Art Scene in Malaysia

Diagram 1: Interior design of Penang China House placed gallery and market place on first floor, 
while cafe and theatre on ground floor.

Diagram 2: Interior of Penang Sekeping Victoria designed by Ng Seksan.

Penang is where we can obviously see government takes part in pushing art to public. The appears of street mural effectively attract tourists to visit the old heritage city. Private sectors are also a supportive back up for art environment in Penang, such as China House which was a redesigned traditional house, making into combination of gallery, cafe and theatre with excellent aesthetic taste. Similar to China House, Sekeping Victoria, a combination of hotel, cafe and event space in George Town that redesign from old building by the well-known architecture Ng Seksan is another place that innovate from Penang old heritage. Penang is such a town that preserve the traditional beauty yet they did not reject the new innovation. Accepting new idea is a wise choice to sustain the collective memory from past decades, and it is the most interesting point for tourist attraction because it shows the character of Malaysia. For Penang people that grow in rich art environment, are they more art educated?

How Art Exhibition can Contribute to Public

Art gallery is more saturated in Kuala Lumpur compared to other states in Malaysia, especially in fine arts. For instance, National Visual Arts Gallery is a place where shows government pay attention to Malaysian art education. It is constantly renovating following the changes of era. Art gallery is different to Penang's street art and cafe that people pass by or walk in everyday, for common people, art gallery is where visitors need to be serious, dress well and think deeply. The Art Expo Malaysia founder's original goal described from their official website is to "having an art fair to bring together some of the finest artworks from different parts of the world to Kuala Lumpur, for public viewing". He is hoping public to appreciate the collection that he brought in, so that it helps the growth of art industry in Malaysia. But does public really have the sense to appreciate them? 

Kuala Lumpur has numerous number of street art and cafe too, yet it has more art galleries and exhibitions. Datuk Vincent Sim paid so much amount of workloads to bring in the art pieces for public, does it make any difference to Kuala Lumpur? Or perhaps make any improvement for Malaysian visual art education? Or it just provide people to check-in on Instagram?

Is Organising Art Exhibition Effective in Public Art Education?

Art scene in Malaysia is growing together with the blooming of art and design market. The enthusiasts really create stuff and make it into a small scale business for just for sharing. It has became a trend among young people too. Besides, cafe that well designed also improved people's sense toward environment and atmosphere. It open a space for them to appreciate art, and then goes upward to fine art.

In appreciating art, the first layer is to see the presentation of art piece, then understand the meaning or content behind it. A person with born visual taste is able to recognise or feel the beauty of artwork's appearance, but the one without visual art sense need to learn it, not to mention analysing artwork's content that definitely require to think.

Malaysian need a proper art education in appreciating art that taken seriously, not just the Visual Art subject in primary or secondary school that sometimes "borrowed period" for other "more important" subjects.

Self-reflection

I have the ideas on this issue, now I need to find a theory to prove my thinking, content is probably about art education.

Biblography

National Art Gallery. (n.a.) Information of NVADB. [Online] Available at: 

http://www.artgallery.gov.my/?page_id=3744 (Accessed on 27 June 2017)

About Art Expo Malaysia Plus

I have decided to study on Art Expo Malaysia because of the reasons below:

1. My interest in fine art. I visited Art Expo last year, it had variety of visual art forms including sculpture, painting,  and some of the masterpieces gave me goosebumps.
2. It has long history of exhibiting since 2007. Besides, it has wide range of galleries and artists participating its exhibition. In the coming edition of this year, there will be 2,000 artworks showcasing from 30 countries. Therefore, I can study richer content from it compared to other exhibition that just started in recent years.

Art Expo Malaysia Plus Facebook Page cover about the upcoming event this year (Diagram 1). 

Art Expo Malaysia Plus Background

Art Expo Malaysia (AEM) is founded in 2007 by Datuk Vincent Sim Tiak Choo, an art philanthropist and art collector. His objective is to bring in the finest art pieces around the world for Malaysian public to have the chance in admiring the works. Soon his sons Sim Pojinn and Sim Polenn joined him and it lead to the change of AEM business model, and they corporate with medias from different country to attract galleries to participate the exhibition. Their strategies brought AEM to meet international art exhibition qualities and support the annual exhibition sustains until today (Art Expo Malaysia Plus, n.a.). Despite showcasing artworks to public, AEM is also known as a showcase for art collector to choose and purchase their favourite artworks. Art exhibition highlights the current trend in art collection field, said Sim Polenn, the project director (Toh, 2015). The exhibition reached its top sale record in 2014 which was RM20.1 mil (Goh, 2016). In 2015, AEM changed its name to Art Expo Malaysia Plus, "Plus" represent the upgraded art galleries selection, artist presentation and visitor experience.

The aim of Art Expo Malaysia Plus is divided into two main directions, one focus on selling art piece to art collectors, another is for public to get in touch with art. Both of it helps visual art industry to grow. Based on this, I listed topics for further research as below:

• Art scene in Malaysia
• Art exhibition management: Space arrangement, selecting art pieces
• Art exhibition as business and its finance matters

Vocabulary

Philanthropist
[noun] a person who seeks to promote the welfare of others, especially by the generous donation of money to good causes (Oxford Dictionary of English, 2016).

