Compare and Contrast

English 2 (ESP 0205) Assignment 1 Part 2

Kee Ting Ting (0310019) Nurul Jannah Masturah Jailani (0310210)

Khairul Azuwan Ishak and Sabri Salleh are two Malaysian artists. Sabri Salleh, the other one artist that we researched on. Although not much is known about Ishak as his biography is not published in any sources. Sabri Salleh on the other hand, was born in 1966 in Penang, Malaysia. He graduated from Saint Academy Of Art Malaysia in 1986. After 4 years, he became a full time artist and participated in numerous art exhibitions, locally and internationally, since 1996 and won awards a few years later. Our task was to describe, analyze, and decipher two different paintings from an exhibition and make a comparison and contrasting between the two paintings. After going through the exhibition and making a decision, we decided on two artworks; Syaitan Bersepuluh by Khairul Azuwan Ishak and Dialogue 7 by Sabri Salleh from the Dialogue Series. Syaitan Bersepuluh or roughly translated as 10 Evils, is featured in the National Art Gallery. Khairul started on this piece in 2010 and completed it in the same year. It is said that the drawing was a representation of himself and his feelings during that time. For this artwork, Khairul had used charcoal as a media to create stark contrast against the white background of the paper. The dark lines drawn emphasizes on the negativity being expressed in the drawing. Ten figures, all of him, were set in a pattern that gives movement as if they are trying to move towards the middle. Syaitan Bersepuluh is a simple artwork with only the colors of black and white, but it illustrates the emotions of the artist.

We both suggested and agree that Syaitan Bersepuluh expresses the complexity of the human mind and heart. The artwork, what it seems to be a group of clones trying to influence or manipulate the figure in middle, who we believe to be the real self of the artist. We could observe that he was experiencing a number of emotions from the facial expression. In the drawing, he appeared to be angry, frustrated and confused. Internal conflicts between the mind and the heart often affect the decisions we make in life. What the mind thinks to be what we need might be different from what we want. Making decision based on our feelings may lead to results which are not favorable, thus making us unsure on what to do. Khairul had brilliantly expressed this through his drawings, using clones of himself, each one representing a different emotion that tries to influence his thoughts. Khairuls artwork was eye-catching with its simplicity expressiveness and the sheer size of the drawing itself. It is a huge artwork that caught our interest the first time we laid our eyes on it. The way it illustrates the emotions of the artist himself makes the artwork much more meaningful, as if he just revealed a part of himself that nobody knew through art. Unfortunately, we both agree that it is not something that we would hang on the walls of our homes. One being the size of the artwork, assuming that it would be in the original dimension. Syaitan Bersepuluh has a dimension of 150cm x 500cm, which is really big. Even if the artwork were to be resized, the emotions portrayed in the drawing will remind us of our own internal conflicts, something we do not want to experience within the comfort of our own homes. It will keep us thinking about our negative feelings

we have. Therefore, we came to conclusion that this artwork is best kept be kept in a museum but not in a house. The other artwork that we chose in the National Art Gallery was titled Siri Dialog (Dialogue 7) by Sabri Salleh. This artwork was apparently created in the year 2010. It is now exhibited in the gallery and not for sale. There were also some other artworks such as dialogue 5, dialogue 8, dialogue 9 and so on. The significant art elements that were presented in this artwork were texture and color. The artist, Sabri Salleh decided to create it by using mixed media such as paint, ink, collage and more on the canvas. By watching carefully at the artwork, he used something like glue or wax to make out the texture to show the 3 dimensions. He also used various grades of color to abstract the painting but the major colors that he used in this artwork were red and brown.!He used white color to highlight the figures. He tried to convey the viewers by using colors and texture. Besides that, the art principle that can be observed easily was composition. A little separation of the artwork showed us the arrangement at both sides. Our shared opinions on Dialogue 7 are that the message being exemplified the character of people with different moods and actions in difference situation. From what can be seen, the figures movements prompt something like both sides were having conversation with different moods and actions. It seems that to solve problems, we have to take it like a challenge and solve it by communicating with others who can help us. Using different figures with different actions showed us the important of verbal messages.

By viewing this artwork, it expressed more things than it was just a piece of artwork. It caught our attention at first because of the texture. Because of the abstract artwork, we decided to find out what was the artist, Sabri Salleh trying to illustrate. Both of us agreed that it is possible to hang on in our houses. The reason why we would like to put it in our houses is because it showed positive emotion for example, one day, we got home with full of the problems in our minds, but when we looked at Dialogue 7, it reminded us of nothing is impossible to be solved especially by using conversation skills. Dialogue 7 is better enough to put in a museum than display in the house because of it is like an exhortation to every one of us. Like people always says: Sharing is caring. The similarities shared by these two artworks are that they were both completed in the year of 2010. Both artists used human figures to illustrate their messages in their artworks. They used a lighter background to emphasize on the dark figures to make them stand out more and give a clearer image. These two artworks had received recognition for their style and patterns and now are exhibited in the National Art Gallery. Both are also not for sale. Dialogue 7 is 7th part of the Siri Dialog or Dialog Series which was done on canvas using mixed media. On the other hand, Syaitan Bersepuluh is an artwork on its own, created by using only charcoal and paper. While both artworks express emotions, Khairul emphasizes on the negative feelings that a person can have and Sabri tries illustrates all emotions including sadness and happiness in a conversation. The messages

that were being expressed are different from each other. The two artworks differ from each other in the way they were created and the medium used. Khairul and Sabri used different methods and techniques to create them in different colors and shades, as well as the sizes of the artworks. Conclusively, every artwork contains a different message and emotions. An artist may express differently because each person is a different individual who think unalike.

Siri Dialog Dialog 7 by Sabri Salleh (2010)

Syaitan Bersepuluh by Khairul Azuwan Ishak (2010)

Reference: Saatchi Online. (2012). Biography of Sabri Salleh [Online] Available at http://www.saatchionline.com/ [Accessed 20 November 2012]