Beyond The Surface

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The Angkatan Pelukis Aneka Daya (Association of Artists of Various Resources) or better known as APAD is an organisation of Singapore Malay visual artists in Singapore. The non-profit organisation was formed on 29 July 1962.

Our objectives • To promote the development and appreciation of visual arts.

• To encourage its members in the promotion of their artistic talents

in the field of visual arts.

• To contribute towards the artistic pool of the nation through its

diversified shows: whether as one-man, group, children or other

form of art exhibitions.

APAD’s members comprise of visual artists from different age groups.

Art exhibitions are organised to showcase the diverse interests of its members, while activities such as talks and workshops are held to contribute to members’ artistic development.

APAD continues to play its role as a channel in developing the artistic abilities of the community through art classes for children, youth and adults. Such activities and exhibitions also help to create public awareness of the organisation.

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CONTENTS

Curator’s Note

1

The Works

2

The Artists

4

Official Opening

6

Artists’ Talk

8

Artists Dzaki Safaruan 10 Fajrina Razak 12 Kamal Dollah 14 Izziyana Suhaimi 16 Nhawfal Jumaat 18 Nur Iman 20 Rofi

Acknowledgements

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Curator’s Note

1

CURATOR’S NOTE Painting has always been strongly represented in APAD shows, including the open APAD Contemporary series of exhibitions held annually for members to showcase their current works. But when I was tasked to curate APAD’s show for Singapore Art Week 2016, I envisioned it to offer something different from APAD Contemporary’s open format and distinct from the other painting shows happening throughout the week. These included the three art fairs: The Singapore Art Stage, The Singapore Contemporary Show and The Art Apart Fair. At the same time, it also had to be contemporary in its presentation, in keeping with the overall energy of Singapore Art Week.

I came to the idea of presenting APAD’s painting repertoire in a contemporary art exhibition style. The result was Beyond the Surface, a show that would feature two-dimensional works built upon threedimensional frameworks. The works are not the usual framed or stretched-canvas type hung flat on the walls of a gallery. They were meant as explorations of how painting can be presented to make it a relevant and necessary form of conceptual art in the contemporary art landscape.

While the works were presented as sculptural pieces or installed to interact with their surroundings and their viewers, it was important to emphasise that Beyond the Surface was a painting exhibition. At their core, each work used fundamentals in painting, drawing or printing as their main form of artistic expression. The artists featured were chosen for their good grasp of the show’s idea. They were innovative and had interesting approaches in their own art practices.

Most importantly, in developing the works for Beyond the Surface, they were open to go beyond their comfort zones to explore the use of three-dimensional frameworks.

As part of Beyond the Surface, a talk was held for the artists to give insights on how they interpreted the theme and came up with the ideas for their works. APAD members, artists, curators, researchers and members of the media attended it. Transcripts of each artist’s presentation is captured in this book.

Rofizano Zaino

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2

The Works

THE WORKS DZAKI SAFARUAN Congregation IV Paper cut, Dimension Variable Referencing popular culture, this work deconstructs comic book imagery to create multi-image and multi-layer structures that combine anarchic images with well-thought forms, giving a sense of ‘controlled chaos’.

FAJRINA RAZAK Airnya Emas Di Kota Singa (The water is gold in the Lion City) Batik on mixed medium, 1.7m x 1.2m This work is homage to the obscure history and lineage of Javanese descendants living in Singapore. This dress is infused with a contemporary batik painting that depicts the plight of the artist’s ancestors and combined with an original motif created by the artist to symbolise Banyuemas (literally ‘golden waters’), a regency in Central Java.

KAMAL DOLLAH Zombies Batik painting installation, Dimension Variable Zombies is an observation of people engrossed with hand-held devices. With the fluidity of molten wax and unpredictable dyeing process, these figure drawings are visually transformed through the unforgiving process of batik painting, an ethnically biased medium that is deemed outdated, but presented here in a nontypical way, hung off the wall.

