Dear friends and colleagues
This was the third time I have been to Jai’s studio: I am curating a show of his opening 20th March so it is getting near the deadline!
I always enjoy going to his studio. It is like the traditional sort of painter’s studio you used to see more often – i.e. a bit messy. Maybe I like this because I’m inclined to be messy too: when I finish a piece of writing there is normally a slough of books piled on the floor, CD covers, old cups of coffee, scraps of paper rolled up and thrown aside in disgust.
Or maybe, more seriously, I like it because you can still see the traces of experimentation and ideas taking form scattered around and on the walls.
For the record the messiest studio I ever went into was that of the Scottish artist Steven Campbell, sadly no longer alive. The floor of his very large studio was like a bomb site: paint-smeared books and magazines, crumpled cigarette packets, newspapers, empty bottles scattered everywhere. In my memory the floor was literally covered with discarded things though as it is thirty years ago things may have become exaggerated in my mind.
You learn a lot in an artist’s studios – not just about how they make things but how they think and what they respond too. There is a pile of textiles in Jai’s studio: he uses them sometimes to paint on but I think he also likes having them there. He responds to materials.
In my innocence – given that I knew he worked on several paintings at once – I had expected to see maybe four paintings finished and another four en route. But none were finished. There were six large paintings with what you might call backgrounds on but in only one of them was the foreground motif or figure you expect actually present: a floating pig. Behind them were two paintings on fabric he didn’t want to show me yet.
This all made sense once we began talking. He starts by building a mood and a space. The two are synonymous here. Currently he is fascinated by industrial architecture and also fascinated by the overuse of the word “industry” in Malaysia. (I have experienced this too, often hearing here of the “art industry.”) Working as he always does with bitumen, in other recent exhibitions these sombre spaces become stages for scenarios that are sometimes enigmatic, sometimes allegorical. Like most Malaysian artists he is endlessly intrigued by the way things happen in his curious country. The only image yet floating – almost literally – is of a giant inflatable pig -nmuch like you see in American parades – think Ghostbusters.
But the intriguing painting for me is the anomalous one where the top half seems to be of, if not an actual gothic cathedral a Victorian gothick railway station – think St. Pancras. And it also looks like one of Piranesi’s carceri etchings – especially given the stairways that go up and down. So, these are internal architectures, as much states of mind as literal places. I am looking forward to seeing the finished works!
As this photo of him might suggest Jai (short for Jailani Abu Hassan) is an outgoing person, energetic and, by all accounts, a charismatic teacher. (Sadly, in this region, apart from him, very few major artists teach.) Since studying at the Slade in London he has become one of the best known artists in Malaysia.
That strange yellow light behind his head comes from his office – which is very neat, clean and, unlike his studio, has air conditioning.
It was good to get out of Singapore for a day. I don’t want to sound like a killjoy, but the relentless noise and jollity of the Chinese New Year, dragons weaving through the malls (well, people dressed as dragons), lorries with drummers drumming loudly, going up and down the streets, the uncles getting very drunk in the common area outside my apartment, leaves me cold.
Have a good Tuesday!
Tony
PS I should add re last week’s remarks that the critics/curators in Indonesia do visit the artist’s studios. I often bump into Enin Suprianto in the studios of Jogja and Agung Jennong (Hujatnikajennong) went to one artist’s studio every week for six months when curating his show. They have a different mentality.