This outstanding masterpiece caught my eyes. At the very first moment I looked at it, 'So does it mean I can simply draw anything and have it exhibited?' was on my mind. Anyway, after patient and clear explanation from Dr Carmen, I have another insight toward this artwork. Before we go further, let's have a look at its wall text:
The artwork was created by Redza Piyadasa, one of our country Indian artists. Indian artists are very rare. Thus, we are fortunate to have Redza - an artist, critic and public intellectual who devoted himself both to the practice and the theory of art. Redza strongly believed that art had a significant and principal role in social interactions. This belief was invested in his many critical writings (Khoo, 2007). “Public art shouldn’t be some construction just to fill a space but something that gives the nation a sense of pride, history, and celebrates cultural heroes. There is always a heroic quality about public art because it mirrors what the nation is and sums up society’s collective memory – something we all need,” said Redza ("Redza Piyadasa- Who is he?", n.d.). Or in other words, Redza believed that art reflects the society and art even has the ability to change the society.
So, what is the point of creating 'The Great Malaysian Landscape'? Of course, Redza would not make any art without having proper reason; the extraordinary actually brings hidden meaning. Why is it made like this? On the surface, what we can see is a frame which consists of three images, some labels (such as surface, edge, title etc) and his signature at the right bottom. If we look closely on the three images, it actually portrays the process of making a painting, starting from sketching, coloring and having the artwork finished. On the other hand, all the labels are actually showing the way of how an artwork is exhibited. In short, it portrays two notable elements of an artwork - artist's hard work in creating the artwork (process of making a painting is shown in 'The Great Malaysian Landscape') and how the completed artwork will be exhibited (as shown by all the labels in 'The Great Malaysian Landscape').
After all, again, what is the purpose for Redza to produce this artwork? Redza actually wished us to appreciate every artwork done. Often, when visiting any art gallery, most of us will simply judge the artworks, yeah, without considering the hard work and perseverance the artist had. Let's be very honest. We always tend to ignore the hidden story of artworks, especially those which we consider as 'weird'. We will just literally 'skip' the artwork and leave the artwork without thinking much (mental shortcut). What we should actually do is that, if we fail to understand the hidden meaning of an artwork, at least we should appreciate it. Try imagining the artist working hard to finish it, try reading the wall text and find out which materials are used.
Redza is indeed an interesting artist. Notably, due to his personality which dared to speak out and criticize, he is not likeable by a lot of people. Anyway, the art world suffered a great loss in 2007 when Redza died. He was 67. In death, we are deprived of the great personality that Redza had – vociferous, dynamic, compelling (Khoo, 2007).
References
Khoo, E. (13 May 2007). Death of an artist. The Star Online. Retrieved
from http://www.thestar.com.my/lifestyle/women/2007/05/13/death-of-an-artist/
Redza Piyadasa - Who is he? (n.d.). Retrieved from
https://sites.google.com/a/moe.edu.sg/sova-jlai/about-people/redza-piyadasa
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