National Visual Art Gallery

Last week, my friends and i had a fruitful visit to the National Visual Arts Gallery where we had a chance to admire the art paintings, drawings and even sculptures that were presented there. The main reason for our visit was to pick a painting or a piece of art work which had inspired or caught our attention and describe it in this blog post. Regardless of the main purpose, it was definitely an eye opener to me as I have never visited any art gallery before this. 

Main entrance of National Visuals Arts Gallery Malaysia 

As we stepped into the entrance of the gallery, a creative piece of artwork at the reception counter greeted us. As we can see below, the man in the picture looks like he is approaching us, giving us a feeling as if there is some sort of force attracting us to enter the exhibition gallery to check out for more interesting artwork.

 Reception counter at art gallery 

The art gallery is being divided into different sections such as absurd(c)ity, meditative period, gestural period, pre Berlin and other forms where we found many interesting artwork. Most of the artwork exhibited was by Latiff Mohidin as the theme was '60 Years Latiff Mohidin : Retrospective'. However, that particular piece of art work which caught my attention was located in  the ABSURD(C)ITY exhibition on the ground floor.

Entrance into the ABSURD(C)ITY exhibition gallery

Description of the art work

Artist  : Imanordin Mohd Shah

Name : Di Belakang 

Oil Paint (1994)

That particular piece of artwork which caught my eyes was designed by an artist called Imanordin Mohd Shah. It was named using Malay words, that is "Di Belakang", which means Behind. To me, it is called 'Di Belakang' because the setting in the artwork looks like the backyard of a house or perhaps somewhere at the back lane where not many will notice its existence. The pinkish-peach color cracked wall with water leaking from it depicts the harshness of life. 

In this picture, it has a pair of navy blue jeans on the left side and a light blue short-sleeve working shirt with white stripes on the right side, both hanging on a green string/rope stretching from one end to another at the backyard of a house. There is also a red clip attached to the shirt which I interpreted it as to keep the shirt in place.

The most interesting part of this artwork is the feet hanging down at the bottom of the jeans with a wire hanging out from the left knee through a small hole on the jeans. Also, a hand with a small green plant growing out from it was drawn hanging down from the sleeve of the shirt. To me, this brought about quite a meaningful message to our lives. Although we may be stuck in any parts of our lives which would not allow us to move on or take a step further from the current situation, we should not give up. There is still hope and life as we can do many other smaller scale yet meaningful things just by reaching out to people. Lastly, this art work also pointed out to me that no matter how harsh or difficult life can be in a current situation, we must stay strong and learn from these challenges as hope is still present.

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Last but not least, I find the application of art work around national art gallery such as paintings by the stairs and beside the escalator really brighten up the environment in the gallery. All in all, this trip was definitely worth it. 

 art work and paintings by the staircase

art work beside the escalator