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The Works

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IZZIYANA SUHAIMI The Birds Gather For The Homeless Men Cotton thread embroidered and woven on wooden hoop, 0.8m (Diameter) Combining embroidery and weaving, techniques deeply embedded in the artist’s personal history, this work explores the use of thread as a medium for self expression and its ability to capture snapshots of moments in time. Each stitch offers a physical manifestation of time, creating a timepiece that builds on its past while fulfilling its envisioned future.

NHAWFAL JUMA’AT Four Spheres Charcoal on Masking tape, 2m x 2m Four Spheres focuses on the use of masking tape as an art material, ignoring its intended use as a simple adhering tool. In this work, this low-cost, flat material is transformed into a three-dimensional sculpture, giving the viewer a different perspective of how a common, everyday object can be appreciated.

(Bottom Right)

ROFI Fire & Rain Acrylic on wood, 1.55m (H) x 1.25m (W) x 0.5m (D) Fire & Rain is a two-sided painting featuring the same subject in contrasting moods. Fire and rain are used as a symbols for Sins and Blessings, respectively.

NUR IMAN Bongkar Rahsia (To unravel secrets) Mixed media on wood, 1.8m x 1.8m Bongkar Rahsia reflects on the artist’s yearning to grow as an art practitioner with multiple facets to his artmaking.

Viewers are invited to reposition each block, thereby reinterpreting the artist’s vision and reconstructing his artistic identity.

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4

The Artists

THE ARTISTS Dzaki Safaruan (b. 1989, Singapore) works mainly with printmaking but also adopts a multidisciplinary approach by deconstructing everyday objects. He has exhibited with Angkatan Pelukis Aneka Daya (APAD) Contemporary 2014, Art Stage Singapore 2015 and Vernacula 2015.

Dzaki received his Bachelor’s (Hons) in Fine Art from Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts in partnership with Loughborough University, UK. He achieved the Best Graduate for the 14/15 Fine Art cohort. His art is a constant exploration of the deconstruction of the mundane, his recent body of work involving elements of spirituality and faith.

Fajrina Razak (b. 1989, Singapore) is a multidisciplinary artist based in Singapore whose practice questions the notion of self and her cultural identity as an Asian woman, while being driven by the aspects of emotion and spirituality. Her new found interest in Batik textile has pushed her to use the medium to create art, questioning the idea of artisanal textile as fashion.

Mohamed Kamal Bin Dollah (b. 1967, Singapore) is an artist with expertise in a variety of visual arts genre. He is world-renown in the field of batik-painting and caricatures.

Kamal’s graduated from Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts in 1993 and operated a graphic design consultancy until 2006 when he took a sabbatical and attained his Master of Arts degree in Contemporary Practice from the University of Huddersfield (UK) at Nafa with his MA thesis entitled “Innovating Tradition – Batik Painting in Contemporary Art Practice”. He is currently a practicing artist and art educator with the following positions:

- President of The Association of Artists of Various Resources

- Consultant (part-time lecturer) for batik general elective at the

National Institute of Education/Nanyang Technological University

- Founder and president of the Singapore Chapter of International

Society of Caricature Artists (ISCA)

- A member of the World Batik Council

- Founder and principal artist of Cartoon.SG

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The Artists

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Izziyana Suhaimi’s (b. 1986, Singapore) work explores the evidence of the hand and of time. Embroidery for her is a quiet and still act, where each stitch represents a moment passed. The building of stitches then becomes a representation of time passing and the final work is like a physical manifestation of time — a time object.

Each stitch is also a recording of the maker’s thoughts and emotions. The final work becomes like a diary, documenting a specific moment in time. She enjoys the duality of embroidery, in its movements of stabbing, cutting, covering, building, repairing, taking apart. Every stitch made seems to unfold a story and withhold it at the same time.

Nhawfal Juma’at (b.1991, Singapore) is an art practitioner from Singapore who graduated from NAFA in 2012 with a Diploma in Fine Art, majoring in Western Painting. He has been actively participating in group exhibitions in Singapore and regionally, in Indonesia.

