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The works you are viewing right now are from the series called THANK YOU FOR THE LESSONS YOU HAVE TAUGHT ME. It was inspired by the accumulation of personal experiences taken since my return to Seri Iskandar about three years ago, especially through ongoing communication with former art teachers, artist friends, senior artists, collectors and gallerists whom I met at various events and events, both in physical and virtual world.
The discussion generally revolves around art and life as an artist, both related to artistic ideas, issues of survival, social relations in art, artistic values, art strategy, future planning, family relationships, material challenges and so on. This dialogue is often conveyed through advice, hints or even warnings about how art must be responded to and internalized in everyday life.
For me, all of this is street knowledge that is really valuable and has the same value as the formal knowledge that I get from reading books. The difference is, it rarely touches on technical issues and skills from a creative point of view but tends to teach me about artistic life as a whole. There I realized that as an artist, you never know enough, and you never know too much. In short, life is about a learning process that has no end.
All the advice, hints and warnings are opened and rewrapped through the visual composition of my body in various poses together with various objects (nature / man-made) to represent again my response to some informal lessons that have been given to me. The transition from spoken to visual language is done freely and with a little touch of imagination so that it evokes the sense of humor, lonely and sometimes even spine-chilling. Those are my subjective feelings when the dialogues took place.
I then painted these visual images on the surface of a corrugated board which was mounted on a black frame-like board which was produced using a paper casting technique. For me, frame is not merely to beautify a work of art but also a form of our personal appreciation for something that we own and have value to us. The grumbling surface which is finish by using flat black color is none other than a reflection of the road surface and represents street knowledge which is the frame of my current artistic thinking.
Therefore, the collection of works from this series is a form of my appreciation and gratitude to those who have taught me about life as an artist.
Thank you for the lessons you have taught me.
Issarezal Ismail
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Issarezal Ismail – Thank You for The Lessons You Have Taught Me
by Falil Johari
Some quick, cursory research about the phrase Thank You for The Lessons You Have Taught Me on the internet would inevitably lead you to several lists of blogging websites that more or less, proposed a number of things that the authors are thankful for due to a certain important figure in their lives. Deeper clicks and searches and you will find those that press on such figures being symbolical, such as a turbulence past, an inanimate object, or even an obscure philosophical anecdote in an attempt to revive some relevance to perhaps, a thought-provoking premise on why one faces such polarising adversity in one’s life, acquitting the balance that life should have offered.
The ‘lessons’, construed usually as something prominent in the shifts and transformations of one’s life, are not something so foreign that it eludes reality. Lessons are meant to essentially ground us. When Issarezal and I first had a meeting, I was under a specific impression of a life that he must have led to be where he is now. As we talked in depth, my impression skewed to the point that I had to reorganise my thoughts and as it so happens, ironically, started to feel like a ‘lesson’ learned. I deduced that Issarezal does not practice as an artist to simply become an artist.
In the many life stories that he had shared, he has only one specific concern that he carries with him, without fail, in his works – that he has a lot to be grateful for. Learning about his career path would enlighten the audience to understand that he had contributed several artworks during an era of rising political issues, amassing critical global conflicts as inexhaustible topics, gaining conscience on the spirit of youth that could have cowered the weak-willed and sheep-herded minds. “I have no regrets – but maybe some”, I recalled him saying while stirring his coffee calmly.
He had experienced distressing and ill-fated circumstances when he graduated, proposing works that pushed on the harsh narratives that the world was facing at the time. Was it a commentary? Was he debating? Several years passed by and the world with its innate, intricate issues, considerably subsided (although never really disappears) – and so did Issarezal when he began to tire of these unending, disruptive events. The years of his taking the impromptu decision to pursue further education in Indonesia and then back to Malaysia have, in return, made him a contemplative person. What he had done in his artworks up until then was merely a fraction of reaction and response to navigate and obliging life’s course and what it has to bestow.
We should jog back our memories on his past solo exhibition in 2021 at HOM Art Trans, WAKE ME UP WHEN IT’S ALL OVER, where he had expressed immense gratitude for being able to leave a dire circumstance when he was offered a new position as a lecturer in UiTM, Seri Iskandar, Perak during a global pandemic. It had read like a simple worry of a man afraid of being unable to ‘wake up’ to this reality, if not for the visual concoctions that incurred the immeasurable depths of his solicitude. His main medium of corrugated cardboard to paint on was an object of a ‘lesson’ that he had economically utilised when he had no penny left to his name, and so did the realistic yet minimal approach of small but penetrating paintings.
He made mentions of his beloved wife, a recurring subject of a woman in a yellow jacket in his paintings, as the one closest to him despite the distance in separation and that she has faced hardships which, to this day, have felt unfathomable to him. Only by trudging through certain plights with her and circling back to its root cause has made the artist realised that what are these ‘lessons’ if not for them to be profoundly thankful? ‘Lessons’ here, for Issarezal, are not only recognised through verbal conceptions but also as instruction that should bestown through physical acts by changing one’s situation.
Thank You for The Lessons You Have Taught Me does not signify a particular belief that he had lost due to coursing through life’s hardships and tribulations, but beliefs that he had gathered undeceivable clarity to be in continuous gratitude to the occurrences followed by the environments that have made him mature by acknowledging those who have inadvertently helped him to be where he is now.
His artworks are direct references to conversations that he had with his peers; some of whom are teachers, fellow artists, gallerists, and collectors. In a quick explanation about specific lessons, he adamantly emphasised how it does not matter who had given him advice, either young or old, but that he will secure it in his mind as important guidance. The elaborate themes of his visuals are potent enough if we were able to translate them into novel-length literature – the resonance to which he placed himself as the character that ‘disturbs’ or ‘disrupts’ the subjects in his immediate surroundings is telling of how he connects his conclusions of these advises that was given, although he admitted that sometimes he had difficulty in processing it yet.
