Nowadays, almost every fine artists and craftsmen in Malaysia uses the word 'contemporary art' to describe their artworks. Sure, 'contemporary' is a pretty sweet candy, like a fondant topping on top of a regular looking cake, used to attract possible buyers and admirers. Liam Gillick, an influential art critic accused the word for having an excessive usefulness. You can say that it is in the same category as strong words like 'organic' or 'premium'. A marketing ploy. But, what is 'contemporary art' anyway? Why is it becoming such a strong and popular word to advertise almost everything? And why our collective believe that contemporary art is facing many problems in Malaysia? First, let’s have a look at the linguistic meaning of that word.
Artworks made by students of UiTM last year. In your opinion, which is more suitable to be given the classification of ‘contemporary art’?
The Confusion in the Meaning of the Word
In Oxford Dictionary, 'contemporary' means two or more objects or events that are occurring or has been at the same time. Or it can be used to describe things that are belonging to or occurring in the present. From the many usages of the word 'contemporary' in our community, I believe that the second meaning is closer to describe 'contemporary art'. So, there, from the linguistic meaning, it means an art that are produced today. Okay, so that means that every living artist have the right to use that word. But, linguistic meaning is just the tip of the iceberg in academic sense. The formalistic meaning made up all the submerged understanding.
In formalistic meaning, 'contemporary art' is art produced at the present period in time at least that is what Wikipedia tells me. Shelley Esaak, an expert in art history, thought that contemporary art is an art that cannot be classified into any 'movement' or mediums. In a sense, contemporary art is an art that is strongly connected to current day issues like feminism, multiculturalism, globalization, engineering, awareness, etc. It is a new form of art, more advanced than Modernism or Post-Modernism. It is a form of art that concentrates the value of storytelling capabilities to the max, breaking all traditional constraints of artistic mediums. That is why in a recent exhibition in the United States, you can see an artist instruct a living, breathing hobo to live, eat, and sleep in a certain gallery, and everyone rightfully call it 'contemporary art'.
Some might argue; Does it means that 'contemporary art' is a form of art that uses current issues as a subject matter? Or is it dealing with new media? Actually the term 'contemporary art' is pretty vague, even in the Western community. There are some groups that agreed with the first meaning (current issues) while others stick with the new media type. In Malaysia however, the problem is way bigger, and pretty nasty.
The Problems
If you look closely to the education system in Malaysia, you can see that art is one of those 'non-important' subjects. Students are advised (usually forced) to drop their God-given artistic talents or interest in favor of science and economy subjects so that they would grow into laboratory or office dwellers. Admit it; Malaysia is a huge human resource factory, meant to produce hardworking slaves for their bosses. (p.s. Malaysia is ranked among the worst nation to work as a common worker or employee. Even PRC ranked better.) This means that not everyone, even current up and coming artists, get enough art education to understand the importance of formalistic classification in art. What I remember in my days as a student in a certain university, many of my classmates would sleep their ass off during theory classes, and these people are the ones expected to be our next BMS or MEAA winners. During practical classes, some lecturers advise us not to make artworks that use new media, current issues, or making any controversies, because we are still students. They told us to stick to traditional methods of making artworks, good ol' acrylic/oil-on-canvas paintings, welded sculptures, silkscreen prints or they will call us "Dangkal" and extra classes, in the 7th semester. Only if we follow their advises and Godspeed, we'll graduate in time. So, these repressed people not knowing how to describe 'contemporary art' in a formalistic manner, uses the word so carelessly, and debating like keyboard warriors in blogs and Facebook, making our confusion towards 'contemporary art' to grow deeper.
Even among celeb artists, gallery owners, and collectors, many would not know about the true meaning of contemporary art. Artist’s uses the word contemporary art to attract galleries and those galleries uses the word to attract collectors and buyers, in turn, would buy the artworks because it is branded 'contemporary'. It is our God forsaken education all over again, consumerism rules, art is business and investment. Like grocery products nowadays, if you put 'organic' in its name, everyone would buy it. Don't take me wrong. I'm not saying that you should not make money using art. I'm saying that labeling outdated artworks and ideas using the word 'contemporary art' just to mark-up its price is wrong. This gave Malaysian art a bad image, and arguably one of the primary reasons why Tate, Guggenheim, and Saatchi galleries still afraid to set foot here.
