“Artist Playground”…A Pre-launch…

“Artist Playground” denotes the coexistence of the imagination of the artist between nature and man. It may also manifest a reflection of the artist’s mind on its surroundings. This outstanding exhibition participated by 8 prominent artists from Universiti Malaysia Sarawak (UNIMAS) comprises of Sylvester Jussem, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Yakup Mohd Rafee, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Wan Jamarul Imran Wan Abdullah Thani, Mohamad Faizuan Mat, Awangko’ Hamdan Pangeran Arshad, Mohamad Zamhari Bin Abol Hassan, Junaidi Darwis and Zuraidah Ali.

The exhibition will be held at the Pullman Hotel in Kuching and will be officially open on 29 August 2019.

Most of the artworks exhibited shows the conceptualization of the artist’s thought and experiences on the origins of nature where once upon a time, are pure and untouched. The moments and imagination distinctly appear in the artworks the reflect the theme; “Artis Playground.”

The four-panel painting by Sylvester Jussem shows a fantastic fact on the beauty of the mangrove landscape. The lucidity of the dark lines depicts the essence of mangrove trees blended with mangroves’ wild-life’. I may say that Sylvester Jussem values are more toward naive art that moves away from what they see as the insincere sophistication of art created within the traditional system (Tate, n.d.). Sylvester has successfully conceptualized both of the ideas of beauty and functions of nature on the human that bring pleasure to mankind

Awangko’ Hamdan Pangeran Arshad’s work entitled Jiyak-jiyak Gaya Susup series I, 2019 literally shows the four matches, illustrates the motion and time in the life cycle of nature and man-made objects. The clash between two, nature and the man-made objects give impacts to the ‘well-being’ of mankind. Each of the ‘match stick’ is sculpted, a combination of wood and iron are successfully blend together to distinguish the ideas of two opposing forces at war. As the modern sculpture is a concern,

I may say that Awangko”s work tends toward the concept of installation art. It is characterized by a small scale of mixed media assemble in a specific place where time and motion occured. The main intention of an artist is to focus on how the viewer’s experiences the work and the desire to provide an intense experience for them is a dominant theme in installation art (Tate, n.d.).

Assoc. Prof. Dr. Yakup Mohd Rafee works on Deconstruction Drawing Series 2, 2008-2009 shows a comprehensive study of the Renaissance painters. This reminds me of how Paul Klee’s Pedagogical Sketchbook, which also did detailed research on the basic principles of art. Learn from masters have been practice by most art students quite a long time ago. The analytical drawing, which shows an excellent rendering to capture the essence chiaroscuro on Rembrandt painting is very successful. As formalistic is a concern, the artist’s study on the master’s painter has contributed knowledge, especially on the structure of the composition.

The painting by Assoc. Prof. Dr. Wan Jamarul Imran Wan Abdullah Thani entitled Mature, 2000 reminds me to Francis Bacon, especially on the formalistic aspects. Dr. Wan Jamarul has successfully worked on the colors scheme. As I go deeper into the analytical part, the painting has some characteristics of expressionism and surrealism. The painterly technique with the effects of underpainting and dripping colours literally illustrate both movements.

This enables me to capture the artist insight on his conceptualization on the meaning of humankind and nature that becomes a metaphor in the context of spiritual, symbolic and ideal.

This exhibition immerses the audience into the artists’ thought and imagination, which gave a reflection on the relationships between man and nature.

Note:

This article shows a short description of the exhibition which covers only on particular artist due to creating awareness to the audience. More explanation will be coming soon after the launching of this exhibition on 29 August 2019.

Most of the views in this article is a reflection of the author on the artworks based on the artist’s statement. Any contradiction or disagreement on the views, comments are most welcome.