dear dark cloud
misty blue
acrylic on canvas / 47 x 58 cm / 2014
dear dark cloud meme / khairul azmir bin shoib
once upon a time
the story of meme
t h e r e isn’t a more apt sentence to serve as a preamble to Meme’s works. After all, the artist flirts excessively with elements of storytelling and fantasy in his art, and a study of Meme’s oeuvre reveals whimsical creatures fraternizing with long-limbed children, and animals that wouldn’t be out of place in a fairytale. It’s also these type of elements that greet us once again in Meme’s maiden exhibition for the year, Dear Dark Cloud. Here, 15 artworks await our inspection, and the cast is a gathering of wicked queens, woodland creatures, and wideeyed little girls. The setting? Fantastical lands, where the surroundings are bleak, and the land, barren.
the lonesome prince of fantasy
The resurfacing of characters and the gothic flavours in Dear Dark Cloud don’t discount some noticeable divergences from Meme’s recent works, though. In last year’s prolific two-solo output, we saw a strong focus on drawings; in the first of the two exhibitions in 2014, Let It All Rain Down From the Blood Stained Clouds, the works toyed with themes of darkness and melancholy, whilst Tulip – The Dog That Ate Nightmares featured original artworks from the artist’s third picture book. The difference this time, is this: Meme’s current series feature works with new mediumistic expressions. Assemblage, as well as digital prints on metal plates have come into the fray, and interestingly, oil painting has made a reappearance. Meme hasn’t touched the latter since 1997.
ryukia
mixed media on canvas / 78 x 107 cm / 2015
in the shadow of the horns
acrylic on canvas / 76 x 76 cm / 2015
the lonesome prince of fantasy
But it’s not really the medium that is the focus in Meme’s art. Themes, reoccurring as they are in this artist’s body of work, remain the key to analyzing his art, and Dear Dark Cloud’s gravitates around the theme of isolation. When pressed for an answer as to why and whether any life-changing event has occurred in the artist’s life – and note that our conversation has had to take place over electronic tidings, where little nuances like body language and distinct pauses aren’t apparent – Meme’s clipped answer over email still reveals much; “Too personal to tell you. Something dark happened that triggered this theme of isolation”.
tales of a
mixed media on canvas
grass widow
76 x 92 cm / 2015
the lonesome prince of fantasy
m e m e goes on to draw similarities between his work to the likes of works by individuals like Mark Ryden, Dilkabear, Camille Rose Garcia, Kathie Olivas, and Julie West. ‘Lowbrow’, is the term that Meme uses in reference to the art of these artists, but it’s really that their works lean towards the terrain of graphics and illustration – forms that haven’t found themselves enjoying the same glittering stardom in the local art scene as paintings on social or political matters. If anything, this lends some poignancy to Meme’s works. For one, we’re looking at an individual who has devoted his entire practice to the mastery and propagation of fantastical art, and secondly, the theme of isolation does bear strong relevance in today’s world, because despite the fact that we live in a time when humans are inundated with ways to connect, socialize, and discover on the digital space, all this white noise has only amounted to more fragmentation among people. Tribes, Facebook groups, digital forums that separate individuals by their interests – doesn’t this all sound familiar?
dear dark cloud
If there’s one work in today’s showing that illustrates this, it is ‘a n n a & x o x o ’, a diptych that features two female characters surrounded by communication-related icons. To Meme, the work is an investigation into the idea of “silent communication”. On a deeper note, he says this: “(We are) so close yet so far. Everything has become like an illusion. But in my case, I am the one who has rejected the world and humans. Humans are easily corrupted. (I have committed) the act of catharsis from the world’s temptations – money, materials, pride. I go back to the world of purity and innocence, letting go of all restrictions (from any school of thought).”
lovely molly
oil on canvas / 76 x 105 cm / 2015
l i t e r a ry, c i n e m a t i c , m u s i c a l l i n k s
It’s not unheard of for artists to feel apart from the rest of society. Neither is it unheard of for them to create worlds of their own. On how he comes up with his characters, Meme explains that “the artworks still deal with character design and the narrative comes from within (subconsciously)”, pointing to how intuition and imagination guide the way. “The characters tell me their name sometimes. In other ways, I like to invent words. Dr Suess, Roald Dahl, and Edward Gorey always applied this. The scenes always represent my own imaginary world. The world with no sun, only moon. Always dark. Twilight. Winter but no snow and a lot of trees without leaves. There are clouds. Monochrome. There have a sound – melancholic sound, but most of the time silence. No conversation, quiet (the closest comparison with our world is 3am in the morning ). There’s rain, too, And it’s cold. It’s a blending of real life experience and imagination.”
