BERSAMA In Collaborating Art

Doing things together can be beneficial and this is proven true with the BERSAMA Art Exhibition, which was officially launched on 12 December 2013 at Bank Negara Malaysia Museum and Art Gallery (MAG), Sasana Kijang.

BERSAMA or 'together' in English, is an art collaboration between Malaysia and Indonesia that aims to foster stronger relationship between the two countries by illustrating the richness of cultures that inspires and influences the daily lives of the people in the nation.  

The BERSAMA exhibition has actually been on display since October this year but they just officially launched it as there are additional artworks included for public's view. So this means, I have been here twice :D

It was pretty pleasing to see the artworks of our local and Indonesian artists' on display. I dare say this is one of the most satisfying art exhibition and the outcome is not disappointing at all. Malaysian and Indonesian artists certainly have the advantage in terms of richness in culture. That expands the idea and transform it to make it such as 'walla!' outwork. I love most of it.

This exhibition too, is difficult for me to highlight my personal favourites because there are just too many to admire with. There are over 40 artworks in this exhibition by 20 artists (11 Malaysian and 9 Indonesian).

Sharing some of the artworks in the exhibition:

Keluarga Cantik / Tiga Dara by Basoeki Abdullah, an Indonesian artist. 

Penari Jaipong by Basoeki Abdullah. 

There's something about Basoeki's artwork that attracted me. I would never get bored looking at it.  His artworks somehow felt 'alive'. The "Keluarga Cantik / Tiga Dara" (Beautiful Family / Three Ladies) artwork that features the lady in red is said to be the mother of the Central Bank's Governor. She is the late Sharifah Azah Mohammad Alsagoff or fondly known as Azah Aziz, Malaysia's culture expert. According to Indonesian source, the painting was produced when Azah was 26 year-old. However, she only saw this artwork more than 40 years after it was produced. She was above 80 years old at that time. This artwork was discovered at Istana Bogor, one of the presidential palace in Indonesia. 

Basoeki passed away in 1993, leaving his precious artworks behind for appreciation.

Kandang Penyu by Affandi

Petarung Sejati by Affandi. 

Ikan-ikan Dijemur by Affandi

Affandi is also another notable artist from Indonesia. I am usually not very much fond of abstracts but his abstract artworks are amazing and meaningful indeed. I truly appreciate his work. 

Merapi Setelah Meletus by Kartika

Kampung Di Penang by Kartika

Kartika Affandi is certainly one talented artist. Following her father footsteps, Affandi, she puts her very own personal touch in her artworks, which differs her from her father. Very good. She is not under her father's shadow and it is something to be proud of. 

Untitled (Zain) by Ahmad Fuad Osman, a Malaysian artist. Unity without prejudice, even if you are Spongebob. 

Another artwork by Ahmad Fuad Osman - Leap Of Faith. Ok I super like this one because it has emotion sentiment to it. I was just touched and I thought this is one deep, meaningful piece of artwork

Chairil Anwar by Syed Ahmad Jamal, a famous Malaysian artists

Kalamukara Prambanan (top) and Garuda Disanggar Affandi (below) by Siti Zainon Ismail, Malaysian artist.

I had the opportunity to speak to Siti Zainon about her artwork and involvement the art scene. "Did you know that Affandi purposely poured water on my artwork?" Siti Zainon explained to us while pointing to her "Garuda Disanggar Affandi" artwork. "Seriously???" my colleague and I were shocked to hear that. I looked again at her artwork and yes, I could see there were water marks on it. The artworks were the very few of Siti Zainon's early work, which was in 1970. I guess Affandi was probably mocking or challenging Siti Zainon at that time. Somehow, I thought it was actually a good move by him. The water marks added more character to the artwork and I quite like that.

Siti Zainon shared with us that when she was still young and studying arts, she and her mates worked really hard and it was compulsory for them to produce such artworks (as per in the photo above) to pass. They were required to produce about 500 pieces a month and must be of high standard or it would be rejected (in a very mean way, trust me). Gosh, 500 per month? Hands down to you Madam Siti. Kagum sungguh.

Three Heads by Ahmad Zakii Anwar. Ok, I have to admit this had never failed to amaze me. Everytime I look at this photo I will automatically be in awe. Zakii, a Malaysian artist produced this artwork using charcoal. Awesome piece of work. I snapped this during my first visit to this exhibition. Unfortunately, this piece has been removed to give way for other artworks to be on display.

And what do you know? Of course I had to take a picture with the talented artist himself, Zakii Anwar! One of the happiest day in my life. The artworks behind us were by Zakii as well.

