Fabrics Of Society

Last weekend, I made a point to visit Sasana Kijang in Kuala Lumpur right after I came back from the team building session. Inside this elegant, modern architectural and tech-advanced building, it stores the Bank Negara Malaysia Museum and Art Gallery (MAG). This was a much delayed visit as they had started running few art exhibitions since early of the year. Luckily, it is still running until now. Here is a snapshot of the Sasana Kijang building:

Sasana Kijang at dusk. Gorgeous pic! Image taken from: kureen.wordpress.com

Seriously, I would love to elaborate more on Sasana Kijang and the galleries in it, but I will save that for another day. There are quite a number of things that you can do and worth your time coming over. Do wait for that ya in my future post! Tungguuuuuuu...

In this post, I would like to highlight or share more on the 'Pameran Benang-Benang Kehidupan" or Fabrics of Society exhibition in the Art Gallery. The exhibition was inspired from the uniqueness of fabrics and how it impacts every lives across multi cultures in Malaysia. Very interesting! The displayed artworks were produced by talented local artists since the 1960s until present.

It was raining heavily and dark outside when I was browsing through the artworks inside the gallery. Hence, most of the photos looked kinda dark since I had to rely mostly on the lighting inside the gallery. Sorry for that.

Just to share some of my personal favourite artworks:

My favourite artwork among all! A depiction of Puteri Gunung Ledang (the famous princess legend in Malaysia) by Ali Rahamad. Titled as "Puteri Gunong Ledang 12", this is definitely not the typical beautiful princess painting. I just love how different it is than usual, with the creative splatter of colours combination that livens up the feel of the overall artwork.

This is another artwork that fascinates me. One of the artworks that had my longest stare for observation.  Produced by the artist Ismail Zain, this artwork "They Are Singing Hujan Tengahari At Meridian" is certainly unique (hujan tengahari means noon rain). The reason why I stared at it longer was because I was trying to figure what it actually means! Yeah, I mean the lines illustrates the meridian lines and the bluish part is the rain. But what about the songket part?? Hmmm...I wonder. Despite the dissatisfaction for not being able to get the ultimate answer, there's something about this artwork that attracted me a lot nevertheless. I never got bored of it! Oh well, I think I'm gonna settle the answer with "Malaysian element" for the songket part. That adds to the creativity part (as well as curiosity!)

The title of this artwork directly reflects the artwork itself. This is "Nafkah" by Mohd Hoessein Enas. "Nafkah" means living or sustenance and this artwork says it all. A group of fishermen in their customised sarong, started their day very early in the morning to earn living to support their family and life. I was pretty moved by this artwork. The colours, the angle, the emotions, the hard work and effort by the artist to produce this artwork made it felt so real and touched my heart. I just love this.

I love this artwork mainly because that red colour really captured my attention. It served well as the main theme colour as well as the background for this artwork. Produced by the artist Haron Mokhtar, "Benuk I" depicts a group of locals, which are the Bidayuh people in their traditional costumes with the long houses as the background in Sarawak. In the artwork it shows that the Bidayuh people were greeting and welcoming guests to their place.

Ok I was fooled by this artwork! The fact that I was fooled by it made me love it. From far, I was like "Oh this seems like two dressed-up ladies walking with their shopping bags in the middle of autumn in one of the European countries." I got closer and then I realised it was different than what I thought. Titled as "Rubber Tapper" and produced by the artist Hussein, this artwork actually portrays two rubber tapper ladies carrying their full buckets after long, hard day at work. Shopping huh? Autumnnnn??? Very clever! *slaps forehead* Terasa bangang kejap kat dalam galeri. 

Some other artworks in the art exhibition:

Warisan II by Hamdan Hj Lias

Sehelai Batik Sejalur Tenunan by Sabri Mohd Salleh

Pertarungan/ Duel I by Amron Omar

Citrawarna Seorang Gadis Bajau dan Seekor Kuda Padi by Amiruddin Ariffin

Kukur Kelapa by Ismail Mat Hussin

Kampung Life (Baby Cot Series) by Yeong Siak Ling

Bathing Baby by Chuah Thean Teng

Wayang Kulit by Ismail Mat Hussin

Overall, I am satisfied with most of the displayed artworks at the exhibition. I think the exhibition will run until end of this year. So for those of you who are interested, do drop by at the art gallery to see more artworks.

Do wait for my other posts on the other galleries :)