His work focuses on the spirit of ‘bricolage’, working with found objects and using it regardless of its origins and reinterprets it. He believes in the potential of any object to be able to turn into what we perceive as ‘art’.

Nhawfal has actively participated in APAD’s annual group exhibitions.

Nur Iman (b. 1990, Singapore), also known for his alias, “Stranger” has been part of the Singapore graffiti scene dated back since 2005. He won his first graffiti competition in 2005 and got his first commission mural job the following year. He was offered similar opportunities ever since. It was only in 2009 where he enrolled in Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts where he studied fine arts, majored in Western Painting for 3 years. Graduated in 2012, Nur Iman has been involved with several group exhibitions like APAD Contemporary Art exhibition held at National Library Singapore in 2014. Despite holding on to his Fine art practitioner status, Iman is still actively involved in his graffiti writing practice.

Iman has two alter egos: Iman and Stranger. “Iman” represents himself as a fine art practitioner where his works explores with time and identity. The alias “Stranger”, explores with line works and manipulation of letters. Both side have their own followers.

Rofi (b. 1970, Singapore) is self-taught. He enjoys painting faces and figures.

But more than mere portraits, his characters are metaphors for personifying issues relating to identity, spirituality and socio-political affairs.

His works are collected worldwide and included in The Burger Collection.

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6

Official Opening

OFFICIAL OPENING

ADDRESS FROM THE GUEST OF HONOUR It gives me great pleasure to be here today to launch this exhibition by APAD titled “Beyond the Surface”, as part of the Singapore Art Week that runs till January 24 2016.

This is the second time APAD has worked closely with National Parks (NParks) and the National Arts Council (NAC) to organise an art exhibition in concurrence with the Singapore Art Week, with the first exhibition titled, “Once Upon A Hill” at the beginning of the previous year in 2015.

APAD plans to turn exhibitions like these into an annual event, with the continued support from NParks and NAC. The Singapore Art Week, an initiative by the NAC, in partnership with the Singapore Tourism Board and Singapore Economic Development Board, reinforces Singapore’s position as Asia’s leading arts destination. I am glad that APAD continues to participate in this year’s Singapore Art Week.

APAD is one of the oldest art associations in Singapore, set up in 1962 by our pioneer generation of artists such as the late Haji Abdul Ghani Hamid and S Mohdir just to name a few. Since then, it helped built many generations of local Malay artists through its activities, giving them a much-needed boost and exposure within Singapore’s multicultural art community.

In the years of nation building, APAD filled the void and need for a vibrant art and cultural landscape in Singapore by organising art lessons for the Malay community. In its

heyday, these affordable art lessons were attended by hundreds of students. Today, APAD continues to organise these art lessons since the revival of its ‘Tunas’ children art class last year, in its mission to bring arts to the community.

This exhibition is yet another accomplishment for APAD, in staking their place in the landscape of contemporary art in Singapore, without compromising the high standard of artistry that it is known for. The “CONTEMPORARY” series of art exhibitions organized by APAD typically showcase a mix of paintings, sculptures and even installation art.

What’s different about this show is that it is not an exhibition consisting a mix of paintings, sculpture or installation works. Rather, it is a show where twodimensional works are presented as spatial or sculptural pieces. Instead of being flat and hung on walls, the works are presented in ways that interact with their surroundings and lets their viewers walk around them and appreciate them beyond their surface.

Adding to the exhibition’s dynamics, the show brings together artists of various disciplines: a palette knife painter, batik artists, a graffiti artist, a printmaker, an embroiderer and a bricoleur. They have been selected for their innovative approach in presenting their works.

In this show, they demonstrate their ability to use twodimensional artistry within three-dimensional frameworks, inviting viewers to walk around the works and study their surface detail from multiple angles.

