Lecture 6

During the lecture class, Dr. Carmen brought us a guest speaker called Tan Zi Hao, he showed us his art pieces. By seeing his artwork, I realized that although most of the art pieces look ordinary but actually there are deep meaning contain in them.

I like the art piece called Endless Possibilities. He used the concept of "Satu Malaysia" and made it into rubber magnets from zero to nine. Each of the number has its own meaning. People can arrange the number as they want and it turns out to be other meaning. It shows we don't only have Satu Malaysia but Dua or Tiga Malaysia and so on. In the meantime, it means there are many possibilities in Malaysia, Malaysia may turns out to be a developed country soon. There are spaces for Malaysia to improve since Malaysia is still considered as a developing country. But first, the way of thinking of citizens has to change; no more racism and prejudices in order to make Malaysia a real "Satu Malaysia".

It was interesting when he talked about a performance art pieces titled Attempting Conflict : When I look at you. You look at them. But they see me. Instead of you. This art piece really impressed me a lot since I do not dare to do so. He dares to think big and differently and even make the ideas come true. By the way, what a kind lecturer he has, because the lecturer might lose patience and push him away since he blocks the eye contact between other students and him.

In the end of the class, he showed us a seashell and talked about the concept of "balance itself through imbalance". I think it is similar with the reality in our society. The powerful individuals maintain their power by stepping on the powerless individuals in order to show the society that they are more capable than others. If there are only powerful people in the society , then nothing can prove their abilities. Lastly, I admire his creativity as well as passion in doing art pieces without afraid of the police.

Malaysia art work

The history of dance is very spiritual. Meanwhile, dance can “tell” the story or send message through expression and movement within a space. It is not necessarily talk about the urban dance like hip hop or ballet. Like the short video Dr Carmen showed us during the lecture class.

I had no idea what are the actors doing initially. The only thing I know is they are classifying among themselves according to races. After listening to Dr Carmen explanation, I just realized the “Melayu” who are standing refers to highest level in community, “Cina” who are sitting refers to middle level while Indian who are lying on the floor is the lowest level since their population is lesser than the other two races. The interesting part is they do not know how to classify “Chilayu” whose parents are Chinese and Malay ethnics, and he is classified to be a “Melayu” in the end.

Also, I have learnt a new vocabulary, xenophobia which means intense or irrational dislike or fear of people who are not the same race as you. It is nothing to do with racism and discrimination. Just that, they like to be with their own ethnic group compared to other ethnics.

 

What is Malaysia art work?

To me, Malaysia art work is the art work created by Malaysian that contains the values which are in Malaysia based.

What significant event do you think should feature in Malaysia art work?

In my opinion, the events that involve all Malaysian or any meaningful events that did by Malaysian should feature in Malaysia art work. These somehow show the identity of Malaysia.

 Is it the responsibility of a Malaysian artist to create a Malaysia art work?

It is important to create Malaysia art work for the sake of not letting Malaysia art work to disappear in the future. However, I think that it is not a must that Malaysian artists have to create a Malaysia art work because creativity has no boundaries and there is no rule and limitation for that.