WHITE

This week, we were being exposed to more Malaysia artists and their artworks by Dr Carmen (It's kinda sad that it was already her last lecture with us :( I'm sure she has more to share). To certain extent, I felt familiarity towards some of the artist as well as their artwork after the trip to Bank Negara Malaysia Museum and Art Gallery like the one who likes to use lines in his artwork, Datuk Ibrahim Hussein and of course Yee I-Lann with her artwork, Kerbau (2007).

Datuk Ibrahim Hussein

Yee I-Lann

Talking about Kerbau, Dr Carmen mentioned this question: 

Why did Yee I-Lann use white colour as the background?

A thought provoking question. The background is often being neglected as they are not as important as the content of the art piece. Needless to say it is in white colour. I actually did not realize about the background at all initially. What I focused on was only the use of cones and buffalo in this piece of art... until Dr Carmen asked us about the white background.

Okay...so why WHITE?

Because Yee I-Lann is lazy. Hahaahh...of course NOT! She is a professional artist. Everything she does has reasons, for SURE including the white background. But I bet it's definitely a big YES to most of us, especially back to our Seni class in primary and secondary school time. We use white because we are lazy to colour the background, right? xD

Alright, back to the topic. The colour white usually signifies purity, innocence, simplicity, moral goodness and peace. But on the other hand, it also represents blankness and nothingness as suggested by Dr Carmen, which means that it shows no context in a particular work. No context also brings out a feeling that the objects in an artwork are not in their original or natural state, which is kinda strange.

In this art piece, Kerbau (2007), how I see the use of white colour as background is that Yee I-Lann wanted the viewers to assign their own context and meanings to the colour to be resonated with the buffaloes. It somehow provides freedom to the viewers to depict the context and situations the buffaloes are in. By imagining different background or even colour to replace white, a raft of emotions can be aroused depends on how you see it. 

Besides, i think it also has an intention to create sense of insignificance of human being, which are represented by the kerbau as I-Lann's preference to symbolise buffaloes as human. WHY? If you did noticed, the wall of the gallery is usually painted in white. Imagine if this piece of art is hanged on the wall without any frame and we see it from far, the buffaloes are definitely seemed tiny and helpless as the background has already blended with the white paint of the wall. Just like how you are seeing it on your screen now. In case you didn't notice, please scroll up again and adjust it correctly :P 
It did give me a feel or sense of insignificance though.

Anyways, this is just my opinion. To me, it works in this way. SO how about yours?

In short, I think the colour white has through art stands as a powerful symbol. Do not think that nothingness really means nothing. It turns out to be numerous underlying definitions and interpretations. Don't underestimate the power of WHITE.


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Same Place, Different Perspective

Since this sem started, it has given me a lot of "first time". The first time been to the Bank Negara Malaysia Museum and Art Gallery, the first time been to this place TWICE within 4 days. YES! By coincidence, both the soft skill trip and the Malaysia Media and Culture field trip that I joined have gone to the same place just after a few days. Anyways, the second visit was actually a good chance for me to see and understand the artworks more thoroughly after the first visit there.

BANK NEGARA MALAYSIA MUSEUM AND ART GALLERY is a combination of museum and art gallery in a classy and stylish building called Sasana Kijang. Several museums or galleries of economics, banking and currency are located from the ground floor to the second floor of the building whereas the pure Art Gallery which showcases the Central Bank’s collection of Malaysian and Southeast Asian art acquired since 1962 is located at the third floor.

Bank Negara Malaysia Museum and Art Gallery

A small part of the Art Gallery

The Art Gallery is in a very artsy atmosphere that keeps alerting me that I need to have an artistic temperament whenever I step into these areas. In the gallery, many artworks are displayed. 

Some were very abstract while some were understandable. 

Some had clear figures in the artwork but the message inside is unthinkable. 

During my first visit with Cecilia, Cheryl and Nissh, we got no clues from many of the art pieces. But definitely, we all had aesthetic appreciation of the art pieces from various artists. 

