Nuntius — Indra Ramanathan

SA NS HO RI ZO N

TH E U N U M

TH E D E CA LO G U E

TH E NU N TI U S

I N D R A R AM AN ATH A N

KUALA LUMPUR

17 Jalan Pawang 54000 Kuala Lumpur Malaysia T +603 4251 4396 F +603 4251 4331 kl@taksu.com SINGAPORE

THE NUNTIUS INDRA RAMANATHAN

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43 Jalan Merah Saga #01-72 Workloft @ Chip Bee Singapore 278115 T +65 6476 4788 F +65 6476 4787 sing@taksu.com BALI

W Retreat & Spa Bali Jalan Petitenget Seminyak Bali, Indonesia T +62 361 4738106 F +62 361 4738104 bali@taksu.com W W W. TA K S U . C O M

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SA NS HO RI ZO N

TH E U N U M

TH E D E CA LO G U E

TH E NU N TI U S

I N D R A R AM AN ATH A N

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Sans Horizon 09.09.09 The Decalogue 10.10.10 The Unum 11.11.11 The Nuntius 12.12.12

by Indra Ramanathan

foreword Jan van Schaik , Melbourne Indra Ramanathan List of collectors Sans Horizon 09.09.09

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Professor Leon van Schaik AO 2 Yusof Majid 2 Artworks 3 Professor Lawrence Wallen 8 Sabri Idrus 8 Indra Ramanathan 9 Acknowledgements 10

The Decalogue 10.10.10 All rights reserved. No part of this brochure may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronically, including photocopy, recording or any information storage and retrieval system, without the prior consent from the artists and gallery.

Artworks & Images © 2012 Indra Ramanathan Graphic Design Jeffrey Lim / Studio 25 Printer Unico Services Paper Supplier Design Line

This book is printed on recycled and FSC paper, FSC certified; Springleaf Natural 250gsm Springleaf Natural 140gsm 100% recycled; Cyclus offset 140gsm

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Professor Leon van Schaik AO 12 Artworks 13 The Decalogue – Simon Soon 19 Acknowledgements 22

The Unum 11.11.11

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i – Shah 24 Artworks 25 Indra Ramanathan 33 Acknowledgements 34

The Nuntius 12.12.12

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Sabri Idrus 36 The journey of a question mark - A Profile 37 Artworks 45 Process 57 Acknowledgements 58

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Jan van Schaik Melbourne November 2012

I would like to introduce this publication of recent works by Indra Ramanthan by praising the man that I have come to now over the past year.

I love Indra.

To the external observer, I am simply one of Indra’s business partners, of only one year - so why have I put these three words in print?

Indra studied architecture at RMIT University in Melbourne. My father was his graduating supervisor, my mother an administrator in the same school.

As Indra was completing his final years, I was commencing my first. My awareness of him was ambient, yet somehow, when recalling these years Indra is always there - in a way best described as energy.

Upon graduating Indra returned to Kuala Lumpur, a place I had never been and knew little of. Yet this energy persisted, reaching me through various familial and professional routes. Indra kept in touch - with everybody. I began to understand that Indra invests in his networks like others invest in the stock market.

This is one of the forms that his energy takes.

Now that we are working together I can describe more explicitly other forms his energy takes. Indra has faith in people. It’s an easy thing to say, and is an ubiquitous Christian value, but as a recipient of it I proudly endorse its buoying effect. I have worked with his employees and have seen it in them too. There is a profound generosity of spirit here.

Indra wants to make a difference. Success in business alone is not a complex enough a driver. This same business must also be an agent of change for the better - in our case, by contributing to the architecture of Kuala Lumpur.

Indra is momentum. Indra is optimism. Indra is love.

And I cannot imagine that Indra evokes these feeling in me alone. Yet I am agnostic. So as I bask in this love, as I know you do too, I often wonder about its source.

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I understand these works as a place to garner insight beyond the adulation that his energy evokes.

Clearly energy is deployed in the making of the works - the expressive gestures are energy manifest and the textures bear the turbulent marks of motion - but they reveal something else.

Like a glimpse of a passenger in the rear seat of a car speeding by you, the works reveal flash visions of nostalgia for lost places, sudden deamonic urges, unabashed lust and a rabid thirst for traction and colour.

The works are abstract. To see them you must will your pupils wide open, induce in yourself a trance, and drink them in. They will deliver to you acute glimpses of the rumbling engines of humanity churning at a vertiginous depth in ink black darkness.

Stare. Attempt to join yourself with them and they reveal sudden moments of anger and violence. They reveal geographic disorientation. They reveal grief and loss. The reveal the trauma of being born and the incomprehensible emptiness of death. They reveal a frustration with primordial forces. They reveal youth’s impertinent refutation of mortality. They reveal the stinging irony of old age as we suddenly grasp that wisdom comes too late. They reveal the torture of realising that offspring can only learn from their own mistakes.

In The Picture of Doran Gray, Oscar Wilde has the protagnist deny the pain, torture, distress, irony and hopelessness of the human condition hiding them under a staircase - but Indra exhibits and publishes his works. By sharing these insights through the unabashedly open medium of abstract expressionism Indra is showing us what underpins his boundless optimism, momentum and energy. Indra is too good to be true, but the works published in this book show us that he is real.

Indra is real.

Indra Ramanathan Petaling Jaya December 2012

After four years, this chapter of my journey has come to an end. It is the end of the public showing of my art. It is not that I will not paint or make artworks ever again, quite the contrary, I intend to relocate and keep my studio where I take practice in art making. At this juncture, I have no desire to be publicly showing my works.

I have had an incredible experience exploring and developing new skill sets using different mediums to express creativity.

