling the size of the clay (the medium manipulated inside). The first ‘box’ was literally a box, a simple geometric form held together by tape and adhesive with a detachable lid and two opening on its front wall for my hands to slide in. It was a container to make a set of clay cats derived from memory of my family’s domestic felines in Kuala Lumpur.

The initial drivers of my practice are material play and the process of making. The progression of it depends on formal and conceptual languages that are based on an internal logic as Jefford Horrigan stated. Forms and materials speak to each other. The formal qualities of the box changed significantly as time passed by, it becomes larger, structurally more complex and made out multiple layers of cardboard, coated with different types of industrial paint and it starts to look more and more like a ‘sculpture’, but in actuality it should be considered as a ‘prop’. It functions sometimes as a raised platform to increase comfort level while working, a storage unit for logistics purposes and serve as pedestal for the animal figurines to cement is objective nature. Though there is a point in the process that they start to possess characteristics of an ‘art-object’ and go through a metamorphosis state. The box and what it produces when placed in an artistic ecosystem starts to change its innate functions and suggests to a variety of complex relationships, some awkward, some contradictory, some challenging and some mute. The work is held together by a set of very considered choices that bounce- off each of the step, affected by different components of the making process and these choices could stem from even trivial nuances of activity such as the number of layers of paint applied on the surface of the box, the structure of the base or the colour chosen.

Thus as I continue to pursue this method of production and stick to the assigned material choice, a set of components starts to become visible as I break-down the process. These components become interesting elements for play. The ritualistic nature of this series allows a pattern of the components to emerge and this pattern could be manipulated and re-arranged resulting into multiple potential relationships and new possibilities. New scenarios, formal and metaphorical relationships emerge as the arrangements change.

Haffendi Anuar

2011

2011-11-27T16:23:00.001-08:00

2011-11-27T16:22:00.000-08:00

Box for making copies of disparate objects that create physical limitations and hinders craft I

2011-11-27T15:43:00.000-08:00

Braham Garden commission

2011-11-20T16:34:00.000-08:00

"Space, and space again, is the infinite deity which surrounds us and in which we are ourselves contained."
-Max Beckmann

Work in progress

2011-11-20T16:31:00.000-08:00

Box for making copies of disparate objects that create physical limitations and hinders craft II

2011-11-15T15:12:00.000-08:00

Box for making copies of disparate objects that create physical limitations and hinders craft II
2011
Mixed media
Dimension variable

Work on paper

2011-11-15T15:04:00.000-08:00

Work on paper I
2011
Watercolor and gouache on paper
21 x 29.7 cm

Untitled (blue box)

2011-11-13T13:48:00.001-08:00

Study for boxes I

2011-11-13T13:28:00.000-08:00

Study for boxes
2011
Acrylic on cardboard mounted on canvas

Elad Lassry, White Cube, Hoxton Square

2011-09-26T01:21:00.000-07:00

Elad Lassry

White Cube Gallery

Hoxton Square, East London

23 September - 12 November 2011

A gregarious and loud bunch of fashionable young adults holding bottles of beer congregated in front of the White Cube for the opening of Elad Lassry show on the 22nd of September 2011. It was a spectacle to behold especially having just visited a small gallery opening beforehand with just a handful of visitors; I found out that there were more young adults drinking alcohol in front of the gallery than there are people inside appreciating the art. The usually bandanna-clad Lassry is a young photography and film artist from Tel Aviv and is having his first show in London and at the venue. It consists of a collection of small-scaled photographs and objects that investigates the nature of perception and the present-day image. His practice expands the traditional field of portraiture, still-life and landscape through the intensity of picture, the vividness of the images and the vagueness of the meaning. Candy-coloured images of an eclectic selection of objects, animals and people adorned the main floor hall with the addition of a white wall-mounted cabinet and a wooden panel with eggs attached to it. His visual language is varied though controlled. The series of pretty photographs appeared to be set up in a photography studio and captured and are all printed whether in portrait or landscape, precisely in the same scale. The dominant or complementary hue in each photograph is painted on the frames as an attempt to extend the pictures presence into the real world. He stated that he attempts to blur the line between our reading of the picture as an image or as an object and the shadow from the frames are casted upon the picture, we read the picture as an object instead of an image and when the shadow from the frame is casted on the wall, it is read as the picture extending itself into the real world. I think this is an unimportant and uninteresting reading of the pictures/objects as a person will hardly get confused whether the frames are part of the image or separate from it. The sensitively coloured frames is trivial in understanding the exhibition though maybe it is an attempt for Lassry to tie the disparate images together in an attempt to read the works as a whole instead of singular works. The importance of the frames seems like an early philosophical musing, something that a first-year art student might for a college project. The works are scattered harmoniously throughout the gallery, hung at about the same height from the floor and the spaces between them are considered with great efficiency. Their varied subject matter implies some message that artist wants the audience to decipher but due to their prettiness, I became uninterested to read them as I enjoy their formal qualities as well-printed and composed photographs. I was drawn though the spectacle of the opening night, the crowds, their relationship to the works and the stationed gallery-sitters. The crowd on the opening night are a typical group you would find at a prestigious or trendy art’s event in London. The well-dressed and elegant crowd moved along the sculpted pristine space, briefly looking at the works but ignoring one interesting aspect of this whole spectacle, which is actually the existence of the gallery sitters in the exhibition space. They hardly make any contact with the sitters whom exist to guard the valuable works from the audiences’ physical contact. These sitter, whom are usually creatively dressed in a suave manner such as playing with the juxtaposition of fabric, color coordination and unpredictable jewellery are themselves in a sense works of art. They stand at corners of the space, standing stoically and emotionless, looking into space or at the visitors. They guard the works on behalf of the gallery. They also represent different personas of a young creative individual, emitting different emotions and aspirations. They seem like statues or life-sized sculptures, human figures casted in resin so to stop them from interacting with the rowdy visitors though they will initiate contact with the visitor if one strays to close to the works. It is interesting to see how they blend into the environment and become part of the exhibition. Lassry didn’t plan this to happen, but their presence in the space especially during the opening night, speaks a lot about the temporary power structure within this specific institution and ranks within the system at a specific time. The artworks become secondary but the spectacle of the opening, the structure of the whole event and the distribution of the artworks and the gallery sitters during that event are interesting elements to ponder.

Haffendi Anuar

2011

August 2011

2011-08-23T20:06:00.000-07:00

Reflective writing 7

2011-05-31T15:21:00.000-07:00

Manifesto for object-making –

The function of an object should be decided first before making it.

Objects must be made to function.

The title of an object should hint at or imply of its intended functions.

The functions could concern spirituality, health and well-being, happiness, comfort or simply for aesthetics reasons.

The works should be fun.

The process of creating these objects is as important as the final forms.

Objects must be wearable, made in relation to the human body or for human-scale.

The objects can be made for specific wearers (fictional or real) or for the general public.

Objects must be made by hand, either by the artist or commissioned to be made by other artists or artisans.

The materials that make up these objects are extremely important and should be listed along with the title.

These objects must be made from salvaged materials or debris from charity shops with additions of crafts or art materials.

Objects could change in formor meaning as they are passed around by different wearers.

Objects must appear as though there are mobile.

Objects must be well made but not necessarily comfortable or perfectly functional.

Objects must appear well constructed but have areas for wear and tear.

The objects must also be visually and structurally interesting.

Haffendi Anuar

Rosebery Avenue, London

29th of May, 2011

Trinity Buoy Wharf private view

2011-05-27T12:54:00.000-07:00

Studies of the sites in Trinity Bouy Wharf

2011-05-25T16:17:00.000-07:00

Studies on the sites in Trinity Bouy Wharf

2011

Water color and graphite on bristol board

29.7 x 21 cm

Reflective writing 6

2011-05-22T17:52:00.000-07:00

I am a creator of objects.