l i t e r a ry, c i n e m a t i c , m u s i c a l l i n k s
There’s a poetic edge in those words. And, other links that can be drawn to Meme’s works include the magic of cinema (think Tim Burton or Hayao Miyazaki, in particular), and the more abstract forms found in music. Indeed, it’s the latter that’s always played a salient role in the making of Meme’s art. Before, it was the Icelandic post-rock band, Sigur Ros, that crooned to the artist while he worked in his studio. For this body of work, the soundtrack headed East with the likes of Japanese and Korean outfits like Shoegaze, Advantage Lucy, Dear Cloud, Sweden Laundry, and Dalmoon wafting through the speakers. “in order to translate the feeling or emotion of their songs, I listen repeatedly, probably 500 times a week until the painting finishes. I always use this method. It’s like you absorb the soul from the song into the painting, and each painting has its own song. So, when I see the painting, I hear a song. It records time and space,” explains the artist.
acrylic on canvas / 61 x 183 cm /
song of the sea
2015
night
acrylic on canvas
wish
94 x 79 cm / 2015
the night keeper
oil on canvas / 77 x 106 cm / 2015
every cloud has a silver lining
a s i d e s from music and the playful forms of Meme’s work, there’s been one other constant in his oeuvre: the female character. Functioning as a sort of archetype, she’s appeared in past bodies of work as the artist’s version of the ideal, but today, she holds a deeper significance: she is an emblem for his daughter, Veramay. Knowing this changes the tone of Meme’s works altogether. He posits Dear Dark Cloud as a melancholic affair, but the love that a father has for his daughter is anything but, is it not? And so – having started this essay with a classic line – we’ll end with one, too: every cloud has a silver lining, and this saying illustrates the positivity that can be garnered from Meme’s works. With the playful lines of his characters and their curious forms, our imaginations are allowed to return to a more childlike place; with a little aid from our minds and sight, the tale of a wicked maiden unfurls in Raven Witch, and in Tales of the Grass Widow, we follow the adventures of a little heroine in who looks set to change her world from the back of a friendly beast.
every cloud has a silver lining
How and why this works, is that there is a child in all of us, and for every child, there is a whole world inside his or her heart. Meme’s art functions on this emotional level, and whilst his counterparts are grappling with the more masculine themes of society and politics, Meme returns to the more primal tides within all of us. “My art tries to talk about emotions, purity, and beauty. One day, hopefully, I want to do a small museum of all my artworks, with a small front door, small window, and only children can enter – no adults. Inside, I will keep fairytales, a childhood, a beauty, a monster. All this, so the children can believe and have hope, sadness, love, and the movement of being alive”. See, don’t all dark clouds turn into rain that nourishes and brings life to the living on earth?
rachel jenagaratnam
raven witch
mixed media on canvas / 77 x 77 cm / 2015
dear dark cloud
meme / khairul azmir bin shoib
gothic kebaya
acrylic on canvas / 152 x 183 cm / 2015
triarchy of
mixed media on wood
the lost lovers
34 x 130 cm / 2014
left; anna
mixed media on metal plate / 91 x 122 cm / 2014
right; xoxo
mixed media on metal plate / 152 x 152 cm / 2014
marcescent
mixed media on wood / 54 x 69 cm / 2014
DEAR DARK CLOUD MEME
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ISBN 978 - 981- 09- 4870- 2 PAPERBACK
TAKSU is a leading contemporary art gallery and specialist in Southeast Asia. Representing selections of fine art with distinctive urban edge, we are at the forefront of contemporary art in this region. TAKSU works to forge a platform for established and emerging artists to share their pool of creativity and knowledge through its residency programs and exhibitions. Encapsulating the true meaning of the word TAKSU; divine inspiration, energy, and spirit. Suherwan Abu Director, TAKSU Galleries
front cover; dark skies oil on canvas
Essay Rachel Jenagaratnam Graphic Design Jeffrey Lim / Studio 25 Printer Unico Services
47 x 58 cm / 2015
Artworks & Images Š 2015 Meme / Khairul Azmir Bin Shoib This publication may be reproduced in any form for academic, editorial and/or non-commercial purposes without special permission from the artist(s) and gallery, with acknowledgement of the source. For other purposes, prior consent is needed.
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