Many years ago, my parents sent me overseas for an education, it is my belief that besides the acquisition of my degree, the most valuable teaching I took away from that has been the very basis of this exploratory journey into the visual arts. The lesson is this ………

In order to truly appreciate who we are, we must dislocate ourselves from the comfort zone that our minds dwell within, only then we are able to truly appreciate and practice with heightened senses. Thus, in my case, taking to painting in order to be creatively relevant in my design practice.

As I close this chapter, I am refreshed and renewed and am seek a new beginning in the opening of a new chapter in my life.

Thank you for indulging me in this quest.

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These works are currently in the collections of the following private collectors and corporations: Dato Arif Abdullah Deborah Abraham & Peter Haavik Karen Abraham Dr. Nimal Balaratnam Shah Hakim Zain Dato Seri Kalimullah Hassan Edward & Sylvie Hyde Sabri Idrus Dato Seri Akbar Khan The Aliya & Farouk Khan Collection Leslie Lopez & Surinder Jessy Dato Jagan Sabapathy John Sironic Andy Yap Yeoh Sik Pin & Dr Chung Low BRDB - Bandaraya Developments Berhad Bina Rezeki Sdn Bhd Emkay Group PLM Interiors Sdn Bhd RYO Sdn Bhd Scomi Group Berhad The Seven Samurais WOODS BAGOT Zenith Media

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Sans Horizon 09.09.09

sans horizon 1

Approaching his fourth decade, Indra Ramanthan invites us to contemplate his life through several cities: cities that have all had a bearing on his creative development. We know, as I demonstrate in my book Mastering Architecture (Wiley 2004), that innovators establish the platforms of mastery from which their innovations are projected in successive stages, around a period of ten years. Indra completed his first platform with his ‘Major Project’ at RMIT in Melbourne – a visionary re-representation of the race course in Kuala Lumpur. The process he set in train opened up possibilities for interventions on that site that the normative analytical techniques would not have discovered. Indra’s thesis was included in RMIT’s biennial exhibition of outstanding Major Projects, and his mentor, the gold medal winning Australian Architect Peter Corrigan, crowned him (verbally of course), “A Prince amongst men.”

now on a research: ‘Sans Horizons.’

We who know him, from near and from afar, celebrate this venture, recalling that the great philosopher Gadamer exhorted us all to connect our discipline knowledge to other disciplinary fields by fusing the horizons between them.

Bon Voyage, and happy fusing!

And so, doing honour to his parents, and to his alma mater, Indra launched himself into architecture in Kuala Lumpur, creating the successful commercial practice that we have all come to know, while at the same time embarking on a wonderful marriage and family life. As one would expect from an innovator, Indra chafed against his own success. It is another principle in the lives of creative people that they constantly seek out the margins where they refresh themselves before returning to the centre to seek recognition for their latest innovation.

Indra Ramanathan is a prominent Malaysian architect and designer, extremely talented, fiercely individual and over the last year has become a very dear friend of mine. His passion for all things creative is legendary which is why we get on so well and have had many enlightened conversations about painting as an art form and the direction painting is moving in, here in Malaysia. Pace Gallery is delighted to host Indra’s first solo exhibition and be part of his success. No one more than Indra deserves the patronage and fame his paintings will deliver. I would like to congratulate my friend Indra on producing these nine strong, vibrant paintings, and wish him all the best in his endeavours to becoming a great artist, which I have no doubt he will achieve, as he already is a great creator and a great mate.

In this exhibition Indra serves notice to us all, but also to himself, that a moment of creative refreshment at the margins of architecture is underway. He embarks on this firstly by seeking a new integration of his life experience in different cities around the world. He will not be bounded by Kuala Lumpur, nor will he be bound

by Melbourne or any other city. But looking across all of their horizons he claims that he is 2

Prof. Leon van Schaik AO Professor of Architecture - Innovation Chair School of Architecture + Design RMIT University, Building 8, Level 12, Room 34, Swanston Street, Melbourne. Vic 3000 GPO Box 2476V, Melbourne Vic 3001. +61 3 9925 2002 (ph) +61 3 9925 3095 (fx)

Yusof Majid. Sept 2009

Sans Horizon 09.09.09

left; London / 4.5 x 4.5 feet acrylic on canvas & stainless steel / 2009 below; Bangkok / 4.5 x 4.5 feet acrylic on canvas & stainless steel / 2009

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right; Shanghai / 4.5 x 4.5 feet acrylic on canvas & stainless steel / 2009 below; Cuneo / 4.5 x 4.5 feet acrylic on canvas & stainless steel / 2009

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right; Singapore / 4.5 x 4.5 feet acrylic on canvas & stainless steel / 2009 below; Kuala Lumpur / 4.5 x 4.5 feet acrylic on canvas & stainless steel / 2009

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below; Paris / 4.5 x 4.5 feet acrylic on canvas & stainless steel / 2009

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left; New York / 4.5 x 4.5 feet acrylic on canvas & stainless steel / 2009 below; Melbourne / 4.5 x 4.5 feet acrylic on canvas & stainless steel / 2009

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In the five years that Indra Ramanthan and I studied architecture in Melbourne he never left the city once, nor, as far as I remember, did he ever see a live kangaroo!

This collective landscape includes the bodies and spirit of those lucky enough to join Indra on his path through the invisible city that he has constructed for us and about us.

A Yamamoto clad urban creature, mostly seen at night, dinner often taken around three a.m.,Indra did not enjoy the country air.

It gives me great pleasure to have shared a small part in his journey and his city and I wish him the continued passion and happiness that I am sure the new projects that lie ahead will bring him.

