Field Trip To National Art Gallery

Had a fruitful trip to the National Visual Arts Gallery yesterday with classmates. Most of the art that was exhibited was by Latiff Mohidin because the theme was  "6 Decades of Latiff Mohidin: A Retrospective". A collection of paintings, drawings, prints and even sculptures could be found here, and all are works from Latiff Mohidin. The painting series by Latiff Mohidin that were exhibited here includes Pra Berlin, Berlin, Pago-Pago, Mindscape 1, Langkawi, Mindscape 2, Gelombang, Rimba and Voyage. I like the Berlin series the most.

There were also other arts that were exhibited on the 1st floor and one of my favourites was this one by Khairul Azuman Ishak titled, "Syaitan Bersepuluh" means which Ten Devils (rough translation). The visual art was made of charcoal on paper. This piece was a huge one and on the drawing, we can see ten figures of the same face sort of like whispering to the main character in the middle. There was some kind of eerie feeling that I felt, especially since the hall wasn't very lit up. Not sure why was the lighting very bad either, I think to put in some feeling. I think the art appealed to me because of the meaning that I obtained from it. It somehow portrays the ten 'devils' as mischevous, trying to whisper something into the main man. The main man was actually frowning as if he wasn't happy and somewhat confused.

As a mass comm student and one that will venture into the world in such a field, I think one of the things that I can do to create more awareness about art and design is to increase exposure. How? I think we are all aware how powerful social media can be, especially when it's used correctly. We see how Instagram has gained success over the past few years. I think people generally love seeing beautiful things - pictures and visuals. What they don't know is that they are deprived from real art! I mean, it's not there's no "fake art" around us, of course. However, I think it's time Malaysians gain some real exposure about artists around us. Using social media, we can share about what we think about art and also post some really good posts about the art scene in Malaysia rather than post some gossip, right? I always believe word-of-mouth marketing is always most effective.