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.