Other constraints that limit our understandings and freedom to make contemporary art is the fear of bringing political, racial, and awareness issues into art. As you already know, bringing current issues in art is one of the most important aspects of contemporary art. However, the fear is not based on the education, political or religious system. Rather, it came from our society's stigma. Malaysian, even though we call ourselves a well behaved society, some would still throw a petrol bomb in front of a justice court when politics involved. Malaysian is strongly prone to 'melatah' behavior. This is exactly why Vincent Leong reveals his recent contemporary pieces in Singapore. Even though his artworks likely does not contain any racial or political slurs, the depiction of Malay rulers in artworks made by a Chinese artist is enough to trigger angry roars across Facebook, Twitter, and blogs (imagine if he's a Malay). Do not misunderstood, and do not make this article as an another flag, the freedom of speech IS wrong in our multicultural country and myself as a Muslim, there are limits imposed by Sharia in art but do not make it as an excuse to accuse strong articles or voices as racist, evil, or blasphemy. As long as our society 'melatah' like this, the future of contemporary art in Malaysia is dim.
One more problem in our lack of understanding in contemporary art is that we would try too hard to make our artworks to look like our Western idols'. Because many of us would take Western examples as an absolute mold to make contemporary art. You can see some of our local artists make artworks with uncanny resemblance to Monet's, Gauguin's, and van Gogh's styles. Unfortunately, many of our idols have their time long gone, what we merely copying are the idea and styles that are no longer contemporary to our own time. We have forgotten, many home-brewed artists managed to impress Western crowd with their Malaysian-styled contemporary art. Look at the late Syed Ahmad Jamal, Piya, Jeri, and Pak Leman's artworks. Many of their artworks (a contemporary of their respective times) gain significant influences among international art community. But why there are almost none of our current rows of artists managed to achieve the formers' height? Their secret would be their ability to blend their own originality and local identity into their artworks. This is actually; no secret at all because many of my own foreign friends who have connections to international galleries stated that they are looking for cultural exchange. Works by people who promote multicultural issues like Ai Weiwei would gain significant amount of admirers because of the issues and originality that he brings (Chinese culture into Western). Some would say that bringing traditional woodcarving into the world stage is 'idea lapok', very 'kampung'. But they didn't realize that traditional woodcarving might be a contemporary thing for the international community. Or perhaps, maybe they are too afraid to do so.
The lack of community involvement is one more reason why the problems relating to contemporary art are so difficult to be solved. This is actually not a Malaysian-exclusive problem however, as it is also a problem haunting the art communities in the West. Public opinion is important to keep art evolving and maturing. Involving the community in art is essential to help art grows in that community. After all, contemporary art requires current issues to be materialized. What is more appropriate than involving the community in art, right? But, the question is, what kind of public involvement that contemporary art needs? Some of my peers shout that we should involve the community into art scene but what they do is painting several back alleys with autistic subjects just to create a place for people to take selfie pictures. Yeah, "public involvements" (insert Aliens meme here). But, in my opinion through my experiences living in Japan for 6 weeks, an ideal public involvement in art would be having them to make art by them or get involved in a large scale environment art projects lead by full-fledged artists. Examples of such events are various ceramic murals made by townspeople lead by many collaborative lead artists across the Japanese town of Tokoname, and "Middle Fork" project in Seattle by lead sculptor John Grade and MadArt community. Back alley projects seem like a bad taste compared to these examples. You know, 'back alley projects', pun intended.
Examples of community-made public artworks and installations in Tokoname, Aichi, Japan
Finally, the last thing that imprisons contemporary art from understanding in Malaysia is conservatism. As everyone already knows, conservative and contemporary are like oil and water. Conservative movement is still very strong in Malaysia. This group rejects new thought while simultaneously yearning for progress. A car cannot move uphill without moving its tires. Hell, even on flat terrain it would be impossible. The reason for this rejection is, back to square one, the lack of understanding and knowledge of the formalistic term itself. Contemporary art, even though it is promoting the usage of new media and idea in artworks, does not mean that it reject traditional matters. Like I said before, woodcarving can still be a contemporary piece in an environment that is not familiar with it. For example, keris is a normal household item in Southeast Asia, but it is an object of novelty in other regions. In a sense, contemporary art can be used to promote traditional subjects. Other than geographical differences, contemporary art can still uses traditional matters, IF presented in a contemporary way. Issues will play a major part here. In that way, there is no need for conservatism to hold contemporary art off.
As a conclusion, contemporary art problems in Malaysia aren't related with its usage alone, but the lack of understanding to the general idea. Having a system that branded art as a failure would continue to be the biggest obstacle for everyone to understand the contemporary art. Egoistic behavior and endless debate among established and emerging artists add the oil to the fire. Having a society that would kill you if you speak something wrong publicly only make things worst. All this will limit the capability of anyone who wants to be a successful and fully realized contemporary artist. However, without the support from the community, this situation won't change, and the confusion will continue. Expect to see a 'contemporary art' exhibition of still-life paintings of apples and durians or figures of cubical old men in the future. In the end, for my own opinion, contemporary art is not an '-ism', nor a movement or school of thought. It is a challenge. A real challenge for any artist who want to stay relevant in this technological, easy-going world where people would rather enjoy the visual clarity rather than spending a couple of minutes bursting their rusty right hemisphere brain trying to find a meaning in a square.
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