Narration of a Nightmare

Inspired by the political situation in Malaysia, Narration of a Nightmare speaks of a nightmare which is in fact, a reality.

The high level of corruption and the lack of freedom of speech the ruling government imposes onto its people has driven me to make this piece of work. Those who are being critical about the government face persecution and that includes, artists, activists, and politicians in the opposing party.

This work invites the viewers to have a glimpse of the nightmare I imagined as the political situation back home. The narration involves different characters such as (from left) the indoctrinated crowd who are blinded in sight, the voting system which is corrupted, the Prime Minister’s wife who lives a luxurious life with taxpayer’s money, the Prime Minister himself with a similar headgear to the Sultan who crowns himself with even more power as soon as he took the reign, the IGP (Head of Police) who watches over social media and makes arrests on those who he finds too critical and ‘seditious’, and on the far right is the critical crowd who has their freedom of speech taken away.

These characters are constructed through representing the attributes of the characteristics of a person in a particular scenario through the images of objects. Such as blindfolds for blinded/indoctrination, and stomach for greed/hunger. These ideas are generated through collage or sketches and then redrawn onto the canvas and the scenarios depicted are imagined from the articles on newspapers and news portals.

I’ve been exploring and will continue to explore with various media and approach towards narration, and that includes, installations, mixed media, sculpture, and drawings. I find these approaches have their advantage and experimenting with it helps to select the most effective medium to work within a particular narration.

No doubt, this situation will not cease unless a drastic change happens in the system. But, until that day comes, I will keep drawing and bring this unspeakable situation to the surface, and into a discussion.

This work was exhibited in the Chelsea College Undergraduate Show in 2016 in the grounds of Chelsea College of Art and Design.

Details

Title: Narration of a Nightmare

Medium: Oil drawing on canvas

Size: 3′ x 16′

Year: 2016