Mr Amrin Amin Parliamentary Secretary for Ministry of Home Affairs

SPEECH IN MALAY Para hadirin yang saya hormati, pastinya adat dan budaya

Justeru saya amat berbangga dengan usaha dan kreativiti

mewarnai kehidupan kita sebagai orang Melayu di Nusantara

yang ditunjukkan Presiden APAD sendiri, Encik Kamal

ini. Karya-karya seni, baik dari segi lukisan mahupun

Dollah, dan barisan penggiat seni lain seperti Encik Dzaki

penulisan, banyak juga memaparkan unsur kehidupan, dan

Safaruan, Cik Fajrina Razak, Cik Izziyana Suhaimi, Encik

menguji pemikiran dari segi sosial, kehidupan, budaya dan

Nhawfal Juma’at, Cik Nur Iman Sumani dan Encik Rofi

identiti kita. Untuk terus memartabatkan, mengekalkan

melalui pameran ini. Sumbangan anda tentunya menjadi

dan melestarikan lagi seni lukis Melayu, masyarakat

pemangkin dan pencetus inspirasi kepada pelukis muda

Melayu sendiri perlu memainkan peranan, walau sekecil

lain untuk terus berkarya di sini.

manapun, untuk mempertahankan kewujudannya.

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Official Opening

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Artists’ Talk

ARTISTS’ TALK

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Artists’ Talk

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Dzaki Safaruan

DZAKI SAFARUAN A Controlled Chaos I am a printmaker and the majority of my works involve a lot of printmaking elements, such as silkscreen. For this exhibition, I applied a lot of silkscreen techniques on my piece right from the start. The approach I took is similar to that of Aaron Noble, who was a strong influence when I was doing my Diploma programme in NAFA. An artist by training, Noble would take images from different comic books, combine and then paint them on walls as murals.

Similarly, I took bits and pieces of the characters from comic books, put them together to form a new ‘character’. That character became a silkscreen cutout, and using that as a starting point, I began to build layers.

Each layer reflects a different idea, a different representation of the mind.

The process of layering itself represents controlled chaos; I was going through a bit of a hard time during that period. I had all sorts of influences coming from different people and they all had accumulated

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Dzaki Safaruan

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in my mind. My initial concept was to make just a single layer, but then the colours just came and began to overlap one another. I soon found that this juxtaposition of different characters coming together over time had created something that was visually impactful. I then took out the excess bits so that only the characters remain.

Going back to the theme of the exhibition, Beyond the Surface, and the directive to transform something that was originally 2D into 3D, I began to construct a structure referencing the existing piece. I made paper cutouts of geometric shapes based on the silkscreen characters and layered these cutouts. Once again, this new structure made up of different layers evokes a sense of chaos and yet you can still discern each individual character. When you view the 2D piece and move on to the 3D structure, you get a sense of a controlled explosion.

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Fajrina Razak

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Fajrina Razak

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FAJRINA RAZAK A Homage To Family History I am a batik artist and for my installation, I wanted to present my identity as a fifth-generation Singaporean of Javanese descent.

My paternal ancestors came from a regency called Banyuemas (golden waters) in Central Java and there is a

This is my first time doing a batik

blog written by my father’s cousin,

painting that tells a story. I

Madam Aishah Said, that narrates

usually do abstract

stories of my father’s family. These

pieces and motif-

stories are the inspiration to my batik

inspired works, and

piece that comes in two halves: a

doing a batik

tunic and a sarong.

illustration such as this is very

Starting with the sarong, I referenced

challenging, as I

Banyuemas with the illusion of water

have to transform a

and added gold colour. For the tunic,

story from a blog into

I chose to depict the family folklore

a visual depiction.

of the moment one of my ancestors met his adopted son in the 1800s, as

I have never done an

told in the blog. In that story, my

installation using batik, so this

ancestor declared no male progeny

is another challenge that I

were to trade in rice and Areca nuts.

pushed myself to take on, to create. I was not intending to make wearable art, but a kind of a sculpture that used fabric.

.