His engagement with the city has always transcended its physical form; his subsequent travels across Europe, Asia and America continued to build a fuller understanding of their complexity and his place in it.

In subtle ways, no city remained the same after a visit from Indra, nor did Indra remain the same.

Professor Lawrence Wallen Zurich / Sydney Head of School, Design. Faculty of Design, Architecture & Building. University of Technology, Sydney P.O. Box 123. Broadway, NSW 2007 Tel: +61 2 9514 8933 Fax: +61 2 9514 8966

Sensitive to the shifts of culture, language and form, Indra changed the city and the city changed Indra. It seems fitting that he should turn his eye back on the places that he has visited and start to represent them through the abstract colour fields and symbols of gateways that comprise this new-found passion in painting.

Engaged with the bird-like eye of the gods, we gaze down on memories, his spatial memories of urban spaces that inhabit the newly arrived: the glimpse through the window of a landing plane, the taxi ride into a foreign city, the smell of another land, the reception on arrival.

Indra has never lost the anticipation and excitement of landing in a new city, keeping the memories precious of the fleeting moments in life when we encounter the truly new and unexpected. A form of spatial autobiography the work is a catalogue of departures, separate locations seen together as forming a single collective landscape both across the physical gallery and the mental space from where they came.

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Once a decision is made there’s no turning back. Much more can be said about Indra who always faces challenges head-on. An expressive style presented on canvas showed great effort.

Two colours or duotone are used as the basic background. Wide canvas surface with overlapping colour texture, fast brush motion and a structurelist style is incorporated. Mapping places and locations as a basis to record his experience, and a certain sense is mooted.

Congratulations! May your wish to create become the candy of camaraderie.

Sabri Idrus. 2009

Sans Horizon 09.09.09

Having spent the last 16 years in the practice of Architecture, Master Planning and Interior Design, 090909 marks the beginning of a new chapter in my life where I am embarking on a four year exploratory journey in visual art that I invite you to be a part of. I am honoured that the Pace Gallery has agreed to embrace my vision and host my solo exhibition.

I have entitled the show (sans) horizon as I have been formally schooled to use the horizon as datum. If we were to remove this line, we would be unable to construct drawings. There will be no vanishing point, no perspective. Thus, crippled by this omission, a ‘plan’ becomes the manifestation of my expressions. There is nothing left but color and texture and my memory of place.

I have been fortunate to be educated in Kuala Lumpur, Melbourne, New York and Cuneo, in Italy. I have also worked professionally in Bangkok, Singapore and Shanghai. London and Paris inspire me as cities. My work is an abstraction of these cities, in colour fields that are in my mind: the memory of that place. The interesting point about these cities is that they all have rivers that either bound them, or run through them. This is my line. I believe that subconsciously every city has a face, one that we all recognize, even in abstract, even without the horizon! It is the structure, the scale, the movements, the colour and the traces of memory. To experience these cities we need to travel and understand the variety of mediums and codes that make this journey possible. I have stamped all these cities with the airport codes of the international airport of that city to offer an insight into my thoughts.

above; Indra’s Studio at Central St Martins College of Art and Design, London December, 2009

Indra K Ramanathan: Born in Kuala Lumpur in 1969, Indra graduated with a B. Arch. (Class 1 Honours) from RMIT, Melbourne having studied in New York and Cuneo, Italy. He is Managing Director of WOODS BAGOT, an International Firm of Architects and Planners where he has been a Partner since 1995. WOODS BAGOT Malaysia shall be re-branded to be called iPartnership, providing the same services with the addition of Art Consultancy and Graphic Design.

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Acknowledgements: Thank you, Jesus Christ for giving me direction and peace. Yusof Majid and PACE for believing in me. My family, Karen, Johaan and Thea, for allowing me to do this.

Sabri Idrus for his criticisms, advice and valuable assistance, and for the catalogue. My colleagues at WOODS BAGOT. My mates, Shah, Azrina, Yeoh, Harold, Alex for checking on me at the studio!

Indra Ramanathan’s solo exhibition Sans Horizon was held at Pace Gallery. Kuala Lumpur. From 09 .09.09 - 1 9 .0 9 .0 9

The design for the AirAsia ASEAN offices in Jakarta was inspired by the works of Sans Horizon. The conceptual ideas behind the paintings were transfigured into the interior architecture of the office. This work in Interior architecture won the coveted Gold Medal in Corporate office category at the 2012 MiDA (Malaysian Interior Design Award). below; sequence of the transfiguration of the artwork through sketch to build form.

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The Decalogue 10.10.10

The Decalogue 11

Last year Indra Ramanathan invited us to contemplate his life through several cities: cities that had all had a bearing on his creative development. This year, once again, in what appears to be becoming an annual act of reflection, he embarks on a journey through the Declogues: ten eternal verities.

Appropriately here we find “Renewal”, then “Life”, “Generosity”, “Family”, “Justice”, ‘Faith”, “Truth”, “Respect”, “Fidelity” and “Purity”. This is a personal Declogue, and Indra has created a companion colour schema as a framework within which the paintings are then completed.

“Renewal” is Purple, veined with Blue; “Life” is Red veined with Black, “Generosity” has the Green of plant-life; “Family” is Orange and Yellow; “Justice” is Grey veined with Purple; ”Faith” is a Black streaked horizontally with Red, “Truth” is Black with Red vertical dashes; Respect is Red and Blue; “Fidelity” is Red; and “Purity” is White. The paintings all feature the word that is being contemplated, sometimes prominently, sometimes looming as through a mist of colour. The lettering is uniform and cool, except in the case of “Generosity”, the “Y” of which has a long tail. Striations resonate with clouds at sunset when horizontal, rain when vertical, with marble when vertical and horizontal. “In “Family” two vertical rectangles loom into view.

