MASiF Art Quest: Journey to Kuala Lumpur

Written by Quraisya Zulkifly

Journey to Kuala Lumpur

Flipping through one of the art magazines that are stacked in the office, I began to wonder how those excellent painters could do these paintings, as it looks lively and meaningful. As I focused on the extravagant artworks in the magazine, the doorbell suddenly rang and surprisingly it was Arif, the Art Coordinator for our current event project, Music, Art, Style International Festival 2011 (MASiF). As he came to my table and informed that me and one of my colleagues, Jasmin will be following him to meet with Mr. Liew, Art Director for Art Malaysia. Arif informed us that Mr Liew would be the one who drives us around Kuala Lumpur and Subang Jaya to meet with the artists whom I would be writing a journal about them.

I can say that I felt quite surprised at that time and stood quietly for a minute before I responded to Mr. Arif. My heart beats as fast as it could be, showing the excitement of meeting talented people. I can say that my expression suddenly changed when Mr. Arif asked me to follow him for the interviews but at the same time, I cannot resist the nervous feelings that came through my mind. He explained that they wanted the journal displayed on the website for the viewers to be more aware of the uniqueness of each artist and the different twists and style that they highlight in their artwork. Regardless of the office work, I straight away packed my things with a rush of blood in my veins.

The three of us stepped into a four-wheel drive for our journey to Setapak. That was the first time we met Mr. Liew Kian Yap. Warm greetings from him, he gave his business card to each one of us and I proceed to introduce myself to him. I knew right away that he is one of those people who is friendly and full of life. During the journey, Mr. Liew informed us that we are going to see three artists in three different locations. Sitting silently in Mr. Liew’s four-wheel drive, I pondered in the upcoming events ahead of me.

Fifteen minutes later, we arrived at the first location, a condominium in Setapak. It was a bright and windy day, and a perfect day to be outside from the office. As we stepped on the floor and walked to the lift, I could feel the nervous tingle in me at the prospect of my first interview with an artist. After pressing the bell several times, a middle-aged man opened the do obviously expecting a visit from us.

Mr. Nai Tong greeted us with warm smile. Before we started, he presented us with his card and graciously offered us with beverages to quench our thirst. Mr. Nai Tong assured us to make ourselves comfortable and with that, we let Mr. Liew started off with the introduction. While that, I took the chance to glance around the windy living room, the ceiling, the wall that filled with oil paintings, a soft oil painting of a female portrait on the left of the wall, and a flower painting located at the left of the wall as well. On the right side are the opened windows with few plants, chains and bits he bought from overseas were hanging at the corner of the window. Meanwhile, Mr. Nai Tong had already started the conversation about his career as artist. Mr. Tew Nai Tong’s achievements are very impressive. He is a Fine Art Painter and a watercolorist. He was born on 1963, and began his studies in 1957 at the Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts Singapore (NAFA) and graduated in 1958. After 10 years, he went to Ecole Nationale Superieure des Beaux- Arts de Paris majoring in Oil Painting in 1967 and graduated in 1968.

Along his journey in arts, he travelled to many places, did a part time job as an art teacher and sells his work everywhere he goes. Mr. Nai Tong focuses more on bright colors in his paintings. Not only that, he goes around with the colors and play with warm colors as well. While telling his memories, he took us to his gallery, which is next to his house lot, where he puts all sorts of his art collections and a few sculptures near the window. Besides that, he did all the painting here as well. There were many large paintings hanged around the wall, others were stacked neatly at the corner, and some were stacked in the room. My colleague Jasmin took that chance to take some photos of the paintings and took a photo of Mr. Nai Tong standing beside his collections.

We really enjoyed the conversation with him. He gave us his art books and finally the clock showed the time was almost past 1 pm. Before we end our conversation, we asked him what does he feel about arts and how strong his love for arts, he answered, Even though he has been in the Art Industry for so long, he said he still feels that time is very short and he needs more energy to fill more color to his artwork. He added,” if you feel you like it, you should go with it and artist must have a freedom, where romantic is freedom.” Such an inspiring ending I can say. Time is not on our side and we had to bid him farewell.