The second visit there with experienced lecturers and tutors absolutely gave us better understanding towards the artworks and let us see the artwork in a different perspectives. Colours and materials used, compositions, year of the art piece, background of the artists... everything does matter to bring out the in-depth meaning of a piece of art. Once again, THESE...are the contextual and the formal information that assist us to analyse and understand the artwork. BUT anyhow, the analysis we made is not guaranteed to be true though. Urghhh...this is really hard :(

My favourite art piece would be : - 

Peaceful Terrace

Reason: - 
Just as the name goes, it gave me a very peaceful and harmony feeling. Peaceful because it is very organised. I like things that are organised. Lines between each segment are seen clearly. It looks balance in its own way. The colours are used perfectly in my opinion. The composition is nice as well. The whole art is seemed to lead us to feel the peacefulness from the nearest yellowish green area to the furthest dark blue area. To conclude, it is simple and memorable, peaceful and wonderful :P

BUT... what are the motifs behind the use of all these D: 

Perhaps the artist is also an organised person who likes green scenery? Perhaps the artist is living in unpeaceful terrace so he/she expressed his/her expectations through the art? There are many "perhaps" in every art piece. It just depends on how we analyse it and most importantly, there is no right or wrong.


Below are some pictures taken in other galleries during the first trip here :)

Traditional money in China

Commemorative coins in Malaysia

Cheryl & Cecilia at the office setting in the Bank Negara Malaysia Gallery

Money Wall in the Children's Gallery

Money Tunnel in the Children's Gallery

It was really a pity that we were not able to visit the other galleries besides the Art Gallery this time due to the lack of time. Hope to have another chance to visit the whole building again next time with my batch of course mates and friends. I don't mind to go for a third time as I believe that it would be more fun to go with them :D

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Zi Hao's Sharing Session

As informed by Dr Carmen, we had Tan Zi Hao, a young yet multi-disciplinary artist as our guest speaker last week to share with us his experience as well as his artworks.

Tan Zi Hao

During the 2 hours sharing session, he first started with his banned artworks which he said that we can't find from the net. One of them that I remember was "What are We Made of "(2011), which used to be an artwork in Publika's toilet. Anyhow, it was banned in Publika because of the word "Allah". We were lucky that we actually had a chance to see this artwork even though it was just the picture. At least we knew about the existence of this art piece and also the effort Zi Hao has put in.

Besides, he also shared with us his other masterpieces such as  
"From Dusk till Dawn" (2009)
"Classroom" (2012)
"Attempting Conflict" (2012)
"The Soil is Not Mine" (2013)
"Pest Control" (2013)
"Endless Possibilities" (2013)
"Negaraku. Bukan." (2014)
"The Danger of Translation" (2014) 
"Xenophoric Shellpickers" (2014)  
"A Reminder of a Remainder" (2015)

As he was explaining his artwork in front of the class, we were shocked by his ideas and creativity. He said that his inspiration comes from his over-thinking-ness. Frankly speaking, I really admire  his over-thinking ability that enables him to create many outstanding artworks. He seemed to be a person who is really sensitive to everything that happens around him and therefore, he tends to overthink about certain issues. When he overthinks, of course he becomes curious and wants to know more. This gives him confidence to find out more and provides him courage to come out with conceptual arts to change the public's mind and perception. The 4Cs exactly reflect his exploration towards the art he created. I want to have this ability as well...how great it would be if I could relate everything in my life and express them through arts?

All artworks need contexts. This was mentioned by both Zi Hao and Dr Carmen. Undeniably, Zi Hao has high cultural and artistic context as mirrored in his artworks. Every artwork of his has its own story. As an artist (insider), if you do not have any contextual information, you couldn't have created a significant artwork. The same goes to the outsiders like us, it's going to be difficult to understand the piece of art if we don't know what's going on. Hence, contextual information is really essential for one to create and also to understand art. This could be one of the things I've learnt from Zi Hao's talk. But...to obtain contextual information requires long period of time and great interest. I believe this could be a challenge to me.