I did not study batik; I picked it up on the job (when I was working for Kamal Dollah). Learning an art form on the job is more of a ‘hands-on’ approach, it’s different compared to studying it as a subject in an art school.

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Kamal Dollah

KAMAL DOLLAH Bringing Colours To Life While I like to think of myself as a multi-disciplinary artist, I became sort of an accidental scholar on batik painting after I did my Masters thesis on batik. I was drawn to batik because it was something of a mystery to me. During my studies at NAFA, I was presented with Chinese calligraphy, Chinese ceramics and Chinese ink painting as elective subjects, but I wanted to do something that was related to my culture. However, I learned further along that batik is not wholly a Malay ‘thing’. Batik is essentially Southeast Asian, and at the same time, it is universal. There are Chinese Indonesians making batik in Pekalongan, and obvious traces of Indian influences in batik design.

The drawback of choosing batik as your focus is that, you get ‘locked in’ by other people, who think you are not progressive, constantly looking at the past all the time.

Well, I was drawn to the past. My earliest influence is Nanyang art, and even down to our late President Dr Ong Teng Cheong – his vision of the Singapore dress and the Singaporean ideal representation of culture had Nanyang influences.

The 70s and 80s figurative works in batik were derived from the Nanyang style, and the subject tended towards pastoral scenes like the kampung, cock fighting, farmers planting rice.

I wanted to adopt the Nanyang style, but in today’s context, what would the subject be? How would I relate to the theme of Beyond The Surface, as there are no pastoral scenes in Singapore!

With batik, the surface is always about the past and it’s always about romanticising the scenery, so what if I take the surface, philosophically, as the present or future? I looked around for a landscape to paint and I realised we were living in a scene. This is what we are, people obsessed with their devices lost in thoughts and mobile devices.

It reminds me of a painting of a boy and a bird by Cheong Soo Pieng. The boy is lost in his imagination with the bird. It’s a powerful piece. I wanted to do something like that. I wanted to refocus and evolve the scene. The objective here is to modernise and contemporise batik. I did my observation with rapid colour pencil sketches to record my subject and later reworked them at the gallery.

Batik is considered an archival nightmare because the general view is that it does not keep very well. However, if the fixing had been done properly, batik can last very long. I washed my batik and fixed it properly as a practice.

I chose scaffolding bars and clamps to present the pieces to give a ‘concrete’ look. Batik is a dynamic and interesting medium and does not have to be framed up on a wall. If you hang batik like a screen, you’ll see batik’s obverse property; you can see both sides.

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Kamal Dollah

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Although I see that there are ways I can make my piece more impactful, especially exploring the stylisation derived from using colour pencils, I am still happy with the final outcome. Someone commented on my attempts to ‘translate’ figurative drawings into batik paintings, which resulted in ‘white’ instead of dark outlines. That was a very educated observation. The placement of shadows is a process that I would have to think through before executing, because in batik, the lines come out in reverse since the wax blocks the colour. I would need to start with lighter areas first, whereas if I were to work with colour pencil, I’d start with the dark. There’s a conflict in the process and that’s the interesting part.

What happened was mostly accidental. I am rather impatient. I just wanted to focus on the stylisation. I wanted it to be rapid, to have a sense of the gestural in the figurative. I don’t mind the imperfections, because those imply the human element. Accuracy sometimes means too much technology is applied.

As the figures in my piece have an otherworldly sense about them, I made my piece life-size. I want viewers to feel that they are encountering ‘aliens’ from whichever side they approach my piece.

