Form and Function

Prologue
Seriously we dont know what the future hold for us, our actions and decisions will lead us to.
Back in 1998, my sis told me that USM ( University Science Malaysia ) have an Art Faculty. Geez, an university have an art school? Seriously? Ok the problem is i didnt go to Form 6 - you need to pass Form 6 to enroll to a public university.
I declined the offer to be in Form 6 coz i hated school, the uniforms and all the related rules and regulation, i worked part time as lorry driver delivering furniture, a cook in KFC and helping out my pal's bakery shop.
The pay is good.
The logic of an 18 year old. My mom worried sick until today.
Back those days, we dont have any education fairs, my parents are the working blue collar class. Our school dont even have any solid info on guiding us to the future....so who cares right? The ones who enetered science stream have their future sorted out, while the arts stream is heading to the unknown.
Then my sis, an USM alumni, told me that the university have an Art Faculty.....
what? seriously? Art? School? They learn art?
I got scolded when i read more Spiderman and X-Men comic books than my school text books. I drew and painted whatever i wanted. For me, art is one of my many escape avenues. When i paint something, nobody in the family comment anything, we practically do what we like. 

There is no such thing as compliments exist in our family.....

one of my surviving high school drawings


So i told my sis, lets try it...we never know right?
The programme is called Sijil Seni Kreatif. Certificate of Arts, aimed for the ones who are interested and wanting to learn the "arts"
 

The Interview
Ok, here is the best part, the interview is in KL, i collected all of my shit secondary drawings and whatever that is related, fold it up unto a bag and try it out. Thought im the only one but i found out there is a long line of hopeful candidates too. 
The USM interview panel consists of Dr Najib Dawa and the late Samat Salleh. There are series of questions you need to answer verbally. Samat Salleh is the quiet ones, but the one who attacked me directly is Dr Najib.....as he flips through my drawings, one of the very important question he asked is

..........do you think you are GOOD?! 
 ( kau ingat kau BAGUS?! )

Samat ( rolling his rokok daun ) and Najib looked at me straight to the eye.

Total silence. In my mind, i said "say something "
I replied " if you guys take me into the programme - you will see how GOOD i am"
Dr Najib looked at Samat and Samat looked at Najib. 
Najib close my file of drawings and said.....................Hmmmph. 
The "Hmmmph" means "i'm screwed"

that's it, im not going to USM. In my heart, i asked who is this fellow and what sort of question is this? Just look at my portfolio. It is not good enough?

for months and months, then a letter came,USM accepted my application. Then in the first day, the guy who said HMMPPPHHHH happens to be Dr Najib - the Dean of the Fine Arts Faculty. 

Oh man............

 
i came up to him and told him - i will prove you my worth boss!

 

2018.
Now Dr Najib no longer serves in USM, he journeyed thru alot of places,yes called me up ( we have our usual NGOPI sessions ), even to the extend i went thru ASWARA ( which i havent heard ) to help him out and now i HAVE brought up and do a massive treatment of  his excellent old writings to conceive this exhibit.
why - his writings is good and relevant until today. 
Putting and reinventing age old visuals, touching wide perspectives of history, language, our basic needs, how space and most importantly tradition related to a place we called HOME.
This project was conceived continuously three years ago, cooked and culmination to this show. 


The basis of GOOD is not about showing how talented, how strong we are, its all about perspectives, celebrating, complement one another to build something. George Lucas didnt create Star Wars alone - he did with other crazy ass individuals.


And yes, we remain anonymous and we dont take any single credit for this.The most important people is the audience.

To all my long line of jedi's, you guys chosen in this project is due to the strength, talents and most importantly IS your ATTITUDE. This is the practice and lineage of being a jedi and a padawan.

 

Anastasia Liany and Patrick Kelana
 
 
 
So Yap Yi Ling, Teo Rui Rou, Aron Ng, Priska Patricia Rafel, Anastasia Liany and Nicholas Patrick Kelana, your contribution, time, effort means alot for me


Mind you - we will be heading to Bangkok soon to present this exhibit as a case study - hopefully to a wider audience. No matter where we head, live - in our heart, there will be one place we will call it HOME.
If im not in the gallery, means im deep inside the jungle, helping out INSAF logistics.
Say hello to us if you guys happen to catch us in the gallery ok.


related writings

https://theobservatoryanderson78.blogspot.com/2020/12/a-place-called-home-melting-pot.html 

https://theobservatoryanderson78.blogspot.com/2020/12/a-place-called-home-abc.html 

https://theobservatoryanderson78.blogspot.com/2020/12/a-place-called-home-from-oral-to.html 

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