I am interested with how we as creatures interact with the physical world. How we classify objects and things and how we differentiate them. How the objects are attached to us but are still separate. Why we create these art-objects and why do we classify them as art-objects. Why art objects shouldn't look like art objects and why should they look like art-objects.
I create these objects, as experiments and propositions of how we classify and define the way we structure the world and ideas. I work with a specific language, a language derived from Modernist masters concerning the structural and formal conditions of an art-object though I am aware of the importance of content within my practice. Though the content mostly is concerned with the form and I am trying my best not to limit my language and trying to expand it. Research has been important, drenching the objects with cultural connotations and historical facts seem to make it more serious though I will have to think twice about its success later review that conception. The choice of materials is also vital within my practice. Ingredients and materials vary depending on the project though I do I a preference for certain materials that would be more practical and affordable. The visual qualities of my work is also important and elements like color and form are very considered. I am aware that many of my peers are concerned with using props that do not appear like art-objects to create a statement or a proposal or have a practice that would be 'object free'. I do find it interesting that some of them still use these props and hoping to find a structural reaction and this has cropped up during crits in class. I still feel the act of creating is important in my practice and I enjoy making these objects or fragments of objects to tell a story or a proposal. Whether the objects should have a function would be discussed at a later date and it is a healthy dilemma I am facing in terms of progressing forward. Would the objects be taken seriously in a contemporary setting if they have a function and would be valuable to society or would they still be considered interesting or important if they do not have a utilitarian function but are visually interesting and proposes an idea that is ridiculously far-fetch and irrational.

23rd May 2011

Architectural armpits

2011-05-21T02:16:00.001-07:00

Reflective writing 5

2011-05-15T19:55:00.000-07:00

Palimpsest

Cleaned and used again

The prosess of creating palimpsest usually occurs on the surfaces of objects. It usually asscociated with text or scriptures, the layering of marks and is gestural. Its is an act of destruction but also creation. Palimpsest occurs intentionally or unintentionally. My interpretation of palimpsest in the form of a sculptural object would involve salvaging an old sculpture and working it in a way to connote to my current interest in my practice.

15th May 2011

Trinity Bouy Wharf Residency

2011-05-15T18:19:00.000-07:00

2011-05-09T16:14:00.000-07:00

Reflective writing 4

2011-05-09T09:14:00.000-07:00

Do not pigeon-hole yourself as you would already be pigeon-holed

Being a foreign artist in London is a topic or point of study frequently discussed by artists coming from diverse countries ranging from Latin America, Asia and Europe. London makes you feel at home and alien simultaneously. The need or desire to position oneself within the city’s art scene is to acknowledge there is a natural cataloguing force that labels artists into groups that are easily distinguishable. Coming from Malaysia, there are historical and political connections between Malaysia and the United Kingdom. This link is quite evident and that it has residual elements coming from Malaysia’s post-colonial past. Having lived and studied in America, I never felt that I had to use my cultural background or position myself within the larger art scene there and I assumed that it would happen organically. Though in London and specifically Central Saint Martins, the importance of situating one’s practice is highlighted and interestingly it is stressed even in the first year of art school. The term to situate one’s practice is vague and diverse. It rings up a lot of questions.
Do I need to scour my personal, cultural and historical background for “stuff” to add bulk to my practice or act as a form of catalyst for my practice to progress? Should I? Is it vital for a young artist from Southeast Asia to consider his cultural background when making works? Is it dangerous for the artist to use materials that have cultural allusions to his own as this would be hinting at his desire to self-label? Is situating oneself within a location or timeframe and concretizing it the same as creating a public-persona?

8th of May 2011
Nolia’s Gallery, London

Private View of UTOPIA: An Exhibtion on the Architecture of Perfection

2011-05-08T15:55:00.000-07:00

Learning to Inhabit the World in a Better Way: Sharing a Meal

2011-05-08T15:32:00.000-07:00

UTOPIA: An Exhibtion on the Architecture of Perfection
at Nolia’s Gallery
60 Great Suffolk Street, SE1 0BL
London, UK

6 - 10th May 2011 11:00 - 17:00
Above are installation views.

The event occurred on the 5th of May, at 6 pm to 8 pm, at Nolia's Gallery.

The Turbine Hall: Ai Weiwei

2011-05-05T03:27:00.000-07:00

Haffendi Anuar
The Turbine Hall, Tate Modern
Sunflower Seeds
Ai Weiwei

The overwhelming 155 meters long cold industrial space used to house the machineries that provide electricity to the whole structure by turning water movements into energy when the building was still a factory. Turbine halls are generally loud and hot though this is not the case anymore after being institutionalized. As one enters the grand entrance of Tate Modern via the South Bank, a mild downward slopes gracefully pulls you to the corner of the building, past the ticket booth and video installation to a contemplative space where you will be greeted by millions of tiny grain-like objects that collectively create a desolate, bleak, monochromatic sculptural landscape. The objects appear as sunflower seeds but are hand-crafted out of porcelain in a village in China with a production method similar to a traditional factory. It is a commissioned work paid by the multinational conglomerate that employs 167,000 employees with products sold in 180 countries and provides most of the food, beverage and household-products of the modern world, UNILEVER for the internationally-renowned Chinese artist Ai Weiwei in response to this specific interior space.

The Space
The Turbine Hall has been a fluid structure. Every year the space temporarily houses large commissioned works by well-known international artists and Ai is the first Asian artist to be selected. The cold grey concrete floor, the steel beams that act like a skeletal form that holds the structure internally, the viewing ramp and the series of skylights create a stage in an almost theatrical-way. The slope acts like a grand entrance, and the space under the ramp, is like a stage curtain, creating a dramatic shaded area which then spectator will be immersed in a body of light when he or she emerges to the area where the piece is situated. The viewing ramp allows the viewer a top-view of the piece and to acknowledge the immensity of the work.
The piece in the space

The piece is an immense body that is comprised of roughly 100 million seeds. The seeds are realistically crafted in size, shape and colour. Moulded out of ceramic and painted with traditional Chinese calligraphy ink it is made by a large workshop working with traditional casting method in the village of Jingdezchen, southern China¹. The seeds with its monochromatic colour scheme seem to melt into the concrete industrial floor. When one walks to the edge of the mass, behind the roped-barrier, one could see individual seeds that collectively create this massive pale body while viewed from the ramp above, individual seeds melt into one another and a monstrous carpet-like shape takes over.

The whole sculptural landscape appears slightly rectangular and is pushed to the back corner of the monstrous space, touching the back 35 meters high walls and steel beams. It was intended for the audience to walk on as though walking on a patch of crispy sands on an empty beach. However, on the 15th of October, the piece was barred from walking because of health and safety reasons. The porcelain dust created by large volume of visitors walking on it is hazardous if inhaled consistently for a period of time ². The lucky ones were able to activate the piece as it should be while later visitor are only able to view the works like paintings on a wall in the Surrealism room above. With the barrier in place, segregating about 50cm of space in between the roped barrier to the edge of the 100 meters long piece, one is unable to experience the work’s tactile quality and also from bringing home a seed. A gallery guard is constantly on patrol, walking the length of the exhibition with a grave expression and an aura of authority.

Guiding the audience
The work is set at the corner of the space, distant from the entrance of the museum and though the piece is somewhat plain, neutral and quiet, the introduction to the work situated under the viewing platform is loud and informative. Wall text leads the audience to the piece via a large visual arrow situated on the wall below the platform. A video room plays a documentary on a loop. The video, created by Tate, describes the working process and is narrated by the artist himself brings the viewers to the place where the seeds are made. Another room situated below the steps to the viewing platform houses video panels for viewers to ask Ai questions or to answer questions posed by another participant. The videos are uploaded onto an external website in about 48 hours after being recorded. The work is accompanied heavy documentation such as a video documentary, filmed in China and shows the process of making the work and aired in the video room and a 144 page exhibition catalogue compiled.

