This article first appeared in The Edge Financial Daily on July 20, 2017
Dive into the world of contemporary art with the launch of a new art gallery in town, A+ WORKS of ART. This new gallery seeks to involve contemporary practices and discussions in new media art, especially photography, video, installation and performance art. As its name suggests, A+ refers to the gallery’s strive for distinction in exhibiting excellent and unique pieces that do not have a platform in a commercial gallery. With collaboration as the newly established gallery’s key ethos, the artists invited for its launch will have their work exhibited as an ongoing conversation and collaboration with each other, instead of mere representation.
For the opening of its first preview exhibition, the gallery presents Kadang Kadang Dekat Dekat Akan Datang, which is part of an ongoing series of preview exhibitions by the collaborated artists. An apt reference to a riddle in the 1959 P Ramlee movie Nujum Pa’ Blalang, the exhibition features Indonesian artist Agus Suwage and Malaysian artist Tan Zi Hao with a special performance by Fajar Abadi, all whose work showcases their own individual beliefs and pursuits.
Agus Suwage
One of Indonesia’s most revered contemporary artists, Agus Suwage exhibits a set of 50 complex prints entitled Pause/Replay, which are dated from 2004 to 2009. Known for his watercolour and oil paintings, pencil drawings, prints and multimedia installations, the artist favours the exploration of different contexts in society, culture and politics. Since the 1990s, Suwage predominantly uses his own portraiture to convey his concerns and probe uneasy questions with witty socio-political criticisms, which creates a somber air of ironic humour. One of his conceptual strategies is appropriating his own work, those from other artists and popular iconography, which he remakes and redevelops into something new. Suwage will be showcasing his form of remediation which enables him to add complex layers of meaning that is connotative of his critical investigations into art history and its social contexts.
Pause/Replay was first made on watercolour on paper in 2004 and scanned in high resolution for exhibition purposes. The artworks were first exhibited in 2005 at the Institute of Technology Bandung, and later at SH Contemporary Art Fair in Shanghai, China. In 2009, Pause/Replay was part of Suwage’s retrospective exhibition Still Crazy After All These Years at Jogja National Museum at Yogyakarta.
Tan Zi Hao
A thriving local talent and a multi-disciplinary artist, Tan Zi Hao exhibits The Skeleton of Makara (The Myth of a Myth), a skeletal display of a mythical creature made from fibreglass and metal. The Makara is a Hindu chimera that decorates Khmer monuments, Thai temples and even Malay kerises across Southeast Asia.
Commissioned by Singapore Art Museum, the large-scale installation seeks to challenge the truthfulness of representation. By giving bones or biological “evidence” to a mythical creature, Tan is able to breathe life into the myth. Consequently, the fabricated Makara skeleton problematises the politics of historical representation as it compels the questioning of how history is constructed or represented. The conceptual artist’s installment of skeletons bearing the ability to bring out life is juxtaposed against the fact that bone is suggestive of death. As such, Tan’s exposure of the oxymoron in our imaginings is also displayed in the installment itself.
Fajar Abadi
For the opening performance, Bandung-based artist Fajar Abadi will be performing a revered take on family intimacy. Titled Paradise lies under the feet of our mothers, the project involves a collaboration where Fajar will ask children to help him cast the feet of their mothers. Subsequently, the casts are used to create new footwear for the mothers. Intan Rafiza and her nine-year-old daughter Sarah Cinta Daniels will join him in this performance.
Inspired by Iwan Fal’s song Ibu and a photo series titled Family Portraits by Vincent Rumahloine for his works, Fajar appropriately picked the title of his project from the Hadith. His performance seeks to unveil the intimate relationship between mother and child, and explore how the private relationships of responsibilities and duties have public ramifications. In each episode of Paradise, the artist initiates conversation between mother and child. Therefore, his work is also concerned about the private and the public. By performing something intimate in public, there is a tension that is embodied in relationship with/to other bodies within the space. Fajar gratifies by navigating between performance and instalation to playfully emphasise and penetrate everyday social relationships.
Catch Kadang Kadang Dekat Dekat Akan Datang at A+ WORKS of ART, d6-G8, d6 Trade Centre, 801 Jalan Sentul, Kuala Lumpur. The show runs until July 29, and gallery hours are from noon to 7pm (Tuesdays to Saturdays). For more information, call (018) 333 3399.