The School of Art, Design and Media at Nanyang Technological University (NTU) is proud to present Bayu, an exhibition of Islamic contemporary art that is held in conjunction with the international forum on Contemporary Islamic Art, Design and Architecture (CIADA) 2015.

The exhibition which runs from 9 – 31 October 2015, showcases contemporary artworks from 11 student alumni artists from the NTU School of Art, Design and Media. Bayu explores how these artists’ practices in installation, photography, video and design draw inspiration from the art and culture of the Islamic world.

In recent years, representations of Islamic art have extended to include modes of enquiry into the politics and poetics of identity in Islamic aesthetic, cultural and historical traditions.  Emerging generations of artists whose practices are embedded in, or respond to this context, seek ways of discovering new dimensions in art-making, and that of self-actualisation.

Bayu, which means “wind” in Malay, engages with the metaphor of this undulating force of nature, both gentle and powerful. The wind transits through spaces, and breathes between pauses. The wind is both steadfast and surrendering, sometimes as a whisper of suggestion, and other times in a hurricane of gestures.

Like the wind, the exhibition is an attempt to weave artistic journeys through the discourse and established conventions in Islamic art and design.  While some of them may be intimate and personal expressions, they reveal critical nuances that expand into larger schemes of inquiry, and investigation, as artists seeks to translate their attitudes and agencies through art.

Co-curated by Javad Khajavi and Noor Iskandar, Bayu shows how artists deal with the complexities and dilemmas of cultural historical identity, as they negotiate between subjectivity as well as universality.  Rather than to resolve them, the exhibition offers a diverse range of the artists’ positions, presenting open-ended dialogues that broaden our understanding of their worlds.

ABOUT THE ARTISTS

ENGKU NUR HAFISZAH BINTE ENGKU ISMAIL

Nur Hafiszah is a freelance props-master whose works have been featured in the television channels Suria, Okto and Channel U. She was also the wardrobe stylist for the 2014 feature film, Banting which was produced by Papahan Films. When Nur Hafiszah is not busy with filming projects, she enjoys exploring other mediums such as video and painting.

SYAIRAH MALEK

Syairah is known for her intricate works of patterns, engaging with paint, ink, pencil and printmaking.  All her original works are hand-drawn or hand-painted as she believes that the intimate connection between the artwork and the artist is the most essential ingredient in creating a meaningful piece.

JAVAD KHAJAVI

Artist-researcher Javad Khajavi’s practice extends traditional Islamic aesthetics into the discourse of new media art. Trained in animation and engineering, he is particularly interested in ways motion may transform the aesthetics and the language of Islamic art. His works draw upon varied sources such as Islamic calligraphy, tiling, Persian carpets and Persian poetry. 

IZZIYANA SUHAMI

Izziyana Suhaimi’s work explores the evidence of the hand and time. For the artist, embroidery is a meditative gesture, where each stitch represents a moment passed, or the artist’s thoughts, culminating in the final work standing as a manifestation of time. The notion of duality is central in her embroidered works, which are acts of creation, as well as ones that cut and unravel.

MALA HAYATI

Mala Hayati is a fine art photographer who engages with photography as a medium to explore new opportunities of expression. When she is not making images, Mala enjoys the simple things in life. She feels that enjoying a tub of ice-cream and reading a Haruki Murakami book will definitely make the world a better place. 

NOOR ISKANDAR

For Noor Iskandar, art is a spiritual investigation that traverses the domains of poetry, emotions and even crises, as he explores the subjectivities of beauty and truth in contemporary society.

The award-winning, multidisciplinary artist has exhibited at the Ion Art Gallery (2014), Affordable Art Fair (2013), and beyond Singapore. In 2014, he was awarded the Kwek Leng Joo Prize of Excellence in Still Photography.

YAZID SAFURUAN

The works of Yazid Sufuruan stem from Islamic cultural influences and principles. To the artist, just as grid systems create order in a graphic layout, religion is a tool that creates order in life, and it is through the existence of order that he finds beauty. Safuruan is a web specialist by profession who enjoys spending his free time with his family.

NUR FAIZAH BTE OMAR

Social awareness is central in Nur Faizah’s practice, which seeks to raise critical issues, as well as possible solutions. Her works tend to present alternative views, such that opposing or differing perspectives can be received neutrally, and art becomes a platform for dialogue.

AISYAH MARIAH

Aisyah Mariah works in film, photography and writing. Home and nostalgia are recurring themes in her practice which is also an exploration of her culture and faith.  The NTU undergraduate majoring in Digital Filmmaking lives by the following quote from her favourite filmmaker Yasmin Ahmad. “If your intentions are pure, if you apply your craft to observe humanity, and ultimately God himself, most often something powerful will suffice.”

ABOUT CIADA 2015

The international forum on Contemporary Islamic Art, Design and Architecture (CIADA) 2015 is a joint conference by the School of Art, Design and Media, Nanyang Technological University, the Association for Modern and Contemporary Art of the Arab World, Iran and Turkey (AMCA) and Virginia Commonwealth University in Qatar (VCU, Qatar).

To be held from 7 – 9 October 2015, the School of Art, Design, and Media at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore will bring together designers, artists, architects, and academics for a multi-disciplinary conference on contemporary Islamic art, design, and architecture.  While new forms, spaces, images, typographies, symbols, colors, and materials of contemporary Islamic art, design, and architecture share distinct cultural narratives from individual geographies, it remains essential to address how comparative and connective perspectives reorient the understanding of contemporary Islamic visual communication. This three-day conference is dedicated to convening professionals and scholars from throughout Asia, Europe, and America who share an investment in contemporary Islamic art, design, and architecture. For more information, visit http://www.ciada2015.com

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