VCL 215 History of Malaysian Art

Malaysian Surrealism Artist: Haslin Ahmad

NAME: NURUL ANIS FARHANA BT MOHD NIZA STUDENT ID: 2012100377 GROUP: MAD 114 3B LECTURER: PN. SHALIZA DASUKI

BODY OF CONTENT
1. INTRODUCTION 2. OBJECTIVE OF STUDY 3. SCOPE OF STUDY 4. METHODOLOGY 5. ANALYSIS ON FORMAL ELEMENTS AND COMPOSTITION 6. CONTENT AND CONTEXTUAL INTERPRETATION 7. CONCLUSION 8. REFERENCES

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INTRODUCTION
My study is to focus on the Malaysian contemporary art scene of surrealism. Relative to the history of Malaysian art, we can see how the urban arts nowadays has been affected by the history where our local artists started pursuing art based on the British education system that encourages individualistic expressionism and modernization. Thus, this is how our local artist started to learn the art of surrealisms. Surrealism was an artistic and literary movement, dedicated to expressing the imagination as revealed in dreams, free of the conscious control of reason and convention. Haslin Ismails artworks are mostly inspired by science fictions and the fantasy worlds. Haslin Ismail (b. 1984, Johor) presents us with moody, dark, and sometimes violent works that represent a certain vibrancy and freshness in the local artistic and cultural domain. Haslin Ismail graduated with a B.A. (Hons) in Fine Art from Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM) in 2007. His first solo exhibition was Exorcismus Persona: Windows Into Fantasy Worlds of Haslin Ismail (2009). He was awarded Grand Prize for In-Print: Contemporary British Art from the Paragon Press held at the National Art Gallery in 2006, Grand Prize for Bakat Muda Sezaman at National Art Gallery in 2010, and most recently, Malaysian Artist for the Malaysia-Australia Visual Arts Residency in Rimbun Dahan (2011). Haslin Ismail lives and works in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

OBJECTIVES OF STUDY
To keep the research stay on its track, these are the objectives made as the main structure of the study and as a goal of findings; a) To deeper know about Haslin Ismail and his stylization of artworks by researching the medium used in the process of producing the artwork and the methodology in creating it. This is an important step so that we can get to know deeper about the artist and his way of creating his artworks. This also will help me as an Art and Design student to improve my artwork interpreting skills. b) To study and understand the patterns of surrealism art and the influences of Haslin Ismails artworks, and what of his inspirations that influence his artworks. This is to appreciate the art of surrealism as a contemporary art and to deeper learn how to understand the meaning inside such artworks. c) To promote the contemporary art of our local scene. This is to show the world that our Malaysian artists also can succeed as much as the artists all around the world and be acknowledged in the international art scene. The artist chosen on this topic is considered full of potential, thus, by promoting this artist I hope our local young artists out there will be inspired by such brilliant artist and be proud of Malaysians potential in achieving worldwide recognition.

SCOPE OF STUDY
The scope of the specific range of the researchs subject in two chosen artworks of Haslin Ismail which is Supermarionation and The Day Earth Stood Still which highlight the concept of creations of robots, machines and human anatomy. Thus this study is to relate and understand the meaning and value of nature, humanity and machinations. The reason I chose artworks of Haslins is because I am deeply curious and fascinated by what the artist is trying to deliver in his artworks. Most of his artworks are very abstract and usually portray a figure of human, nature and machines. To me, it must somehow convey a deep message towards mankind of the future. Visually, both the science fiction and fantasy world that dominate the atmosphere of Haslins artworks present a wide range of routes and exciting explorations. I chose Supermarionation because the whole picture is somewhat meaningful where it portrays nature colours and a human head, and apparently, the internal structures of the human head portrayed by the artist are consist of small delicate machine-like structure. To me it is an interesting theme that involves nature, human and machines which I personally want to understand the meaning inside the artwork of this brilliant artist. The artwork The Day the Earth Stood Still was chosen because I find the whole picture was somewhat confusing and rather curious and very interesting. The colours used in this artwork are somehow cooling and pale. Compared to Supermarionation, this artwork mostly portrayed human anatomy structures. This will relate to a theme of human nature and machinations.

