Growing up as an 80’s kid does have it’s up and downs. We’re tuned in to the television as our parents are busy with office work or housework in the background. Probably many children of this generation could remember religiously waking up early to catch their first favourite cartoon in the morning and also taking a break playing their favourite outdoor game in the afternoon to catch with another popular cartoon on the telly. These cartoons, which have influences from American as well as Japanese pop culture definitely have influenced our resident artist, Azam, as an artist.
As Azam and many peers his age gone through, things probably did or didn’t get any simpler with the emergence of Internet, pop rock music, downloadables, funky gadgets as well as online social networks, like Friendster, MySpace and the latest craze, Facebook. We’ve grown distinctly different than other Malaysians some time before; now information is just a click away, regardless if it’s valid or invalid, friends are easier to be reached and called with a press of a button on our mobile phone but we could count real and sincere friendship with our fingers, or less. Maybe it is the faceless screen we’ve grown so accustomed to that we didn’t realize that it’s the machines that really have become our friend instead of the real person on the other side of the screen and that things are just virtual, as virtual-like as a checked chest board stage, a fantasy theatre and realm.
Azam has depicted these stages and theatres in his paintings with surrealistic mood, vibrant splashes of paint and colour that makes the eye immediately drawn to it, as how fashion billboards and adverts quickly influences us to look. The faceless woman and man never mattered but the brand tags on their clothes or shoes. What are they wearing? Is our life going to be better once we purchased them? Or in some of Azam’s art pieces, who is the spectacle and who is the spectator? Are we really looking at ourselves as we look into the decorated podium on the artist’s canvas?
The development of the current culture is so unique since as Malaysians, we still have traces of traditional customs, beliefs as well as festivals celebrated in our modern urban way of life. The new could be looked as a threat to tradition and the old could be looked as obsolete to the young generation. It is when the two met in the middle, culture shock could happen and from there, there are questions and thoughts we could ponder at. The artist chooses to leave these questions discussed among ourselves. Azam have unveil an actual arena with us as the society portrayed which identity are mixed with the positive and negative, the traditional and modern, the east and the west, the good and bad.
Artwork
Uselessly
mixed media on canvas
197 x 132cm
2008
FLOAT
mixed media on canvas
182 x 130cm
2008
Patient
mixed media on canvas
132 x 100cm
2008
Study no.3
mixed media on canvas
56 x 55cm
2008
Just Drop
mixed media on canvas 130 x 88cm
2008
Stand up Comedy
mixed media on canvas
129 x 100cm
2008
mixed media on canvas
152 x 127cm
2008
Drama
mixed media on canvas
152 x 127cm
2008
Study no.1
Acrylic on canvas
67 x 94cm
2008
First Meal of the Day
mixed media on canvas
129 x 74cm
2008
Rest While Searching the Answer
mixed media on canvas
130 x 88cm
2008
Street Panorama
mixed media on canvas
100 x 129cm
2008
The Greatest Smoker
mixed media on canvas
100 x 129cm
2008
Sesal Kerana Menyesal
mixed media on canvas
132 x 94cm
2008
Cermin Oh Cermin
mixed media on canvas
187 x 132cm
2008
Still Floating
mixed media on canvas
132 x 100cm
2008
Pay Respect
mixed media on canvas
132 x 100cm
2008
Fake Warrior
mixed media on canvas
127 x 127cm
2008
Dipeduli Kerana Peduli
mixed media on canvas
132 x 100cm
2008
Look up the Sky Till Morning
mixed media on canvas
132 x 100cm
2008
Get Se t ...Go
mixed media on canvas
132 x 100cm
2008
Salahkan Tanah
mixed media on canvas
132 x 100cm
2008
When The Sun Goes Down
mixed media on canvas
129 x 100cm
2008
Study no.2
mixed media on canvas
62 x 55cm
2008
Opening night
