Week 9 - Formal & Contextual Art Analysis

Arghhhh it’s the end of a week again. Why it seems like time passes faster and faster? Seems like I just updated the post about the field trip yesterday.

Well, formal and contextual art analysis for this week. 

Important art works from 3 important artists were shown: Ibrahim Hussien, Redza Piyadasa and Yee I-Laan.

Ibrahim Hussien

May 13 (1969)

Retrieved from: http://keatsthesunshinegirl.blogspot.com/2010/06/ibrahim-hussein-museum-and-cultural.html

A darken flag, represents death of the nation.

Red line, represents the separation, violent.

White circle, represents a cycle, which means the same incident might happen again. It can also be analysed as the future of Malaysia, be it a good or a bad future. Because of the emptiness of the white circle, nobody knows about the future.

As I searched for this image, I found that Ibrahim Hussein explained:

Black represents the eclipse the country was going through;

Red represents the twilight that comes after the eclipse and darkness;

White circle symbolises a new energy and a rebirth.

So from what I interpreted, it means, after the tragedy that Malaysians gone through, they will get a better tomorrow.

My Father and the Astronaut (1970)

Retrieved from: https://platypusflatus.wordpress.com/2012/08/19/talking-art-at-the-1st-asean-symposium-on-aesthetics/ibrahim-hussein_my-father-and-the-astronaut_1970/

“You can take the boy out of the kampong, but you can’t take the kampong out of the boy.”

No matter how progressive a person is, the background will be with him/her for the entire life.

A background is what makes a person to become.

No matter how successful we are, we should never forget from where we were come from.

Redza Piyadasa

May 13 (1970)

Retrieved from: http://www.designboom.com/art/sam-singapore-art-museum-at-8q/

This art work seen as May 13 and Malaysia is dead. With the white cloth by the surrounding, it has the feel of funeral.

With the incomplete Malaysian flag painted on the upright coffin, it is seen as the nation is not united, Malaysians are fragmented. And the mirror under the coffin, it reflects the coffin which shows that we are not getting out of this tragedy. My own opinion, I think the purpose of putting the mirror as bottom is to show that Malaysia is dead no matter from what perspective you see this tragedy.

Why the coffin is upright? My own opinion again, maybe is to show that although the tragedy turns Malaysia into chaos, the Malaysians will still stand strong and will not be defeated easily.

Yee I-Lann

Kerbau (2007)

Retrieved from: http://www.cacsa.org.au/?page_id=2803

I have seen this art work during the field trip to Bank Negara Museum and Art Gallery.

As what Dr Carmen explained to us, the white background means that those buffaloes do not have background. The orange cone on the floor is the guide to guide the buffaloes to move to certain way, but because of the stubborn of buffaloes, they ignore the guides.

It is just like humans, sometimes they are stubborn and ignore the guides and rules.

A Rousing Account of Migration in the Language of the Sea (2010)

Retrieved from: http://www.photomedia.com.my/#!masterprint/cmws

This art work is like a series from the beginning of the migration and the end of the migration.

The buffaloes are forced to migrate to another place with their belongings through the turbid water. During the migration, the buffaloes lost their belongings.

As displayed is the gallery, the frame of this art work looks like a window, and the viewers are looking at the migration of the buffaloes through the window at a comfortable place. This shows a huge contrast between comfortable life and hardship.

Lang Kacang (1991)

Retrieved from: http://artasiapacific.com/Magazine/WebExclusives/IntersectingHistoriesContemporaryTurnsInSoutheastAsianArt

Retrieved from: https://www.pinterest.com/pin/516295544755452914/

This is an art work from Bayu Utomo, made of metal and cement.

The expression shows the person is screaming because of anger. It is limbless so it’s taken away the ability to do anything.

From what I interpreted, the person feels helpless and this is shown through the expression, because it can’t make any changes on what’s happening.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Art analysis can be fun when you are creative, you can think of many events, meanings, possibilities based on a piece of art work. But there is no right or wrong answer on how you analyse the art works, as long as it makes sense.

Field Trip to Bank Negara Malaysia Museum & Art Gallery

Art = Abstract = Art piece that not normal people can understand the meaning.

oops a lil bit senget :x

This is my first time ever been to a proper art gallery. 