Figure 1 : "Supermarionation"

Figure 2: "The Day the Earth Stood Still"

METHODOLOGY
a) Some readings were done to understand and to collect information relative to the chosen topic. The sources of information mostly came from articles and online websites. b) I also had done some interpreting by myself to compare the self-interpretation with the further study of other people across the country. This is to make sure if the aesthetics values and the elements are obvious for the public to interpret.

ANALYSIS ON FORMAL ELEMENTS AND COMPOSITION

Supermarionation This artwork created by Haslin Ismail was made in 2011 using oil pastel and acrylic paint on canvas. The colours he used are green of many ranges. To portray a deeper machinations structure, he used darker greens and darker colours to describe the space and shadows inside the structure. A leaf-like structure that resembles a propeller of an aircraft was coloured green too. There are also two circle shapes that portray a pair of eyeballs. On top of that, the most contrast or the most obvious form in the artwork is a tubelike structure that resembles a mouth-like figure. These formal characteristics describe how the artist is trying to portray a human head with machinated structures. The background of the whole painting is pure black which gives pure contrast to the green head figure that is focused by the artist. The textures of the shapes in the artwork are very detailed with such precision of shadows using darker shades of colours. The grey coloured part below the green-propeller figure shows a metal structure; metal had been synonym with the colour grey as we know. The whole composition of the painting is considered balanced with proper dark background that highlights the machine figure and the shapes used here is balanced too with the small delicate machine parts and the two big forms; the green propeller and the tube structure that do not conquer the whole picture and give proper balance towards the artwork.

The Day the Earth Stood Still

This magnificent artwork was made in 2011 using acrylic paint on jute. Comparing to the previous artwork, this one has more varieties of colours used in it. Suitable colours like browns, pale yellows and pale reds are used to portray some kind of organ parts of human. We can find two geometrical patterns on this artwork; one is the blue shapes that somehow seems like a transparent part of a human head that reveals another on inside, another is the green geometrical patterns that seems like a square frame. Besides that, other shapes we can find here are ellipses, many of its packed in one place, which entirely resembles some kind of gears or clockwork. Dark brown is used to describe a rib cage, which also reveals a network of blue veins inside. A bright red colour is used to portray droplets of blood, on the side of the green patterned frame. Just like the previous artwork, this one also has black dark background to give contrast to the entire picture. We can also find some tube shapes on top of the left part of the painting, which seems to releasing cloudy smoke, which then resembles some kind of organic chutes. Again, the artist had done a brilliant work to portray human parts that also consists of mechanical parts. Overall, the colours used in this painting are balanced because all of them are pale colours, despite that, to make the entire picture more interesting and captivating, a bright light blue was used on the geometrical shapes. This give a proper contrast towards the pale colours used in this painting.

