Article published for REVUE1, Dept of Architecture and Planning UITM, 2002.
Written in 2001 mid-way through the year long Rimbun Dahan Artist Residency Program, Kuang, Selangor, Malaysia
enlarge his notion of art
The opportunity to study overseas prior to continuing my professional architectural degree at UiTM (1999-2000) has taught me to appreciate some of the difficulties that local designers have to go through in order to convey their ideas as well as for it to be accepted. Therefore, a chance to be able to meet a well-known and established architect is always an encounter that is filled with anxiety and enthusiasm after having studied some of their works over the past few years. Incidentally, for a recent graduate architect to be able to live within the compound of one of Malaysia’s distinguished designer such as Hijjas Kasturi, is a whole different story. The home of renowned architect Hijjas Kasturi and Angela Hijjas is the place where I will be spending my whole year of 2001, as an artist under the Rimbun Dahan Artist-in-Residence Program.
Evidently, architecture and art are difficult to separate even though both may be different. From another perspective, both are indeed similar and could even be one in the same. In a nutshell, architecture is more or less about doing something for someone else, and the process is structured towards achieving a hermeneutically sound understanding in conceiving a balance between the various factors that makes up built environment. In this respect, I somehow feel the architectural course that I have been committed to these past few years have slowly detached myself from the more conventional artistic expression that I have been accustomed to.
The decision to apply for the residency came about during my final year at UiTM. Like most of the students in my class, the potential to graduate without any ‘glitch’ was deemed as rather slim for some obscure reason. Loosely speaking, the intention for the application was to safeguard against the threatening possibility of failure to complete the course at UiTM. Thus, a year to ‘recuperate’ at a place like Rimbun Dahan seems more appealing instead of repeating the course without a break or worse still, going off for part-time work.
At the time, morale among members of the group was low and having been called back to Malaysia after completing our ‘part-one’ overseas did not make things easier. Adjusting to a different learning system is a difficult process. The architectural course was like running a marathon without a clue as to how long the distance was supposed to be covered. In the end however, I managed to pull myself together in the nick of time and was one of the few lucky ones to have made it through alive. At about the same time, my application for the residency was accepted and my professional architectural career upon graduation was about to take a slight detour, at least for a while.
I feel there has always been a need to redefine the artistic collaboration in architecture, and vice-versa. Needless to say, studying architecture has fostered a way of thinking in establishing an approach to designing and form-making, that is perhaps different than if one was to pursue a course in fine arts for example. After having had to ‘put a hold’ on art for the past few years to concentrate on the architectural process, it was about time that I get back to creating what I want to create, even though I could do it for only a year. Rimbun Dahan, I feel is one of the few venues in Malaysia that allows me to accomplish what ever subconscious issues that needs to be dealt with as an artist, without ‘outside’ interference.
So far, Rimbun Dahan has indeed been a very pleasant and interesting experience. Despite is virtually remote location, the place regularly receive visits from the general public and various organizations, and this in turn is in keeping with one of its objectives which is to promote art and make it accessible to the masses. Project wise, the works that I have set out to do is yet to see the daylight despite having been here for almost half a year. Believe it or not, doing artwork is much more difficult than designing a high rise building. There’s no one around to report to or check up on your progress, or deadlines to meet apart from the year-end exhibition. Perhaps the difficulty lies in the highly personal nature of the project and therefore is more difficult to realize. Perhaps I am still adjusting to a totally different environment and the unaccustomed physics of acquiring and transmitting knowledge.
In retrospect, I have come to understand what it takes to become an architect in Malaysia, at least as a graduate architect who was partially shaped by UiTM. Unfortunately, I was a failure in many other respects, especially pertaining to the development of knowledge in general, and specifically my life-long interest in art. The course has indeed taken its toll on me personally as well as mentally and the past two years has been emotionally draining. Perhaps due to lack of personal time management and proper planning, the workload had left little room for other self-indulgent pursuits such as ‘non-architectural reading materials’ and the struggle to do art which for me, is an endeavor that requires a peace of mind an abundance of free-time in hand.
Fortunately, the Rimbun Dahan Residency Program is a timely attempt to further develop an interest that could possibly result in my work being a medium that bridges the highly technical aspect prevalent in architectural works, and the seemingly abstract representation of form more commonly associated to art. We live in a beautiful world but its obscurity is sinking the very soul of our benevolent intentions, and when ‘giving in’ becomes the only resistance we have to keep whatever aspirations afloat, then perhaps ‘something is wrong somewhere’…
For now, here I am, contained in my own world where time is at large, devoid of any contextual orientation, and ignorant of any wrongdoing. We must love and care for our work, simply because no one else will.