Nothing much difference from those normal galleries that I’ve seen on television. 

Big art hanging on the wall with it description.

What impressed me the most are the underwater world paintings.  

They look so real as if it is photographed underwater! So real so amazing!

Well, this sums up the field trip of that day, it’s an art piece created by Kaili. x)

Please view and hit the like button! :P 

Half of the Sem - Week 7

“The line between art and life should be kept as fluid as possible —— Allan Kaprow”

This week’s post is gonna be a short one because I really don’t feel like writing much, so yeah.

Art has literal/direct meaning and suggestive/indirect meaning. 

Artwork with direct meaning is that bringing a message that the audience can understand at first sight and they are relatable while indirect meaning means something abstract and have to think a lot to think the idea of the artwork.

But fun fact is that, artist creating direct meaning artwork means the level of frustration the artist has when the audience don’t get the meaning of his/her art. So interesting right?

Another fact is on the left side of the National Museum mural is about historical while on the right side is about cultural. Wow! When I passed by the museum before I thought that both sides of the mural are just the same! Now I know. Maybe next time when I pass by the museum again I will look closely on the mural. Haha~

Btw, Miss E is gonna leave us and further her education in Taiwan soon. How sad… L

From year 1 sem 1 till now, year 2 sem 1, she teaches us for 4 subjects. Actually I wonder does she remember me? Miss E, do you remember me? Hahaha~ I’m so not recognizable.

Thanks for everything Miss E! All the best in your studies. J

Week 6

What do you learnt from Tan Zi Hao’s talk?

A guest was invited to give a lecture to us on last lecture, his name is Tan Zi Hao. Wow! So similar to my name! Haha~

Before he gave the lecture, I actually visited to his website. I didn’t read all those articles in details but just go through a few posts of his. Those posts are full of texts and I really couldn’t pay attention on it or maybe the moment when I read the posts I felt so sleepy (because I read it in the midnight lol), so I don’t really understand what are all about. Maybe read them later later later…

Overall, I quite don’t understand the concept of his art. Maybe I haven’t been to that level? Or maybe it’s to “artistic” to me? Or maybe it’s too abstract to understand? One of his events is like use one thing that you think has a high bumiputera value to trade with the soil. He said somebody used saliva, pubic hair and even sperm to trade. WHAT?! But one that is interesting is that someone used water, and what the person explained is: because tanah needs air to become tanah air (nation). Play with the words huh. Haha good one~

What I learn from Tan Zi Hao is that in order to create art, the first thing you must have is courage. Like what he did the performing art in his classroom, he followed his lecturer for the whole day to observe the reaction or expression of the lecturer (Is it the main idea for that activity?  I don’t really remember.). The main thing is if you are shy and introvert you won’t be able to continue the activity. And you might even need to bear the consequence after doing certain art that not everyone could understand.

Then Tan Zi Hao talked about one thing, Xenophora. Xeno means foreign while phora means carrier. After that he conducted an activity asked us to find a thing that you think is similar to xenophora. Until now, I couldn’t think of a thing that can represent Xenophora yet. Maybe I will update this post again when I think of it?

Malaysian Arts

During this week's lecture, I have learnt many new vocabularies and some facts that I misunderstood before this.

#1 – Dance defines as using the body to tell a story within a space and it is not just about memorising steps.

#2 – Ephemeral means something that temporary, eg: performing art.

#3 – Xenophobia means intense dislike or fear of foreigners or strangers.

#4 – Chilayu is not only the mixture of Chinese and Melayu, but also include Chinese adapt Malay culture and Chinese adopted by Malay family.

#5 – the word ‘BOTAK’ of the criminal Botak Chin does not mean bald but the abbreviation of ‘Bantu Orang Tak Ada Kerja’.

One of the arts that shown to us that impressed me so much is the dissection of animals by Damien Hirst. When mention about dissection of animals, what we normally think of are scientists and science labs. However, unexpectedly it is a form of art and it is not easy to handle it like others.

Questions for this week:

What is Malaysian art?