These are objects that prompt contemplations and wonderings and take this viewer at least into a reverie about life and its values.

Architects are not painters. Art and Architecture – like all professions - are pursued singlemindedly. But Indra demonstrates to us just how an architect, using an unfamiliar medium, can create a zone of meditation within which a professional and a personal life can be considered deeply.

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I welcome this second venture into reflective practice, and look forward to the next in what is now I hope indeed an annual event.

Prof. Leon van Schaik AO Professor of Architecture - Innovation Chair School of Architecture + Design RMIT University, Building 8, Level 12, Room 34, Swanston Street, Melbourne. Vic 3000 GPO Box 2476V, Melbourne Vic 3001. +61 3 9925 2002 (ph) +61 3 9925 3095 (fx)

The Decalogue 10.10.10

left; Decalogue I / 5 x 5 feet acrylic on linen, MDF frame / 2010 All faith in God, freedom from lesser wants: wealth, sex, power, popularity below; Decalogue II / 5 x 5 feet acrylic on linen, MDF frame / 2010 Respect for God and things of God: prayer, worship, religion.

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left; Decalogue III / 5 x 5 feet acrylic on linen, MDF frame / 2010 Not just the Sabbath rest, setting aside time for prayer, good recreation, quiet reflection. below; Decalogue IV / 5 x 5 feet acrylic on linen, MDF frame / 2010 Loving care and respect for all family members, elders and younger siblings, too. Respect for elders in general. right; Decalogue V / 5 x 5 feet acrylic on linen, MDF frame / 2010 Courtesy to all, speaking respectfully to all, seeking the best for all.

Respecting others’ freedom while still defending all human life.

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below left; Decalogue VI / 5 x 5 feet acrylic on linen, MDF frame / 2010 Faithful actions beyond just abstaining from sexual contact outside of marriage. Respect for sex and marriage. left; Decalogue vII / 5 x 5 feet acrylic on linen, MDF frame / 2010 Concern for the rights of others, especially when they get in the way of what we desire. A commitment to fairness and a willingness to suffer loss rather than depriving another. below right; Decalogue VIII / 5 x 5 feet acrylic on linen, MDF frame / 2010 A dedication to what is real and true, even if that reality is against our interests.

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right; Decalogue IX / 5 x 5 feet acrylic on linen, MDF frame / 2010 A desire to want only what God wills.

A single-hearted devotion to God’s way. below; Decalogue X / 5 x 5 feet acrylic on linen, MDF frame / 2010 A cooperation in God’s own generosity that sees all goods as belonging to God and freely given for the good of all.

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The Decalogue 10.10.10 Simon Soon

As a painter deeply engaged with the abstract vernacular, Indra Ramanathan’s conceptual underpinning can be characterised by his creative desire to internalise a given knowledge system and expressing it through a personal vocabulary. This single-minded pursuit is part of a larger artistic gambit, a design that will see the artist producing a total of four bodies of work, with each successive series building upon a painterly dialogue that seeks to push his interest in abstraction in new directions.

Thus far, two bodies of work have been produced and exhibited. The Decalogue (2010), which is the main series explored in this essay, follows Sans Horizon (2009) in its sustained inquiry into the relationship between abstraction and text.

Yet these two bodies of work cannot be anymore different in terms of their subjects.

Sans Horizon charts Indra’s emotive association with nine cities formative to his journey in life. They are as Lawrence Wallen, writing for the catalogue, describes, ‘a catalogue of departures’ and ‘a spatial autobiography’ in which the glowing wash of colours picture the resonance of memory and place just as it renews abstraction engagement with the genre of landscape painting. Within this cartographical exercise, Indra achieves in revealing the poignant undertones that perpetuate any relationship between the individual and the urban environment he/she inhabits.

The Decalogue, on the other hand, sees the artist training his critical eye on a different kind of terrain, one that maps the transformative experience of the spiritual within the individual.

The Decalogue is more popularly known as the Ten Commandments, the list of Biblical instructions that were handed to Moses, which form the moral foundation of Judaism and Christianity.

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For the artist, this set of directives are not merely specific to the religious traditions it stems from, their moral life has over time traffic across cultures, informing the intellectual, emotional and spiritual bank of humanity, thus acquiring a form of universal resonance.

Therefore it is also important to consider The Decalogue as a kind of spiritual currency that not only traverses geographical space, but also filters down to the personal. What an individual translates and draws from it into a signpost of daily social conduct speak of its significance as an ethical compass, steering and aligning our actions towards a state of equanimity.

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They in turn inform and shape the colour surface towards a particular attitude or emotional chord.

In Sans Horizon (2009), the abbreviated names of cities used by the International Air Transport Association (IATA) are adopted to identify the location which inspired each painting not only as a signifier of a particular landscape’s identity, but also to conceptually bind these seemingly disparate locations under the nomadic experience of the traveling artist.

Indra Ramanathan’s paintings can be explored in relation to the investigative and lyrical tenor of the post-painterly abstract painters. The latter term was coined by art critic Clement Greenberg to typify a new development in American avantgarde paintings of the fifties and sixties that ‘favored openness and clarity’ in contrast to the compact and dense painterly surface of abstract expressionism. This development saw the likes of Mark Rothko, Helen Frankenthaler, Barnett Newman, who sought to conjure a new range of emotional textures vis-a-vis their different stylistic approaches. These orchestrations of the canvas surface touch on the notion of its structural expansiveness often by exploring the tonal and textural values of a limited range of colours. Here the scale of the painting also plays an important role in conveying the intended effect.