The Turbine Hall as a medium
The grand commissions in the Turbine Hall throughout its 12 years history has been a respond or reflections to the function, architecture and assumed responsibility of the space. Boris Groys once said about installations in museums is that “the material support of the installation medium is the space itself…and the installation transforms the empty, neutral, public space into an individual artwork- and invites the visitor to experience this space as the holistic, totalizing space of an artwork”⁴. The Turbine Hall works like a mouldable medium, an empty canvas or a piece of clay that the artists share and take turns on an annual basis to explore its possibilities though the power to decide rests on Tate and Unilever’s shoulders. How artists have used the space and how has Ai used it

Throughout the years the space has been manipulated in a variety ways, the architecture and perceived function of the space has been altered and the flow of traffic though the space has been sculpted in such a way that the space or air within is redefined or changed. Starting with Louise Bourgeois’s spiralling staircase that allows the visitors to walk up vertically in a circular motion and experiencing the space in a physical way. It was the most traditional in the sense that Bourgeois consider the space as an exhibition arena and hardly took advantage of the space except for its height. Moreover, Carsten Höller’s Test Site challenges the physical experience of being in an art museum through the feeling of a rush of adrenaline overcoming the audience when experiencing an artwork. His piece allows the visitor to physically cross the space in curvaceous movements, cutting through the air of the hall via the slides and move through the exhibition space in a paced different from the artwork viewing rhythm. The Weather Project by Olafur Eliasson turns the interior space of the hall inside out by suspending an object that appears like the sun in the hall thus allowing the audience to sunbath on the concrete floor. Rachel Witeread created a maze-like installation with semi-translucent interior casts of boxes thus turning the vast usually bleak space of the hall to appear like a ghostly storage depot while Anish Kapoor concentrated on the potential of the architecture of the space and stretched a piece of visually organic artificial material from one end of the hall to other thus filling the bleak space with a visually loud material. Doris Salcedo on the other hand shattered the pristine well-maintained condition of the post-industrial space by creating a vast chasm that’s cuts the concrete floor throughout the length of the space. The rough cut hinders movement on the ground level and change the traffic flow.

Ai’s piece is similar to Salcedo’s and that he forces the viewers to look down to the floor instead of at the walls like other artworks in the permanent collection rooms though unlike Shibboleth, his piece alters the architecture in a very minimal way. Ai in an interview said that his work “has a kind of psychic power because it’s so quiet, it looks so minimal and the space remains untouched” ⁵. Maybe, Ai’s strategy for his installation was to manipulate the space as little as possible unlike most artists before him and that his seeds, that appear like weightless husks or dust and in a way similar to Bruce Nauman’s very minimal touch, though Ai still considered the work as an object and filled the space with something tangible.

Moreover, in Ai’s Sunflower Seeds exhibition installation, the main piece, which is the sculptural landscape consisting of millions of seeds’ position is enhanced with a number of condiments to make the work more digestible to the general public and enhance the experience of immersing with the piece by the use of a documentary video room, the interactive videos screens and the viewing ramp. The curatorial decision that organizes the placement of the disparate components of the exhibition has been successful. The works and its components are read not separately but as a whole and the flow of the visitors through the rooms and the main work has a specific narrative.

Conclusion
One of the questions asked by the author to Ai on the 29th of April through the interactive video screen component of the exhibition is what is going to happen to the sculpture after the show? Will it be moved back to China, returned to its birth village or be purchased or acquired by a museum? The answer is still unavailable online where the videos will be uploaded as this essay is being completed and also one has to note that Ai would be unable to answer the question as he is under the Chinese police custody. Moreover one has to remember Richard Serra’s assertion of site-specifity and that “to remove the work is to destroy the work” ⁶. Will the work die, it’s meaning collapse or implode after leaving the famous Turbine Hall as it has developed a conversation full of zesty contradictions and juxtapositions with the space, its history and its architecture. As Brendan McGetrick states in her essay in the exhibition catalogue, she listed the “incongruities that spring to mind when considering his (Ai’s) sunflower seeds – millions of pieces of ceramic, mass-produced but handmade, inspired by Communist symbolism but sponsored by a capitalist conglomerate, produced through pre-modern methods and displayed in a post-industrial space” ⁷. These contradictions and how the piece rests in the space has been the source of its strength. One cannot imagine how it would be after leaving the space and only after it had been removed, we can see its position.

Bibliography
1. Tate Publishing (2010), The UNILEVER Series, Ai Weiwei, Sunflowers Seeds, London, Tate Publishing
2. Brown, Mark (14th October 2010), Ai Weiwei’s Turbine Hall Installation Closed over Health and Safety Concerns, Guardian, UK
3. http://www.tate.org.uk/modern/unileverseries/, (last visited 25th of April 2011)
4. Groys, Boris (2010), Going Public, e-flux, Inc., NY: Sternberg Press
5. Tate (2010), The UNILEVER Series, Ai Weiwei, Sunflowers Seeds, London:Tate Publishing
6. Crimp, Douglas (1993), extracts from On the Museum’s Ruins, Cambridge: MIT Press
7. Tate (2010), The UNILEVER Series, Ai Weiwei, Sunflowers Seeds, London: Tate Publishing

Jana Nouskova

2011-05-03T16:02:00.001-07:00

Jana Nouskova is a dirty girl. She eats a large English breakfast on the unclean studio floor, without a plate but on a circular disinfected patch on the floor that mimics the shape of a plate. She sat down on the floor, bending her head down to devour the sausages, baked beans and scrambled eggs. You feel sorry for her. Though by observing her for a longer amount of time, you see something clean, you see a pure action, or acting out one of life’s basic activities with minimal object and intent. She makes eating seems like a clutter less activity, basic and primal and honest. There is something enjoyable to look at its scale, intimate, humble and direct. Her inability to explain what she does adds more to its strength as though she’s clawing her way into the idea or intent and that her practice to me seems to be as fluid as pure milk that would be hard to be contained in words but should be absorbed experientially.

UTOPIA at Nolia Gallery this Thursday 5th of May 2011

2011-05-01T14:26:00.000-07:00

Utopia - the architecture of perfection

2011-04-22T03:04:00.001-07:00

UTOPIA - the architecture of perfection

The exhibition Utopia explores the union of two entwining elements: utopia and architecture. The exhibition can be described as a fresh perspective of an enormously debatable concept: Utopia -as applied within the context of the exhibition, of architecture, and of our society. The exhibition will be one that intrigues as it will require one to dispel any presumed knowledge surrounding the term; artists seek to challenge, distort or elucidate the idea of utopia. Each artist takes on the topic on different levels of involvement, some experiment within the confines of a neighbourhood, within the gallery itself, or even with product design. What would be on display would be a fresh outlook of utopia in the subtext of architecture - made valuable by each contributor’s background and vocation.

Utopia is also a premier of the collaborative efforts between ASEAN students from distinctive European Art and Design Universities; Central Saint Martin’s College of Art and Design, Goldsmiths University of London, Architectural Association, Ecole cantonale d’art de Lausanne (ECAL).

Private View: 5th May 2011 18:00

6 - 10th May 2011 11:00 - 17:00

Nolia’s Gallery (60 Great Suffolk Street, SE1 0BL)

Reflective writing 2

2011-04-18T15:25:00.000-07:00

Working on this series of writing on myself has proved to be difficult and somewhat tedious. Its very tricky and it's open-endedness has proven to make the task more hard to grapple. I know what I'm interested in and what sort of artists I find interesting but it's hard to have a specific name to start with. Artists that I have been looking at are Daniel Buren, Andre Cadere, Franz West, Rachel Harrison and Anne Craven. I find their critique on the way art is presented to the audience interesting as well as the formal appearance of their works that they are unashamed that the works look like art-onjects and that they use this built-up language and play around with interesting. Using their understanding of it and pushing it. Its the history of looking at art-objects and reading them intrigues me. The space where they are presented and the way we read them have many sensitivities that could be explored. Formalism is still important in my work though in some circles in London it is not. I find that forms still communicate a language that can't be described by words and that the plastic qualities of the art-objects still contain possibilities of deciphering the nature of art in new ways.

