It has certainly been an interesting year in the art world, writes Sarah NH Vogeler, who has her pick of favourites
CONTEMPORARY artist J. Anu’s (Anurendra Jegadeva) MA-NA-VA-REH - Love and Loss In The Time Of The Big Debate was, for me, one of the better shows of 2014. It made its debut at Singapore Art Stage in January, and then brought to Wei-Ling Gallery in the same month.
There’s much to say about this fertile artist, and his latest work was just breathtaking.
The show’s stimulus was inspired from his grandmother, a well-known and much sought after wedding planner for Hindu marriage ceremonies in the 1950s and ‘60s in Teluk Intan, Perak. From invitation cards and bedecking locations, she also planned and built the Wedding Mana-va-reh or the wedding stage or cathedra for the sacraments and rites. And Hindu weddings are certainly beautiful and magical.
The thing about Anu is his daring, boldness and deep insight, always, always interrogating the status quo, resulting in mesmeric works.
We’re reminded of these things at the recent Pakhruddin and Fatimah Sulaiman’s For the Imaginary Space - Selected Sculptures and Installations recently concluded at The Edge Galerie. The artist’s The Line, a mass-produced rice cooker, was a simple enough implement, but in his hands, becomes something else entirely.
Another was Marvin Chan’s About Marvin, steered by NN Gallery. His works are a delightfully crazy amalgamation of mad, sad and bad - as in grave, enigmatic and gripping, and professed in such icy acuity. The grisly abattoir scenes juxtaposed by splendid laid-bare female forms makes your head do cartwheels. Marvin Chan is all about the “thrusts”, he flouts the contracts of portraiture, the lewdness intensely sensual.
2014’s more memorable shows include Chin Kong Yee’s Infinite Canvas, works of outstanding draughtsman ship, a lifelong reflection of the human condition; 20 Days in Northwest China (Part 1) - Landscapes of Chen Wei Meng, the artist’s sojourn to China occasioning in works that were simply tantalising, and Muhamad Suhaidi’s first solo Antara Bayang dan Wayang - Ali’s colour logic, a sequence of jewel-like tendencies - heliotrope, cerulean, bronze, ivory accentuated with backgrounds of pure emerald greens and pristine whites.
The plane of his paintings and characters from the epic Ramayana gleamed and was effervescent, with a charming range of hues which cloak rather than camouflage.
Other must mentions include Jai Abu Hassan’s Dato’ For Sale; The Art of Sparkle, a collection of jewelry by maestro goldsmith Robert Baines at Shalini Ganendra Fine Art (SGFA); Zac Lee’s Life of Pie; Kumbha Mela at Sutra Gallery; Suarasa III at Segaris Art Centre; The Good Malaysian Woman: Ethnicity, Religion and Politics at the White Box, (Izan Tahir, Sharon Chin and Bibi Chew were standouts); Alter Ego at Galeri Chandan; Galeri Petronas’ The City - Becoming and Decaying, and Yayasan Sime Darby’s Art Festival of which PUSAKA easily and decisively, ruled.
LOOKING AHEAD
Next year, Syed Thajudeen’s retrospective, to be held at Balai Seni Lukis Pulau Pinang in November, is greatly anticipated. Expect to see Syed’s works from his early periods up to his latest endeavours, emphasising on his mural sized chefs-d’oeuvre. His series on love, the kebaya, spiritualism and nature will also be exhibited together with his ink illustrations. Love, yearning, waiting, are central themes to many of Syed’s paintings.
There’s causative eroticism in every one, and despite the artist’s indifference to American and European art, the turmoil of passions and cravings in his works arouses softly of Gustav Klimt’s Danae (1902), of divine love, otherworldliness and beauty unequalled, of Shakespeare’s “My love is as a fever, longing still...” of Modigliani’s lovely renditions of muse and wife Jeanne Herbuterne, and Picasso’s Rose Period paintings. Syed’s women echo haunting voices, quietly purring Catullus, eyes in silent reverie as their lithe figures sway gently to music heard by them alone.
Another retrospective to look forward to is Cheong Laitong Expression of 60 Years Part II by NN Gallery to be held at Publika’s Whitebox in March, comprising 45 paintings. After six decades of creative input to the country, this exhibition investigates the stylistic growth and outstanding technical flair of an artist observed as one of the most innovative artists of our time. His inventiveness, which arose during the time of our country’s independence and endures, is an undisputable asset. The artist’s talents were discovered early on during his calling; one of Cheong’s monumental works won the Mural Competition for the portico of the National Museum.
This primary sampling of his work, which illustrates extracts of day-to-day Malaysian life and finished in Venetian cut-glass mixtures, has endured the test of time and positions today as one of the city’s most noticeable and much-loved public artworks.
From The Edge Galerie will be the Ken Yang solo in September/ October. His paintings loom large with beautifully undeviating lines, but at the same time are both tender and unforgiving - and this is one show we wait for. Another offering from the same gallery is from Datuk Sharifah Fatimah Syed Zubir, slated for June/ July. I’ve always been so taken by her canvases; her paintbrush seems possessed by a kind of power which is all intense and molten. She leaves behind a chaotic trail, loud and strong, each time without fail.
There are plenty more to look forward to. Jeganathan Ramachandram’s Hati, in January at the University of Malaya Art Gallery, is one. His works will be shown alongside fellow artist Jayshree and five of his extraordinarily talented students, Angela Natashia Joseph, Mageswary Manickam, Manon Maney Ramadass, Rohini Indran and Seema Nanoo. In Hati, Jega’s submissions are both reflective and concentrated; landscapes filled with light and traditional painterly makings, amplified by wild and dominant abstractions as seen in My Playground, Spirit of Tiger and Barbecue. His brushwork is both profuse and gestural, an artist’s longing to push his palette to the extreme, unconcerned about the final product - it is the getting there which ecstasies. The artist’s years spent in India training in fine art, granite sculpturing, Indian Classical music, wood carving and Tantric art has served him well; his works thrill the senses in such wickedly enchanting ways.
And as A.A. Milne wrote in Winnie the Pooh, “”Well,” said Pooh, “what I like best,” and then he had to stop and think. Because although Eating Honey was a very good thing to do, there was a moment just before you began to eat it which was better than when you were, but he didn’t know what it was called.”
Anticipation! That’s what it’s called.