Developing upon the artist’s interest in textual symbolism in his previous series, The Decalogue intimates a meditative process in which each of the Ten Commandments are parsed and reduced to a single word that represents its essence. As an example, the first commandment which reads ‘I am the Lord, Thy God; Thou shalt have no other gods before Me’ is reduced to its quintessence, ‘Faith’. This personal attribute is then further elaborated by associating it with colour values that are symbolically consonant with the Christian tradition. In this painting, the dark coat of black that supports the painting as its background represents sin and death, which is also the liturgical colour of Good Friday. Two horizontal streams of red cut across this dark void. Red, as the colour of blood, is symbolic of life and it intervenes in the otherwise sombre plane as a cipher for redemption through faith.

Finally, the word faith is found in the lower left corner of the painting in capital letters, summoning the viewer to contemplate on the nature of faith as absolution and fulfillment.

Indra Ramanathan’s distinctive contribution and development to this dialogue can be found in the way he marries text as a conceptual cue to the otherwise silent language of abstraction, merging two strategies of modern art in the process. This combination introduces another layer of symbolism and affectation, borrowed largely from conceptual art, to the amorphous form of the colour plane. The text functions as a code or cipher and directs the viewers’ attention the meaning-generative possibilities of words.

As mentioned earlier, while The Decalogue is inspired by its Judeo-Christian roots, the series embody the universalism of its message and an awareness of the traffic of ideas that have shaped its significance. In the work ‘Respect’, the rusty drips of red falls loosely in thin vertical stripes across the background of dark blue. Dark blue is noted as the colour of acceptance and the Advent, the period before the birth of Christ noted as a time of preparation and anticipation.

Within its centre, one can make out a spherical

Furthermore, we can find in the side panels of these metallic frames, cut out of geometric shapes that reveal overlapping strings of words and sentences that are associated with the key word espoused in the painting. This hidden layer of text is suggestive of the generative power of discourse, a power that transform concepts into form as a parable of art-making.

Moreover, it is also allusive of the Christian idea of the Logos, which is loosely translated as the ‘word’ or the concept and meaning behind the physical manifestation of our existence as found While one can continue to read The Decalogue as a suite of spiritual paintings, it is also possible in the opening lines in the Book of John, ‘In the Beginning was the Word and the Word was God.’ to consider how as a series, it connects to the No other theological explication sums up the spiritual tradition of modernist abstraction. artist’s process better as he seeks in his work to ‘Generosity’ is a good example of how the expound and declare through his paintings the abstract framing at work, the dark green borders that acts as a window into the light wash transformation of a concept into its aesthetic form. inside is reminiscent of British painter Howard Hodgkin propensity to paint a rectangular border Drawing upon this religious tradition at the same surrounding his painting when a frame is not used. In ‘Fidelity’, the use of two distinct tones of time as the paintings also seeks its parallel red is in its own way a homage to Mark Rothko’s development in Conceptual Art that superceded abstract paintings in the history of modern art, dynamic use of a limited range of colour to plumb into the psychological depth of the human The Decalogue’s achievement is its ability to psyche. Like many of his predecessors, while the explore the allegorical nature of ideas through the formal language of art. In charting his own titles and concept refer to specific spiritual and religious subjects, they are spiritual not because spiritual journey through painting them, Indra Ramanathan has demonstrated his insight into they appeal to the iconographic language that the formal and conceptual process that is able to is familiar to the Western pre-modern art translate a personal and emotive encounter into cannon; on the contrary, they renew spirituality an accessible and universal language that can be through internalising and purifying the values shared and appreciated by many. into an essence which is universalised through abstraction. shape and within this a crescent. While the symbolism of the crescent is often associated with Islam, in this clever play of symbolism, Indra Ramanathan manages to find a common thread that sustains all three Abrahamic faiths, underscoring their foundational belief in the singular respect and deep reverence of a monotheistic Godhead, elucidated in the third commandment, ‘Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord Thy God in vain.’

What transpire in The Decalogue are windows into a personal spiritual landscape and its final structural demonstration can be found in the support of custom-made frames. The attention to framing on its most visible level turns our attention to the sculptural quality of the work, creating a tension that invites both contemplation of its transcendental reality as it reminds us of the materiality of its body and support.

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Acknowledgments: thank you Jesus for your commandments and your promise. My family Karen, Johaan and Thea for allowing me the space to continue my journey. All who came on the 09.09.09 and bought by works. Sabri Idrus for your patience, encouragement and guidance.

Yusof Majid and PACE for still believing in me.

Khairul for your assistance at my studio. Azrina Arshard, Victor Lee for your wonderful sketches and all at iPartnership for helping me realise my aspirations.

Indra ramanathan’s second solo exhibition the decalouge was held at PACE Gallery from the 10 .10.10 - 2 0 .1 0 .1 0

above; detail of MDF frame with embedded text.

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The Unum 11.11.11

The Unum 23

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The works are by a trained architect, artist, designer. He has been running a successful design practise for years and through his professional journey, has been looking for the ‘next creative escape’ to express his life’s other interests, challenging the norms while straying away from his ‘business as usual’. ideals

This is a display of ideals matched by a man’s desire to challenge his path of perceived normalcy. It is a break from the routine, into a chaotic process of make-belief to express his inner notion of what happens on his path.

A journey. intersection

Rest.art or restart (where’s the point?) The third instalment from what is set to be a 4-part series, self-fulfilment, rejuvenation of the spirit and his way of refreshing one’s mind, seeking greater context between creativity and experience. An infusion of thoughts , transposed onto a visual composition, open to anyone’s comprehension. interpretation

Means ‘ONE’ in latin. Psychologically modelled and artistically deployed, underlining the gestures from current issues, sanguinity, cryptic, periodic ambivalence and why we, as society keep pushing the envelope of unity and weirdly, sometimes thrive on the desire to selfdestruct. indefinitely

Beyond the obvious 11, the series defines itself either by alphanumerical insertions or through layers of emotion above the sacred form of Jalur Gemilang… identity Observe the layers, lines, codes and captions.

