Four young artists give their take on memory
By Lavanya Kannathass, photos by Abdul Azim
Memory is personal and universal at the same time.
This contradiction was how four upcoming artists, Izziyana Suhaimi, Kamarule, TR853-1(Sufian Hamri) and Hafidz Senor explored different journeys in various ways at Don’t Forget To Remember, an arts exhibition put together by six Arts Management students from LASALLE College of The Arts as part of the i-AM 2012 Festival at The Arts House last Thursday.
Izzyana used Memory to explore culture in her embroidery collection, The Looms In Our Bones. A student from the NTU School of Art, Design and Media (ADM), Izzyana’s art connects voices of women from past and present.
She has always used her personal memories as inspiration, said Izzyana. “But I decided to explore something of a bigger and still close to my heart,” said Izzyana explaining how the women in her family have always been in the textiles industry.
“The moments that have impacted me the most are the ones that I always end up remembering,” says Kamarule who used Quick Response (QR) codes, a quick response technology from Japan, in his artwork. He used the theme of Memory to explore the faces in photographs from different significant moments of his life.
“It’s more interactive and not so static,” he said and showed how a viewer could use an application called QRT(available for Android and Iphone users) to screen the barcode-like motif to reveals a personalized message.
TR853-1 took us on a journey through the unique mixture of graffiti and fine art to show how important his childhood was to him. But using Memory as the central stimulus was a different experience for him.
“I’m a very private person and usually not comfortable revealing things, but this is a good experience.” Another significant detail to his works were the red strings which relate how memories can be held by someone so concretely despite their expiry dates as moments before.
Another nostalgic series of work came from Hafidz Senor, another ADM student, who exhibited his Quarry Park Series of large photographs taken in his estate, Tampines.
“The thing about this place was it wasn’t that remote and yet just accessible which evoked a sense of wonder for me.” He also added that some memories stick more than others because affection for particular things build over time.
The six Arts Management students who organized the exhibition have captured the littlest but biggest things in life — memories — and given us a chance to stop and appreciate something fundamental in all of us.
