Winter Sonata

Minggu ini kukira barulah tahap adrenalin aku menyusut. Kembali kepada mode tenang buat sementara. Kembali kepada tugasan domestik kaum ibu. Kembali menjadi 'haler' di rumah supaya anak-anak tidaklah alpa (chewah).

BERITA DALAM NEGARA

Pelancaran pameran Pak Samad begitu meriah pada 9 April di BSLN. Berdoyon tiba. Rentak perjalanan acara juga bagus. Bermula dengan ucapan-ucapan rasmi termasuk ungkapan-ungkapan mengusik Seniman Negara Datuk Syed Ahmad Jamal, majlis diriuh-rendahkan pula dengan persembahan daripada 'anak-anak' Pak Samad. Dewangga Sakti, Meor Yusof, Rahmat Haron, Taheera, Space Gambus Experiment, Rahimidin, Siti Zainon melalui video, (ada yang menonjolkan teman-teman sekali)dengan setulus hati mempersembahkan karya-karya mereka dalam bentuk nyanyian, muzik dan puisi khusus sebagai tanda hadiah untuk ulangtahun Bapak yang ke-75. Terimakasih semua. Anda orang-orang yang hebat! Maaf juga kerana ramai yang tidak dapat menjamah juadah pada malam itu kerana kehadiran yang unsangkarable!


Bagi kalian yang terlepas hadir pada malam itu, masih boleh bersama-sama dengan Bapak lagi minggu hadapan untuk acara Bicara Seni dan melawat pameran.







BERITA LUAR NEGARA

Pada 11 April aku ke Seoul, Korea bagi melunaskan janji kepada penganjur forum Asia Art Award(AAA) untuk membuat pengenalan tentang seni kontemporari Malaysia. AAA yang dijalankan di SOMA Museum of Art (di Olympic Park yang dipenuhi kira-kira 118 buah arca awam!)adalah sebuah pameran anjuran CJ Culture Foundation, Alternative Space LOOP dan Korea Sports Promotion Foundation. AAA diatur dengan kerjasama 50 orang kurator dan ahli kritik yang banyak terlibat dengan kerja-kerja seni eksperimental sekitar Asia, dalam usaha untuk mengetengahkan generasi artis visual yang bakal memandu seni kontemporari masakini. Mereka yang dinobatkan di peringkat akhir adalah kolektif ChimPom (Jepun), Jompet Kuswidananto (Indonesia), Shi Jin Song (China), Ashok Sukumaran (India), Apichatpong Weerasethakul (Thailand) dan Yangachi (Korea).

Agak mengecewakan, Malaysia masih lagi halimunan dalam peta seni dunia agaknya hinggakan begitu ramai daripada mereka tidak sedar dengan kewujudan artis media baru di sini. Maka aku memilih 10 artis yang dirasakan prolifik dan kena dengan tema mereka yang banyak menjurus kepada media serta ekspresi baru. Ini merupakan teks pengenalan yang telah aku bentangkan:


Malaysian Contemporary Art – A Glance at the Current Decade

I have often been asked by my colleagues abroad to share my views on Malaysian contemporary art. I realise that because of a lack of information, data base and critical discussions (in Malaysia, international art circuit, and specifically cyber world), very few among my foreign friends seem to know much about Malaysian art’s current situation. What I can say is that although contemporary art in Malaysia can be considered somewhat ‘invisible’ on the international art map, the reality is quite the reverse. Despite not having any ‘major’, international-level art event (compared to our nearest neighbours like Singapore and Indonesia), particularly in the form of biennale or triennale expositions, Malaysian art is making rapid advance and indeed is catching up with global art trajectories. Yes, our art market has yet to experience ‘boom’ phenomena like in China or India or even Indonesia; but in the last ten or so years the country has been witnessing active progress of its art activities, particularly in the capital Kuala Lumpur.

My fellow Malaysian artist, art scholar and thinker, Hasnul Jamal Saidon, in his comprehensive and critical essay entitled “Under-Deconstruction: Contemporary Art in Malaysia after 1990”, states that:
“Malaysian contemporary art scene in the past 15 years, especially during the 1990s, has been predominantly preoccupied by ‘future shock’ brought about by the above-mentioned catalysts of change (i.e. globalisation, free market capitalism, and ICT revolution). In responding to the above-mentioned catalysts, artworks by new generations of Malaysian artists that emerged during the late 1980s and 1990s have reflected an emergence of various intertwining and multi-disciplinary trajectories for contemporary art practice in Malaysia.”

He further writes that especially after 1990s,
“the sentiments and working strategies of many contemporary Malaysian artists ... have been generally informed by postmodern irony and paradox, [which] have been marked by postmodern raves where loudness, irony, parody, sarcasm, cynicism, satire, pun, intervention, subversion, protest, and mockery have been favoured. Pastiche, appropriation and deconstruction have also been employed as working strategies. ... Contemporary Malaysian artists have also displayed an interest in exploring new and multi-dimensional ways of making art... [S]everal non-conventional forms that have been employed ... [are] installation art including site-specific, video art and video installation, web or internet art, interactive CD, sound art and sound installation, light art, performance and situational art, digital photography and alternative prints, artist’s book, graffiti, ready-mades, ephemeral, intervention art, expanded painting, children’s and naïve art, quilt, fax, mobile phone.”

However, Hasnul points out that:
“Despite the emergence of these non-conventional, experimental, multi-disciplinary and alternative new forms, traditional forms such as painting still persist. In fact, painting (in its many variations) has continued to play a central role as an important form of contemporary expression in the Malaysian art scene.”

Since the 1990s, artists such as Hasnul Jamal Saidon, Wong Hoy Cheong, Niranjan Rajah, Liew Kung-Yu, to name a few, have already started exploring new media. Electric Art, Video Art and Internet Art, for instance, were embraced as ‘avant-garde’ explorative tools for expression in Malaysia then. Through their artworks during that period, this generation of artists can be viewed as trendsetters of not only ‘postmodernist’ forms but also ‘postmodernist’ themes which have become so prevalent in Malaysian contemporary art of today.

For this presentation, I have chosen 10 out of so many talented Malaysian contemporary artists: Yee I-Lann, Noor Azizan Rahman Paiman (Paiman), Ahmad Fuad Osman, Sharon Chin, Susyilawati Sulaiman (Shooshie), Roslisham Ismail (Ise), Vincent Leong, Nadiah Bhamadaj, Roopesh Sitharan and Kamal Sabran. I have selected them, some of whom are becoming more ‘visible’ in international art scene, essentially because of the contemporaenity of their artistic outputs, working strategies and creative stance, and because of their critical insights in reading current social-political-cultural ‘texts’.


Nota Exaggerate Penulis:
Maka terpesonalah sebahagian besar daripada mereka melihat akan keantarabangsaan karya-karya kita..dan terpacul juga kata-kata kagum dari ahli kritik "I did not realize at all, Malaysia artists have been producing such interesting works". Well..there you go bebeh!


Seperti biasa di tempat orang, selepas selesai hal-hal kerja aku berusaha memanjangkan langkah ke tempat-tempat yang dapat menenggelamkan aku dalam budaya dan persekitaran mereka. 2 hari 'free' aku isi dengan lawatan ke pasar Namdaemun, kawasan perniagaan Myongdong, ke Nam June Paik Art Center dan yang agak membekas rasanya di Itaewon kerana dapat bertemu dengan komuniti minoriti Muslim sewaktu sembahyang Jumaat. Selain itu seperti biasa aku akan tolak beberapa 'waktu kecederaan' akibat sesat. hehe.. Pengalaman manis dalam musim bunga yang disinggahi salji!