Reference

Art Expo Malaysia (n.a) ABOUT ART EXPO MALAYSIA PLUS. [Online] Available at:
http://artexpomalaysia.com/about/ (Accessed on 26 June 2017)

Goh, D. (2016) Art for all interests and budgets. The Star.  [Online] Available at:
http://www.star2.com/culture/arts/2016/10/20/art-expo-malaysia-plus-rounds-up-the-best-of-contemporary-art/ (Accessed on 26 June 2017)

Oxford Dictionary of English. (2016) Version 3.3. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Toh, T. (2015) Plus points for art. The Star. [Online] Available at:
https://www.pressreader.com/malaysia/the-star-malaysia-star2/20150906/281668253746291 (Accessed on 26 June 2017)

Diagram Source

Diagram1:
Art Expo Malaysia Plus. (2016) Cover photo. Facebook.  [Online] Available at:
https://www.facebook.com/163714023691418/photos/a.318730298189789.80339.163714023691418/1532397706823036/?type=1&theater (Accessed on 26 June 2017)

Exploration

1. Critically review a local art/ design exhibition in-depth. Discuss it in terms of its curatorial goals and exhibition design with related research.

Malaysia has many art and design exhibition, but not all are well-known by people. Below are the art/design exhibition that gave me strong impression:

Sasaran Art Festival was initially organised by two artists who wanted to create an art scene in Sasaran, a fishing village near Klang, Kuala Lumpur. Different than other art exhibitions held in high-end galleries, artworks for this festival are not only displayed in exhibition room, but also on the street, above the buildings, or parks in the village. Besides, Sasaran villagers also participated in creating artworks despite the professional artists. This is a art activity that aimed to teach people appreciate art and bring it into their life.

Urbanscape is an art exhibition targeted to youngsters in Malaysia, which they see it as a cool and hipster activity to do with friends. The objective is bring together the communities from field of music, art and design. It is supported by commercial brands. The art works not only reflect to society current issue and personal issue, it also includes experimental art such as lighting installation on Urbanscape 2017.

Art Expo Malaysia is large scale art exhibition that has a longest history in Southeast Asia. It is aimed to promote art in selling art piece and get people exposed to art.

I am going to research more on this question as I have most interest into it.

2. Compare and contrast the relationship of celebrities with their fans in two different creative communities. Which one is relatively more healthy in their connections?

Eminem the rapper had a stalker fans named Slim who wrote letters and threaten him that he will suicide if Eminem does not respond him. In the end he committed suicide after killing his pregnant girl friend. Eminem wrote a song title "Stan", a combination of word "stalker" and "fan" to talk about this incident and warn his fans that there has limit in worshiping idols. He wrote the song into dialogue form between him and Slim, the lyrics below are the letter that Slim sent to him:

Hey, Slim, that's my girlfriend screamin' in the trunk
But I didn't slit her throat, I just tied her up, see, I ain't like you
‘Cause if she suffocates she'll suffer more, and then she'll die too
Well, gotta go, I'm almost at the bridge now
Oh shit, I forgot, how am I supposed to send this shit out?!
(Eminem, 2000)

In contrast, there are many people was motivated by Eminem's music, such as his song "Not Afraid" that talked about him beating drug addict and "Mockingbird" that promising to give his daughter a good life. His music tells people that they are not alone in suffering struggle.


3. Examine the issue of cultural appropriation within a domain of beauty, fashion or music industry. Why are some communities cautious of, or against this practice?

Diagram 1: A fashion blogger dressed up in Thrasher Tee, brand of skateboarding monthly magazine.

Diagram 2: The skateboarders might think people who just wears Thrasher Tee are superficial.

Diagram 3: Rihanna in her and Coldplay's "Princess of China" music video.

When we talk about cultural appropriation, first issue that came into my mind is the skateboard enthusiates who accuse that people follow fashion trend blindly without knowing the rationale behind of the brand was originally about passion in skateboard. Besides, European music video or movie that   has Asian tradition culture element also did not use it well, such as redesign the traditional cloths into sexy appealing because it is cater to audience.

Skateboard community against this trend because skateboarders themselves are passionate and works hard to acquire the skills, they developed their own style to make themselves different with others. Therefore if somebody imitate them without understanding the real culture and idea, definitely they feel offended.


4. What are some issues and best practices for design in multilingual communities? Write from the perspective of either a graphic designer or interactive designer.

Graphic designer's mission is help products to communicate with public. In order to make consumer from different background to understand product message, designers from different country need to consider the most effective way to communicate in different cultural background. Malaysia is a good example of country practicing multilingual design due to its muti-cultural background. Malaysia product packaging comes in variation of language especially daily-consume product such as snacks and packaged drinks. Besides using literal language, sign as universal language is also effective no matter the audience is literate. Road sign is one of the good example of universal language.


5. Explore a variety of media is used within the context of branding or transmedia storytelling. Does variety dilute the effectiveness of an advertising campaign or story?

In branding campaign design, media used is separate into two categories which are Above the Line (ATL) and Below the Line (BTL). ATL is high-end media which costs more such as TV commercial and outdoor billboard, while BTL is refer to lower end media such as flyers and mall stand. These two categories is targeted to different audience so that branding campaign can reach the potential consumer from every angle in their daily life. It is a marketing strategy that designer should know and it can be used to approach this research question.



Reference

Eninem (2000) Stan. In: The Marshall Mathers LP. Interscope Records.

Diagram Source

Diagram 1
Man, C. (2016) THE NEW TREND IN EVERY COOL GIRL’S CLOSET : THRASHER TEE. Duo Gigs. [Online] Available at: http://www.duogigs.com/2016/09/the-new-trend-in-every-cool-girls.html

Diagram 2
Meme Maker. (NA) [Online] THRASHER MAG T-SHIRT? TELL ME AT LEAST 1 THING U KNOW ABOUT SKATEBOARDING [Online] Available at: https://www.mememaker.net/meme/thrasher-mag-t-shirt-tell-me-at-least-1-thing-u-know-about-skateboarding/

Diagram 3
Nika, C. (2012) Inside the Style of Rihanna and Coldplay's 'Princess of China' Video. Rolling Stone. [Online] Available at: http://www.rollingstone.com/culture/news/inside-the-style-of-rihanna-and-coldplays-princess-of-china-video-20120823