To me, Malaysian art is any art form that are Malaysia based, which means any arts related to Malaysia. Or maybe created by Malaysian as well? So i think those graffiti on the wall especially in KL area are also considered as Malaysian art.

Is it the responsibilities of a Malaysian artist to create Malaysian art?

In my opinion, it's Malaysian artist's responsibilities to create Malaysia art. If they don’t create Malaysian art, who else would bear the responsibility to create it? Just same as, if you don’t do you own things, who else going to do it for you? Moreover, as Malaysian artists, they should know more about Malaysia and therefore, they can create arts that are appropriate and suitable than other artists from other countries.

What event is so significant you think we should feature in Malaysian art work?

Anything, everything. Creativity has no limitation.

But of course, events that related to Malaysia or happen in Malaysia. Any events that happened in Malaysia are so memorable, and they somehow create certain identities to Malaysia.

Week 4

Mocking of national anthem by Namewee was shown to us during the lecture this week. To be frank again, this is the first time I watch the whole video. If not mistaken I was Standard 6 that time, I heard of friends talked about this song before but I wasn’t that interested on it. Years later, I watched some of his productions, and I’m so admire his talent in composing music. But I think he would have more chance if he produces those songs in other country because according to his criticise kind of style, he would get many troubles here. 

Back to the song, he expresses the message by using symbols like kopi, durian and morning call. They don’t sound criticising but they actually are. Critic about the government, MATA (police) and so on.

What cultural context inspired Namewee to write the song? I think mainly is because the place (Malaysia) he grown up and another culture that he exposed to. Most probably he found that the culture he exposed to is different from the past experience so he could make comparison and figured out the bads of Malaysia.

From the interview of Namewee, I’m fully agreed with this: “And we need to learn to accept, to respect, instead of feeling inferior because of the differences, and worship foreign cultures blindly.” Indeed, we have to learn to accept and respect, and these are the things that most of the people are unable to do. Also, we shouldn’t feel superior of our religion, race and even social class. As living in a multicultural, multiracial and multireligious country, we have to respect and accept others’ lifestyle then only we can have a harmony and peaceful life.

Clueless

So much of historical facts were injected to our brains on last lecture. They were mostly about the tragedy of May 13 1969. 

To be frank, I could not really concentrate on it. And I totally have no idea about the political issues. They are too complicated for me to understand. I even worry for the next election which will be my first time voting to change the future. Maybe I should just figure it out what’s going on in the future but not now.

Then there was this question, if I’m not mistaken, “If you are not proud of your country, do you still love your country?”.

Hmm… Good question for my brain to think further. 

Recently there are cases like a girl was not allowed to enter the hospital because she wore short pants and a man was not allowed to get back his lost baggage at the airport because he wore short pants too but the main point is both of them are Chinese. 

I believe it is like a joke when people from another country hear about this news. Actually there are still many more cases that make other countries laugh at us. However, though there are things that make us feel embarrass and awkward, there are still things that we feel proud of. From the aspect of tourism and foods, these are really the things that I proud of. 

Well, for me, I may be criticize on the system of Malaysia, but it doesn’t mean that I don’t love my country.

So, to see Malaysia as a whole, I love my country.

Then, we were asked to compose the lyrics for Malaysia. So with the creativity of my friends and I, this is it:

*Rap it out instead of singing it out. Haha~

Malaysia, I love my country,

Why are you so pretty?

Our government, very creative,

We have LRT, MRT, BRT and GST yo!

Malaysia,

Everything so yummy,

So yummy until policeman got tummy,

It makes you thirsty want to drink kopi.

We can be creative but not too crazy,

Otherwise you will end up eating curry.

I love my country,

Because it’s too pretty.

Malaysia, that is my country yo!

Another Country

Casts of Another Country

As most of my friends do, this was my first time went for a theatrical performance.

Another Country is divided into 2 parts, the first part is Sayang Singapura performed by the Malaysian actors while the 2^nd part is Tikam-Tikam: Malaysia @ Random 2 performed by Singaporean casts. Before further writing, I heard about Tikam-Tikam from my parents. It is a childhood game of their generation. It’s like you pay and choose a sticker or whatever to see what kind of prize you get. So as for the 2^nd part, audience were required to choose the sticky notes on a board to set the sequence of the stories.