"The Soil is Not Mine" was definitely the most memorable one throughout the 2 hours. We were passing around the packet of soil so that everyone had a chance to touch and experience it. I couldn't believe what I was really holding the packet that comprises soil from Malay Reservation Lands and Zi Hao's home, a torn copy of his birth cert and even his SPERM! To Zi Hao, it was totally not shameful to share this with us. To him: Art is art and there is nothing to be shameful about. 

The Soil is Not Mine (2013)

For this artwork, 50 packets were prepared and anyone can trade anything with high "Bumiputra value" in exchange for a packet of soil from Zi Hao provided that they can convince him with the object being traded. I remember one of the object being traded successfully was a bottle of water. I really liked the way the person convinced Zi Hao: Soil needs water to become a nation./ 'Tanah' needs 'air' to become 'tanah air'. I did not know why but I just felt this was really convincing. I was actually thinking what will I use to convince Zi Hao to exchange the soil with me. But after thinking for a long time, the only thing I thought of was..."Never mind, I'm not interested in it..." XD

Overall, Tan Zi Hao is an out-of-the-way artist. It's truly honored to have him to share his works with us. I'm sure that his passion and determination in arts will brings him a brighter future. 

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Work of ART

Sorry for the late post. I'm here to answer last week's questions from Ms E.

1) WHAT IS MALAYSIA ARTWORK? 

My answer would be the same as Jia Lyn and Gary. Malaysia artwork is any work of art that is created by MALAYSIAN.  For example, the artwork created by our Graphic Design students. Each and everyday, they are creating Malaysia artwork. Why do I say so? Because they are Malaysian and they are creating artwork. It's just this simple. But have you thought of that before? I bet what you thought of must be only those traditional artwork that is created by the famous Malaysia artists which you can't even name one. Am I right? :P

2) WHAT EVENT IS SO SIGNIFICANT THAT WE SHOULD FEATURE IN MALAYSIA ARTWORK?

As mentioned, Malaysia artwork is artwork created by Malaysian. It means that it can be anyone of us, the Malaysian to produce the artwork as long as we are interested in doing so. Hence, we have the right to choose what event to feature in our artwork as well as to decide the significance of each event. It is all depends on who to create the artwork and how you measure the significance of the event as people see things differently. 

To me, if I'm to create my own Malaysia Artwork (just imagine I can do it), I think I should feature the funeral elements in it. It seems like no one does it before. Or perhaps there is but I did not know about it. I do think that funeral is  a very significant event yet people do not really know much about it. And wow... I didn't expect I will have the same answer as Harn Jun. As Harn Jun mentioned in her post, people are always reluctant to know about thing that is related to death as it may create a negative atmosphere which we do not want to engage ourselves in it. It applies to me as well actually, but somehow I'm curious to know about it. FYI, I've attended my grandfather's funeral 2 weeks ago. I felt sad but at the same time, I was confused by the rituals held. I realised that there were many misconceptions about this "funeral". Hence, I hope to feature this in the Malaysia artwork as it will be good that through the art piece, we are able to understand the funeral practices better.

3) IS IT THE RESPONSIBILITY OF A MALAYSIA ARTIST TO CREATE A MALAYSIA ARTWORK?

I don't really get this question honestly. Since Malaysia artwork is defined as the artwork created by Malaysian, the artwork created by the Malaysia artist is undeniably Malaysia artwork. It is not their responsibility but it's the fact and truth. Couldn't Malaysia artist create an England or Korea artwork? Maybe the artist can instill England or Korea elements into his/her artwork, but the fact is that it's still considered as a Malaysia artwork because it is created by Malaysian. Besides, as Ding Dong mentioned in her post, a true artist will definitely enjoy creating pieces of artwork instead of considering it as a responsibility. Thus, the answer for this question is a NO.