CONTENT AND CONTEXTUAL INTERPRETATION

Supermarionation According to the analysis of formal elements I made on this painting, I find it easier as it helped me to relate the elements in the picture with the theme of the artwork that will reveal a story or a message that the artist is trying to deliver. Before that, we can see that the movement used by this artist is surrealism, which means, according to a reference I made from a website, it is an artistic expression as revealed in dreams, a fantasy where it is free of the conscious control of reason and convention. This means that in surrealism art, there are many ways to relate the elements in an artwork, which means, there are several ways to interpret the artwork. Therefore, referring to the analysis I made on the formal elements, I shall reveal the deeper story or meaning I could find in this artwork based on my personal interpretation relative to the background of the artist too. I found that the artist has personal interest towards science fictions and fantasy that relates with robots, machines and human anatomy. According to a website reference, the artist also stated that his artwork is an experiment of two main components; the flesh and the machine. Using this information, I will relate the themes of humanity and machinations. Based on the movie The Terminator (1984), a message about mankind and robots is delivered. As we know, humans are born to naturally make mistakes and using their own mind and intelligence, humans ought to learn from a mistake and adapt to changes. Unlike machines, or robots, they are predictable because machines are created and programmed to do certain tasks as specified. Thus, relating to the subjects inside the artwork, that somehow
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portrayed a machine or robot with a human like figure (explained why it has a pair of eye balls) with a green propeller on its forehead (perceived as a brain or a mind), as its eyeballs seems to be staring forward , and tube-like mouth with a motorized fan in it. These create a perspective that this figure might be an intelligent robot that could think by itself, or maybe a human with a robot-like thinking. In human perspective, we can understand that a human with a robot-like thinking means that the person has a fixed way of thinking, a fixed mind. It means its mind has no way of developing, and it will stay functioning like that, just like a robot. Provided the figure of a motorized tube-mouth part, it seems the persons speech might be exactly like what it has processed in its mind, meaning it had no sense to filter its output. These give a perspective of a human that is speaking without filtering their thoughts, which is considered unwitty to reveal too much of our thoughts to people. This is because when a human is being equated with a robot, means the person is predictable as it has a fixed way of thinking. The title of the artwork Supermarionation is a portmanteau of the words Super, Marionette and Animation. This term is used to describe a puppetry animation that was used in the 1960s. The animations were made by moving or operating the puppet and capture every single of its movements. The collection of the captured pictures will then be processed into a motion picture which will then turn into an animation. This term, relating to the theme of the artwork, contextually can describe a human that always do as theyre told, as they are being similar to a puppet, that can be used since they have a predictable mind like a programmed robot. This issue can be related to our societies nowadays who are easily being manipulated or influenced by the media. The changes in the society can be instantly observed according to what the media is spreading nowadays.

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In my personal opinion, this is not good for a society where people is easily manipulated and do (or even believe or think) as theyre told to without having a gut s to defend what they think is right. This made the people easily to be taken for granted by a greedy authority. I think this is the message the artist is trying to deliver to the society on this artwork.

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The Day the Earth Stood Still Based on the formal elements I have analysed on the previous section, I could interpret a deeper meaning inside the entire picture of painting, despite that it contained so many subjects in it. The whole figure seems to resemble a human system that consists with so many parts with delicate veins. Theres a subject that seems like and abstract human organ, with a transparent part that revealed a human head inside. This whole subjects in the painting could relate to human nature. Human body system, as we know, is very complicated, with so many organs and part that each have different yet important role of the human system. And inside this complicated body figure, each human has its own mind, which has deeper thoughts in it, where an imaginary world could exist. Inside a human mind lies a subconscious mind, which portrayed by the human head inside the organ structure. Relative to the title of the artwork, The Day the Earth Stood Still, there are two movies with the same title, the original one was made in 1951, then the second one produced in 2008 which was a remake of the original movie, where both delivers messages about peace on earth and how mankind has made destruction on its own planet. The plot overall was about an alien came down to planet Earth on a mission to eliminate human species in order to save this very planet from such destructive mankind. This can be related with the subjects in the painting; the machine-like organ with the gear mechanism, shows how human in their nature is opt to modernization, and the tube

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structures which release clouds of smoke, which resembles and portraying how humans leaving chemical residues that eventually pollutes the nature of environments. Moral of the story based on the title of the artwork itself and the movie it relates to, mankind should get back with nature, use their mind wisely to preserve the nature in this planet.

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CONCLUSION
By the end of this study I have learnt how to interpret and appreciate an artwork of surrealism art. I also realized how our local artists can also produce such brilliant artwork that can compete with other artists work from around the world. This shows that our Malaysian artist can be as influential to our generation. The art of surrealism that we can find in the local contemporary art scene has proven how art has evolve in our country as Malaysians are trying to push their potential to compete with the internationals. This has inspired me more to use and develop my critical thinking and apply into the artwork or design that I will make in the future.

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REFERENCES
Rimbun Dahan Haslin Bin Ismaill. (2012). Retrieved from Rimbun Dahan website: http://www.rimbundahan.org/art/artists/haslin_ismail/ Surrealism Definition. (n.d.). Retrieved from Art Republic website: http://www.artrepublic.com/art_terms/19-surrealism.html The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951). (n.d.) Retrieved from: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0043456/ The Day the Earth Stood Still (2008). (n.d.) Retrieved from: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0970416/ Haslin Ismail. (n.d.) Retrieved from: http://www.taksu.com/index.php/artists/182-artisthaslin-ismail

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