One can perhaps understand the journey of these pieces and how and what they are depicting.

Many origins – four colours inducing additional hues and the amount of points in the stars.

The works is a contemplation of the present, by reflection and often skewed to be the ‘double entendre’ of politics and societal ‘onanism of thoughts’. innuendo

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He believes that every nationality, every society , everyone, everything is coded. Either you know it or not. identifiable

This journey is travelled by him alone, making creative sense of what life encounters. From the superficiality to reality and as often enough, it transits at ambiguity and will continue, somewhat and somehow. indefinitely

Welcome to UNUM, by Indra Shah – A friend Disclaimer: The above text is by me, on the artist’s invitation to interpret this series of work. It is solely my understanding of the person, his journey, his thoughts and the process of how these came into being. It is not part of a ‘curatorial’ exercise nor based on superlative whims.

Enjoy.

Green Greed / 5.5 x 5.5 feet mixed media on linen, timber frame / 2011 Origin scathed. Reputation tarnished.

Seeking comfort in fear. indulgence

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left; Myopia / 5.5 x 5.5 feet mixed media on linen, timber frame / 2011 Origins self-shunned. Spirits halted. Sanity lost. imprisoned below; Fore stripes / 5.5 x 5.5 feet mixed media on linen, timber frame / 2011 Blinded by layers. Distortion of origins. indignant right; Fly me / 5.5 x 5.5 feet mixed media on linen, timber frame / 2011 A mode to a point. Travel. Transit.

Disaster. The risk – destination unknown. intersection

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left; Talk . Communicate / 5.5 x 5.5 feet mixed media on linen, timber frame / 2011 Gateway to the connected. Sovereignty - by a thread. Redial. indiscriminate below; ill. u. mine / 5.5 x 5.5 feet mixed media on linen, timber frame / 2011 Encapsulate his position. Zest to journey.

Making light from life’s encumbrances. incandescence right; Buy. Price (or Mind Your Repute) 5.5 x 5.5 feet mixed media on linen, timber frame / 2011 The figure of value. The price to pay.

Defaceable morals, tolerance, hatred. invaluable

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left; Birth / 5.5 x 5.5 feet mixed media on linen, timber frame / 2011 Once it all started. Cheer. Clear. Concise. independence below; UN-real / 5.5 x 5.5 feet mixed media on linen, timber frame / 2011 Digressions. Nations un-ited. Without might and holding tight. incapable right; Surf.ace / 5.5 x 5.5 feet mixed media on linen, timber frame / 2011 Openness, pass(bad)words, my domain.

Of coloured tales and flowing filths. ikhlas next page; Flow-recent / 5.5 x 5.5 feet mixed media on linen, timber frame / 2011 Strength and structure stripped by movements. imbedded

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I grew up in PJ playing marbles, eating 50-cent packets of Nasi lemak and durians by the side of the road with not a care in the world. I then went on to be educated as an architect in Melbourne, Italy, the United States and in 2009 in art school in London.

I thrive making order out of chaos. I love taking the irrational world of my emotions, hopes, fears, dreams, desires and idiosyncrasies and sculpting and re-arranging them in myriad ways until order is found. And paradoxically in this process my mind becomes still.

I experienced a sense of freedom and abandon, and an immediate connection to the tactile, physical, and non-rational worlds. Now, as an adult, my paintings reconnect me to that incredible enlightened journey.

I open myself up to something much bigger than myself.

I paint as an explorer. I disappear into the unknown and dig for what will unravel and reveal itself: new images, new relationships, new ways of moving paint. Scraping, scratching, wiping, adding, subtracting. Inviting drips, stains, layering, accidents.

Decisions make themselves. Time melts away and I journey into an expansive universe, as wide as the south Australian landscape.

I enter a world of space and matter, building up my canvases with color and texture, recapturing the freedom and movement of my incredible journey. indra ramanathan

I am a deeply physical person. I love movement.

In addition to painting, I run, and drink. I paint on a large scale so I can feel my body moving across a big field. I paint because I love the tactile, sensual aspects: tearing, ripping, paper, paint, collage, plaster, glue. I crave the space for spontaneous gestures, for paint to swirl, and colours to collide.

Red, White, Blue and Yellow.

I search for the image, and its proper place in the world around it. I allow words and images to appear, disappear, get buried, resurface.

Text engraved in textured scrapings across a torn page.

Sometimes this process happens magically, as if by accident. Sometimes it takes months of moving, playing, changing and editing before the total rhythm of the painting finds the resonance I seek, the moment of yes.

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Acknowledgements: thank you Jesus. thank you Malaysia. My family Mum and Dad, Karen, Johaan and Thea for the privilege and joy that you bring to me. The team at BRDB and Dato Seri Akbar Khan for graciously hosting my exhibition at the main foyer of the Bangsar Shpping Centre. Dato Jagan Sabapathy for speaking at the opening reception. Mr Leong, the best flag maker. Edward Hyde and the team at LaBodega for making the refreshments happen, The Children from Dignity and Services for coming to the opening. My friend and coach Sabri Idrus who moulds me to be all that I can be. Shah Sidek for your reviews, the text and for keeping us all entertained. All at iPartnership for letting me have the space to explore the unknown. indra ramanathan’s third solo exhibition The Unum was held at the main foyer of The BSC from the 1 1 .1 1 .1 1 - 1 4 .1 1 . 1 1

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The Nuntius 12.12.12

The Nuntius 35

Established in 1969, the journey begins with life in Petaling Jaya.