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Izziyana Suhaimi

IZZIYANA SUHAIMI A Physical Manifestation Of Time As an artist I have always worked

I did not learn to embroider from my

Last year I started to incorporate

with tactile materials like thread and

grandmothers, rather I picked it up

weaving into my work. For this

fibres. Embroidery is something that

myself. Even so, I still feel a connection

exhibition, I combined weaving and

I have always been doing. It is a very

with them. When I embroider I am

embroidery.

personal thing as both my

doing movements, actions that they

grandmothers were embroiderers

would have done; it’s my way of

The simplest loom is a rectangular

and my mother did a lot of sewing.

remembering them and continuing

loom called the frame loom and in

My siblings and I grew up wearing

this tradition in the family.

other parts of the world complex

outfits my mother made. She does a

Embroidery is also tactile and can

floor looms are used to make fabric

lot of crochet too, such as tablecloths

carry personal meanings or stories.

such as songket and ikat. The hoop in

and placemats. It’s a common sight

Just like when we see a batik cloth

my installation references the

in Malay homes. So I grew up with

that was used by your great

embroidery hoop, only I turned it into

things such as textiles, threads and

grandmother and certain memories

loom so that I can weave and add

materials being around me all the time.

are evoked.

some embroidery. I made notches on

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Izziyana Suhaimi

the wood and stringed the weft

and continued to embroider on the

inspired by Jeff VanderMeer’s

through the notches.

paper. If you look at the piece closely,

Southern Reach trilogy. In this trilogy,

you can see the embroidery appear

there is an area where nature, the

How I usually work is this: I start with

as threads that are unraveling

flora and fauna in particular, behave

reference images, from my collection

because there is no longer a surface

in unexpected ways and turn against

of photographs that I took or pictures

to properly support the embroidery,

its human inhabitants. Humans living

from other books and the internet.

in contrast to the weave that is quite

outside the area fear that the

These images are usually of nature; I

structured. I like this juxtaposition of

apocalypse will begin — the area will

quite like how colours bleed into one

the two media.

get bigger and cover the entire world.

another. Then I form a collage that

There were expeditions sent into the

gives me a general image of what I

I am still working on incorporating

area to investigate, but anyone who

want the final artwork to look like. I

these two different crafts and

enters and emerges out of it became

draw out the different colour areas

discovering how embroidery can

a shell of themselves, soulless. It is

and plan out the colours and the

hold up by itself, once the backing

quite perplexing.

threads I need to use. Then I start to

surface is removed.

work on the different components of the piece.

This trilogy makes a lot of reference This is the first time I am actively

to nature and questions a lot of our

using floral images in my work, even

relationship with nature, how we look

For this installation, I initially did the

though I have always been attracted

at nature in different ways in different

embroidery on translucent paper,

to floral and fauna. I think the books

situations. So that’s how I became

separately from the weave. At one

that I was reading at that time

focused on my own interest in flora

point, I attached the embroidery

influenced this decision. I read a lot

and fauna.

directly onto the weave on the loom

of science fiction and this piece was

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Nhawfal Juma’at

NHAWFAL JUMA’AT

A Celebration Of Simplicity I am currently pursuing my Bachelor of Arts at NAFA and am also a practicing artist. My work for Beyond The Surface is called Four Spheres. I started doing this when I was at Loughborough University on an exchange programme and all I had brought with me from Singapore were a few rolls of masking tape and four sticks of charcoal. There I was in my studio, scratching my head and wondering where could I get paper and how much it would cost me. Still, bricolage art is making use of whatever material is available in your environment at that moment in time. I used the masking tape as the surface instead of paper.

What I find interesting during this process is that by using the masking tape as the surface for my work, I have taken an everyday object and elevated its function. The simple masking tape and a small stick of charcoal were able to generate a large-scale work.

Why did I draw circles? As creators, artists tend to want to do a lot of things; we want to do this, create that, and there’s a lot of inspiration — comics, nature, batik, culture for example.