Thanks for spending your time reading my post. I will end it here today.

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A Thought-provoking Literature

We were being exposed to the "Hang Tuah" and "Hang Jebat" story during this week's lecture and undoubtedly, most of us knew nothing about it. Personally, I've heard these names for times when I was in my secondary school but without knowing the tale behind it. Dr Carmen has briefly told us the story in class and I found it interesting. Hence, I've done some research on it and decided to include this literature in this week's entry.

THE TUAH LEGEND

Hang Tuah was a legendary Melakan hero and also the leader of a closely-knit band of Melaka's finest warriors - Hang Kasturi, Hang Lekir, Hang Lekiu and Hang Jebat.  Unfortunately, he was falsely accused of adultery (通奸) with one of his sultan's maids by his jealous rivals. Upon hearing the accusation, the sultan unthinkingly ordered Hang Tuah to be put to death. However, he was secretly saved by a bendahara. His closest companion, Hang Jebat was aware that he was being unjustly punished. To show support and deep loyalty for his friend, he revolted against the sultan. 
The sultan later came to realize that Hang Tuah was innocent, and immediately regretted sentencing Hang Tuah to death. The bendahara then told the sultan that Hang Tuah was still alive, and that only Hang Tuah could overcome Hang Jebat's rebellion. Hang Tuah was given amnesty and despatched to kill the traitor. Hang Jebat's joy at seeing his dearest friend  brought to life turned to despair when Hang Tuah lunges at him with a keris, declaring his loyalty to the Sultan and hatred to traitors. 

minor THOUGHTS 

Dear Hang Tuah,
How can you treated your best friend like this? You were showing your loyalty to the Sultan but at the same time, did you realize that Jebat was also showing a deep loyalty to you? He fought for you but end up you killed him? OMG :((((  You should know how to think rationally rather than following the Sultan's order blindly. Remember how did the Sultan sentence you to death without an investigation of your alleged offense? How come you were still loyal to him? Did you know the quote "A friend in need is a friend indeed"? I bet you didn't know.

                                                                                                                     From ME

I realize that the duel between Hang Tuah and Hang Jebat can be a hot debate to whom that have came across the story. "Who is right?". Hang Tuah, because he is a symbol of absolute loyalty to his ruler and killed a traitor, even though he was his best friend. Or Hang Jebat who symbolizes truth and justice, and was willing to die fighting against injustice and in defence of his friend? 

Everyone has different perspectives, of course. That's why it is thought-provoking.

Perhaps I still couldn't see this in a bigger picture. All I can see is Hang Tuah's betrayal to Hang Jebat and I know that betrayal breaks a friendship and end a relationship. This is the most unacceptable thing to me. Therefore, I personally think that Hang Tuah is wrong from this perspective.

You may disagree with me and say that Hang Tuah was just being loyal to his ruler and there is nothing wrong with it. Traitors should be killed and this is what a hero should do. (But are you sure? I doubted it.)

MESSAGES 

The story revolves around these two messages as mentioned by Dr Carmen:

1) Be loyal to the Agung.
2) Do not blindly follow the authority.

In the Tuah Legend, Hang Tuah was presented as the ultimate champion of Malay loyalty, chivalry and obedience to tradition. The traits of heroism --- Tuah had it all. However, he had took loyalty to the point of blind servility. His loyalty to the Sultan evidently superseded any rational and ethical considerations and this is pretty scary.

It's not a big deal to be loyal but only to certain extent. Do not go beyond the line. Obeying the authority blindly is obviously not the right thing to do. Look before you leap; see before you go. Make sure you've think twice before you do something so that you would not regret in the future.

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A visit to "Another Country"

A 2 and a half hour visit to Damansara Performing Art Centre for the show - Another Country was a brand new experience to most of us. Being the first time to watch this type of show, I have much more to say.

