Analyzing a Piece of Art

Sorry for the super late post. So, I will be analyzing one of the artwork that impressed me the most during the visit to Bank Negara on 28th of July.

                                         Yeong Seak Ling. Kampung Life - Baby Cot

"Yeong Seak Ling is an artist who conceives landscapes as a backdrop to human activity. Through his works, it is clear how much kampung scenes mean to him. Prior to this, abstraction prevailed in his early series. As his experience grew, he turned to traditional and cultural features and heritage as his main focus. The 'Kampung Life' series is a result of his sensitivity towards culture and heritage in the mid-1990s, especially of the northern region of Malaysia. Even at his most natural - a melancholic scene of  a rubber plantation with fallen leaves and a feeling of desolation - a kampung house sits in the distance, almost invisible among the ghostly trees. Nature is now in the background, with people dominating the foreground. A baby's foot steals the scene, or cheerful village folk bringing their lifestyle into the picture. Birdcages without birds feature prominently, perhaps as a metaphor. In his recent works there are three important elements: babies, birds and nature, creating a feeling of harmony with the hope that nature will be cared for and preserved."

There are two types of art so I think this artwork should be art for engagement with society as it is based on his life in kampung.

There are 4 steps to analyze a piece of art:

• Describe- The baby who is sleeping in the sarong is the dominant as he is being placed in the middle of the artwork while the nature of the kampung is in the background.

• Analyze- In terms of aesthetic, this art is very beautiful. The baby leads us to look at the cows and paddy field at the back. It shows that the lifestyle in kampung is peace and calm, as we can see there are two groups of people working at the field, one group at the left and another group at the right, while the baby still able to sleep soundly.

                      - In terms of formalistic, it is not abstract art but a lifelike art. It perfectly demonstrate             the peaceful lifestyle in kampung by the using of greenish and blueish color. The curtain is                 waving which makes us feel comfortable and calm.

• Interpret- The sarong symbolize rural malay kampung, the cows, paddy field and blue sky symbolize the nature around a kampung.

• Judge- This art is very successful as it able to grab my attention and beautifully bring out the culture and heritage of kampung. 

Tan Zi Hao's Work

Something different for this week lecture class as the people who talking in front of the class is not Dr Carmen but Mr. Tan Zi Hao, special guest speaker. He is a multi-disciplinary artist who works predominantly in installation and performance art. His works explore the discourses of power within a postcolonial setting and probe the disjuncture in the production and contestation of history, culture, and linguistic ideologies.

Tan Zi Hao introduced some of his works to us, such as The Soil is not Mine (2013) and Endless Possibilities (2013)  which fall under the category of nationhood; Negaraku. Bukan. (2014) and The Danger of Translation (2014) that fall under the group of language; Classroom (2012), Attempting Conflict (2012), A Reminder of a Remainder (2015) which fall under body; and also Pest Control (2013) and Xenophoric Shellpickers (2014) which fall under contradiction.

Among all these works, The Soil is Not Mine impressed me the most. Every packet comprises soil from Malay Reservation Lands, soil from the artist's home, a torn copy of the artist's birth certificate, and the artist's sperm. First thing first, Bumiputra (The Son of the Soil), does it means that the soil, the tanah belongs to them? What about us being the non-Bumiputra? Tanah, the place we were born, we stand on it, bury and decompose our dead body in it after we die. What is our relationship with the soil then? Are we just like those germs which inhabiting on the Malay Soil, the Tanah which belongs to Melayu? In this case, we should have identified ourselves as Malaysian-Chinese (a Chinese who come from Malaysia) instead of Malaysian. But, no one can certify who owned the tanah, maybe it's owned by the Bumiputra, maybe it's owned by the non-Bumiputra, maybe, in the most appropriate way - it's owned by no one. Regardless the ownership of the tanah, since it's the place we stay, we should love it, appreciate it, and make good use of it.

About Malaysian Artwork

As requested, we have to discuss three question for this week post. First question, what is artwork? Artwork means any illustrations, photographs, or other non-textual material prepared for inclusion in a publication.

The next question is what event is so significant that you think should feature in Malaysian artwork? The first thing came to my mind was the breaking news which I am freaking sure that all of us knew it -"RM2.6 billion of 1MDB funds going to private bank accounts of Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak!!!!" What the fuck is this???!!! Seriously I salute Wall Street Journal(WSJ) because they got the balls to post out the document that detail the money trail. I personally give them 10000 Likes!!!! Although this case is still undergoing investigation, one it is verified as real one, then it is a MUST to be featured in Malaysian artwork. Why? Because Datuk Seri Najib Razak is the beloved leader of our country, and also the chairman of 1Malaysia Development Berhad's advisory board.      

