The Star Online: Lifestyle: Arts & Fashion
The Star Online: Lifestyle: Arts & Fashion |
- Reaching arty heights with Zarian Babjan
- Works by well-known artists go under the hammer
- Living in decay
| Reaching arty heights with Zarian Babjan Posted: 05 May 2013 12:25 AM PDT Inspired by aviation art, artist Zarian Babjan has brought together his two loves in his artwork. PEOPLE will be greeted by Tom Cruise when they walk into the exhibition," says Zarian Babjan with a smile that could only be flashed by someone who just won the lottery. That's the sort of zest the artist has for life – in spite of the things that wear us down, there's always so much to look forward to. Zarian's brand of aviation art, titled Machines & Muses, is currently being exhibited at Seni Gallery, Seni 'Mont Kiara in Kuala Lumpur. The 68-year-old has perfectly married his two interests in life – planes and celebrities. It's obvious he knows his aircraft, and on his winged machines are images of musicians and cinema icons including the likes of Mick Jagger, Shirley Bassey, Diana Ross, Cameron Diaz, Catherine Zeta-Jones and Barbara Bach, among others. His music interest isn't surprising since he listens to plenty of it while painting, and that's many hours spent in a day. And like all art folk worth their salt, Zarian wears his heart on his sleeve, or more specifically, attaches his toolbox (with the image of The Rolling Stones painted on it by him, no less) to his work space, a tiny shack off Taman Tun Dr Ismail in Kuala Lumpur. And what of these celebrities? "I like them ... I like them all. My favourite are singers ... Elvis (Presley), Beatles, Rolling Stones," he enthuses with wide-eyed amazement. It's not just singers and actors that he's worked his acrylic magic with; he's also done so for world leaders like former Singaporean Prime Minister Lee Kwan Yew. But well before he first committed brush to canvas, Zarian was simply fascinated with the whirly birds he saw in the sky. "I saw my first plane when I was about five, during the Emergency period. It was a propeller plane that flew above me," he recalls of mid-1950s Kuala Kangsar, Perak, his hometown. It was at school that he was introduced to art and found his medium of expression, thriving in his arts and crafts lessons in Standard One. "I used to make matchbox planes, you know, from those old wooden matchboxes. I'd put a few boxes together and make up the fuselage. Then I'd open up and flatten some to make the wings," he says, revealing his early engineering methods at Clifford School. Being a voracious reader and having a keen eye for the arts, Zarian would thumb through British and American magazines like Post and Life, respectively, sourcing inspiration. And it was on one such occasion that he chanced upon the image of a Hawker Typhoon fighter plane circling a German Panzer tank in a WWII depiction, effectively burning the artist, aviation art specialist Frank Wootton's name in his brain. Eventually, he graduated to putting together Fleet Air Arm and later, Airfix model planes together, a pre-occupation that had many kids the world over gluing their fingers together and painting over floors and tables, too. Hence, he learned to differentiate fighter planes like a Hawker Hurricane from a Spitfire, and an F-4 Phantom from an F-15 Eagle. Somehow, his love for painting stuck and as a child, Zarian's pre-occupation with Word War aviation saw him drawing bi-planes as well. "I once drew 100 bi-planes from a frontal view in my exercise book." Honouring the belief that while an artist might turn his back on art, art will never turn its back on an artist, the animated Zarian – who worked in the advertising industry up to his 40s before opting for early retirement – persevered with his passion and developed his attention to detail, clearly visible from his intricate artwork. Matching celebrity to the plane in his artwork appears a random process, but there is also a method to his madness: "I try to highlight the person's country of origin." He beckoned to his painting of singer Olivia Newton-John adorned on an Australian Air Force fighter jet, saying, "See, she's Australian, so I paint her on an Australian plane," he explains. His favourite fighter jets include the Grumman F-14 Tomcat, the plane immortalised in the mid-1980s Tom Cruise vehicle Top Gun (guess the painting of what plane greets visitors to his exhibition?), Dassault Mirage 200, Mikoyan MiG-29 and the cutting-edge Lockheed Martin F-22 Raptor. Fighter planes and bombers with paintings on them came to the fore duringWWII, and invariably, they were almost always of women. "Women are always inspirational," Zarian theorises, with paintings on cave walls giving credence to how man has adulated the female form since time immemorial. As an artist, he naturally harbours the hope that his works will be enjoyed by the viewing public, but he also has another desire. Almost bashfully, he admits: "I hope the celebrities I've painted get to see my paintings and like them." That's not as impossible as it seems anymore, given how small the world has become with the Internet age. And if international acknowledgement is still beyond his reach, local appreciation is the next best option, and he has seen to that given his paintings of singers Datuk Siti Nurhaliza and Datuk Sheila Majid, and actress Datuk Seri Michelle Yeoh. Ultimately, he indulges in his art because he simply loves it. "I do this because it truly brings me joy." > Zarian Babjan's Muses & Machines exhibition at Seni Gallery, Seni 'Mont Kiara in Kuala Lumpur, ends on May 11. For details, visit senimontkiara.com.my or call 03-6203 1919. E-mail: christine.ngh@bumblebee-world.com. |
