KUCHING: Anatomylitical – the word may sound a mouthful but, truth be told, it was one of the most unique exhibitions at the recently concluded What About Kuching (WAK) festival here.
The exhibition was a collaboration between three of the most outstanding artists in Malaysia.
“Anatomylitical is about exploring our biological reactions towards our emotions and how an artist explores anatomy in an analytical way,” explained Arman Zaki, one of its collaborators.
“It is the anatomy of a work, the human being and space.
“The exhibition conducted these themes into an experiential display of our collaboration in a curated experiment of installation,” he said, pointing out that the three art works that were showcased during the exhibition were that of Ghali Foster, Carface and him.
Arman explained that his art work is based on the reaction between faith and spirituality.
“And then we see how the body reacts to them, so mine is a bit different because it has activity – when it is active and inactive,” he said.
Ghali, who is a visual artist on the other hand said her artwork plays with different emotions.
“So there is fear, happiness, sadness and there is disgust and anger.
“I chose this five emotions because these are the common ones that the scientist can identify and there is more but it is kind of complex,” she said.
Ghali added that the emotions are the ones easily identifiable among the people who visited the exhibition.
She explained to chose to use a tiny canvas to contrast with a lot of other people’s artwork.
“You always see artwork on a bigger scale, so I used a tiny canvas because it allowed the visitors to focus more on the art
“Let’s say, when you feel angry, you would notice the subtle differences between your body such as the eye twitch or your feet clenching.
“So that’s the main point of using the small canvas to focus on how the body reacts to certain emotion,” she said.
Carface, who is a self taught painter said his painting was inspired by science fiction, pop culture and most notably Japanese animation and comics.
“For instance, one of my paintings here is called “Cluster Effect” which is the face that is inside the bigger face and both are the same ones,” he said.
He added that his other painting named “Handsface” is a portrait of a woman with her hands forming a mask on her face.
What About Kuching (WAK) is a community-driven festival of the arts, culture and lifestyle of the people of Kuching and Sarawak, filled with a multi-genre programme centred in the city of Kuching.