19th April 2011

Reflective writing 1

2011-04-17T15:29:00.000-07:00

I've started late with writing this reflective piece, maybe I needed more time to start or that I needed more time to think about what to write and how I should approach it but in the end, I just forced myself to kicked-start the piece with a dash of self-motivation and courage. Courage is an important word that I frequently hear during discussions or talks in class or in the studios. Courage to just do it or to just pursue something, an idea, an approach or a theme. It seems like it's a strange form of energy in the creative practice and something that I might lack or that I seem to have left in Malaysia before I flew to London. I was couragous before with my work and that now I feel I lacked that spark, that push, that I-should-do- it-because-I-feel-that-it-should-be-done-that-way. My practice does not feel stagnant though with this lack of courage. I sense that I am in a preparation mode, reading, absorbing and just visiting galleries and learning about London and its treasures and the creators. There are directions that I want to pursue and positions that I need to consider. How do I situate myself? And is it healthy to think about that? Where am I now? Where do I want to go from here? And what do I want to bring along and leave as I move forward?

18th April 2011

Sharing a meal

2011-04-11T07:21:00.000-07:00

Ideas for Playing God exhibition.
Nolia Gallery
2011

Learning to inhabit the world in a better way
Sharing a meal

Utopia

A cinematic interpretation might lead the imagination towards the areas of the science-fiction or a distant future. One might conjure up in the mind images of grand cities or advanced metropolises with a perfect social-political system that house sophisticated and intelligent communities. Perfect systems running individuals. Though they work and think collectively ,individuality is not lost, one and all, discussing and constructing social documents and laws that place the individual and community above everything. These fictional societies are constructed communities with a rigid structure system that holds the peace and order intact and that technological innovations made these metropolises possible. Technology and reason work hand-in-hand.

Another clichéd image of utopia is living in the state of simplicity. It is the lack of technological wonder or complex law systems that create a society pure from distractions. It is a community that co-exists with nature. Nature in this context means the green stuff, the untainted, the un-mechanical, the chance and the free. Molly Nesbit, Hans Ulrich Obrist and Rirkrit Tiravanija wrote in the introduction piece for Utopia Station (2003) that defines utopia as ”an ancient search for happiness, for freedom, for paradise”. It’s an old longing, that desire to return to the place where Adam and Eva once lived, but a world version of it. They also state that “itself has become a conceptual no-place, empty rhetoric at best, more often than not an exotic vacation, the desert pleasure island of cliché”. Thus the danger to take-it as a location on earth could be a mistake, thus one must look at the mechanics that would happen in a utopian state and ‘sharing’ is one of it.

Though nature is a good place to start, but not in a hippie, I love Mother Nature sort-of-way, but to consider human nature. The way we behave with each other and how we occupy, communicate with each other and share in a space. In this account, the type of space I’m interested in is a social space, and the more specific type of social space is the opening day of an exhibition space. It a great setting for examining how audience interact with each other in the presence of objects imbued with seriousness. How the graveness of the situation could be removed and all the audiences be transformed into participants of the same importance and that they share with one another, maybe more than just objects but stories, experiences and most valuable time.

Nicholas Bourriard states that “art was intended to prepare and announce a future world: today it is modelling possible universes”. He implies the responsibility of art as a medium for social experimentation or value to the present instead of the old ideology of trying to predict a brighter future. A conception of the idea of a valuable present and not a better future is definitely very different from the conception of traditional Utopian ideals. The idea of a utopia seems fantastical and fleeting, as though it’s not plausible and within reach. He also says that “the role of artworks is no longer to form imaginary and utopian realities, but to actually be ways of living and models of action within the existing real, whatever the scale chosen by the artist.” Art or even architecture or architecture for art should function as a medium that acts as a catalyst to foster actions that create linkages between individuals. To acknowledge that the participants are individuals but still make them relate to one another that specific space is the aim.

Personally, I feel that a dash of intimacy would be vital and that engagement of the audience activates the intention of the piece. A mundane activity could be turned into an exercise that stirs up philosophical debates. “sharing a meal” is a set of objects meant to get the audience and participants to stop and mingle with each other. It main ingredient is a large prepared fusion dish by the artist, cooked for the gallery audience/participants at the artist’s home. Inspired by Rikrit Tiravanija’s happenings and performances where he would prepared meals for his audience in a formal gallery setting or New York and London and the meals ranges from Pad Thai, Vegetable Curry to Cup O’ Noodle. Tiravanija attempts to break the introverted contemporary lifestyle and places values on interactions and the experiential quality of engagement with not art-objects but gallery goers with the each other as well as with the artist. He once said that "There are still drinks to be had at the bar, and people to get drunk with, which is an experience you can't get on the Internet”.

The dish prepared which is an Asianized Spaghetti will be placed on a table in the gallery space and adorned by a number of condiments such as spices and vegetables. Eating utensils and plates will be provided. A printed text on the wall will show the ingredients of the Asian Spaghetti and list of the number of condiments to inform the participants what they are consuming.
The piece is meant not only about eating, but the social aspect of eating such as social interactions while eating and the aspect of sharing food, time and space. Eating is Asia is a social activity; family and friends share a meal, sit in the same room and exchange stories. In the gallery, while eating together at the same time, the participants subconsciously and collectively create a temporary community, a community where everyone is equally enjoying the same thing even though individuality is not lost, and choice is still evident as the selection of condiments will vary the eating experiences of each person. The Chinese artist Ai Wei Wei once said about Asian eating habits in an interview that “the way you pick up the dish, the combinations of foods, what you eat first offers a lot of variety. So nobody at the table will ever eat the same dinner, because it is determined by your choice, the order of the combination.” Sharing and exchanging in a space while still retaining your individuality is what I hope the piece could communicate whether the meal is delicious or unsavoury. Thus the work intends to address the topic of Utopia as a non-site, not as a location on earth whether fictional or true but as the types of activities that we do in a space.

Haffendi Anuar
London, 2011

References
http://blixa6.com/ci/tiravanija.html (1st of April, 2011)
Utopia Station (2003), http://www.e-flux.com/projects/utopia/about.html
Wellner, Mathieu, interviewing Ai Weiwei, Portrait of a Critical Mind, Mono.Kultur #22, Autumn 2009, Berlin.
Bourriade, Nicholas, Relational Aesthetics, La Presse Du Reel, First English Language Edition, 1998, Paris.

Drawings for objects II

2011-03-28T19:56:00.000-07:00

Drawings for objects II (2011), watercolor, acrylic, spices and collage on hand-made paper, 30.5 x 30.5 cm

Drawing for objects

2011-03-28T19:48:00.000-07:00

Drawings for objects (2011), watercolor, acrylic, spices and collage on hand-made paper. 30.5 x 30.5 cm

2011-03-25T18:26:00.000-07:00

2011-03-25T18:13:00.000-07:00

2011-03-25T18:07:00.000-07:00

2011-03-25T17:57:00.000-07:00

2011-03-25T17:50:00.000-07:00

2011-03-25T17:07:00.000-07:00

2011-03-21T17:32:00.000-07:00

Work in progress

2011-03-01T08:43:00.000-08:00

An experiment and a documentation project with some specific sites in London. More writing will appear soon on this subject.

2011-02-20T16:50:00.000-08:00

Another wearable form that is constructed out of a Chinese cooli hat manufactured for costume parties. The hat is solid like a rock after being coated with layers of paper pulp and painted with enamel paint. Under the rim of the form that extends around the wearer's face are spices, attached using conventional acrylic paint. When a participant wears the form, he or she is enveloped by an 'aura', in this scenario, a smell aura. In a gallery setting, the wearer is supposed to be moving about in the space, interacting with other gallery-goers, participating or viweing other artworks, in a way, creating relationships with 'others' in the space while still under the 'aura' of the form.

The wearer in the pictures is Hiroshi Kumagai.