The next artist we are meeting is Mr. Allentan. The name of his company is trueFACES. A cheerful person, His perky attitude makes it easy for us to communicate with him. In fact, it makes us even more motivated to talk to him. When we stepped into his contemporary modern gallery, there was a large painting of a two-faced image. On the left we can see the face expression is smiling while the right side of the face showed the sadness. When we asked Mr. Allen, why it has two different types of emotions, he answered the smiley face describes the happiness of a person in life, the arrogance, the kindness, and many. The sad expression describes the sadness, the obstacles in life, the unsolved problems, hardships in life. According to Mr. Allen, that is what people see and describe, we do not know what is really inside. Sometimes when people have problems, they tend to hide the true feelings of themselves. That is why he named the painting as a Trufaces and made it as his company logo as well.

Mr. Allen took us on a tour around his gallery. When I looked around the walls, I saw many horse drawn paintings and it was very beautiful and artistic. One of the horse drawn paintings that are my personal favorite is the one where he uses a hair dryer to draw the lines and shapes. It is quite fascinating to find out the methods that the artists use to explore their creative ideas and transfer them artworks. Besides Horses, Mr. Allen did an abstract paintings and sculptures. Mr. Allentan love to do sculptures using recycled stuff. In addition, he even has a theme of 1 Malaysia for it. Mr. Allen even designs his toilet with a very fascinating sculpture! As you can see in the photo, he uses a recycled clog, broom, a bucket and designs it all together as perfect as we can see it.

Allentan’s art and paintings are full of creativities and contemporary art. He paints for many occasions, exhibitions and corporate firms. He was the one who did the painting entitled ‘MALAYSIA’ and used in Hari Anti Dadah Kebangsaan 2006 and many. One of the best moments in his life was when he painted a yellow horse figure and presents it to the Yang di-Pertuan Agong Duli Yang Maha Mulia Tuanku Mizan Zainal Abidin. He also won many awards and always remembers the spirits and thoughts of his life. During our meeting with him, he bought us to one restaurant nearby for a lunch treat and continued to recall his experiences. Soon after that, before we leave, he gave us some of his collections as a souvenir for visiting his gallery and supporting him.

We continued our journey to a place located near Balai Seni Lukis Negara. During the journey, Mr. Liew called Mr. Amiruddin and informed him that we are on our way to his place. There were two average lots next to the Temple, and that is where we met the last artist for the day, Mr. Amiruddin Ariffin. As we stepped out from the car, we saw that Mr. Amiruddin’s wife stood to welcome us to their home. His wife told us that Mr. Amiruddin went out to the grocery shop for a minute. While waiting for his arrival, I, Jasmin and Arif glanced around the gallery. The word realism came into mind as I gazed across the gallery. Big paintings hanged around the wall, some paintings with different names as well. I asked Mr. Amiruddin’s wife, she told me it was their student’s paintings. They conducted an art classes for international and local students. It is very touching to witness two people brought together by their passion for arts. Soon after that, Mr. Amiruddin arrived. As he arrived, the atmosphere in the gallery turned boisterous in one instant.

Full with laughter and hilarious moments with them, Mr. Amiruddin started to give an intro about his art journey. As we sat quietly, his wife served us hot milk tea with a plate of Malay traditional sweets while he did the talking. Besides portraits, Mr. Amiruddin also did many abstract as well but what captured my heart the most was those realism paintings. It truly expressed a hidden meaning behind the paintings. For me, the most interesting thing about Mr. Amiruddin is that he sketches humanity portraits to solve murder cases.

After our interesting conversation with Mr. Amirudin, we decided to make a move as it already reached the ‘golden hour’ time. We felt very happy and contented after ending our trip for today and during our journey back to office, I realized that we should appreciate Arts in our lives because it could be one of the best mind therapies in the world. It is the most unforgettable journey that always going to be a sweet memory to me. I hope that it will help me prep up for my next interview session with the other artists.