We took a road trip to Singapore last Wednesday to attend the opening of JENDELA group’s exhibition “A Play of the Ordinary” at National University of Singapore (NUS) Museum. It was a spur of the moment decision as we wanted to kill a few birds with one stone: 1) cheer our friends on 2) see Handiwirman’s ‘knives’ which we’ve heard so much about during our recent trip to Jakarta and 3) get our ‘mee-pok‘ fix. Hee.

This show is a big deal for the group as it is their first major exhibition outside Indonesia. Combining old works dating as far back as 1999 with new ones, “A Play of the Ordinary” traces the group’s development over the past decade. Working in a distinctive visual symbolic language, using still life and landscape forms,  these five artists from West Sumatra have differentiated themselves from a predominantly figurative-based and socio-politically driven Indonesian art context and are now leading figures in their own right. Kudos to curator Enin Supriyanto for his sensitive and well thought-out presentation. As we walked through the thematically curated rooms, we witness their sense of humour and wit, their close friendship as well as the influence they have on each other’s artistic development. As for the knives, there were not 2 but 3 knives on show -a pair of pointed slicing knives from Handi, measuring 2 meters long each, and a giant cleaver by  Rudi Mantofani which miraculously turned up 2 hours before opening.

Here are the pictures. We’ll let you decide if you think they were worth the trip.

Useful info: Kelompok Seni Rupa JENDELA or JENDELA Art Group members are: Jumaldi Alfi, Handiwirman Saputra, Rudi Mantofani, Yunizar and Yusra Martunus. The word ‘Jendela’ means ‘window’ both in Bahasa Indonesia and Bahasa Malaysia. (AO)

It was a busy June for RogueArt. We’ve been meaning to put up these pictures from our Where Art Happens talks series but the three of us seem to be running relay in and out of KL.

Our series of three Saturday talks was all in all a great success thanks to our wonderful speakers from both Malaysia and abroad, our sponsor Yayasan Sime Darby, media partner Off The Edge, as well as to the fantastic audience, especially those who faithfully came for the full whack. We ourselves were impressed with the turnout, and salute all those who came for their dedication to the issues surrounding art in our community.

Session 1 – Art Spaces: Policies, Agendas and Ways Forward got off the ground with a most venerable panel of speakers – Dr Najib Dawa, Director-General of our National Art Gallery, Ahmad Mashadi, Head of Singapore’s NUS Museum, Hasnul J Saidon, Director of Muzium & Galeri Tuanku Fauziah at USM in Penang, and Iqbal Abdul Rahim, Creative Producer for Bank Negara Malaysia Museum and Art Gallery. It was a lesson in the challenges facing institutions dealing with art today, but it would seem that there is a general recognition of changing contexts and a sense of investment, particularly for the university museum-galleries, in developing future generations of audiences. It was particularly exciting to get a peek at the plans for the new Bank Negara museum and gallery which looks extremely impressive, and while it is very much a multi-faceted institution dedicated to more than just art, we’re sure it will make a big impact on our corner of local civilisation.

L-R : Dr Najib Dawa, Hasnul Saidon, Ahmad Mashadi, Iqbal Abdul Rahim & Beverly during a floor discussion

In the afternoon Rifky Effendy an indendent curator from Indonesia who took us on a quick tour of the Indonesian art scene which has changed dramatically since the regional market began to boom a few years ago. Pang Khee Teik, Programme Director of the Annexe Gallery waxed political and philosophical on the dangers of art policy, and the advantages of organic development (complete with arm movements). Simon Soon, a local independent curator, made a sweep of independent and alternative spaces in the region, showing us the breadth and depth of bold and exciting artists’ intitiatives from Malaysia to Indonesia, Thailand and Vietnam. Syed Nabil represented the largest sector of non-institutional spaces in Malaysia – private galleries, telling the story of his own space NN Gallery.

Surprisingly there weren’t many challenges from the floor, although one attendee did comment that it was all a lot to take in….

