KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 7 — People express dissatisfactions in different ways.
For socio-political artist Hamir Soib, it is through his artworks.
The 54-year-old contemporary artist spent the last six months on a new artwork called Merchandise.
It features a series of purpose-made wooden cubes with a portrait of a clown on a 3x3-inch canvas.
The cubes are in the form of boxes, and the clown’s red noses will serve as the handle to open them.
The work is in collaboration with Pinkguy Gallery in Bangsar and each box will have the gallery’s signature finishing.
Hamir, who is known for his regular huge canvases, said this is the first time he is doing a series of small artworks.
“My artworks are usually large and contain calligraphy.
“This is the first time I’m embarking on a project like this.”
Speaking about the series which he calls "cabinet of jokers", Hamir said the idea came about to express his frustration over political issues in Malaysia that were caused by party hopping after the 2018 general election.
“It is widely posited that art reflects society.
“We are able to draw macro observations on the state of our society via the art produced in our environment.”
Hamir said the series consists of 88 paintings finished by Pinkguy Gallery’s framing to turn the artwork into cubes.
“We wanted to play with numbers and chose 88 as the number is synonymous with double fortune.”
Speaking about the art scene in Malaysia, Hamir said there are no major corporate or support structures to provide patronage or necessary support to young artists.
“As the market leads the ecology through the notion of exhibitions priced to sell, the artists respond by producing artworks focused on price rather than intellectualism and critical concept.”
Hamir said this trend is contrary to his generation where they pursued their critical stance while struggling with commercial rejection, despite always keeping the idea of art as an essential intellectual pillar for society as their main aim.
To him, that’s his principles when it comes to art.
He, however, said overt consumerism has been a topic he has thought about since he finished his artwork called Auctionland (2013).
At that time he spoke to the proliferation of auction houses leading to the sales of brand-name artists with little consideration of the intellectual quality of an artwork, or distinction of its seminal nature.
“I felt art was being turned into any commodity.
“This destroys the art market as the value of art depends on the intellectual acumen of an artwork, its hard-won historical status, its uniqueness through concept, production method or size and its closeness to the artist.”
Hamir is known for many of his artworks and monolithic surreal canvases such as Pilihan (2005) or Dan Master Itu Sedang Berkerja (2005), and flowing self-designed contemporary calligraphies such as Az-Zholimin (2021).
In his new presentation Merchandise, he marries an icon from his early career, the clown, with a macro commentary on the state of Malaysian society in 2023.
Despite the absence of calligraphy in this artwork, Hamir has incorporated the Quran's 64th verse from Surah Al Ankabut into the art concept.
“The verse tells us that the worldly life is no more than play and amusement.
“But the Hereafter is indeed the real life if only they knew,” he said.
Hamir also likens the illusion of this temporary world to a play, illustrating this via clown portraiture, which he originally came to as a young artist from William Shakespeare’s quote "All the world’s a stage and all the men and women merely players.”
The art series will be unveiled on Saturday, November 11 at 4pm at Pinkguy Gallery in Bangsar.
Each cube will be up for sale at RM1,188.
