In an era dominated by art museum gimmicks and digital art spectacles, it is no small feat to present a back-to-basics exhibition that explores drawing as a finished art form.
However, Ilham Gallery in Kuala Lumpur has embraced the challenge and put together an accessible, artistic, and thoughtful show titled Titik Garis Bentuk (Drawing As Practice). It is the gallery’s first medium-based show, running through Aug 30.
The exhibition, featuring 27 artists, includes colourful sketchbook illustrations of traditional Kelantanese recipes linked to a grandmother’s kitchen and ancient Langkasuka, a brutalist stencil art installation depicting life in low-cost apartment buildings, haunting charcoal drawings capturing decaying “cungkup” (graveyard) structures in East Java, and a miniature paper cut-out installation depicting busy street scenes near a warehouse in KL’s Old Klang Road.
Visitors at Ilham Gallery stop to view Jailani Abu Hassan’s ‘Bomoh Hujan’ (charcoal, bitumen, ink and pastel on paper, 2004). Photo: The Star/Shaari Chemat
Most of the exhibits were loaned from private and artist collections, while there are a handful of young artists showing for the first time at Ilham Gallery.
“In the myriad ways art permeates public spaces today in Kuala Lumpur, we’re pleased to see a diverse audience drawn to our latest exhibition, particularly young individuals eager to explore the drawing medium and its significance in contemporary Malaysian art,” says Rahel Joseph, Ilham gallery director and head of the curatorial team.
Titik Garis Bentuk, as Ilham Gallery’s first major show of the year, draws hundreds of art enthusiasts on weekends, with weekday attendance figures also showing respectable numbers.
A view of Novia Shin’s ‘Disitu Gudang Yee Seng’ (watercolour on paper cut-out, 2021) at the exhibition ‘Titik Garis Bentuk’ at Ilham Gallery in Kuala Lumpur. Photo: The Star/Shaari Chemat
“When finalising the list of artists and works for the exhibition, we knew that we wanted to show a diverse range of practices, from figuration and landscape to architectural drawings, minimalism, and drawing as a meditative practice,” she adds.
The curatorial approach for Titik Garis Bentuk was intentionally expansive, aiming to avoid confining the exhibition to traditional notions of drawing. Instead, the gallery sought to spotlight the varied approaches Malaysian artists take towards drawing, encompassing everything from animation and gaming software to unconventional mediums like cement and embroidery.
Though the exhibition leans towards contemporary directions, it also provides an insight into art materials essential for initiating and enhancing drawing skills. Each exhibit details the artist’s choice medium, with a short essay.
In Hasanul Isryaf Idris’ ‘Valley’ pandemic series (2021), he depicts a dream-like universe where strange hybrid peacocks and exotic birds roam, policed by an army of virus-battling cats armed with thermometer guns. Photo: The Star/Shaari Chemat
The basics for starting drawing are straightforward: a marking tool and a sheet of paper. For many, this journey begins with pencils and paper, later expanding to include mediums like charcoal, ink and more.
Titik Garis Bentuk traces its timeline from the early 1990s to the present day, featuring a pivotal drawing by Wong Hoy Cheong. Positioned prominently at the gallery entrance, this charcoal study portrays the artist’s grandmother, captivating visitors with its poignant presence.
“When planning the layout of the exhibition, we wanted the first point of encounter to be (Wong) Hoy Cheong’s charcoal study of his rubber tapper grandmother. This study was first seen in Of Migrants & Rubber Trees, a seminal exhibition of drawings and installations which was held at the National Art Gallery (in KL) in 1993.
A peephole view of architects Khairul Hiffni and Shamin Sahrum’s installation called ‘Anatomi Kaki Persegi’. This piece combines stencil drawings on cement blocks to prompt viewers to envision public spaces in low-cost flats. Photo: The Star/Ong Soon Hin
“This body of work – arguably, one of the most ambitious in the history of Malaysian contemporary art – uses the very personal story of the artist’s Chinese immigrant family to tell the larger Malaysian story of migration, race, class, and displacement. Here, drawing is used to not only document history, but to imagine it,” says Rahel.
For those new to Malaysian art, this exhibition also serves as a gateway to explore various drawing styles intricately intertwined with notions of nationhood, homeland, and belonging. From the biggest to the smallest displays in the Ilham Gallery Level 5 hall, each exhibit tells a captivating story, spanning from the nation’s complex multicultural reality to vivid (sometimes vanishing) landscapes.
Ahmad Zakii Anwar’s Orang Perempuan (Women) charcoal art series, located at the heart of the exhibition (aka Insta corner), represents the modern day Malaysia, with titles of each drawing alluding to their racial identity (Perempuan Melayu, Perempuan India).
A view of Sarawakian-born artist Paul Nickson Atia’s ‘Counting Silence, Filling Space, Weaving Conversation’ series, where he blurs the boundaries between architectural, artistic, and cultural worlds. Photo: The Star/Shaari Chemat
“In these hyper-realist drawings, which generate quasi-photographic effects, Zakii has elevated the status of these everyday women by monumentalising them in these life-sized portraits. His works assert the power of portraits, in that they allow us to really look at each other and in doing so, at ourselves,” says Rahel.
If you have a magnifying glass handy, bring it along to the exhibition. In Novia Shin’s Lilliputian installation, she uses a comic book aesthetic to present the social history around an industrial hub in Kuala Lumpur.
“Through her highly detailed drawings, she has illustrated the daily lives of residents, business owners, and workers whose families have been living in the area for generations: many are the grandchildren and great grandchildren of those early migrants,” says Rahel.
Visitors pause to admire Khairudin Zainudin’s ‘Paradox In Tranquil’ series (2019), showcasing the artist’s sketches of his native Kota Baru in Kelantan meticulously recorded in travel notebooks. Photo: The Star/Shaari Chemat
At the exhibition, visitors can explore drawing’s common use in portraying landscapes, while also addressing environmental concerns and other themes. This encompasses cataloguing local botanical knowledge, food history, disappearing languages, personal narratives, and cultural sketches, while also showcasing the therapeutic and minimalist aspects of the medium.
Drawing also serves as a crucial tool for accessing memory, with the introspective portions of the Titik Garis Bentuk exhibition providing viewers with an opportunity to ponder both art and existence.
In Chang Yoong Chia’s ongoing installation (since 2002), Quilt Of The Dead, designed to commemorate and honour the departed, he intricately embroiders hundreds of portraits onto pieces of cotton by freehand.
A visitor strolls by Chang Yoong Chia’s ‘Quilt Of The Dead’, an ongoing installation project (since 2002) engaging with the public on the topics of death and the essence of life. Photo: The Star/Shaari Chemat
In a darkened corner of the exhibition, Quarry, Hasanul Isyraf Idris’s drawing-based installation, resembles a graphite hill crafted from sheets of paper coloured with graphite sticks.
In this Covid-era work by the artist, the paper gains tangible texture as numerous layers of graphite are applied, shifting its role from a passive surface to an active contributor in shaping the artwork.
Through Quarry, Hasanul pays tribute to his father’s life by immortalising the granite quarry where he once worked as a security guard.
“The exhibition shows us how contemporary artists are using the power of the drawn line to map our natural and built environments, to document our histories and cultural realities and to tell stories, both real and imagined,” concludes Rahel.
Titik Garis Bentuk (Drawing As Practice) is showing at Ilham Gallery in Kuala Lumpur until Aug 30. Open: Tuesday to Saturday, 11am-7pm, Sunday, 11am-5pm. Closed on Mondays and public holidays. Free admission.
This article was first published in StarLifestyle on May 14, 2024