Salleh Japar

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New Media

• Salleh Japar

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Enduring Understanding

• Students will understand that the
• use of readymades and other
• media have created new
• approaches to art and expanded its
• definition.

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Essential Questions

• Overarching Questions
• What is the extent of the influence of technology
  in art?
• How has new media push the boundaries of art
  making?
• Are there challenges to such approaches to art
  making?
• Topical Questions
• What is symbolism?

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5W1H
When 1963 -
How Installation Mixed Media Ready Mades
Where Singapore
Salleh Japar
Why Islamic Influence His Personal Views

• Which
• Contemporary

• What
• On Knowledge
• Symbols

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Biographical Outline

• Education and employment?
• Salleh began his art training in 1983 at the
  Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts (NAFA). Here, he met
  S. Chandrasekaran and Goh Ee Choo, and they
  became known in the academy as the "three bad
  boys". These self-confessed rebels boycotted
  their graduation show in 1988, choosing instead
  to hold an independent exhibition at the
  Goethe-Institut entitled Trimurti. Salleh had
  graduated from the academy in 1986 with a Diploma
  in Fine Arts.??He entered the Curtin University
  of Technology, Australia in 1989 to continue his
  art education, returning with a Bachelor of Fine
  Arts (Distinction) the following year. Upon
  return, he became a lecturer in art history at
  NAFA and remained here until 1995. During this
  period, he was also an Assistant Curator of Art
  for the National Museum of Singapore. He then
  left Singapore again to further his studies at
  the University of Central England, United Kingdom
  and graduated with a Postgraduate Diploma in Art
  Education in 1995. He has been teaching at the
  LASALLE College of the Arts since 1996.

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When Where

• 1965 Independence of Singapore.
• 1979 Economic restructuring with expansion of
  technology. Educational policies are thus
  changed
• Singapore
• The emergence of new media artists.

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Which

• Contemporary Art- by Tate
• Art of the present day.
• Art of the rather recent past.
• Art that is innovative or avant-garde in
  characteristics.
• When did it start? The date varies.
• Contemporary Art- by ArtLex
• Art that is current.
• Art that belongs to the same period of time-
  current.

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What

• Subject Matter-
• Anything that pertains to specific works.
• He uses symbols, religious or non-religious.
• Theme -
• Problem of knowledge and how it is being produced
  in Singapore.
• Self-identity, discovery and review.
• Ideologies from other religious groups- Buddhism,
  Hindusim and Taoism, eg Trimurti.

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What

• Some notions from Sufi tradition- on the
  importance of the present, as compared to the
  past (equates to nothing) and the future (equates
  to unpredictability which may never arrive).
• Culture and sense of identity as a Singapore
  Muslim- as seen by some critics.
• Salleh wishes to position the artist within the
  sphere of Muslim values (Sabapathy, 1998)
  leading to the rejection of the claim that all
  artists are creators.

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2-Dimensional works
Untitled, 1987
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2-Dimensional works
Fitrah (Human Nature) , 1988 Mixed media, 219 x
175 cm SAM, Singapore.
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What- Fitrah (Human Nature)

• The image at the centre is a derivation from the
  pall (blanket/shroud) cover that is used to cover
  the Muslim coffin.
• It is used as a symbol to represent the
  microcosmic self.
• It is about life in the universe as a spiritual
  journey

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2-Dimensional works
Thought Out of Season, 1988 Mixed media, 170 x
163 cm Artists Collection
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2-Dimensional works
Gunungan II, 1989-90
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Assisted Readymade Works
Box Elements (Water, Wind, Fire), 1987
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Assisted Readymade Works
Creation, Trimurti,1988 Installation, 420 x 210 cm
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What- Trimurti

• A work by Salleh Japar and two other artists -
• S. Chandrasekaran and Goh Ee Choo.
• The word Trimurti is Sanskrit- meaning three
  forms that are connected to the Hindu Godhead of
  Brahma, Vishnu and Siva.
• In this work, the word is used to describe three
  forces of nature- Creation, Preservation and
  Destruction (parts of the cosmic cycle).
• Each force co-exists to create a total concept
  using paintings, sculptures, installation and
  performance.
• It is site- specific- the space was taken into
  consideration- to create not only an art space
  but also a space that radiates energy.

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What- Trimurti

• The three artists take- language of art is a
  universal language.
• Hence the purpose is to use this universal
  language to show that different things can exist
  together harmoniously and in perfect
  equilibrium.
• This is seen in the artists differing cultural
  backgrounds- a Malay, an Indian and a Chinese,
  and religious background- Muslim, Hindu and
  Buddhism/Taoism.
• And that they come together and created a total
  work the runs like a cycle.

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What- Trimurti

• Destruction by Chandrasekaran
• The artist tears apart a pre-installed work
  during the opening of the exhibition.
• Creation by Japar
• The artist create an installation with the
  fragments of Chandrasekarans destroyed work.
• Preservation by Goh
• The artist preserved and sustain his
  installation which was born out of Japars
  installation.

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Installation
Crossroads II, 1990
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Assisted Readymade
Mechanised Learning, 1993 Mixed Media, 95 x 170
x 51 cm
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Installation
Born Out of Fire, 1993. Installation NHB
Collection
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Installation
Drip Machine, 1993-94 Installation
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What- Drip Machine

• The gowns bear the hand-written texts by the
  artist.
• They are quotations taken from a book by an
  Indonesian writer known as Hamka.
• Hamka advocates that the pursuit of modern
  knowledge should be accompanied with ethics and
  morality.
• Infusion bottles hang over the gowns as liquid
  drips onto them, washing off and dissolving the
  text into a long metal tray beneath the gowns.
• A tube runs from the trays to a cast head (the
  same one in Mechanised Learning), a symbol of a
  mind that has been colonised.

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What- Drip Machine

• The endeavours of post-colonial territories
  should take the direction of unlearning habits
  imposed by the colonial masters.
• Hence in Hamkas thesis of modernity- entails
  rigour questioning and re-positioning of
  knowledge that is passed down by our colonial
  masters and make it more meaningful in our newly
  independent societies.
• Q How is the cast head a metaphor for our
  colonial master?

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Installation
Kemelut (Turbulence), 2001. Metal sheets, PVC
pipes, brass tap heads, wood, unbleached calicos,
assortment of spices and salt NHB Collection
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Installation
Womb, Project R.O.H, 1993. Installation Goethe
Institute, Singapore.
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Installation
Kemelut II- Igauan Orang Asing,
2002. Installation Earl Lu Gallery, La Salle,
Singapore
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Why

• Background and Intention
• Japar is exposed to two types of education- 1.
  traditional religious and 2. secular.
• The first type has provided him a wealth of ideas
  to draw from.
• He studied in Curtin University which provided a
  total education- a multi-disciplinary approach.
• He re-examines and re-contextualizes traditional
  Malay art and craft.

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How

• Painting
• Eg- His early works.
• Mixed Media
• Eg- Thought out of Season, 1988.
• Installation
• He uses ready-mades or found objects.
• He uses these objects metaphorically.
• Sometimes, he mixes performance with installation.

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How

• He is interested in the process of investigation
  as a final outcome to his artistic practice
• It is dealing with materials and transforming
  them according to their nature and the principles
  of order.

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References

• Sabapathy, T. K. (Ed). (1998) Trimurti and Ten
  Years After. SAM, NHB Singapore.
• Purushothaman, V. (Ed). (2004) Salleh Japar-
  Gurindam dan Igauan. LaSalle-SIA Singapore.