Firstly, this show actually did not fulfill my expectation. As what Kai Li suggested in class and agreed by the majority, I expected a 2.5 hours of story (comedy) with a single narrative, but it actually turned out to be 2 series of short plays linked together as a whole theater performed by 2 different teams from Singapore and Malaysia. Honestly, I did not achieve catharsis (satisfaction) because I feel that there is no connection between every former sketch and latter sketch. As a drama addict, I've had a mindset that similar to dramas, a theatrical performance should also has intro, climax and a proper ending to make it complete.

But on the other hand, I did enjoyed the performance, as in the casts' acting, the use of props, the lighting etc. The whole thing was grand and professional.

* I like how they could use just a little ans simple props to present different stories and create visuals.
* I like how they could make the flow that smooth between each of the story without much procrastination (especially the Singapore team as they only used the 15 minutes break time to rearrange and remember the transitions based on the sequence randomly picked by the audience).
* I like how they could act so professionally, naturally and emotionally.
* I like how the lighting is being controlled well.
* I like how the sound effects were able to penetrate my ears and even my heart, including the voice projection of the actors which were loud enough to grab audiences' attention.
* I appreciate the great effort put in by the Malaysian team on their clothing so to differentiate scene from scene, but quoting Dr Carmen's words, changing clothes not necessarily make the performance better.
* I admire their memorability.
* I like how they could all collaborate and cooperate with each other to make the whole performance a success.

I do not know anyone of them, the actors and actresses I mean. But if I'm to choose a favourite, Sharda Harrison will be the most impressive one. I just can't tell why I like her the most. Maybe it's because her natural acting skills? Dr Carmen said that actors have to inhabit different roles. I think she really did a great job! She fits in every role she takes. Of course, other actors did too.

Frankly speaking, I couldn't understand most of the stories, particularly those scenes that had a lot of dialogues (that's why I didn't do any notes). I could not follow all their lines. But thanks to Nisshanthi and Cecilia who were actually being my interpreters after the show where we discussed together about the messages and meanings of each play. Besides, thanks to Dr Carmen and Ms Edaline for the explanation during the second lecture and tutorial on Tuesday that I'm able to have further understanding on this show.

"You eat pork also die, no eat pork also die. Of course eat pork then die happily la."

"Life is like a dream. The moment you are awake from dream, that is the moment when life is over."

Those were the lines from Ang Tau Mui (according to what I remember). Similar to Dom and Ting Hui, Ang Tau Mui was also my favourite among all. I couldn't agree more on the embedded message of this sketch --- LIFE IS SHORT AND YOU SHOULD CHERISH EVERY MOMENT AND DO EVERYTHING YOU WANT TO DO. We only live once, so why don't we do everything we want first and end our life with no regrets? Once we are dead, we have no more chance to do it. The reality is cruel and frightening. You can't deny it. The shortness of 'LIFE' always tangling my thoughts terribly, so I can FEEL this sketch.

It was one of the sketches that I actually understood on the spot. Therefore it gave me deeper impression. Needless to say, Janice Koh's solo acting as Ang Tau Mui was totally to the point. She faced the audience as if to the manner born. COOL!

Another interesting sketch must be "Mama Looking For Her Cat". It was entertaining with the 2 skillful actors, Alfred Loh and Anne James communicating with each other about their lost cats using their own 'mother tongue'. The Hokkien spoken by Alfred and his nonverbal actions were epic. I could still recall til now. Even though I didn't understand what Anne James was saying, but the nonverbal signals were indeed powerful. I could still guess the meaning of the words. 

Personally, I think this sketch could be interpreted in two ways in the Malaysia and Singapore contexts.

1. The message of being able to communicate with each other even though using different languages (which you can consider is good. Maybe?).

2. The message of different languages actually leads to miscommunication, which has become a main factor that causes conflicts and even riots. 

Anyhow, according to Ms Edaline, it was a totally different story where the real story actually talks about the miscommunication between the older and younger generation. This reminds me of the current situations that the younger generation do not like to communicate with the older generation. Even they communicate, they do not show sincerity and empathy in the communication and therefore they do not really bother.