Untitled

2011-02-14T15:48:00.001-08:00

Body parts and forms III

2011-01-23T16:43:00.000-08:00

Body parts and forms III
2010
Mixed media on paper
21 x 29.5 cm

Body parts and forms II

2011-01-23T16:38:00.001-08:00

Body parts and forms II
2010
Mixed media on paper
21 x 29.5 cm

Body parts and forms I

2011-01-02T13:43:00.000-08:00

Body parts and forms I
2010
Mixed media on paper
21 x 29.5 cm

Walkng around

2011-01-02T12:58:00.000-08:00

Table

2010-12-10T03:44:00.001-08:00

Table
2010
Spices, newspaper, adhesive, acrylic, plates, bowls, plastic cups and utensils
Dimension variable

Table is a set of table-top forms that vessel different store-bought spices that are meant to be handled and explored by the viewers. The forms were initially closed-off from the viewer, the spices contained inside them were hidden. The artists then gave the initial instruction for the viewer to come close, handle and get intimate with the forms. The abstract, colorful and textured bodies are meant to allure the viewers to handle them. The work is supposed to ignite the other senses other than the visual such as smell and touch and to propose the potential of the art-object's relationship with the viewer and allows the audience to self-explore the surprises that are contained within them. Table alludes to eating habits, eating rituals and our conception of the responsibility of the art-object. This is an attempt by the artist to include participatory elements into his works as well as exploring other possibilities on what sculptures could become such as to merge or extends the viewers physical being and senses. The work is displayed on a dinner table with the inclusion of plates and bowls to imply a formal eating setting

Creating small-scale intimate temporal sculptures using Malaysian take-away in London

2010-12-01T18:13:00.001-08:00

Creating small-scale intimate temporal sculptures using Malaysian take-away in London
2010
Digital print

Spces studies II

2010-12-01T17:43:00.000-08:00

Spices studies
2010
Varying spices, watercolor, paper and mounting board

Spices studies

2010-11-21T17:55:00.000-08:00

Spices studies
2010
Varying spices, watercolor, paper and mounting board

Specific gifts project

2010-11-21T17:52:00.000-08:00

Specif gifts project
2010
Mixed media wall installation
Dimension variable

Work in progress (London)

2010-10-30T01:19:00.001-07:00

Being in the heart of London has introduced me countless numbers of contemporary dialogues on the direction and state of global art. Going to a school that is situated well within that dialogue makes you feel that you are part of that massive international cross-continental dialogue though your part might be very minimal, like a pin-point, you do feel that you are part of something more gigantic than you. There's so many directions and experimentation I want to pursue here, I hunger to change my practice, develop a mature and complex body of work with a diverse range of allusions and references, hmmm... maybe not change, but transform it.

FRIEZE Art Fair

2010-10-22T22:39:00.000-07:00

BBC Fast Track on Malaysian Art

2010-10-18T14:35:00.000-07:00

Malaysian contemporary art scene seeks to be a draw for tourists.

Most people come away from a holiday abroad with the odd trinket or tatty souvenir.

But while on a break would you consider purchasing a piece of contemporary art?

Well, that's exactly what the Malaysian government is trying to promote, a form of art tourism - as Mike London has been finding out.

My work, Hemingway came out in the video for like a second. Here is the link for the video.

Denim

2010-10-17T15:45:00.001-07:00

Working while settling down

2010-09-29T03:25:00.000-07:00

London has proven to be interesting and diverse, too many things to see and do. Unfortunately, I still have a few projects that I need to do for home, small or big, I have promised certain individuals that I would contribute. I'm finding time between my grocery shopping at Sainsbury and running to the Tate Modern for my walkabouts to get the work done. Settling down is slow and painful, the lingering memories of home is always there in the room and in the streets. The best thing now is to get down to work and possibly later, make for myself a bowl of Indo Mee, a taste of home in a small plastic packet.

2010-09-19T15:12:00.000-07:00

The Wallace Collection

2010-09-11T11:26:00.000-07:00

Visited the Wallace Collection which is a national museum displaying beautiful works of art collected in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries by the first four Marquesses of Hertford and Sir Richard Wallace, the son of the forth Marquess. It was bequeath to Britain by Sir Richard's widow, Lady Wallace, 1897. Displayed in the Hertford house, the main London townhouse of its former owners is a grand structure containing many interesting sections and interiors. The exhibition space is massive, spanning three floors and are segregated into sections based on media. It is best known for artworks by Titian, Rembrant, Hals and Velazquez and also its superb collection of eighteenth-century French paintings, porcelain, furniture and gold boxes. It was a great experience standing in front of a Rembrandt and browsing through a superb collection of scimitars and swords. Each room has it own atmosphere and character. My favorite room is the Great Gallery on the first floor which houses an amazing collection of priceless Master's paintings. The works are well display even-though some parts were a bit too cluttered and the works are hung too high above eye-level, but I guess it is an interesting museum and worth visiting since it is free and accessible. The Wallace Collection is conveniently located in Central London, just a few minutes from Oxford Street, Baker Street and Marylebone Village.

London first day

2010-09-11T11:16:00.000-07:00

Untitled

2010-09-08T14:47:00.000-07:00

Untitled
2010
Mixed media on cardboard
52 x 44 cm

Shopping bag experiment

2010-09-03T14:14:00.001-07:00

Fair young maiden (reworked)

2010-09-03T09:03:00.000-07:00

Fair young maiden
2010
Spray paint, varnish, bamboo skewers, adhesive and paper clay
20 x 30 x 36 cm

Sinchew Daily (August 2010)

2010-08-31T20:44:00.000-07:00

Picture scanned by Alfred Choo, Malaysia, 2010.

Photo Workshop in BALI!!!

2010-08-24T22:19:00.000-07:00

A friend of mine is organizing a interesting photography workshop in the beautiful Bali. Below is some info on the workshop.

The Republik is organising a photography workshop this September in Bali, Indonesia.

The Republik’s Travel Photo Documentary Workshop 2010 is designed for photographers looking to significantly improve their work and taking it to the next level.

This workshop’s core focus is on developing the students personal style, approach, and authorship. Students learn how to identify stories, develop their vision, picture edit and put together a compelling visual narrative of their work.

Aside from class sessions with your instructor, talks and discussions with visiting professionals have been scheduled. The workshop is a platform for students, instructors, invited speakers and visiting professionals to discuss the various aspects of photography, from theory, ethics and philosophy.

The fees for this year’s workshop are at RM2000 (USD650 for students outside Malaysia) inclusive of accommodation throughout the duration of the workshop.

The workshop runs from the 21st to the 26th September 2010

Please note that because of the high demand for space, workshop admissions is on a first come first serve basis. Please revert back to this email if you're interested. I am also attaching with this email, The Joining Instructions which contains a more elaborate course description, a list of the instructors, guest speakers, activities, events and other important travel information that will ease your embarkation on this workshop.

The Instructors:

Budi Dharmawan

Johannes P Christo

Rahman Roslan

Vignes Balasingam

Lukman Bintoro

ACCOMMODATION (inclusive in your course fees):

Some of you will stay at the Puri Mesari.

The activity centre and some more accommodation are at Rama Villa.

For more information please log on to the company's (The Republik) FB page.

Contact

Best Regards,--
Rahman Roslan
Photojournalist
+60122859485
www.rahmanroslan.com

The photos are sample of Rahman Roslan's works and were taken from his blog.

Learning to leave

2010-08-24T07:48:00.000-07:00

Two weeks to go until the big migration. A migration consisting of me, my artworks and my ideas. Even though I'm leaving fairly soon, I still a lot of work to get done and settle, a writing, a bag to design, a few artworks to settle and a few openings to attend. In the mean while, I would be unable to produce new works until I have comfortably adjust myself in the new city. Time to get to work and get excited.

