About the Exhibition
Following Dipali Gupta’s sensual showcase exploring the domain of the feminine, The Back Room is pleased to present Lelaki Degil, a solo exhibition by Badruddin Syah Abdul Wahab. His first solo presentation since 2017’s Emansipasi at Maybank Gallery, the works on show extend his explorations of gesture and movement with several paintings of ink and wash on paper, presented in an arrangement designed by the artist himself.
Badruddin graduated from Marquette Univerity in Wisconsin, the US, in 1997, and in 2017, the Maybank Foundation presented a survey of six years of his practice, titled Emansipasi. The works of Emansipasi took their cue from the modernist painter Latif Mohidin’s statement that a painting must have the intrinsic values of “merdeka” (independence/freedom), “serata” (the quality of being encompassing”), and “cekal” (resoluteness). His large canvasses of dancing colour were bold declarations of his artistic practice and an engagement with the modernist tradition that he emerged from. With Lelaki Degil, he explores a new mode of mark-making, one more nuanced through their presentation in largely monochrome.
Inspired by his interest in the jemaah, the Muslim congregational prayer which is often symbolised by Muslim women surrounding the Kaaba, he has attempted to translate this abstract crowd into one comprising only male silhouettes. Foregoing the bold colours of Emansipasi, the works in Lelaki Degil asks of the viewer that they be appreciated without the stimulus of colour; in so doing, they raise a question of taste and aesthetics within a world saturated with images and colour. If Emansipasi was an interpretation of Latif Mohidin’s dictates, then Lelaki Degil questions whether the same dictates can be interpreted in the artist’s own way, a proverbial shifting of the muscles under the weight of Malaysia’s modern art tradition, with its spectres of Latif Mohidin, Syed Ahmad Jamal, and Yusof Ghani, in order to assert this artist’s own stance.
In these works, formal abstraction gives way to a playful dialogue with representation. Here, we can discern human muscles, particularly hands and feet, but it remains unclear what the action in the painting is. The movement and action of a human body is an analogy for the movement and action of abstract painting. By taking the unity of the jemaah as his subject and inspiration, the works synthesise the actions of society, individual experience, and art: the same totality of gestures that make up a congregation, a prayer, or a painting.
In the same way that his paintings poke and probe at the totem of Malaysia’s modernist tradition, they also break down the traditions of masculinity and manhood. Though some of the paintings feature recognisable masculine representation, like Bodyrock (which looks like a man performing planks), the solid masculine body is turned liquid by the artist’s painterly flourishes. The title, “Lelaki Degil”, might be a joke that pokes fun at the stubbornness of man, but it also suggests the artist’s resoluteness in maintaining his own artistic individuality, one formed through his own personal experience and his present moment, even within the totalising narrative of art history.
About the Artist
Badruddin Syah Abdul Wahab (b. 1974, Johor, Malaysia) received his Diploma in Art Education from the Batu Pahat Institute of Teacher Training in 2002 and his Bachelor’s of Arts from Marquette University in Wisconsin, US, in 1997. He works in the abstract expressionist style of painting, making gestural works inspired by local traditions and the Islamic faith. His works have been exhibited in various showcases around Malaysia. In 2017, the Maybank Foundation honoured him with a major solo exhibition, titled Emansipasi.
Exhibited Works
