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| Tan Sei hon
Creative individuals who did not have any formal or academic art training are common. In fact, many of them have contributed and enriched the history of art by bringing a vision of originality and innovative use of materials. In Malaysia, even though many of our early artists did not receive formal academic training or only briefly, their contributions in developing a uniquely local as well as personal visual vernacular cannot be underestimated. Some have produced works that we cannot categorize under the art brut, outsider art or even naïve art category proper though we do recognize in their works distinctive traits that separates them from professionally trained artists. Their works encourages one to look at art and its practices in contemporary times from different angles and approaches. Furthermore, their non-specialists background and their (sometimes) eccentric expressions also challenged the hegemony of conservative art and culture specialists’ monopoly of ideas in the field of art. Unlike most professionally trained artists, these autodidacts or informally trained individuals make works out of urges or necessities that mirrors their psychological states and social conditions. It is inseparable with the context from which they create and serves to address/ offset the imbalances of inner turmoil of the psyche or as a result of freely following their inner voices. The unmediated expression of their impulses through visual means had produced some of the most startlingly original and mindboggling works of art. In this and the articles to follow, I will introduce three informally trained artists to the readers. I hope a brief coverage of their background history and motivations behind their labor of love will serve as an eye opener and inspiration. By acknowledging and celebrating their artistry, we also celebrate our own personal narratives, eccentricities, dreams, beliefs and world views.
Born in Kuala Lumpur (KL) in 1957, Thangarajoo M.A Kanniah or Raj as he is affectionately known is no stranger to the local art scene. As a child born in the year of the nation’s independence, the free spirited Raj left his working class family home to pursue the artist’s life at the young age of eighteen. He was introduced by Zafaruddin Zainuddin @Apai to Anak Alam (Children of Nature) in 1974. Raj remembers Mustapha Haji Ibrahim, Mariam Abdullah, Ali Rahamad @ Mabuha, Osman ‘Volkswagen’, Dzulkifli Dahlan, Abdul Latiff Mohidin, Wairah Marzuki, Sharifah Fatimah Zubir, Khalil Ibrahim, Abdul Ghafar Ibrahim, Siti Zainon, Ismail Hashim and a few others as being the core or active visual artists in the collective comprised of many from different artistic disciplines in the then nascent KL arts scene. Anak Alam was an offshoot of the Angkatan Pelukis Semenanjung (APS) or Peninsula Artist Group headed by the towering painter of representational images and portraits, the late Datuk Mohd Hoessain Enas. While the APS championed realistic renditions of life, Anak Alam was multi- disciplinary in its approach. Members were mostly engaged in abstract or Surrealistic art, printing, photography, Malay theater, music (using self made musical instruments) and poetry. Many of their performances were held near Benteng (located near the small clock tower in KL) University Malaya (UM) and the City Hall Theater (Panggung Bandaraya) in Kuala Lumpur. The collective was established with the primary aims of creating innovative artistic expressions as well as to promote awareness for the need to conserve the environment. Group members had a strong aversion to man’s senseless ravaging of nature and believed in a shared vision in which nature and man coexist in harmony.
Even though Raj did not received much formal training in the arts, he became skillful in drawing, painting and crafts such as making paper-mache as well as puppetry. As a Malaysian artist of Indian descent, he achieved many firsts in his 37 years career as a visual artist. He was the first and only Malaysian Indian to win both the National Art Gallery (now, National Visual Arts Gallery)’s Young Contemporary’s Award art competition in 1984 and the Hans Christian Andersen illustration competition sponsored by the Danish Embassy and organized by the Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka (DBP) later that year. Raj was also among the first Malaysian-Indian artist to be honoured with a solo exhibition entitled ‘I of the Universe’ at the National Art Gallery, then located at its former premise at Jalan Hishamuddin, Kuala Lumpur in the early1980's. The gist of the ideas or philosophy behind his works was formed as a result of his near-death experience when he met an accident at Templar Park, Selangor. “He experienced a soundless world where his conscious soul dwelled in unity with the earth, rocks and sky. He was a part of everything and everything was a part of him .The episode changed his life dramatically; for the first time he saw himself, the universe and all people in it as one.” (To read more, please visit http://atomicscape-jootha.blogspot.com)