An interest in tantalizing texture and textiles as well as the play of surfaces underlies Ahmad Shukri's work. His canvases, layered with squares of fabulous fabric or cut-out numbers, reflect the multi-layered nature of the world we live in, he explains.
A fair idea of his exciting oeuvre can be had through his work done for the Rimbun Dahan residency. The artist exhibited a large drawing on canvas, paintings and installations all testimony to his richly referential and highly decorative style. Installations of 'incubators'-structures filled with hundreds of plaster eggs (in white and black), drew on the concept of yin-yang. They suggested the world’s inevitably heterogeneous nature.
As he put it, within a hundred black eggs there would be a white egg, and vice versa. On the other hand, his installation 'people's forum' (sidang rakyat) comprised multiple pairs of boxing gloves, all cast in plaster, set atop a low table, covered in a curious patchwork of textiles. The former represented the sparring of petty politicians, whereas the textiles were the backdrop of un-resolvable situations set against which their confrontations take place.
A series of diskettes in perspex sheets, overlaid with resin & silk-screen printing, pointed to the unavoidable spread of technology. Nature and culture morphed into each other in the voyager series of paintings. The petals of a flower metamorphosed into the blades of a ceiling fan whereas a chicken appeared both as a child's plastic toy and as a living animal.
His installations and paintings not only record his personal of memory and experience, but also illustrate socio-political conditions. The paintings might feature scraps of fabric machine-embroidered juxtaposed with bands of thread marked in subtle gradations of color.
Such techniques along with the incorporation of images of many found objects emanate from his strong belief that art is essentially embedded in day-to-day life. The ubiquitous everyday world is revealed as a chaotic, constantly changing and vibrant multiplicity in Ahmad Shukri's work.
A fair idea of his exciting oeuvre can be had through his work done for the Rimbun Dahan residency. The artist exhibited a large drawing on canvas, paintings and installations all testimony to his richly referential and highly decorative style. Installations of 'incubators'-structures filled with hundreds of plaster eggs (in white and black), drew on the concept of yin-yang. They suggested the world’s inevitably heterogeneous nature.
As he put it, within a hundred black eggs there would be a white egg, and vice versa. On the other hand, his installation 'people's forum' (sidang rakyat) comprised multiple pairs of boxing gloves, all cast in plaster, set atop a low table, covered in a curious patchwork of textiles. The former represented the sparring of petty politicians, whereas the textiles were the backdrop of un-resolvable situations set against which their confrontations take place.
A series of diskettes in perspex sheets, overlaid with resin & silk-screen printing, pointed to the unavoidable spread of technology. Nature and culture morphed into each other in the voyager series of paintings. The petals of a flower metamorphosed into the blades of a ceiling fan whereas a chicken appeared both as a child's plastic toy and as a living animal.
His installations and paintings not only record his personal of memory and experience, but also illustrate socio-political conditions. The paintings might feature scraps of fabric machine-embroidered juxtaposed with bands of thread marked in subtle gradations of color.
Such techniques along with the incorporation of images of many found objects emanate from his strong belief that art is essentially embedded in day-to-day life. The ubiquitous everyday world is revealed as a chaotic, constantly changing and vibrant multiplicity in Ahmad Shukri's work.
(Image source: ArTriangle, MATAHATI ART FUND)
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