Earthly joys
Samsudin Wahab goes back to his rustic roots with an open- studio exhibition in Penang.
A PERSON tends to be shaped by his or her past. Unique experiences and memories are more than nostalgia, as they have an influence on what you are today, and which path you take tomorrow.
That rings true for contemporary visual artist Samsudin Wahab, who despite being based in the Klang Valley, still retains a deep affinity for his traditional village roots.
The 31- year- old grew up in idyllic Semanggol in the heart of Perak to paddy farmer parents, and spent his youth working the fields or earning his keep in related industries like agriculture and livestock farming.
It is unsurprising then, that after becoming the first recipient of the Fergana Art Fellowship, he took the opportunity for a career pause to revisit past surroundings and rediscover life in the hinterlands.
For six months, he was able to spend time reconnecting with his family and community, and in the process, gain new perspective on the age- old relationship between land and people.
Work: Propositions For The Future, an open- studio exhibition currently at the Fergana Art Space in The Whiteaways Arcade in George Town, Penang, is the culmination of that insightful experiment.
“Half a year was not enough time to do a complete body of work, so this is like a proposal for future things to come,” explains the fine arts graduate of UiTM. Featured are about a dozen collages, 10 photographs, several small sketches, and a giant piece “painted” with mud.
During the fellowship, Samsudin would regularly shuttle between his studio in Shah Alam and Semanggol where he explored familiar terrain and interviewed local workers – from paddy farmers to charcoal factory operators and worm collectors.
This helped him to develop and incorporate a more research- oriented methodology in his art practice, and this exhibition is essentially a space for those ideas to take hold and eventually come to fruition.
Having been away from his beloved kampung for close to 12 years, this put him right back into the thick of things, and into contact with familiar faces from his younger days.
He remembers the hours of back- breaking work in the rice fields, where the only relief from stress was competing with others to see who could harvest faster, often at the expense of sore fingers.
During school holidays, Samsudin said he, along with his mother and brother, would go into oil palm estates to pick up fruits scattered on the ground after kernel bunches were cut, earning 90 sen for every 10kg collected.
A later job in a now defunct poultry- processing plant paid better – RM15 a day. There were stints in the slaughtering section and freezing packaging room, under a no- nonsense boss he jokingly describes as a “wolf in disguise trapping chickens”.
Challenges of a different kind awaited in mangrove forests, where he, like others, would dig for worms. These would fetch RM20 per kg, and some would be at it for days, always having to be wary of dangerous snakes or insects.
“In the past, I did all this just to earn a living. But after going back, I saw things differently.
“It opened my eyes to workers’ rights and the issues they face – from workplace conditions to low wages and discrimination. I try to translate that into some of my works,” he adds, when interviewed at the show’s opening last month.
These are evident in some of his portraits depicting the workers in their element – with faces betraying a lifetime of toil – or atmospheric images of the facilities’ interiors.
“I personally know most of my subjects, and they were happy to let me document their daily grind so people would have a better appreciation of what they do. In a way, I feel like a bridge that connects them to the outside world,” says the father of a toddler.
But perhaps what makes the show special for the viewer, are the natural elements that Samsudin has dressed up the exhibition space with. Several mangrove trees have “taken root” inside the gallery, while straw covers half its floorspace.
The centrepiece, a Mud Painting ( 3mx2m), immediately captures one’s attention. From afar it looks like a blank canvas, but get closer and the intricate contours of wet soil slowly drying and caking up on wire mesh, become apparent.
“I wanted visitors to experience the same sensations I grew up with – be it the sights of the mangrove, the rustle of jerami ( straw) beneath one’s feet, or earthy smell of mud.
“Art should be fun, and there’s always different mediums that one should explore and work with, and bring it to the wider audience,” he quips.
While he is glad to be having his first show outside Klang Valley, Samsudin is most thankful the grant allowed him to work with prominent names in the art industry like Wong Hoy Cheong, Yap Sau Bin and T. K. Sabapathy.
Prior to this, he has also participated in over 30 group shows, and his works are in collections at the Petronas Gallery, National Visual Arts Gallery and Khazanah Nasional in Kuala Lumpur, as well as the Muzium & Galeri Tuanku Fauziah in USM, Penang.
Samsudin was also the winner of the Malaysian Emerging Artist Award in 2009, and National Visual Arts Gallery’s Juror Award for Young Contemporary artist in 2013. Work: Propositions For the Future continues until Sept 13, and is open for viewing between 11am and 7pm daily, except Mondays. admission to the gallery, located at Lots 14a and 16a on the arcade’s first floor, is free. For more information, call 04- 2613002 or email to exhibitions@ ferga na- art. com. Browse: www. fergana- art. com or look them up on Facebook and twitter.