A respected senior painter who who consistently chooses to work in the abstract has joined us in the third installation of our Pause and Rewind project. There are timeless messages embedded in the artworks hanging on the white walls of our gallery, they act as a vehicle for moral dimension speaking of virtues such as order, purity, simplicity and spirituality. Haji Malek's passion for art began in his early childhood and developed into a career he wanted to pursue. “Sometimes I can be active but sometimes I can be inactive” but that does not stop him from having the passion to do more art as he grew older. He mostly gets his inspiration from visiting galleries, analyzing and talking to his friends about art especially when he was studying in the United Kingdom.
While studying, his style of artwork was discovered by his lecturer. Since then he has show an inclination to create abstract works he feels are close to his heart and relevant to his uncompromising character. Putting to use whatever implements he can get his hands on at any given moment because he considers that not planning or working on preconceived ideas in his painting releases him of his inhibitors. It is fair to say that not a lot of people can understand his artwork, but the stories behind his abstract have deep meaning behind it and he loves to let his painting speaks for him. Thus, gave him a quote that he lives by made by David Hockey that says “I paint what I like, when I like, and where I like, with occasional nostalgic journeys”.
Two of his artwork that given me a deep meaning are The Eye and Mata. Both title giving the same meaning of being part of the human physical face but both paintings have different meanings against one another. The Eye which was from 1995, gave out the meaning of “The Eyes that see the destruction caused by wars, floods, drought etc.” with the use of red, and dark colors that portray destructions. While Mata was from 2010 that speaks “Eyes that can see the beauty of the wild and idyllic vegetation and greenery but still fresh and soothing” with the use green and yellow color that portrays the color of nature.
Haji Malek has also joined several Art Exhibition, nationally and internationally. He enjoyed traveling with his friends and others who have the same interest of Art as him and enjoy meeting other established artists from different parts of the world, such as Malaysia, Indonesia and many more. One of the earliest travelings he did was from 1988 where he and another group of artist travel from state to state in conjunction with the 1st ASEAN Travelling Exhibition of Painting, Photography & Children’s Art.
He also accepts that the use of technology in Art is useful for the modern world. People could get inspiration and resources just by looking through the internet unlike the old days where they have to go to places and take pictures with the use of camera as the technology was not as modern as today. But he would still prefer to do conventional art rather than digital art as conventional art is more impressive because it cannot be reproduced. “Each stroke will be different which makes it unique. Compared to digital art, it can be copied and changed. It doesn’t mean that one can simply copy from another artwork. But that’s what makes conventional art unique” said Haji Malek. The way of doing Art where it could be put into paper and canvas and the inability to delete it makes the conventional Art unique.
Lastly, Haji Malek believes by doing these kinds of exhibition- Pause and Rewind III- to be shown to the public is useful especially to the future generations. It is to show the younger generations of the traditional aspect of life that has been passed down from generation to generations and also in a hope to connect generations through Art and Abstract Art is one of a way to do it.