A photo with Siti Zainon Ismail and her artworks

Last but not least, with Kartika of Indonesia. What a day :)

The BERSAMA exhibition will run until 5 January 2014. If you are into arts, do drop by and visit the art gallery. You will love it :)

Art With Love - From Paris To KL

Balai Seni Visual Negara (BSVN) or National Visual Arts Gallery has certainly become one of my favourite spots to drop by (although I am not a fan of its no-photo-taking rule in galleries) and my recent visit proved to be worthwhile.

I found out that there were few exhibitions running in BSVN. The ABSURD(C)ITY exhibition is still running, which I have written about it earlier (click here to read). There were another two that I was interested but I want to write more about this particular one for this post - 'Paris to Kuala Lumpur', a solo art exhibition by the artist Ken Yang.

Truthfully, I've never heard of Ken Yang before until I stepped in into BSVN. "Hmm who is that?" I wondered. The royal yellow entrance (His Majesty The King officiated this exhibition) to the gallery signified how 'big' it is. I was still not too sure though what to expect. Without thinking much, I walked in straight away to view his artworks.

Wow. Yes, I had that 'wow' moment when I first set my foot in. You know, the feeling of not over thinking when making decision and being rewarded when you least expect it? That's exactly how I felt. The first thing that came to my mind is "he is so freaking talented!"

Ken Yang is a Paris-based Malaysian artist who travelled to Paris, France 10 years ago, pursuing his passion in arts. Inspired by the Western European arts, specifically the Renaissance style, his far long journey is certainly not a waste. His advanced technique in the 'sfumato' style and wide exposure from European and Parisian culture is well reflected in his artwork collection. He boost it further in his Malaysian artworks with such skill. This artist certainly has an eye for details. His detail work is very, very, very impeccable I must say. I super love detail artworks and Ken Yang exceeded that expectation. He captured the tiny, micro details and illustrate it professionally in his artwork. Looking at his artwork piece is like looking an actual life photo. Cun!

I normally love to highlight my personal favourite artworks but it is just difficult to do that with Ken Yang's artworks. I love most of it. There is none to be disliked.

My hands were super itching to take photos of Ken Yang's artworks but I was like under BSVN's microscope. The personnel kept on watching my movements all the time and it is not comfortable at all. I was not able to take any photos in his gallery :(

Luckily, I was browsing through the net and found out that the artist himself has a Facebook page with the photos of his artworks. Happiness! 

Some photos of the artworks from Ken Yang's official Facebook page:

"Ivory"

"At Night Under The Sakura Tree"

"Winter"

"The Cheater I". The artist was self-portrayed on the right.

"The Cheater II"

The Three Graces (Satu Malaysia)

The artist himself in an exclusive, sort of vintage photo shoot. 

Some portrait artworks on Malaysian royal family:

There are more interesting artworks but the best is to drop by at his art exhibition in BSVN and see it for yourself. The exhibition will run until 31 January 2014. Like myself, I'm sure you will not regret your visit to this exhibition :)

Ken Yang is definitely one of the artists to be watched out for. With his skill and talent, I think he can go far and produce more significant artworks. 

If you are interested to know more about Ken Yang, you can visit http://www.kenyang.info/ or his official Facebook page here.

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 :)

Curious Me And Galeri Seni Johor

I went back to my hometown in Johor since it was a long weekend due to Malaysia Day Celebration, which fell on 16 Sep, Monday. It was not truly an enjoyable long weekend for me as I still had to do work. Nevertheless, I made an attempt to complete the work as fast as I could and went back happily to my beloved family (yang setia menanti).

The Galeri Seni Johor (or Johor Art Gallery) has always been in my mind for so long. Every time I drove passing Jalan Lingkaran Dalam, I would never miss the glimpse of the gallery building. The curiosity grew on me for years, which have turned to a sort of pressure "I-must-go-and-see-this-time!" when I came back recently. Can you imagine, for years? Gila ke hapa. Sebelum aku 'meletup', baik aku pergi tengok kan.

I always wonder if this gallery has visitors. "Ada ke orang datang sini?" I asked myself. The gallery looks kinda 'lonely' from outside. But well, I finally came to the gallery with my sister to see if my assumption was right. When I arrived, I felt like there was a buzzer pressed to my ears with the sound 'tetttttttt!' to imply that I was wrong. There were visitors in the gallery. It may not be hundreds, but there were people browsing through the gallery. We came at the same time as a group of Japanese tourists.

This is how the gallery looks like from outside:

Minus the red old car, this is one nice and maintained historic building considering it is more than 100 years old

This is one of Johor's historic building and it used to be the official residence of Johor's Third Minister, Dato' Abdullah Jaafar. It was built on 1910 and in 1994, the state government decided to change it to an art gallery to house historical artefacts on Johor's art and heritage. In 1999 however, the Johor Minister announced that the Johor Art Gallery would also be the Arts and Cultural Centre for the State of Johor.