Heart

2010-08-19T21:55:00.001-07:00

Heart
2010
Mixed media
20 x 13 x 8 cm

Raya card design for MIKKA Green

2010-08-19T21:43:00.001-07:00

I was asked by a friend to design the Raya card for her company MIKKA Green. I painted a MIKKA Greeen fireworks with colors influenced by the company's logo. The original work was done in gouache and watercolor which I then scanned and edited on Photo shop. It is an image of a firework in full-bloom, it appears organic and delicate (the company is managed by 5 girls), and it is to symbolize a celebration and also to hint at the bunga-api that people would play during Raya. I want the image to be festive but still controlled. The firework also looks like a palm tree or a plant to connote to the aims of your company which is to promote eco-living and environmentally-friendlier lifestyles. I want the design to be simple and clean yet feminine and sexy and this is enhanced with the use of the luscious bright reds and delicate pinks lines. The card is suppose to give its receivers a fresh feeling and cheer them "naturally".

Jimmy Choo painted on my starfish!!!!

2010-08-18T12:14:00.000-07:00

I can't believe my eyes.... all the buttons on my shirt are spinning.......Dato' Jimmy Choo painted on the starfish I sculpted for Starhill Gallery and Reef Check Malaysia. The famed designer turned the plaster cast into a pretty creature with strange patterns and tiny nipple-like crystals. Its actually for a charity event that incorporates a gala night at the chic Feast Village and an auction of the starfishes for a good cause, to raise funds for Reef Check Malaysia for them to save-guard the remaining reefs in our tropical waters. Its part of this year's annual Starhill Arts Festival. I was excited when they asked me to sculpt the initial form and I think I did post about this earlier. The unfortunate thing is that I will be unable to attend the festive occasion as I will be in London by then. Photo credit - the beautiful Natrah.

Secret party

2010-08-14T22:34:00.000-07:00

Secret party
2010
Cement, newspaper, oil, acrylic, spray paint, ping pong balls, colored sand, wood and screws
3 x 33 x 15 cm

A small organic piece that is more of a construction than a sculpture. The form is derived from the form of the “tudung saji” at which the paper-mache has coated the real object. The tudung saji is an instrument made to keep insects away form food is instead turned to what appears to be a colorful nest. Secret party connotes to the current state of the Malaysian sub-cultures where parties belonging to certain minorities groups are made without the notice of the larger public.

Untitled (gold)

2010-08-14T22:05:00.000-07:00

Untitled (gold)
2010
Mixed media
41 x 20 x 28 cm

Breakthrough opening

2010-08-12T05:56:00.001-07:00

One Saturday afternoon, graced by a local Y.B., adorned by about 150 colorful cupcakes, attended by about 50 people and it was packed, loud and brash. Had a lot of fun, ate tonnes of pastry, mingled with good-old friends and downed countless cups of fizzy drinks. By the end of the day, was drained to the bones, tired but satisfied.

Update (August 8, 2010)

2010-08-07T19:36:00.000-07:00

My life has been hectic. Shows to do, writings to get on paper, searching for an accommodation in London on Gumtree, packing things, planning for a trip to Singapore, working at the gallery, last-minute shopping (especially for art materials) and applying for an internship at the Serpentine Gallery in Convent Garden. I managed to complete most of the things above, except I was slapped with another writing assignment though I would take it up happily, I do enjoy a new challenge. The internship at the gallery is the one that has been occupying my mind. I want it badly, even though it would be unpaid, it would make my transition into London life easier as I would be occupied with work and school and would not have time to waste around. So I would be flying off early next month, half-packed though very ready to go, I'm excited for a big change.

Sterling Ruby ( I adore )

2010-08-04T22:38:00.000-07:00

Sterling Ruby

Kiss Trap Kismet (and 4 details)

2008
PVC pipe, urethane, wood, expanding foam, aluminium, spray paint.

300 x 384 x 122 cm

Sterling Ruby’s three dimensional structures engage with traditional considerations of sculpture being inherently relative to the human body: things which occupy real space (rather than painting’s illusionary space) are experienced physically. Measured against minimalism’s hallowed purity of the object, where form is asserted on a conceptual level, Ruby’s Kiss Trap Kismet is a radical convergence of the sublime and abject. Presented as a towering arch, Kiss Trap Kismet poses object as organism – primal, totemic, exuding a raw, animal power in its visceral aesthetic. Mounted on a graffitied plinth, Ruby’s sculpture teeters between instinctive revulsion and stounding beauty, drawing reference to contemporary ritual, aggression, and urban experience.

An Idea is cheap, unless it is realised (Arteri Malaysia)

2010-08-04T06:21:00.000-07:00

Breakthrough interview

Our article in Arteri Malaysia on the Breakthrough 2010 Exhibition just came out. Here it is. We did the interview at the Old Town in Pavillion right after our interview with Sin Chew. It turned out to be a long one, spanning about five pages and is also adorned with multiple pics of our works. What I fear is that it might be too long that people would ignore it. Can't wait for the opening this Saturday at 3 p.m at The Gallery @ Starhill.

Before and after science

2010-07-28T22:41:00.000-07:00

Haffendi Anuar
Before and after science
2010
Cement, wire, oil, acrylic industrial paint, ping pong balls, necklace, hooks, wood, screws, paper mache and steel chain.
94 x 52 x 26 cm

RM 4000

Before and after science embodies a hodge-podge of styles, cultures, ideologies and materials. The organic-looking forms are constructed out of craft materials though the forms are derived from mass-produced objects such as plastic utensils and ping pong balls. Nature or the essence of it is thickly coated with a tone of “plastic” colors to imply an embodiment of duality, nature co-existing with the man-made. This wall-mounted construction is neither sculpture nor painting, though it steals elements from those practices to exist. It is merely a construction, an art-object that relies on the collection and joining of the detritus of society and culture for its body to have form and for its soul to awaken. The title taken from Brian Eno’s fifth studio album which I listened to during the creation of this work describes how mysteries and mutations could exist either harmoniously or in friction in this day and age. This art-object exudes a sense of mystery due to the forms, materials and color and that is further hinted with the title. Before the birth of science, myths roamed the earth and after the creation of science, new myths are created.

LONDON LONDON LONDON LONDON

2010-07-25T22:31:00.000-07:00

I just got my Visa, I'm going to London for three years!!!!! Woohooo!!!!! Central Saint Martins, here I come!!!

Before and after science (Wip)

2010-07-24T22:51:00.000-07:00

Before and after science
2010
Mixed media

Time passing by fast

2010-07-24T22:18:00.000-07:00

Maybe I have been working way too hard, doing projects, making works and writing. I keep telling myself that I'm running out of time so I got to get things done and now I'm just drained. My bones aching and muscle over-flexed. I keep telling myself too that in London I could rest for a while before school starts but I think that's just a fantasy, I know my life there would be hectic, finding and apartment, settling in, shopping and cooking for myself. Therefore, I've planned for a solo break to go to Singapore on the 1st of Sept for three days, about 6 days before I would fly to. From now until then, I would try to slow myself down, gobble more Malaysian food, especially those extra scrumptious Teriyaki chicken burgers from Hutong, Lot 10 (I can't exactly remember the name of the stall but its affordable and uber delicious) and those oily satays from behind my house. I would also play more, relax and try not to stress myself and enjoy life like those participants that fooled around with Franz West's adaptives, have fun and care less.

Tempo

2010-07-23T01:05:00.001-07:00

The Tempo invite I designed for The Gallery @ Starhill.

Skin theater

2010-07-22T06:27:00.001-07:00

Skin theater
2010
Mixed media
60 x 67 x 2 cm

Skin theater (Wip)

2010-07-20T11:51:00.000-07:00

Skin theater (Wip)
2010
Mixed media
60 x 67 x 2 cm

Breakthrough, yeeehaaaa!

2010-07-20T08:22:00.001-07:00

Study, play, work.