Issarezal’s approach to self-expression distinctly depicts the symbolic relationships that he treasures regardless of how long he knows them. The black frames are made to resemble the tarmacadam (road tarmac), meant as a metaphor for the advice or knowledge that he has gained from the streets and by having conversations with the people – appropriately described as ‘street-knowledge’ – throughout his life. In a way, it is the raw honesty of such experiences that has moulded his worldview as a person who happens to walk on an artistic path to convey his expanding perceptions. Does he truly need to consider the far-reaching world with its deep-rooted rebelliousness and incessant issues as he always knew it and forsake confronting the world that is closest and dearest to him?
While the pieces in this solo exhibition are intentionally divulged on self-reflection and introspection that leads him to his current artistic journey, it does feel pertinent for the artist to recount the days when he was also at the mercy and fate of the circumstances – as only through remembrance of the lessons that allow him to travel through a glimpse of the future.
Despite the all-encompassing will of the artist to display his skill and brilliance in poetic visuals, there lies inside only a man that faces life – consequently, along with the innumerable guidance he has received – for what it has to offer and is eternally thankful for it.
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Never be afraid to try before the age of 45 II
Acrylic on corrugated board mounted on paper
casting frame with acrylic box
45cm x 45 cm
2023
RM2,400 / Reserved
Acrylic on corrugated board mounted on paper
casting frame with acrylic box
70cm x 70cm
2023
RM4,000 / Reserved
A momentary attention that is easily forgotten I
Acrylic on corrugated board mounted on paper
casting frame with acrylic box
70cm x 70cm
2023
RM4,000
Dive deep into the sea of ideas
Acrylic on corrugated board mounted on paper
casting frame with acrylic box
70cm x 65cm
2023
RM3,800 / Reserved
Never be afraid to try before the age of 45
Acrylic on corrugated board mounted on paper
casting frame with acrylic box
75cm x 55cm
2023
RM3,800 / Reserved
When I heard the metaphor of art for the first time II
Acrylic on corrugated board mounted on paper
casting frame with acrylic box
70cm x70cm
2023
RM4,000
Ambiguity in the forest III
Acrylic on corrugated board mounted on paper
casting frame with acrylic box
70cm x 70cm
2023
RM4,000
Ambiguity in the forest I
Acrylic on corrugated board mounted on paper
casting frame with acrylic box
55cm x70cm
2023
RM3,800
A verse from the Maestro I
Acrylic on corrugated board mounted on paper
casting frame with acrylic box
70cm x 70cm
2023
RM4,000 / Reserved
Being an artist is a battle in itself
Acrylic on corrugated board mounted on paper
casting frame with acrylic box
70cm x 55cm
2023
RM3,800 / Reserved
Ambiguity in the forest II
Acrylic on corrugated board mounted on paper
casting frame with acrylic box
70cm x 55cm
2023
RM3,800
Beware of snow blindness and you will be fine
Acrylic on corrugated board mounted on paper
casting frame with acrylic box
55cm x 70cm
2023
RM3,800 / Reserved
They told me to fly and I dreamed about it II
Acrylic on corrugated board mounted on paper
casting frame with acrylic box
70cm x 70cm
2023
RM4,000
Forget the old myths that still fresh in the mind
Acrylic on corrugated board mounted on paper
casting frame with acrylic box
45cm x 45cm
2023
RM2,400 / Reserved
A momentary attention that is easily forgotten II
Acrylic on corrugated board mounted on paper
casting frame with acrylic box
45cm x 45cm
2023
RM2,400
Straighten twitches to achieve delayed dreams
Acrylic on corrugated board mounted on paper
casting frame with acrylic box
45cm x 45cm
2023
RM2,400 / Reserved
When I heard the metaphor of art for the first time III
Acrylic on corrugated board mounted on paper
casting frame with acrylic box
45cm x 45cm
2023
RM2,400 / Reserved
__________
Issarezal Ismail was born in Port Dickson, Negeri Sembilan in 1978. His love of nature was ingrained in him at a young age by growing up in a neighborhood near the sea and mangrove swamps. His engagement with art developed as a result of his observations of his elders' hobbies, particularly those of his grandfather, a boat builder and traditional musician. In his adolescent years, his love of art was further nurtured, and in 1996, he decided to enroll at UiTM Perak for his bachelor's degree in fine art. He made the decision to become a lecturer at several colleges and institutions in Malaysia after receiving his degree.
He currently works as a senior lecturer at UiTM Perak in Seri Iskandar and made the decision to establish a studio nearby. He spent approximately 5 years living in Kota Kinabalu, Sabah before moving to Perak, where he finished his Ph.D. in Visual Art from UMS. His paintings are frequently influenced by the personal encounters he has had with the people, the natural world, or other socio-cultural phenomena in the surroundings where he lives. All of his ideas are typically presented in a visual combination that, while often congruent with reality, tends to provide a surreal appearance.
To this date, Issarezal has done five solo exhibitions. His first solo “Cokelat” was happened nin 2009 at Pelita Hati Gallery, Kuala Lumpur. meanwhile “Tides” the second solo held in 2010 at Zinc Gallery, Kuala Lumpur. During the pandemic period in 2021, the artist managed to put up an online solo exhibition entitled “Wake Me Up When It’s Over” on HOM Art Trans social media and later of the same year “Wake Me Up When It’s Over Vol. 2” exhibition followed online at the same platform. In 2022, Issarezal held his fifth solo in a physical exhibition entitled “ I Have Crossed the Oceans of Time to Find You” at HOM Art Trans gallery.
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