Artist: Dr. Sulaiman Esa
Artist Background:
Dr. Sulaiman Esa is one of the most brilliant and spiritual Malaysia around. His previous works basically very much inspired and influenced by the Islamic values and its calligraphic strokes and technique.
He is also among of the earliest and perhaps the few artist who follow a strict and maintain the guideline of producing art with Islamic value and principles. He came into this industry of art and design is about during the 1980's year when the government of Malaysia in its effort to promote Islamic values and principles within the Malay and Muslim community drew many initiatives and brilliant in the Islamic programme in 1982.
Dr. Sulaiman Esa's works was best manifested during the time when he wanted to inject an internationalist and multicultural frames that draw inspirations and design from the fundamentals of Islam to be used in contemporary art form and design. Dr. Sulaiman Esa is recognized and well known as one of the most visionary artists in the Malaysian scene.
(Dr.Sulaiman Esa)
Project Title:
Raja'ah : Art, Idea and Creativity [1950 - 2011]
Project Venue:
National Art Gallery
(Raja'ah)This exhibition is more than meets the eye. Sulaiman Esa has dived into the core of Malaysian identity and values using elements of pop culture. The artiste is basically trying to break free from the stereotyping mind of the hegemony of Western culture. Interesting enough, he managed to combine Captain America and Darth Vader paper cut into works that rooted in Islamic principals and geometry.
The artist’s driving philosophy was the quest to break free from the hegemony of Western culture and to create a uniquely Malaysian cultural identity. He strived for this in his works, blending local materials and techniques with pop culture. Captain America and Darth Vader papercuts suddenly appear in what initially seem like works specifically rooted in Islamic principles of geometry and repetition, and Sulaiman’s ‘Beauty in Diversity’ pieces celebrate Malaysia’s multicultural flavour without once stepping into that dreaded realm of cheesy.
This exhibition is unexpected, different at every angle, and proof that if you look, there are some absolute gems in Malaysian art. More history on the artist would’ve been nice, but the exhibition scores top points for its breadth. Gallery 3B has many of Sulaiman’s old works (landscapes from his youth, homages to Van Gogh and the Impressionists), there’s a video of the artist in conversation with the curator, and a huge work called ‘Panopticon’ in Gallery 3A, which the artist made with his video artist son, Fairuz Sulaiman.