Lastly, is it the responsibilities of Malaysian artists to create Malaysian artwork? Of cause it is! If Malaysian artists are not going to create our own country's artwork then who else should be responsible for it? In my opinion, Malaysians know better about our own country than foreigners do because they not living here, they can't fully know our culture, our environment and everything that's going on.   

Negaraku~ku~~

"What if Malaysia take over by Bangladeshi and Myanmarean in the future?" What an interesting topic that has been discussed during lecture class. It's a big big NO to me and to every Malaysian for sure. First thing first, our rights will be neglected and we will also lose our identity. We will then turn out to be a foreigner rather than a citizen. This sounds ridiculous huh?! 

Then, during tutorial class Ms Edaline asked us to create our own lyrics for national anthem. So, tadaaaa -- here's our lyrics for national anthem.

"Negaraku
  它的名字是 Malaysia
  Ada Cina,
  Melayu dan India

 Now We teach you
 How to say thank you
Terima Kasih , Xie Xie and Nandri

Malaysians, Jaganlah racist la~ "

We made it multilingual to represent the three main races in our country - Malay, Chinese and Indian. We shouldn't be racist as we are all Malaysian which we deserve to be treated fairly. 1 Malaysia mah!

Another Country - Singapore

To be frank, I never know where DPAC is and never watch this kind of performing arts until 14th of June. FYI, performing arts are art forms in which artists use their body, voice, or objects to convey artistic expression-as opposed to, for example, purely visual arts, in which artists use paint/canvas or various materials to create physical or static art objects. Performing arts include a variety of disciplines but all are intended to be performed in front of a live audience.

Another Country, directed by Jo Kukathas from Malaysia and Ivan Heng from Singapore. This play really amazed me, it is AWESOME! As I am new to performing arts, thus I don't really know what to expect from Another Country. I found this interesting, which cast from Malaysia (Ghafir Akbar, Sharifah Amani, Anne James, Alfred Loh, and Iedil Putra) performed Singapore's stories (Sayang Singaura) while cast from Singapore (Sharda Harrison, Gani Karim, Janice Koh, Lim Yu-Beng, and Siti Khalijah Zainal) performed Malaysia's stories (Tikam-tikam: Malaysia@Random 2). I think the reason behind this is to inspire us to dig deeper about the history of our closest neighbour and understand it. 

I personally like Daulat: Long Live and Moonrat: Tikus Bulan, the Malaysia's stories;  Mama Looking for Her Cat, and  2 mothers in a hdb playground, the Singapore's stories as they were truly impressive, and also FUNNY. hahahahahah......

After watching such a professional performance, I somehow fell for it. Another Country has worked up my enthusiasm towards our shared history, arts, and culture with Singapore. Arts and culture are not meant to be forgotten. Every single one of us has to love and respect it.

AND.... most important of all ~~~~ HAINANESE CHICKEN RICE - CHICKEN THAT TASTES LIKE CHICKEN *drooling*

That's all, peace out! 

Do you identify yourself as a Malaysian? Why? Does it matter?

Do you identify yourself as a Malaysian? Yes! Of course I do! Actually there are a few reasons that make me feel proud to be a Malaysian. Malaysia is a unique country due to its diversity of races, religions and culture but the important thing is that all of us able to live harmoniously. When we talk about food, there are a lot of choices for us to choose for example like Malay cuisine (nasi lemak,currypuff,rendang, sambal, satay),Chinese cuisine (bak kut teh, char kui teow, chee cheong fun, lok lok, yong tau foo), and also Indian cuisine (roti canai, mee goreng, putu mayam). Obviously this is a benefit for living in a multiracial country as all of us know that Malaysian love food A LOT! The first thing we ask when we meet our friends is "have you eaten yet?" or "let's go yamcha!",this has been a culture of ours.

Other than that, language is another uniqueness of Malaysia.We can communicate in different languages like Malay, English, Cantonese, Mandarin, or Tamil and we do have our own special slang that only Malaysian can understand. For example, Manglish or bahasa rojak is the feature that best describe us as a MALAYSIAN. This helps a lot in strengthening the bonds among us which we could understand each other more. We don't really have barriers between ethnicity because all of us being raise in the same environment, we met friends from different racial in school or in university. I guess this is the reason why we have a good relationship between each other no matter what color our skin is. 

Does it matter? I can answer this without hesitation, YES! It is! I felt lucky to born as a Malaysian because this is a place which safe from major earthquake. All of us respect each others and accept others religions and culture because we are all Malaysian who live in the same country. I do believe this is the key to the realization of national unity and harmony.