I think this is the main reason of the miscommunication occurred between both of these generation. If you are willing to listen to them, you would absolutely ask for clarification and miscommunication should not have occurred. The problem here is are you willing to communicate with them and listen to their HEART??

Finally, I'm ending my second post. "Another Country" gave me another point of view of theatrical performance. It is not necessarily to be presented in a conventional way (1 narrative), but innovations can always be made to make it more unique and memorable. Arts are to be creative. I'll try to accept it though. Looking forward to the next field trip, hope there will be more to come :)

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P.S. Didn't expect that Anne James would be one of my secondary school teacher. Yeah, I'm from S.M.K. (P) Sri Aman. How come I didn't see her during my secondary school time or did I forget her already??? Haih...should've getting her signature few years ago...teehee

FIRST post :D

Blog as assignment? GREAT. I always wanted to start a blog but I've nothing to write about. Finally, I can do it for this subject. I believe that my first post will be quite lengthy, so please bear with me ya :)

Back to the topic : Do You Identify as a Malaysian? Why? Does It Matter?

Asking this question to myself, do I identify myself as a Malaysian? Needless to say, the answer is YES. It's because I have my very own MyKad?? It might be one of the reasons as many of my friends stated in their posts but to me, I think the more obvious evidence is that I speak like how majority of the Malaysians (Chinese) speak in daily life. 

As Dr. Carmen mentioned in class, language represents a culture and it's a very important way of life.To me, LANGUAGE is the most outstanding aspect that is able to differentiate us, Malaysians from others.  Malaysia is the only country which the people is able to speak different languages by mixing them altogether to create sentences that only Malaysians will understand. Of course, I'm proud to be one of them! 

Sometimes, I might degrade our linguistic styles as compared to people from other countries like "Wow, the Westerns can speak so fluent English not like us, I like their accent too!" (just like how I admire Emily's English accent :P) or "Wow, the China people have the so-called "儿化音" (er-hua-yin) Mandarin pronunciation that make them sound so accurate and professional". Compared to Malaysians, YES, we can speak English, Mandarin, Bahasa Malaysia, Cantonese, Hokkien, Hakka.... But do we master all these languages? Frankly speaking, for me the answer is NO! I admit that I've only "half-bucket-water" for all these languages. 

BUTTTT...that's what that makes us special!! In my opinion, it's nothing special if you can only speak very fluent English or Chinese because in your country, I believe everyone can do it too. In Malaysia, even though we do not master all these languages, but at least we've grabbed enough vocabs from different languages for daily usage. We even combine many of them into daily conversations. 

"Hey, tomorrow we go eat nasi lemak ahh..." 

Did you realize? This sentence is the mixture of English and BM words with a direct translation of Mandarin. Maybe the English scholars will have objection of this sentence, but this is special isn't it? I've heard that many foreigners would like to learn to speak like Malaysians too! :D 

When travelling in other countries, how do we identify Malaysians? Of course, the way they speak is the easiest method. I've once traveled to Taiwan and when I was there, I was trying hard to speak like a Taiwanese but it was really tiring. At last, I realised that why do I have to imitate them? I can just use my own way of speaking because it's my culture, it's my way of life. Unexpectedly, the Taiwanese actually found it interesting and wanted to learn as well. A value learned : Always be yourself!

So, once again, do I identify as a Malaysian? YES I do. Does it actually matter? I think it's yes because it's my nationality, it's my identity and it's my dignity. This reminds me of the second activity held in our first lecture class, where we were required to prove ourselves as a Malaysian when we lose our identity in foreign country. During the discussion, it was a great discovery to me that most of the ideas that we mentioned to prove our nationality were actually interconnected with our cultures, such as languages, music, dance, etc. I realised that it was culture that made and formed us, the Malaysia society. At that moment, I think I felt the power of culture. 

I do acquire Malaysia cultures, thus I'm proud to say that I'm a MALAYSIAN. 

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