L-R: Syed Nabil, Simon Soon, Pang Khee Teik, Rifky Effendy & Beverly

Session 2 – Getting Out There: Art in the Community attracted the biggest crowd. It was a pretty international event, with artists Amanda Heng from Singapore and Tran Luong from Hanoi, Reza Asung Afisina & Ardi Yunanto from ruangrupa Jakarta, and Defne Ayas of ArtHub and Performa from Shanghai. From our home corner Hari Azizan talked about various Five Arts projects in the community such as Asian Youths ArtsMall, Lim Kok Yoong talked about the Let Arts Move You project on KTM trains and at KL Sentral Station in 2007, and Yap Sau Bin showed off the brilliant just released DVD of the Contemporary Art in Schools Project at Stella Maris school last year, managing to sell a few copies that day. This session was moderated by Eva McGovern. It was all very inspiring, and we had lots of audience feedback (with some pondering on the age-old question of the role and identity of art), and we hope to see more beautiful art-in-public/public art initiatives in our back yard soon.

L-R: Hari Azizan, Amanda Heng, Eva McGovern & Tran Luong

The crowd catching up with friends during lunch break

L-R: Eva McGovern, Yap Sau Bin, Lim Kok Yoong, Defne Ayas, Reza Asung Afisina & Ardi Yunanto

Session 3 – Feeding Creativity: Art Residencies and Grants had givers (in the morning) and takers (in the afternoon) give their viewpoints on the worthy practice of funding fine art.  Rahel Joseph talked about the two residency programmes she had initiated, for the Australian High Commission (Sydney) and for Galeri Petronas (Beijing), while Angela Hijjas described the RImbun Dahan residency programme(s) updated us on its latest developments, hinting at possible new programmes in Penang and Yogyakarta. Stephanie Yeap talked about the RBS-Malihom AIR programme in Balik Pulau while HOM (House of Matahati) was represented by Bayu Utomo Radjikin who told off many great initiatives by HOM including their residency programme, art competition, artists’ fund and fundraising events. Mella Jaarsma, co-founder of Cemeti Art House came to share her experiences from their Landing Soon residency programme and how Cemeti will expand on this to be a residency-based project space from next year onwards. Marion d’Cruz talked of the good work of the Krsihen Jit-ASTRO fund, and her experience with Artists’ Network Asia (ANA), and noted how there was a positive increasing trend of artists giving to artists.

Marion d’Cruz speaking about 5 Arts Centre

L-R : Angela Hijjas, Mella Jaarsma, Marion d’Cruz, Rahel Joseph, Bayu Utomo Radjikin, Sharon Lai & Stephanie Yeap

By the afternoon, things had got pretty relaxed. The last panel of the series included residency/grant veterans Malaysian artists Ahmad Fuad Osman, Chang Yoong Chia, Ise and Vincent Leong, a handsome young crew who gave eloquent presentations on the ups and downs of residency experiences (80% ups) – not being able to speak Korean, bureaucratic issues in the land under JB, the efficiency of the Taiwanese, the luxury of time and of Rimbun Dahan,freezing in Vermont, partying in Oz. We saw some of the work they did out there, too.

L-R: Roslisham Hashim (Ise), Vincent Leong, Ahmad Fuad Osman & Chang Yoong Chia

We’d just like to say thank you once again to our speakers, our sponsor Yayasan Sime Darby, media partner Off The Edge, and everyone who came and made the talks a worthwhile initiative. We hope to make this a yearly event, addressing different pressing issues for the art community.

We are preparing a fuller report on the talks which we will publish on our Projects page in the near future, so please do post here any comments or feedback on the talks series you feel may be of interest.

Meanwhile, check out our Where Art Happens art map, published in the June edition of Off The Edge, reproduced here.

We made another pilgrimage down to Singapore’s NUS Museum a couple of weekends ago (yes, I am a bit late) for the opening of Ahmad Zakii Anwar’s new solo exhibition, Being. We were part of a sizable Malaysian contingent, all patriotically heading down to support one of our art world heroes.

Reclining Figure 1

In the ten large-scale charcoal drawings which make up the exhibition, I think it would not be too much to say that Ahmad Zakii seems to have elevated the tradition of the nude drawing to some higher plane – a physical sublime, or a spiritual classicism. This male figure, standing, seated, reclining, seems a contemporary answer to that extraordinary human being presented by the Renaissance masters, a sort of David for today, of different proportions, much as the artist himself would resist such grand comparisons.