Something successive often true, in fiction or events. This understanding can be too significant to something, sometimes in person.

Descended in Melbourne during formative stage. The desire to paint and make paintings and objects instead. Indra chooses to paint as Found and studied Architecture with sojourns in many as 42 pieces in the past four years. He is Europe & USA in early 90’s. often uneasy when it is time for the exhibition.

Like the wolf howling during full moon. Each Spiced with a later stint at St Martins, London. year a different way and style, according to the chosen theme. The work often uses the Dedicated his life to design, namely Architecture principle of striking colors, creating the pivot and Art intensively since 1994. Many projects, cycle they are free to choose the spaces several awards. and places. As a painter, matters such as phenomena, probably because artists often 1999 arrived with an emphatic idea of give names to see the exhibition and every ‘rethinking’, his own quest of going ‘beyond the idea or works made, painter through our trip, normal-ness’– a diversion from blase, routined, art by various allegations and obstruction predictivity. The programme RE-ST-ART began. and painters will keep painting until the end of life without grumbling and reason. Fifteen 09.09.09, 10.10.10 + 11.11.11 passed… in between years before Indra tried to paint, perhaps it his business as usual - more progressive, more stems from a sense of the interest to continue awards. working. Ten years later, the interest comes back with a livelier plan that is more festive.

Here is 12.12.12...Here is The Nuntius.

Throughout the four years of working and exhibiting in a row as Immerse if you will. a full theme haunts him.

Sabri Idrus. 2012

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The Nuntius 12.12.12

The journey of a question mark A Profile

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His life, his work, his art, his philosophy can all be boiled down to one expression – the question mark.

It is not the question mark of self-doubt, it is a question mark that is filled with challenge and attitude.

Awards, high-profile design projects, international recognition. Great, he says. Now how about we put that all aside and start again?

Just when you thought it was quiet, he strolls into the picture and shakes it all up. He changes the game, he kicks the box to pieces. He does it all with calm and humour.

And he leaves a trail of bewilderment.

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?

Why not?

In 2009, he announced to anyone who would listen that he was going to paint and have four solo exhibitions over four years.

Why?

Why not?

He had never exhibited paintings in his life.

Now he was committed to creating and showing 42 paintings over four years.

And so he started with the nine paintings of Sans Horizon, which opened on 09.09.09.

A prominent art collector turned up a quarter of an hour late. Only two works remained unsold – he bought them immediately.

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Start again? Why?

For once, the question mark was flipped.

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He was used being surprising. He did not expect to be surprised.

His audience had shown him a certain level of regard. And he was damn well going to return it.

In that moment, Indra became audience to his own audacity.

That Christmas, he attended the Central St Martins College of Art and Design in London, learning the skills he needed to handle oil paints.

The cheek of having a solo exhibition right off the bat boomeranged.

In 2010, he produced The Decalogue, a show that opened on 10.10.10. His work was rooted in the All right, said the greater powers. You held a solo. Ten Commandments, but thankfully, his audience was spared a sermon in oil and acrylic.

It was successful beyond anything you could have imagined. Now what are you going to do?

He took the Commandments away from a literal Biblical context and interpreted each as he saw them. So instead of ‘Thou shalt not…’, we got 10 single words and an invitation to decode them as we wanted.

??

What’s next? asked the universe, prodding him, challenging his impertinence.

Faith.

Generosity. Renewal.

Purity. Truth.

Justice. Fidelity.

What’s next? he asked himself.

Family. Respect.

He had had unexpected success with his first show. It seemed he had found a winning formula. Life.

He could simply have repeated it for work to These are the principles important to him, the come. principles he tries to live by.

But for Indra, success is a reason to shift the He succeeds often. He fails often. He tries all the goalposts. time.

That show was good. Now how can it be better?

The Decalogue was hardly a reminder to stick to the rules. It could never have been, not with Indra as artist.

?

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It was, if you like, an expression of humanity.

Living by these values is a challenge we all face, every single day, because we are human and because we flawed.

It told what is possibly the oldest story in the book: what we have in common is so much more than what divides us. It doesn’t matter what religion or creed says.

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He is now the managing partner of iPartnership, a design studio which provides services in the field of architecture, interior design, space planning, urban design and art consultancy.

What do iPartnership clients expect? Clever, innovative design and planning solutions.

And what is iPartnership’s mission, boldly stated in the company profile? To exceed that expectation.

The clients are happy. Great. Now how can we make them happier?

Why does he constantly push himself out of the realm of the comfortable? Why does he think and That annoying question mark just won’t go away. act in previously unexplored waters?

Why not?

That’s the short answer.

The longer answer is that he does things that seem irrelevant in order to remain relevant to his work.

He was trained as an architect and the heart of his business is design.

The ‘what’s next?’ philosophy is as loud in is work as it is in his art.

He was a partner in an international architecture practice. He set up two of their offices, one in Singapore and the other in Shanghai.

He had worked on several prominent projects for prominent people. He has a series of awards – so many that some lie stacked on a counter-top at the office.

He worked hard, he peaked early. He was going places. And then he broke away from the conventional model of success and started his own practice.

???

Have a glass of wine with him. Have several glasses.

He pours generously and his intrigue with each bottle is clear.

He is captivated by every new taste. But it goes deeper than that – many layers deeper.

This is a man who loves his wine. And just as he approaches his life, his work, his art, so too he approaches his personal interests – with an unquenchable enthusiasm for exploration.

He talks about grapes, soil, colour, bouquet and palate. He talks about glassware, temperature and regions.

