Malaysian contemporary art: CAG goes to school!

the picture above is the gang and the students of a local university in Kota Kinabalu ,Sabah, North Borneo. Along with their Lecturer Miss Maznah.

Me and the Cracko art group are now going in to institutions, namely universities, to give talks and sharing on contemporary art.

We guessed its important because in this part of the country, contemporary art is something very foreign and strange matter to people like the ones we met in PTPL College Kota Kinabalu. The idea of conceptual art is very new to them, I wont say this is a bad thing, but rather this is a good place to start experiencing contemporary art, so to speak.

end of the day, both parties, the students and the speakers which is me and the crackos, learn a lot from each other. good and bad infos all round.

Now we sendings more proposals to other institutions in the city to see where we do this kinda exercise again, because its so much fun, plus we get to play with their heads for a bit.

still a long way to go.... Hidup Seni Sabah!!

new years revolution

well ok.

my so called revolution is taking a bit longer than i imagined , but its all good.

oh thanks to Michele all the way from Vancouver, Canada, now I actually know that this blog could impact people from the other side of this world, all this while I thought no one was reading these stuff, thanks Michele!!

so,
is it too late for a new year's resolution?
I dont have anything specific, just that i just want to travel more in the name of art and do art all year long as much as i can and still have fun with art in the process.

I wanna make new friends, near or far

young or old

crazy or sane

u name it.... i dont care that much.

oh, i wanna read more, sing more, probably dance if i could coordinate my body to...

so yeah, 2014 will be a crazy trip ...again. I just hope everyone following this blog will have as much fun as I will this year, perhaps more...yeah... Viva la revolucion! hehe

swim in our babagon, oil on canvas, 2013,sold

The Singapore Biennale 2013

The singapore biennale was cool.

A lot of culture. A lot of new and brave ideas.

At first it got me worried as an artist. Worried because we needed to push ourselves much further in the future to create this healthy competitive atmosphere. I was, at a point, creating images in my head, creating a culture as reference for me. My own culture, a new one.

Then I stopped, and looked back to a reference point in sabah art. The existing culture that we already have for hundreds of years perhaps thousands.  And I realized that perhaps in a place where culture is not remembered as references anymore: you tend to recreate a new one, out of every day imagery, and probably it might be influenced by Western civilization...mtv..Hollywood...these entities are pumping their culture into our minds every single day non stop.

And we believe that is the new culture.

It is not the fault of outsiders if your stand is brittle.

All these while, I might have been looking at the wrong direction.

Medium, execution, presentation yes: use all influences from outside no matter how pop culture or how bizarre there are....but subject matter, let it alway, always, always , always be from the inside of you: your country,  your community, your body,  let it always come from your heart.

Subject matter will always sound cliché in a sence that it might be repeated over and over again, but thats the idea of promoting your culture and beliefs to the world, hollywood has been making remakes after remakes of movies, novels,  comics over and over again and it always seems fresh! I know We can do it too  ...

I dont know if my rambling is making any sense , but I hope u get something good from reading this post. Thank you for reading.

Malaysian contemporary art: harold egn website

So now, I have a website...but still under construction. .hopefully it'll be running soon.. yay!

Balinese street art (during EGN's bali trip)

Malaysian Contemporary Art: EGN in the papers during Frameless

Malaysian Contemporary Art: Harold EGN wins TYT Award

Artist Harold wins TYT Award

by Jenne Lajiun. Posted on October 3, 2013, Thursday

KOTA KINABALU: Harold Reagan Eswar was named as the recipient of the TYT Award during the 28th Sabah Annual Art Award held at the Tanjung Aru Shangri-La’s Resort near here on Tuesday evening.

He won the biggest cash prize of RM7,000 for his winning entry, ‘Sabah Kaya Bah’.

Meanwhile, Masni Haji Muin won the main artwork prize of RM6,000 for his work titled ‘Klias Riverside’.

There were 10 winners each for the A, B and C categories.

The winners for Category A were Rasmah Rudy, Joshua Fung Chen Hong, Anis Shazanah Yunus, Famieza Reanna Yunus, Yvonne Lee, Hong Jowell, Maxine Wong, Threnella Thadeus, Raymond Young Zi Qing and Liew Jia Xi.

Under Category B, the winners were Pau Jin Wei, Tan Yong Hui, Mohd Annan Hakimi, Norezaty Ajit, Nadia Ezrina Masni, Siau Yee Tien, Ng Hui Siang, Yong Sing Nei, Sia Pao Ling and Kamarul Azman Sanin.

Winners of Category C were Mohamad Izam Riman, Terrysia Thadeus, V’na Sya William, Assol Empali, Teo Thuan Hong, Zamzulaila Abdul Mutalib, Allbendoy Widin, Asnedi Maduni, Maduni Majidin and Andry Chin.

According to Sabah Art Gallery curator Jennifer Linggi, a total of 400 artworks were received in this year’s competition, the highest ever recorded participation since the programme began.

“The increase is visible from all six divisions but more so in the upper interior division (Tenom, Keningau, Nabawan and Tambunan) and West Coast Division (Kota Kinabalu, Tuaran, Penampang, Putatan and Papar),” she said.

She said the purpose of the event was to increase the collection of the Sabah Art Gallery, as well as to uncover talented individuals, and thirdly, to follow the developments of art in Sabah in general, and in particular, the personal development of established Sabahan artists.

“With these objectives in mind, the selection of the art works was carried out with a clear understanding of the intention of the Sabah Art Gallery for this programme.

The artwork selections were not chosen purely for their aesthetic value. Subject matter, advancement in technique, thought process, new medium and approach are among the aspects which were discussed and considered, she said.

Present to grace the event were the Head of State, Tun Haji Juhar Haji Mahiruddin and his wife, Toh Puan Hajah Norlidah Datuk R.M. Jasni.

Also present was Tourism, Culture and Environment Minister Datuk Masidi Manjun.

Read more: http://www.theborneopost.com/2013/10/03/artist-harold-wins-tyt-award/#ixzz2hEapz6g7