“Space” and “time” are two important factors in this exhibition. Breakthrough 2010 experiments with the notion of “space” and “time” as media that could be manipulated to enhance an art exhibition’s influence onto the public, the presentation of artworks and how disjointed and disparate exhibition venues could be linked via video technology and the internet (time, sound and visual). “Space” or rather locations and exhibition venues are chosen for specific aims such as to broaden the marketing and reception of the show and to ease accessibility to the artworks. “Time” is defined in this project as events and activities and are planned to enhance the engagement of the public with the artworks and the artists.

Breakthrough is an exhibition that spans three venues across town. Venues are chosen for specific reasons such as their accessibility to visitors, characteristics of the interior spaces, pedestrian’s volume and the main usage of the structures. The selected spaces are the ground floor and lobby of KL PAC, the Dasein Academy’s gallery and The Gallery @ Starhill, which is a commercial gallery located in the heart of Bukit Bintang. Moreover, due to the average-age of the exhibiting artists being below 25 years old and are recent graduates, each venue thematically represents the different aspects of a young artist’s life and creative development. The different parts are learning (study), experimenting (play) and producing works (work).

Activities such as art talks and screening of video works are conducted at the different venues as this exhibition is as an attempt to dissipate art and artists into the city, though this Utopian vision ironically uses basic marketing strategies in order to achieve that aim. The show will rely heavily on the internet for marketing and linkages such as banners, blogs and social networking sites and the disparate exhibition venues are connected through data transfer and streaming-video. This type of connectivity is not new in linking exhibitions as this has been done in Design Shows in the West as a way to connect interactions between different exhibition spaces and to increase the perceptual and interactive possibilities. Viewers in one location are able to view works and communicate using sound or visuals with spectators in the other spaces which could be in another hall or city. Less effort is required to communicate and view more artworks. Creating linkages between spaces will in return create a smooth flow of information between spaces, artworks and viewers.

The works in the show include traditional oil paintings, drawings, and sculptures and also more novel media such as photography, video works and installations. The eclectic choice of works illustrates the diverse practice of young up-coming artists working in Kuala Lumpur. Specific works are chosen for specific venues and the choices were made by the artists and the organizing team.

Dasein Gallery which is a public space in the Dasein Academy of Art is situated in the residential area of Wangsa Maju, in the outskirt of the city. Due to gallery being situated in an important academic institution, the space has been segregated to display works that illustrates the methodology of the artists’ thinking process, experimental small scale works, working drawings and some video works. These sketches and studies will serve as sources of reference for the young art students in the hosting academy. Talks conducted by the participating artists will also be held here to increase the interactive value of the exhibition with the public. This exhibition space will be informally titled “study”.

KL Pac which is mainly a center for the staging performances will house installation art and video works. Spatial and time-based works that may require the audience’s participation are chosen for this site deliberately for the works to harmoniously blend with the structure’s built function as the theater-goers will have a chance to view and interact with the works while taking breaks from music shows or plays. The site which is situated in the lobby of the building will be filled with banners displaying information of the exhibition such as the “happenings” in the other spaces and serves as a vital linkage to the other two venues. This venue is also chosen to exemplify the diverse practice of contemporary Malaysian artists. Many young artists display interest in incorporating time, narration and the use of digital imagery into their works and this venue’s aim is to highlight that curiosity and experimentation. This space is unofficially called “play” to connote a lighthearted and experimental tone of the works displayed.

The final space is a commercial gallery situated in the heart of Bukit Bintang. It is a prestigious space in an up-scale mall. This site was chosen to hint at the commercial nature of the art practice where these young artists will finally venture into as their career matures. A generic “white space”, the gallery’s main function is to trade artworks with cash thus the gallery is set to display more traditional artworks such as paintings, sculptures with the incorporation of a number of installations and video works to thematically tie the exhibition. This venue will allow the young artists’ works to be viewed by art collectors and patrons as-well-as pedestrians that frequent the busy shopping area. Moreover, the space will introduce the young artists to the professional-side of the art-market. This space, which is unceremoniously labeled as “work” will serve as a summary of the exhibition and where presentations by the artists will be held and the opening reception.

Breakthrough 2010, located in a performing arts center, creative academic institution and a commercial gallery metaphorically illustrates a complex working practice of a contemporary young artist and hints at the importance of strategic spaces and well-planned events as tools to propel their careers forward. The creative individual is required to balance playtime, work and study which are activities are hinted by the chosen venues. The use of technology as a method of informing large bodies of spectators and strategic placements of artworks and advertisements will serve as attempt at educating the public in Kuala Lumpur on the progress of the contemporary art scene.

Technology merely serves as a linkage between the spaces and in reality, technology, mainly the internet and digital photography are already serving as important linkages between a young artist’s daily activities, linking information and ideas of his research (study) to his experiments (play) and his final products (work).

-Haffendi Anuar, 2010

Breakthrough is an art exhibition happening in three venues across town and is product of the effort by a group of young artists wanting to do an interesting and eventful show. The whole project was conceptualized and funded by the group of young artists in hoping to dissipate art into life and the city. Do come and support us.

The 14 participating artists are-
1. Ali Azraie Bebit - Sculpture
2. Amar Shahid Salehudin – Digital Print, Digital Interactive Media
3. Chong Kean Foong张健峰 – Oil Painting, Digital Print
4. Choo Peng Chiat朱品杰 – Performing Art, Sculpture, Installation, Painting
5. Gan How Ming颜浩名 – Installation, Sculpture, Print-Making
6. Haffendi Anuar – Sculpture, Painting
7. Lee Mok Yee李慕义 – Print-Making, Sculpture
8. Leow Hui min廖慧鸣 – Performing Art & Installation
9. Leow Sze Yee廖世仪 – Performing Art & Installation
10. Low Su Wen - Painting
11. Mon Lim林建达 - Sculpture
12. Raja Wahid Aiman – Photography
13. We Are Malaysia Made – Short Film
14. Yeoh Choo Kuan杨子宽 - Painting

Here is the exhibition's blog and Facebook.

The Malaysian Design Archive

2010-07-16T05:46:00.000-07:00

Found an interesting website that archives the progress of Malaysian Graphic Design today. Founded by Ezrena Marwan, 34, Designer, the website titled Malaysia Design Archive is filled to-the-brim with Merdeka posters, vintage matchbox illustrations, stamps, first day covers and many more interesting visuals. The site is well designed itself, simple and easy to navigate. I think in the long-run, if this project becomes as serious sponge that absorbs current and future good designs coming out of Malaysia's soil, it would become an invaluable tool and a source for visuals for designers, artists and design savvy individuals. There is also a section on visual writings.

About Malaysia Design Archive from the website.

Malaysia Design Archive is a project to map the development of graphic design in Malaysia from the period before independence (1957) until now. It is a space to trace and document Malaysian ‘endangered’ design legacy, to preserve our historical past, as well as to create a resource of Malaysian design work.

This is also another way to protect our history, provide us with space to question its meaning, recurring imagery, icons used, ideas, and how it is connected to the our political landscape at the time. This project aims to highlight the importance of archiving as a way protect and preserve our own visual history.

What is our design history? Do we have one?

"Currently, we have no archive that focuses on visual history, he visual narratives that accompany everyday life have not been fully considered and documented. Malaysian graphic design needs to have a history that delves deeper than the keris and batik prints."
-Ezrena Marwan

YMA opening

2010-07-15T23:53:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, friends and foes attended the opening of YMA at the Petronas Gallery, KLCC. I arrived there with my boss Ms. Liew Chin Chin, Gan How Ming and Alfred at about 5.30 pm and was greeted by a swarm of art lovers and visitors lining up at the concierge/reception. The show was officiated with countless speeches by some unrecognizable VIPs and there were lots of food too, even though I did not get a chance to munch on anything other than the not-so-popular kuih lapis. The space was impressive and held a number of interesting works, overall I think it was well put together so hats-off to Mr. Badrul Hisham Tahir and team. The pieces are well spread-out in the space and the selection is quite exciting. Works range from surrealist paintings, illustrations, Dada-esque sculptures to video works. A few close friends came which made the event for eventful. Below are some pics of the show.

