Talking about M’sian art

Rural scene: Morning in the Kampung, 1959, by Lai Foong Moi.

The first the four-volumeNarratives in Malaysian Art series was launched at the National Visual Arts Gallery recently.

The “Imagining Identities” series features a collection of 19 essays comprising five reprinted texts from the 1970s to the 1990s and newly-commissioned essays from writers across different generations.

“The aim is to create awareness on Malaysian art. This first volume provides a platform for artists to narrate art developments in relation to changing expressions and experiences in Malaysian social and cultural life from the late colonial to contemporary times,” said Nur Hanim Khairuddin and Beverly Yong, the duo who took four months to edit the articles and publish the first volume, which is available in both English and Bahasa Malaysia.

Nur Hanim is an artist, curator and writer on arts and culture while Yong is a co-founder and director of RogueArt, working as a writer and curator specialising in Southeast Asian art, having spent 12 years as a gallerist while T.K. Sabapathy, who has published extensively on art and artists in Southeast Asia, was the consulting editor.

“This is the first of four volumes on the visual arts in Malaysia which has been interpreted differently over time,” added the duo.

Working together : Yong (left) and Nur Hanim co-edited the first volume.

Yong said the first volume, published by RogueArt, was part of a project that is still in the making to promote a greater awareness and understanding of Malaysian art.

She said it took a lot of research to publish the first volume which will be followed by the second volume — Reactions-New Critical Strategies — likely to be published by year end.

The second volume, she said, examines the development of artistic strategies from the late 1960s to recent times, taking into consideration changes in socio-political contexts, technological developments and the emergence of new methodologies in art practice and thinking.

The third and fourth volumes will be launched next year and are on Infrastructure and Perspective, respectively. The four volumes, she said, bring together commissioned essays and papers by academics, artists, curators, writers on cultures, journalists and art works from Malaysia and beyond. “This project hopes to begin a larger exploration of our artistic heritage for today’s generation and for generations to come,” said Yong.

Looking in: The Detribalization of Tam binti Che’Lat, 1983, by Ismail Zain.

National Visual Arts Gallery deputy director-general (operations) Haned Masjak said the idea of a book of essays on Malaysian art has been raised at many junctures and Narratives in Malaysian Art was a welcome move. Well-known Malaysian artist Redza Piyadasa had attempted such a project before he passed away and Narratives in Malaysian Art pays humble tribute to the legacy of those who dedicated their lives to the development of the Malaysian art scene.

The book is priced at RM35 and is available at selected bookstores nationwide. All profits from the sales will be re-channeled into the development and promotion of the Narratives in Malaysian Art project.

-thestar online.