Metaphors - Wan Jamarul Imran

Artist’s Statement

It is my intention to create works that can provoke or make an impact on human perception. To me, human beings have a very complex and complicated determination when confronting the critical side of their minds, and most of my work deals with that inner situation. Ideally it is based on my concern towards establishing a complex relationship between art and human determination.

At this point, I have come to perceive that in one’s self is an entity that is often contradictory and internally incomplete. In response to this concept, I represent my critical perception through subjects such as lotus flowers, water lilies, fishes, and butterflies to describe this idea and concept. My chosen subject matter carries within it significant values/meanings of their own, which are metaphors to convey my meanings/intentions. They tend to have characteristics that contain an intrinsic

significance, mostly in a spiritual or symbolic context. From here, my artistic and aesthetic visual responses are constructed. When one looks at what has been depicted in the “The Garden Series”, water lilies and lotus flowers represent symbols of divinity and purity. It carries within it a holistic and spiritualistic content. Domination of colour fields appearing in that painting suggests the balance between mankind’s ability and inability to control their actions when conscious. This is my way of putting together imaginative and aesthetic elements, to form my artistic interpretation, however all this is impossible without the involvement of human interaction.

In a strong desire to re-create the elements of contradiction, I veer towards the Ying and Yang in my works. As an artist who is also an academic, I am constantly exposed to and explore art from all around the world, having to understand the philosophy and psychology of art, it’s artistic and aesthetic value as well as it’s medium and the art making process. For that reason, it is undeniable that there are some artists who influence my works and whom I admire, amongst them the works of Robert Raushenberg, David Salle, R.B. Kitaj, Ismail Zain, and Jailani Abu Hassan. There are certain aspects from all these artists that I incorporate into my works such as ideas and concepts, mediums, techniques and processes, but I do not align myself with any specific artist or movement, idealism or style or any particular modern movement.

“Metaphors” is Wan Jamarul’s first solo exhibition.