2010-07-14T00:35:00.000-07:00

Secret party

2010-07-09T23:37:00.000-07:00

Secret party (work in progress)
2010
Mixed media object

Artrinagle III at Balai

2010-07-09T23:22:00.000-07:00

Work

2010-07-06T10:44:00.001-07:00

Pics from the recent Starhill Gallery Arts Festival 2010 press conference held on the Muse Floor last week. Here is an article from the Star about the press conference and the line-up of activities offered for the festival.

New works (elder flower and currently untitled)

2010-07-01T23:09:00.001-07:00

Breakthrough Exhbition 2010

2010-07-01T03:47:00.000-07:00

One of the exhibition that I'm involved in is the Breakthrough Exhibition

It is being organized by a group of Dasein Academy Graduates who are friends of mine. We are trying to spearhead a novel form of exhibiting in Malaysia which is incorporating multiple exhibition venues into one show. They were inspired by design exhibitions done in the West which these shows had linked many different spaces using the internet through live video-streaming and video interactions.

Below is some information on the show, though this show is still currently in the process of organizing, details may change.

Date: 2nd~15th August 2010

Date: 2nd~15th August 2010

Location & Time:

1. Dasein Gallery - weekday (11:00am~6:00pm), Saturday (11:00am~2:00pm), Sunday close

2. KLpac - weekday & weekend (11:00am~9:00pm)

3. 360 Art Development Studio – Tuesday to Sunday (12:00pm~8:00pm)

Exhibiting Artist:

Amar Shahid Salehudin – Digital Print, Digital Interactive Media

Chong Kean Foong – Oil Paintint, Digital Print

Choo Peng Chiat – Performing Art, Sculpture, Installation, Painting

Gan How Ming – Installation, Sculpture, Painting, Print-Making

Haffendi Anuar – Sculpture, Painting

Lee Mok Yee – Print-Making, Sculpture

Raja Wahid Aiman - Photography

Combining various types of artforms such as Painting, Printmaking, Installation, Performing Art, Video Art, Sculpture, Photography, and Digital Media in an exhibition and launching in several venues simultaneously, we hope this innovative approach would link the challenging and modern art scene into an organism or entity that would be active and alive in order to enliven the whole national cultural scene.
Anything can be a lie, scientific reports might be fake, news can be created, as for our society, any agencies can be a con. This exhibition is titled “Breakthrough” as to invite our audiences to take part in the exhibition that will hopefully break through the old concept. The exhibition is about looking into new forms of exhibiting and showing novel artworks that challenge the way we view the world. We are trying to make people think, use their body to feel, stir their senses and see the world we are living in a new light so to break through the inherent mind.
The exhibition simultaneously happens in three places and using a familiar tool, “the internet” to connect these three places into an entity. These three places are the (1) KL Performing Art Centre which attracts many audiences who are interested in the performing arts, (2) Dasein Gallery that many students and lecturers will pass through and in a commercial gallery space, (3) 360 Art Development Studio in a prestigious housing development.

For my works,
My collection of work in “Breakthrough 2010” is a series of experimentation of materials, concepts concerning my own art practice, studies on forms and my attempt at the creation of “personal myths”. The works are composed of a mixture of hardware-findings, household objects from middle-class stores found in suburbs, found junk and typical art materials. My practice relies on working around these materials and creating some sort of “personal myths” where these works become props, characters and items that adorn my universe. Whether fiction or facts, these organic and plastic art-objects are superficially colored to be attractive and whimsical though they are often named romantically. Titles range from location names, studies of nature and other creatures that dwell my mind. Some are “sponges” that absorb moods of areas that I have been and feel a personal connection to.
Though, I am a particularly urban artist, working in the center of KL and drawing most of my inspiration from advertising, formations of crowds around malls and colors of commercial objects, I do longed to be in the “heart-of-the-wilderness” and I think my work try to create a cerebral place or a fantastical landscape of that longing. As I stated before, the tactile-qualities of the objects are of specific interest to me, and the diversity of the materials used create an interesting hodge-podge stirring of the senses.

An oppurtunity for super stardom NOW!!!!!

2010-06-29T20:03:00.000-07:00

VAA (Visual Arts Awards) at Starhill Gallery, Kuala Lumpur

Starhill Gallery Visual Arts Awards is an art competition that aims to elevate the Malaysian art scene with exciting opportunities for young and upcoming artists to showcase their talent with potential for fame and success. VAA also aims to promote works that explore complex ideas, display innovative use of materials that will display artistic skill and experimentation that are in line with the Global Art dialogue. Join us now if you want to be a part of this elevation of Malaysia's Fine Art.

Top 6 winners will be awarded a cash prize of RM5000 each and a certificate of recognition.

For more info, please go here
The Facebook group of the competition is here

Hey guys, here is your chance to test out your artistic skills and measure your talent. The competition which is organized by Starhill Gallery, KL with the Ministry of Tourism Malaysia for the Ministry's MCAT campaign, strives to look out for innovative works, creative ideas, skills and complex concepts. The event is part of the Starhill Arts Festival which is an annual event aims at promoting Fine Art in KL. Be sure to read the instructions and understand the application process. The theme for this year's competition is Now!!!. Good luck and all the best.

Blue painting

2010-06-26T23:16:00.000-07:00

Blue painting
2010
Newspaper, adhesive, colored sand, oil, polyurethane, canvas and frame
44 x 34 x 3 cm

Haffendi Anuar

Hero Express

Screen-printing workshop

Reworked

Chungking Express (1994)

Box for making copies of disparate objects that create physical limitations and hinders craft IV

Installation, Dec 2011, King X

Statement 2011

Box for making copies of disparate objects that create physical limitations and hinders craft I

Braham Garden commission

Work in progress

Box for making copies of disparate objects that create physical limitations and hinders craft II

Work on paper

Untitled (blue box)

Study for boxes I

Elad Lassry, White Cube, Hoxton Square

August 2011

Reflective writing 7

Trinity Buoy Wharf private view

Studies of the sites in Trinity Bouy Wharf

Reflective writing 6

Architectural armpits

Reflective writing 5

Trinity Bouy Wharf Residency

Reflective writing 4

Private View of UTOPIA: An Exhibtion on the Architecture of Perfection

Learning to Inhabit the World in a Better Way: Sharing a Meal

The Turbine Hall: Ai Weiwei

Jana Nouskova

UTOPIA at Nolia Gallery this Thursday 5th of May 2011

Utopia - the architecture of perfection

Reflective writing 2

Reflective writing 1

Sharing a meal

Drawings for objects II

Drawing for objects

Work in progress

Untitled

Body parts and forms III

Body parts and forms II

Body parts and forms I

Walkng around

Table

Creating small-scale intimate temporal sculptures using Malaysian take-away in London

Spces studies II

Spices studies

Specific gifts project

Work in progress (London)

FRIEZE Art Fair

BBC Fast Track on Malaysian Art

Denim

Working while settling down

The Wallace Collection

London first day

Untitled

Shopping bag experiment

Fair young maiden (reworked)

Sinchew Daily (August 2010)

Photo Workshop in BALI!!!

Learning to leave

Heart

Raya card design for MIKKA Green

Jimmy Choo painted on my starfish!!!!

Secret party

Untitled (gold)

Breakthrough opening

Update (August 8, 2010)

Sterling Ruby ( I adore )

Kiss Trap Kismet (and 4 details)

2008 PVC pipe, urethane, wood, expanding foam, aluminium, spray paint.

300 x 384 x 122 cm

An Idea is cheap, unless it is realised (Arteri Malaysia)

Before and after science

LONDON LONDON LONDON LONDON

Before and after science (Wip)

Time passing by fast

Tempo

Skin theater

Skin theater (Wip)

Breakthrough, yeeehaaaa!

2008
PVC pipe, urethane, wood, expanding foam, aluminium, spray paint.