Making of...
As promised, I'm sharing the process of my Malayan Tigers work and some extra details on each piece.
I drew my first draft of the idea for the four artworks on a piece of (digital) paper. The idea was to portray a series of some infamous characters of Malaysians each in their own unique form of a funny and weird looking tiger. I have never been a political satirist/artist but for this series I tried to drop some social critiques to the local demography. The series was presented in a comedic tone where the cartoony tigers were painted in a light and silly disposition. Here in Malaysia, we tend to be proud of tiger as our national icon in its virtuous and exemplary nature, but when it comes to its vices and shortcomings we abruptly look the other way in denial. It’s always a taboo to address the brewing corruption and societal decay in an open discussion. Hence the reason why I played around with the tigers’ anatomy to the point of them looking ridiculously distorted but at the same time keeping most of the aesthetic and realistic values intact.
I rejected these two (below). I might use them later to continue this series in the future.
1. The Broker
'The Broker' is the character of a person in power. The plain definition of this is, a powerful political figure who amass public’s support and trust with illusory and rhetorical sweet-talks about his country’s growth and development when in fact he’s in it for his own gain. A broker who will promise the world and moon for the hypothetical foreseen future without any real conviction to commit to it. A corrupt politician.
2. The Preacher
'The Preacher' is about religious mask-equipped characters dotting our community. This image suitably refers to the ministers of religion who think and talk on their high horses around other people. This piece also served as an indirect visual commentary to the recent trend of nose-in-the-air people criticizing and pointing fingers at strangers (specifically in social media) using religious polemic. This kind of people are afraid of being found out themselves and think they have the absolute right to judge other people as if they have never sin themselves.
3. The Recluse
The sheltered, or 'The Recluse' depicts the stigma of being a unsociable person and being left out in the progress of technology and time. The artwork is a portrayal of this sub-group of Malaysians who are oblivious or indifferent to the world around them. It is a literal personification of the Malay proverb “Ibarat katak di bawah tempurung” (“Like a hermit frog sheltered under a coconut shell”).
4. The Gossip
'The Gossip' is an agent of communal disintegration, a cancer. They are the typical characters who will insinuate the seeds of defamation between the cracks in any good foundation or establishment. Whatever comes out of their mouth will be toxic and poisonous. Their smear campaign through slanders and ill-spoken words will eventually severe the already shaky and paranoia-induced society. The result can be fatal to one victim of these heartless mis-informants or can easily topple a large institution to its downfall.
To encapsulate what I am trying to achieve here is that; is not to be hypocritically blame these category of people. Instead, we can all acknowledge and admit that they exist among us, or even closer than that. Then we can finally have a mindful discussion about the immediate problems in our hands and the necessary steps to be a forward-thinking and progressive generation.
Thank you.