| Works by well-known artists go under the hammer Posted: 21 Apr 2013 02:58 AM PDT Henry Butcher Art Auctioneers (HBArt) returns with its highly anticipated fifth sale today at 1pm at the Sime Darby Convention Centre in Kuala Lumpur. For the first time, HBArt will have a South-East Asian section featuring works by well-known artists from the region, including art by Bali-based Dutch painter Arie Smit and other Indonesia-based artists such as Erica Hestu Wahyuni, Lucien Frits Ohl (1904-1976) and Popo Iskandar (1927-2000). Under the main spotlight are gems by leading Malaysian artists Abdul Latiff Mohidin, Ahmad Khalid Yusof (1934-1997), Ahmad Zakii Anwar, Chang Fee Ming, Chen Wen Hsi (1906-1991), Chia Yu Chian (1936-1991), Datuk Chuah Thean Teng (1912-2008), Hamir Soib @ Mohamed, Jalaini Abu Hassan, Lee Cheng Yong (1913-1974), Tay Mo Leong, Yusof Ghani and many more. The sale will also feature a Young Contempo section offering outstanding works by some of the best contemporary artists around, such as Fauzul Yusri, Justin Lim (see story above), Latif Maulan, Raduan Man, Saiful Razman and Yusri Sulaiman. Collectors can also look forward to seeing works by Chuk Mor, Eng Hwee Chu, Eric Peris, Haron Mokhtar, Ho Khay Beng, Hoe Say Yong, Lim Cheng Hoe, Shia Yih Ying and Tajuddin Ismail making their first appearance at an HBArt auction. This new venture to penetrate the regional market is aimed at promoting and presenting South-East Asian art to Malaysian collectors and Malaysian art to counterparts abroad. For more info, visit hbart.com.my or call 016-298 0852 / 012-683 7808. |
| Posted: 20 Apr 2013 04:15 PM PDT From unusual combinations of imagery, something new emerges. THE corpse of a bird plummets to the ground and buries itself somewhere in the vicinity of a boar's decapitated head. A flower bouquet forms part of the boar's snout, and an iguana sets up home a bit higher up – the row of spines on the reptile's back doubles as the bristles on the boar's head and, hey, what about throwing in a slab of raw meat into the picture as well? This is Manimal, one of the works by artist Justin Lim that will be showcased at Arcane Fantasies For The Flesh And The Sublime starting Wednesday at Richard Koh Fine Art in Kuala Lumpur. In his paintings, Lim seamlessly weaves together imagery that at first glance seems worlds apart. Until you see his work, that is – and then you realise that not only is it coherent, but also detailed, wonderfully intriguing and very beautiful. It is almost surprising that the unlikely combinations can yield such breathtaking results, especially when you realise what the individual parts are composed of, and how they hardly fit into the universal notion of beauty. Despite the pervading sense of decay in Lim's works, the overall aesthetics are such that it is not difficult to imagine a viewer wondering if the result is supposed to be more alive or dead. But to the artist personally, there is no ambiguity. "To me they are all dying," he writes in an e-mail interview, the matter-of-factness coming across even in written form. "These paintings show the life cycle. What happens to these things is just a fact of life. It symbolises how in order for something new to emerge, something has to give way. So death could be a form of growth in some way as well, as paradoxical as it may sound," says Lim, 30. Far from it being intentional, this sense of decay in his works was not introduced on purpose. Lim doesn't even come up with a detailed plan of the painting before he sets brush to canvas, but is instead open to moving things around as the artwork takes shape. "I improvise, arrange and the rearrange imagery throughout the process of making the works. I don't really plan out the painting before I make it. It wasn't on purpose to depict this sense of decay, but I think it unconsciously documents and portrays the state of society today. Things wither and die for something new to emerge," the KL-based artist explains. In this exhibition, Lim draws heavily from iconography, myths, popular culture and the human subsistence as collectors and hunter gatherers in the contemporary world. "Celebrating personal memories, experiences and observations, culminated through a collection of iconic imagery, I translate surreal imagery within shapes and icons of 'trophies' as a commentary on human desire. "The exhibition is a truth-seeking exercise, a visual spew documenting the ridiculous, illusory and elusive nature of sublimity. It also investigates the role of the artist as collector, amassing ideas, influences and culture," he says. A series of caged-up paintings made up of individual elements found in the larger works will also be on display at the exhibition. This group, entitled Trophies, is meant as a playful commentary on human desire. "It's kind of like saying that you are a prisoner of your own wants and desires," Lim offers. He sees painting as a "manifestation of pain, happiness and all that is in between" and a never-ending process of "introspection, reassessment and growth". Every show is a new start to him, including this one, in which Lim has chosen to step further away from the mythical aspect of narration within painting and pursue more personal observations. The recurring symbols in his works hint at his interests and identity, and provide clues to personal messages. They also serve as "easy entry points" to talk about certain subjects. "For example, meat to me is a symbol of religious ideals, of rituals and rights, and I choose that to express my views on the subject," Lim says. However, he adds that it is not his intention to thrust specific messages or his personal views upon the viewer. "The viewer should take away whatever they wish to. Looking at art is a personal experience; you realise more about yourself because you reflect on your own knowledge, understanding and point of view," he concludes. > Arcane Fantasies For The Flesh And The Sublime is on at Richard Koh Fine Art, Lot 2F-3, Level 2, Bangsar Village 2, Kuala Lumpur, from Wednesday to May 8. Call 03-2283 3677 for more details. |
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