Raison d’être

Nothing interesting happened lately that I can write about. Well, there are, but I can’t put it here This is a real essay. If you can finish reading it, kudos to you

On one fine Saturday afternoon, my friends and I went to the National Art Gallery in Kuala Lumpur for the first time in our lives. We were there for our Media Aesthetics assignment – Subjective Analysis of Art; which objectives are for us to appreciate a visual experience of an exhibited works by artists, understanding their aesthetic values and to foster critical and analytical skills in appraising art. As we were walking around and scouting for hundreds of artwork to choose from, two gigantic drawings of elephants caught my eyes.

The elephant on the left was depicted from the side, while the other one was from the front view. The title for this piece is “Confrontation – Power” by the artist Ahmad Zuraimi Abdul Rahim. Upon coming closer, I realized that the left ‘elephant’ was not really drawn or painted. It is actually created by using a piece of metal that was torched and carved carefully to create the artistic lines and patterns that made the elephant. The details on this piece of metal is amazing. I cannot imagine how many hours the artist took to instill the realism of the elephant texture through a simple piece of metal. It come out so lively that from far it really looks like a real elephant (the color of the metal helps, too).

On the right is yet another elephant, but this one is painted using mixed materials on a piece of canvas. It is the same size as the metal one, but it was given a light wooden color instead of silver and black color of torched metal. This front-facing elephant shares the same detail work of art performed by the artist. Every lines, shapes etcetera were realistically and beautifully drawn and painted to portray the giant mammal. The brown color that the artist gave to this piece of art contributes to the ‘warm’ feeling to the painting, in contrast to the ‘cold’ feeling depicted by the metal elephant.

A glance at the huge ‘drawings’, one can immediately feel the supremacy of the largest mammal on earth. The scale of this piece of artwork is very large indeed – suitable with the subject matter – elephants. Imagine if the artist uses a 5×4″ canvas instead of the 12×10″; the superiority of the subject will visibly be ‘buried’ down. The proportion of the two elephants toward each other is in real ratio. The two are obviously intended to be depicted in the same situation – they are meeting head-on in a battlefield, fighting for power.

In terms of unity, the two elephants show a very strong sense of harmony – even though they are fashioned and portrayed in different materials and positions. For example, the metal elephant looks as if it is watching the right one and created the appearance of oneness. The pose of the drawn elephant is not directly towards the front; instead, it is slightly turning towards the left elephant. Together, they create a balance in this artwork. In terms of variety, the difference of materials and techniques effectively show their diversity. Although they are the same size, somehow they look like two very distinguished elephants because of these differences.

Throughout my further observation, I think that Ahmad Zuraimi Abdul Rahim emphasized on the subject matter’s strength or power. The title of the artwork itself – “Confrontation – Power” also supports this. Take a look at the composition of the piece; everything here means business. The two are ‘shot’ very tightly, over spilling the frames themselves to show the colossal influence that comes out from the elephants. It is very clear that the artist wanted the audience to focus directly on the size of the mammals – hence, its strength. There is no fancy or distracting background to keep the audiences focus from wandering off the subject matter itself.

As I study the artwork more and more, I sense the repetition and rhythm in the texture details of the elephants. The strokes used by the artist is almost similar for the whole piece. We can see the example of this on the trunk of the elephants. Notice how the same techniques and strokes are applied creating some sort of pattern that made the trunks’ texture. The same goes for the carvings and torching on the metal elephant. The repetition and rhythmic strokes also add on the harmony of the artwork as it blends the two different elephants into a unity.

About the story or the significance of this artwork, in my personal opinion it is about what the title says – confrontation of power. Two male elephants, like any other wild beasts fighting for power, needs, vicinity, and breeding opportunities. In a deeper sense, it may also illustrate the slice of human life where power is something that is sought after by everybody. The era we live today is the era where those who are in power will try to stay in control while those who seek it will do anything to be in power.

That’s about all that I can say about the remarkable piece of artwork by artist Ahmad Zuraimi Abdul Rahim. Standing unquestioningly in the gallery, generously leaving itself open to the audience to scrutinize and understand the aesthetic values and meaning behind it, “Confrontation-Power” surprisingly taught me a lot about art appreciation.

** end of essay **

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