To encompass all these into one, I simply interpret it as one big circle. The circle is a universal shape, which everyone can relate to. To me, personally, it is a celebration of simplicity. In the spirit of bricolage, I used whatever materials I had; or rather I was forced to work with only masking tape and charcoal. I made different compositions. As I mentioned earlier, the circle is a celebration of simplicity, especially at this age where there are a lot of things going on. It became some sort of meditation actually, as I created this work, scratching charcoal on masking tape. And this fits nicely into the theme of

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Nhawfal Juma’at

Beyond The Surface. The masking

imperfections represent the human

with charcoal on the masking tape

tape ball represents the idea of

element. The masking tape ball is not

surface. The 3D masking tape ball is

something that is 2D transforming

a real sphere that is smooth and

the third sphere. And the fourth —

into 3D.

clean but it does give an impression.

it’s the word ‘sphere’ itself. This is

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in reference to Joseph Kosuth’s I started out with an idea of a circle

Going back to the title of Four Spheres.

conceptual art piece called ‘One

or sphere as the perfect ideal.

I had in my mind, the idea of creating

and Three Chairs’ in 1965, where he

However when I created the masking

a sphere to represent the perfect

exhibited a chair, a picture of a chair,

tape ball, there are imperfections,

ideal. That’s the first sphere. The

and the definition of ‘chair’. So which

and as Kamal Dollah said,

second sphere is the one that I drew

is the real chair?

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Nur Iman

NUR IMAN An Exploration Of Identity I am a fine art practitioner and a graffiti writer. I started doing graffiti art when I was young. I was doing graffiti all by myself, and so I chose ‘Stranger’ as my graffiti artist name.

It is common for a practising graffiti artist to take a second name.

Nur Iman is the name for my fine art profession. I have asked myself: should I give up one discipline, or combine both? I found that when I tried to combine these two, there tends to be an imbalance, one was overpowering the other, and I felt was sacrificing one over the other. It felt I was losing something that I liked, satisfied and excited me.

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Nur Iman

So as Nur Iman, my works are of the representational kind, works that create conversations. As an art practitioner, I always look forward to works that talk about time, identity and bring up questions that have no right or wrong answers.

If you look at my exhibitions through the years, you will find that my works always change. For instance, when I was fifteen years old, my work centered on education matters. As I grow older, my work began to relate to political issues. I aim to engage the audience; you don’t have to be an artist to understand my work.

I can’t let go of graffiti. Fine art is representational, graffiti is about curves and lines. Graffiti is more about bringing people together. It is common for more than one graffiti artist to work

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on one single canvas. We may be strangers at the start, but are working on one canvas together over the weekend. It’s like being in a whole movement which is nice to be a part of, and that is why I cannot let go of it.

makes me think, why did I do it this way? So you learn about yourself, the way you draw — some people call it style. It is a fine challenge by itself. I still have not got a style that I can proudly say, “This is my style.”

Graffiti as an art practice — I remember explaining this when I was at NAFA — is about working with lines and letters. For example, how many lines does it take to construct the letter “S”? One, but even if you take 5, it’s still the letter “S”. We still know the identity of that letter.

My illustrations at this exhibition present my perception of myself as an art practitioner. The faces on each cube represent different aspects of my artistic identity. For instance, you can see at one point, I was doing a lot of brushwork and at another point, I was doing more murals.

Actually the whole graffiti writing scene has evolved to something bigger, it is a variation of an art practice. For instance, you give me a letter, I will paint it a certain way. You give another artist the same letter, and they’ll do it their own way, and that

My work is mostly about how I became what I am now and the different art forms I am able to do.

Viewers of my installation can reconfigure the flow of the narrative of the different points of my life without changing the meaning.

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Rofi

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Rofi

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ROFI Two Sides Of The Same I do a lot of faces and figures. They are neither portraits nor meant to refer to a specific person. I just like to use the face as the vessel that carries the message I want to convey.

Before this show, I had already created two paintings that are based on the universal themes of sinning — represented by fire — and repentance or blessing - represented by rain that washes away the sin.

Wh en this show came about, in interpreting the theme Beyond The Surface, I realised these two separate paintings can be shown as two parts of one person, from being sinful to being blessed. This presented an opportunity for me to combine two different canvases into one structure with two sides. The viewer chooses which side comes first — the sinning or the repentance/blessing.

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Acknowledgement

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

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