The Star Online: Lifestyle: Arts & Fashion
The Star Online: Lifestyle: Arts & Fashion |
| Medication and memories: Back From Planet Luvox exhibition Posted: 19 Apr 2014 09:00 AM PDT Malaysian artist Hasanul Isyraf Idris uses vivid larger-than-life images to explore mortality. Several years ago, while on a flight from Malaysia to London to visit his sick mother, the artist Hasanul Isyraf Idris found himself contemplating the meaning of life and death. Hasanul found himself reflecting on topics such as fate, sin, reward, life, death, memories and fantasies, in a manner he described as "a non-stop slideshow." With his mother's death, the artist found himself moved to channel these thoughts into art. And these results can be seen in his latest exhibition, Back From Planet Luvox, currently showing at the Richard Koh Fine Art gallery in Kuala Lumpur. Luvox is one of the brand names of Fluvoxamine, a legal anti-depressant drug the artist has been taking since late 2013 to help recover from a dark phase ignited by his mother's passing in 2011, a few days after his first solo art exhibition, Clash Of The Pigments. "The drug is for developing my serotonin, or emotions in the brain, like happiness. But sometimes I feel that making artwork makes me feel better. It's meditative, therapeutic and spiritual," said Hasanul, 36.  Hasanul Isyraf Idris' Wiskey Selasih Invasion (mixed media on paper, 2012), which a highlight at his Back From Planet Luvox exhibition at Richard Koh Fine Art in Kuala Lumpur. Hasanul was trained at Mara University of Technology, UiTM, in Perak. He is critically acclaimed, having won, among other awards, the Young Contemporary Arts Award in 2007 at the National Visual Arts Gallery and the Incentive Award at the Open Show held at the Shah Alam Gallery. The works in Back From Planet Luvox display his search for balance between the two most important elements in his life's art practice; the physical and the spiritual. The exhibition is more than a story of bouncing back to life; it also depicts the artist's attempts at understanding his past. Despite the exhibition's cosmic title, Hasanul's art pieces are really an exploration of "inner space", namely his memories of his life in three different settings. These are of his time living in London, his experiences teaching secondary school in Borneo, and growing up with his mother. The artist revealed that he found the preliminary stages of artistic creation to be more challenging than the actual process of creation. "For me, the initial part of making art such as brainstorming ideas, making sketches, getting the right material and researching are the toughest parts," said Hasanul. "For example, in my work Prozac, Luvox And Everything Nice, I thought the colour of the crab should be as if it had been cooked, but at the same time, I wanted it to still be alive. This was because its eyes weren't grey, but I wanted those parts to look like cataracts. I made several 'dummies' and repeated the tones and colours until I got what I really wanted, until it was perfect. It was finished after two years," he revealed. Much of his work is highly abstract, featuring surreal collections of items and creatures with vivid, almost psychedelic coloured backgrounds.  Summer Predator (enamel paint, rhinestones, glitter and aluminum bottle caps on paper, 2014) To create these visually-striking pieces, Hasanul used a variety of materials, such as enamel paint, acrylic, glitter and rhinestone. These included items collected during his stay in Borneo, including bottlecaps he gathered from the bar below his apartment! Hasanul said some of his artwork centred on a recurring image in his head, which was a small flower garden found in front of his childhood home, where every late afternoon, he and his mother would look at birds bathing. Another recurring image in Hasanul's work is that of crabs, which can be seen in works such as Incredible Fusion Party (2012) and Weaving Vomit (2014). "I was from a village near the sea. The crab is one of the images which is familiar to me. It is a symbol of tides," he said. This crustacean motif is also prominent in Wisky Selasih Invasion (2012), which features a giant flower-covered crab in the centre of a spider web covered with various insects. "Visually, the work has a varied tone; it's colourful, and very detailed. There are illusions of chaos, death, growth and intrusion all happening at the same time harmoniously. It was actually an early piece from this series and among the hardest to finish." In some of his other works, such as Peace In The Valley and While Shepherds Watch Their Flocks By Night, Hasanul warps classic LP covers, adding darkly humorous details and his trademark colours. "I 'invade' the LP covers by trying to impose new meanings and images on them," he said. Asked about the future, Hasanul said he was working on some ideas, including one art project that would incorporate some of his mother's old clothing. So has creating and exhibiting art helped him to understand his memories better? "Of course I have more understanding of my works now, although I feel my memories have become more complex and intricate. Sometimes I feel that I'm working on a 'puzzle', which will never be solved," concluded Hasanul. > Hasanul Isyraf Idris' Back From Planet Luvox is showing at Richard Koh Fine Art, Lot No. 2F-3, Level 2, Bangsar Village II, Jalan Telawi 1, Bangsar Baru in Kuala Lumpur till April 30. Free admission. Opens daily: 10am to 10pm. Call 03-2283 3677 or visit www.rkfineart.com for details. |
| Qatar unveils desert sculpture by US artist Posted: 19 Apr 2014 09:00 AM PDT US artist Richard Serra, commissioned by Sheikha Mayassa, has created a sculpture in Qatar's desert. Four steel plates rise out of Qatar's desert sands like behemoths, symbolising, according to US artist Richard Serra who created the sculpture, the connection between the wealthy Gulf state's two regions. The sculpture, East-West/West-East, was unveiled earlier this month in a desert area around 60km from the capital Doha, by the sister of Qatar's emir, who has been named by Britain's ArtReview as the most influential figure in the art world. The sculpture, which consists of four steel plates which rise to heights varying between 14.7m and 16.7m, was commissioned by Sheikha Mayassa bint Hamad bint al-Thani. The emir's sister was named the most influential figure in the art world in a "power list" published by Britain's ArtReview magazine in October. She has around US$1bil (RM3.2mil) a year to spend on art as head of the Qatar Museums Authority (QMA), according to ArtReview – 30 times more than New York's Museum of Modern Art. "Sheikha Mayassa asked me if I would build a piece in the desert. I went to several deserts with ... a Bedouin ... and I like this desert the most," said Serra, renowned for his metal sculptures. "The pieces connect two regions of the landscapes ... it brings this peninsula together with the sea on one side and the sea on the other," the artist told reporters at the unveiling. Qatar, which has just 1.5 million inhabitants, is trying to establish itself as the region's cultural hub. The gas-rich Gulf state hosts several museums and galleries, including the Museum of Islamic Art, the largest of its kind in the region. The Qatar Museums Authority bought French post-impressionist Paul Cezanne's masterpiece The Card Players for US$250mil (RM809mil) in 2012, making it the most expensive painting ever sold. Qatar last year unveiled 14 massive bronze sculptures, the Miraculous Journey, by British artist Damien Hirst charting the gestation of a human being from conception to birth. Also in October, Qatar displayed a statue immortalising French footballing legend Zinedine Zidane's headbutt on Italy's Marco Materazzi in the 2006 World Cup final. The display on the Doha corniche, removed less than a month later following an outcry by conservatives who slammed the art work as anti-Islam idolisation, came as Qatar prepares to host the 2022 World Cup. – AFP |
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