I know no about theatrical performance. The moment I entered the theatre, I was impressed by the setting on the stage. With no props placing here and there, with light spotting on the actors who spoke. This leads audience to focus on the story itself. At first, I thought the actors were using mic but no! Their voice was so well projected to the extent that it can be heard at the back of the theatre, or even every corner in the theatre. Their lungs are superb! And I actually love how they managed their facial expressions and body movements to convey the feelings and emotions. Besides, it is interesting that they acted as if there were props. Like the 2 mothers in the hdb playground, the mothers threw the tissue paper as if there really is a dustbin there! Also in Ang Tau Mui, the actress acted as if she was eating the pork. So yummy that I felt kind of hungry at that moment. Haha.

However, there are always bads behind the goods. Unexpectedly, this play consists of many stories instead of having one narrative. This was how it made me feel I’m hanging that there were no endings and it jumped to the next stories without any clues and I was like “Huh what? This story end already ah?”. But overall, this was really a great performance.

When recalling the plays that I’ve watched, I doubted my memory. I can barely remember the scenes until we discussed them on the lecture. Maybe I’m not familiar with the history or story or politic or whatsoever of Singapore, so actually quite many stories I do not understand. But one of the stories that I remember the most was the Mama looking For The Cat. As the title mentioned, the Indian lady was looking for her cat and she met an old man who speaks Hokkien. Though they are using different language to communicate and with their body language and gesture, they actually know what each other trying to tell. Despite of different skin colour and language, they were united by the same topic. We often feel uncomfortable or even refuse to communicate with others when we do not speak common language. In fact, we actually can talk to each other using body language and gestures or even without any language. It’s just the matter that we do not step forward to speak.

Another story that I feel so familiar was Forever Singlish in the Singapore part, I don’t remember exactly but there was a line like “We say sorry for 3 times because we feel really sorry”. This often happens on me when I did something wrong especially when I accidentally step on other people shoes LOL. I guess most of the Malaysian did so too? Maybe because of the neighbourhood, we are actually influencing each other in many aspects.

To conclude, this is really a nice experience exposing to the performing art. Acting live is not an easy task. It’s even harder when they have to multi-task on the stage meanwhile remember their lines. Salute to all the performers!! *applause* 

First Post For the First Week

Malaysian Media and Culture, as the name suggests, it doesn’t sound attractive. But after attending the first lecture, Dr Carmen made the lesson fun and it seems interesting. Hopefully the following lessons are fun too. So for the first lesson, this is the task:

Do you identify as a Malaysian? Why? Does it matter?

For the former question, of course yes! And why? I never think of this question before and nobody asks me before. First of all, I think the very solid reason for this question is because I was born in Kuala Lumpur, the capital of Malaysia and I own Malaysia identity card. I live in Malaysia since I was born. I was taught about Malaysia history, geography of Malaysia, to sing Negaraku, to draw Malaysia flag and etc about Malaysia since I was in kindergarten.

There was a moment which I remember the most and I truly proud to be a Malaysian. That was when Datuk Lee Chong Wei represents Malaysia for badminton match. The mamak was so crowded and the people regardless of race watched the match together for the only reason. Deep from the bottom of my heart I was so touched that Malaysians are so united when it comes to this aspect.

As what Jun mentioned on her blog, I’m qualified to vote for the next election and this can affect the future of Malaysia. So it really matters whether I am a Malaysian or not. I’m not sure is it proper to critic Malaysia’s system on this post but whatever, no doubt that Malaysia really has a very large room of improvement to achieve Wawasan 2020. As a Malaysian, I hope that at least I can contribute a little bit for a better Malaysia.

We hope for better future!!

By the way, as I scroll through Facebook, I saw the photo above. Yeah that’s true, we should not differentiated by our races. We all as Malaysian should get fair treatment. That’s what 1 Malaysia means right? But I don’t think we are practising it.

To end the first post, writing down our own opinions and thoughts is not easy for me as most of the time I have difficulty expressing myself either by speaking or in words. I really hate it but I will try to express my opinions in the way that everyone understands. Haha~