Standing Figure 12

Standing Figure 14

Throughout Ahmad Zakii’s work, we are aware of an inherent spiritualism, an interest in humanism, in Islamic, especially Sufi teachings, and Eastern philosophy. For me, though, it is in this new body of drawings that his ideas find their most precise and powerful expression to date. It is as if each taut sinew, shadow of muscle, burnish of hair, and protruding vein pulses with what drives man’s life, and also with what destroys it. The poses, or ‘self-presentations’ seem to reference yoga positions, and even, as mentioned by Patrick Flores in the catalogue, “Zakii’s fascination with epic heroes in ersatz western films”. Man here, as expressed purely by his body, is heroic, fragile, awkward, beautiful….

…. before I try to write a gushing review, I urge you to try to catch this show. The drawings are particularly breathtaking as they are presented here, in a museum setting with much room for pause and meditation. The exhibition ends 7 June.

Also on at NUS 9-31 May, Spacing Identities: J Ariadhitya Pramuhendra which looks like it could be interesting.

In Singapore, I also spent a very enjoyable afternoon at SAM (Singapore Art Museum), and came out determined not to do any neighbour-bashing for at least a month. It reminded me of leisurely winter weekends in London and Paris in my ‘youth’, where I could seek refuge from the dark and the cold in museums and galleries and happily while four hours away looking at interesting, beautiful, clever and educational things, both strange and familiar.

SAM has very adequate air-conditioning as a reprieve from the equatorial heat. I began with the star exhibition of Wu Guanzhong’s donation of 113 works to SAM which covered rooms on three floors – finding it quite wonderful that this mainland essayist, theorist and oil painter began working in Chinese ink only at the age of 55, and  with such emancipated gusto.

I then thoroughly enjoyed the “PC” show on exhibit (PC – Permanent Collection) – Earth & Water: Mapping Art in Southeast Asia, which created a pretty compelling narrative of seas, rivers, river-crossings and land from early pioneer, modern and contemporary regional works in the collection. It was a good opportunity to revisit some key favourite works bagged by SAM as well as get a peek at some new acquisitions. I was glad to see Jakapan Vilaseenakul’s Mid-Life Crisis installed – it seems particularly resonant now with its slow but cunning crocodiles and watchful crows. PC works were also used in a modest show called Threads, exploring the use of fabric and fibres in art making, where I said hello to Mella Jaarsma’s exotic skin costumes. It’s good to know that the region’s creative output is not disappearing entirely into cold storage or secretive private hands. Thank you SAM.

There was also a show documenting a performance festival “Ket-Noi” for Singaporean and Vietnamese artists held at SMU (Singapore Management University) last year, during the Post Doi-Moi. I ended with a visit to the show of another Malaysian art hero: Latiff Mohidin: The Journey to Wetlands and Beyond, which featured a very important collection of this great poet and painter’s drawings recently donated by a Singaporean collector to SAM. A book comes out soon. It is a fortunate institution that can put up two major donations on exhibition at once.

We made a last stop at the Christian Lacroix exhibition at the National Museum, and this is where we really thought – “Oh why can’t we have this in KL?” A show which would be at home in the V&A, exploring that fabulous fashion icon’s work with opera, ballet and theatre, complete with flying tutus, in a pretty grand museum space. If you’re heading down to Singapore, this is a must-see, especially if you have young dancing daughters, or sons with creative flair.

Costumes for Carmen

Exhibition View

As begrudging neighbours we like to think that Singapore pours all this money into the arts, but they can’t force creativity out of their nation (just look at all the Malaysian content, patriots will say). I now beg to disagree – the children of Singapore get to grow up enjoying weird and wonderful modern and contemporary art from Southeast Asia, and even China and India, and the wild influential creations of someone like Christian Lacroix first hand, presented as spectacle but with all sorts of educational collaterals. They get culture on tap (and it’s mostly free, and undersubscribed) and they will grow up enriched. We can’t boast that now, can we? We can only cross the causeway for that occasional fix.

(BY)