StoryBot

On last Tuesday class, we learned about the four elements of analysis of art, which is describe, analyze, interpret and judge. However, as the assignment deadline are getting closer, my own procrastination has come back to haunt me. Because of that, I skipped an entry last week. For this week's entry, I will attempt to compress the lessons I learned in both week into one post in the form of me attempting to use the four element of analysis to analyze one of my favourite painting in our central bank's gallery, which is Hoessein Enas's Nafkah (1987). Describe Nafkah is Malay for sustenance. Usually, the term "mencari nafkah" is used to mean earning a living and it is exactly what was depicted in this painting. A group of fishermen pushing their boat out to the sea to catch fishes, to earn a living. Although the specific location for this picture remain unknown, but the depiction still rings true for all the rural Malay fishing village. In the background...

On this Tuesday's class, guest speaker Tan Zi Hao has come to our class to give a lecture about pushing the limit of speech. In his hour long lecture, he had shown us many of his artwork. Many of them are... interesting, to say the least. Picture credit: tanzihao.net However, there is one phenomenon he brought up that instantly get my attention, which is the relationship between language used to write for political discourse and the amount of attention the government pay to it. It is said that when a political discourse which is deemed unfavourable to the government is conducted in English, there will be less repercussion as compared to when the Malay language is used. The rationale behind this logic is that the government expected the English language speaking minority (where the opposition get most of their votes) to be urban, less conformist and more outspoken. But when similar discourse is done in Malay, the language rural folks (where the ruling party get most of their ...

On last Tuesday's class, we were asked two questions: What event is so significant that Malaysian artists should feature it in their artwork? Is it their responsibility to create a "Malaysian artwork"? This begs the question, what is a "Malaysian artwork" anyway? Is there a group of old men hidden somewhere within our government who meet everyday and try to determine what constitutes Malaysian artwork? If yes, then what are the rules and requirements? And most importantly, are the opinions of this bunch of old men valid? Should we care about what they think? Well, in my opinion, no, we shouldn't care about what they think, because by definition, MALAYSIAN artwork should be decided by all Malaysian, which is why we we call it Malaysian artwork and not government-approved artwork. But personally, my own definition of Malaysian artwork is simply any art form that is related to Malaysia. If there is one day when a Malaysian artist decides to draw t...