Rizal's ASEAN: Building blocks of Malaysian arts and design

WHEN I was in college, one of Malaysia’s prominent artists the late Redza Piyadasa, shared his wisdom on the importance of learning and recognising the local and regional design aesthetics. According to Redza, understanding the symbols in regional art and design is the key to comprehend the rituals, from birth to death.

Redza placed great emphasis on the local and regional design environment as opposed to the much celebrated western design schools and philosophies, especially the Bauhaus and the Post-Modernism. He made his passion as clear and vivid as the colours and images in his works. His works (particularly the Malaysia Series) highlighted the images from the early 1900s, capturing memories of the people in the nation building process, attempting to revisit the familiar question; ‘Who are we?’

His class was entertaining and enriching. Many times he told my classmates off for preferring western design aesthetics. He opened our eyes, Plato’s Allegory of the Cave-style, to what have been right under our noses and the ‘whys’ behind them.

Take for example the ‘bunga telur’, or boiled eggs attached to decorative flowers given out during Malay wedding ceremonies. Redza pointed out that, the egg symbolizes fertility and well wishes that the marriage would result in many offspring. The ‘flower’ represents the ‘tree of life’, an important symbol in the Southeast Asian (and world) culture. The short summer semester we had with Redza was enough to pique our interest in looking at the vibrant local and regional art and design environment.

Redza, one of the ‘building blocks’ of Malaysian art, passed away in 2007.

For my second episode of Rizal’s ASEAN, I spoke with several young Malaysians hoping to create and nurture the art and design industry in Malaysia.

Prototype Gallery at Wisma Central was formed a few years ago to address the shortage of art spaces for young artistes and designers in central Kuala Lumpur. The space was a brainchild of an architecture firm, CityLab Studio, also located at Wisma Central, to revive the ailing space. I interviewed 4 young individuals, full of energy and ideas, on the interaction between the space and the highly commercial environment, their hopes and what they want to get out of Prototype Gallery. I see it as a prototype to what a gallery can be and should be, an open space for new designers to peddle their visions.

As our nation enters its 60th year of independence, President-elect of the International Council of Design, Zachary Ong and I sat down to discuss the need for a national design policy. The government and professional design bodies in Malaysia, Zachary reported, will be looking at formulating the policy in the next few months to properly manage and capitalise on the design economy. I suspect the design policy will finally hold the answer to the burning question I had when I was a design student many, many years ago; ‘What is the Malaysian design identity?’

Catch Rizal’s ASEAN every Saturday, 1.15 pm.