Don’t know something? Learn it.

You can’t just do that. Who says?

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???

His is a question mark of discovery. It is a tool to open up the world, mix things around, query the result and continue the journey.

On 11.11.11, he opened his third painting solo, The Unum. The colours are inspired by the Malaysian flag and his work contemplates ideas and objects he sees as uniquely Malaysian.

In his statement at the exhibition, he writes: “I paint as an explorer. I disappear into the unknown and dig for what will reveal itself: new images, new relationships, and new ways of moving paint. Scraping, scratching, wiping, adding and subtracting. Inviting drips, stains, layering, and even accidents…’

He works around his theme, rearranging ideas, interpreting and reinterpreting. The many intricate components are eventually fused, layered and reassembled on a canvas.

More exploring, more uncovering. He works the canvas again.

Every one of the 12 paintings started life looking completely different. They grew, they tried on various personalities. They matured into the work that is The Nuntius.

‘Nuntius’. The Latin for ‘announcing’, ‘bringing word’. Depending on context, it is also interpreted as ‘messenger’.

The 12 paintings are inspired by the 12 apostles, envoys who were mandated to bring a message to those around them.

As ever, it is humanity that is emphasised.

The Nuntius collection is rendered as a suit of playing cards.

Every card is different, as was every apostle.

His phone holds a bank of photographs. In between the candour and warmth of family snapshots, there are pictures of a decayed building, a peeling wall. They look as if they were taken by accident, a touchscreen camera-phone gone rogue.

There were several fishermen. There was a tax collector, reviled as all tax collectors were in that age.

They are, in fact, it is the architect’s eye melding with the painter’s sensibility.

Some had quick tempers. Others battled greed and fear.

These photographs capture some of the textures, colours and forms that he has drawn on for this show, The Nuntius. He absorbs their message artistically and intellectually.

All were flawed.

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For some, there is no trace of what they did or how society regarded them.

And it is precisely because of this that people were able to relate to them and pay attention to the message.

It does not stop there with The Nuntius collection. Just as each canvas is composed of several physical layers, the work is also open to layer after layer of interpretation.

Playing cards. The cards life has dealt you?

A full pack is made up of 52 cards.

Each suit has 13 cards. But there are only 12 paintings.

What’s next?

?

“No man ever steps into the same river twice, for it is not the same river and he is not the same man.” – Heraclitus, 544-483 BC.

Where is the thirteenth?

Who or what is it meant to represent?

God, who is omnipresent and need not be embodied in a canvas?

The viewers, as we explore the paintings and work out how we connect to them?

The artist, who has, in leaving the thirteenth unnamed and unseen, gifted us with the perpetual question mark?

If there is one clear message from The Nuntius it is this: explore, discover, ask questions, try, try again and then explore some more.

It urges us to seek our own paths. And it inspires the boldness we need to take that first step.

These past four years are a fragment of his own journey. He has done what he set out to do.

He has produced 42 paintings for four solos.

He has enjoyed the expedition immensely.

This is his last show, the last time he paints for the public. But the journey continues.

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Simon / 6 x 6 feet / acrylic on linen / 2012 45

Matthew / 6 x 6 feet / acrylic on linen / 2012 46

Peter / 6 x 6 feet / acrylic on linen / 2012 47

James / 6 x 6 feet / acrylic on linen / 2012 48

Andrew / 6 x 6 feet / acrylic on linen / 2012 49

Thomas / 6 x 6 feet / acrylic on linen / 2012 50

James 2.0 / 6 x 6 feet / acrylic on linen / 2012 51

John / 6 x 6 feet / acrylic on linen / 2012 52

Judas Iscariot / 6 x 6 feet / acrylic on linen / 2012 53

Bartholomew / 6 x 6 feet / acrylic & oil on linen / 2012 54

Philip / 6 x 6 feet / acrylic on linen / 2012 55

Thaddeus / 6 x 6 feet / acrylic on linen / 2012 56

The thematic titles for these works are a mind guide that I use as an ordering device to organize my thoughts as I contempt the art works that I make. It allows me a connection to the tactile via the readings that inform the work. The 12 apostles have inspired these works; their lives, their work, their message and the way were martyred. As such, each painting has been given a name after one of the twelve.

These works have been layered, reversed, cut up, reassembled, stitched, and treated over the period of the making. Some of these paintings were started in light, and have ended in darkness. Others were reversed from dark to light. images below; progression of Thaddeus, Indra Studio SS2

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Acknowledgements: thank you Jesus for your apostles and for the message that they bring. HRH Raja Nazrin for making the time to graciously open the show. My dearest family and friends and collectors for believing in me all these years. Suherwan Abu, thanks for trusting me. The team at TAKSU for organizing everything. The incredibly talented Jeffrey Lim of STUDIO 25 who has been a joy to work with. Sharon Nelson for a poetic interpretation of the question mark, beautifully written piece! My partner Jan van Schaik , thank you for your opening remarks. Martin Menon for your influence. Hugh Robert for your advise, direction and encouragement for this show and throughout this year. Manju and Datin Seri Bettina Khan and team for advising and preparing the wonderful food. Cikgu Sabri Idrus for challenging and pushing me to step out and then guiding be back in. Khairul my tireless and ever obliging studio assistant for all your hard work. Azrina Arshard for allowing me to stay on at the studio to finish the works. Rafidah Sidek and the great team at iPartnership.

Indra Ramanathan’s forth solo exhibition The Nuntius was held at gallery TAKSU from the 12.12.12 - 21.12.12Â

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TAKSU is a leading contemporary art gallery and specialist in Southeast Asia.

Representing selection 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

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THE NUNTIUS INDRA RAMANATHAN

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