We went in and spent an hour inside the gallery to see our local artists' artwork (especially by Johoreans). Some of the photos:

My personal favourite as below:

Artwork by Hirzaq Harris depicting the late Sultan Ibrahim of Johor on a stamp

Artwork illustrating the Sultan Ibrahim Building at Bukit Timbalan

I like Hirzaq Harris' stamp artwork because of the very detail work. Looks like a simple stamp but it is not when you have a closer look. Combining the inches of details, it becomes an outstanding piece. I guess stamp alike artwork has become one of Hirzaq's artwork signature as I have seen other similar artworks by him as well.

Another one that I like is the Sultan Ibrahim Building at Bukit Timbalan. I can't remember the name of the artist but I like his idea of using brass, metal piece as the base of his artwork. His work details are pretty good too as the building resembles almost exactly as the actual Sultan Ibrahim Building. The Sultan Ibrahim building is the former state secretariat building of Johor and was constructed between 1936 and 1939. It was completed in 1940 as the British colonial government attempted to streamline the state's administration.  Honestly, the artwork looks better than in the photo that I snapped.

The rest of artworks that I also find interesting:

Zikir: Ar Rahim II by Jamil Mat Isa. Calligraphic based artwork on one of Islam's prayer recital. 

Peristiwa Bukit Kepong by Sabariah Omar. A historical based artwork.

Askar Timbalan Setia Negeri Johor Peristiwa 1915 by Baharim Khusil. Another historical based artwork.

Catatan Buat Cucu by Mohamed@Mohamad bin Hassan. A story-telling artwork, from a grandfather to his grandson.

Ketunggulan by Fauzul Yusri. One cynical artwork.

Actually there are more interesting artworks but these are all that I can share for now. My conclusion is, most of the artworks in Galeri Seni Johor are very much on Johor's culture and history. Not many mind-provoking artworks that you can find here but overall, it is fine and worth visiting. I think this gallery personally reminds me not to forget my own roots, no matter how far I have travelled in life.

So my Galeri Seni Johor curiosity is finally answered!

Realism Meets Imagination - ABSURD(C)ITY

On a Sunday noon, I decided to venture out to an art exhibition, and Balai Seni Visual Negara (or National Visual Arts Development Board) came to mind! So I drove up to JalanTemerloh to explore what's new at the art gallery.

It was raining throughout the whole journey but I was not deterred by it. I finally arrived at the art gallery and believe it or not, my last visit to BSVN was like 8 years ago! I browsed through to see what's interesting but there was only one exhibition that captured my attention - ABSURD(C)ITY.

The entrance of the exhibition

The ABSURD(C)ITY exhibition showcases modern and contemporary artworks that features surreal elements since the 1950s until now. Realism added with creative, unusual imagination produces impressive artworks and this is proven true by our local artists, including the new ones. There are several types of artworks displayed, such as paintings, drawings, prints, sculptures, installation and etc. My personal favourite is the one below:

'Dan Master Itu Sedang Bekerja' by Hamir Soib

'Dan Master Itu Sedang Bekerja' or 'And The Master Is Working At The Moment' in English is produced by the artist, Hamir Soib. I like the fact that this piece is deep and has slight dark element to it. It is not necessary the most beautiful artwork that I have ever seen but I love the meaningful impression of it! I have read some reviews about this particular artwork. Some interpret it as the clown is working hard to entertain and cheer up the audience. Well for me, I look at it as a clown (or more like a jerk) trying to act smart and 'teach' the students as if he knows the subject matter very well. This is the beauty of art, different people have different interpretation of an artwork.

Due to the tight ruling of BSVN, which is no photography for artworks, I am not able to post more photos. The ones that I posted here are the ones that I luckily managed to snap before being warned nicely by the security officer! I was quite dismayed by the rule. In fact, it is a loss for BSVN as it could be an online publicity for them when people blog about the art exhibition (like what I am doing now). As long as there is no flash (the flash light may affect the texture and colour of artworks), then it should be fine. Compared with the art gallery in Sasana Kijang, visitors are allowed to take photos but without flash. That's cool and most of the visitors understood it well. 

Another artwork that I like at the exhibition:

'Someone Forgotten' by Wong Woan Lee. Image taken from: http://goodenei.com/2009/12/23/wong-woan-lee/

This is one emotive piece for me. It immediately reminds me of my father and how I should not forget all the great things he did for me. Never stop loving him.

Despite the not-so-great photography ruling, I guess BSVN will be one of the spots that I would like to drop by to check out new art exhibitions in future.