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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