As reported in Malaysiakini
As reported in Malaysiakini
Politician denies 'steering' Penang's art efforts
 |
Penang
State Museum board chairperson Wong Hon Wai has asked the committee
organising an open art competition on the rationale behind its use of
the theme ‘Ubah’ for the art contest, as he expected it to become an
issue due to its connection with DAP’s election slogan.
However, Wong (right) said he cannot stop the committee from using it as it is their decision.
“When I learnt that they are using ‘Ubah’ as the theme of this year’s competition, I also asked them what was the rationale behind it. But I can’t stop them using it although I anticipate it will become a topic of discussion,” said Wong, who is DAP Air Itam assemblyperson.
“I can’t stop them because the State Museum is a liberal institution, we promote arts and creativity,” he told reporters after an arts event.
‘Ubah’ was DAP’s battle cry in the last general election in its bid to capture federal power, although they failed to do so.
Using the theme ‘Ubah’ for the art competition, where applications for entry close on Sept 30, was seen as DAP allegedly trying to exert its political influence into the state museum and art gallery, which reports directly to the Penang government.
Wong said the Penang Art Gallery committee under the State Museum board comprised of 11 members.
The
committee is chaired by full-time artist and former state Education
Department director Tang Hon Yin, with State Museum curator Haryany
Mohamad as secretary, he added.
The rest of the members are local artists, artwork collectors, art teachers and photographers.
“I’m the only politician on the State Museum board but since 2009, the competition’s theme has been purely the collective decision of the committee and I never interfere,” said Wong.
‘Committee brainstormed ideas’
Haryany said the committee members brainstormed ideas and suggestions among themselves and decided on the theme after discussion.
She denied there had been any “political consideration” in the discussions, adding that politicians have not been invited as members of the jury team.
“It crossed out minds to use ‘Transformation’ as the theme for this year’s competition, but we think that is too stiff so ultimately we decided to use ‘Change’ which is more common and popular nowadays,” said Haryany.
“Change has become a culture or trend of current society especially with the younger generation,” she added.
“Just like lepak, rempit, jomlah which are very popular words. We choose ‘Ubah’ because of its popularity,” she added.
Haryany said the rationale of choosing ‘Change’ is also to encourge artists to transform ideas in producing their art which now remains in a very conventional form.
The word ‘Change’ is not banned by the government or any other authority, hence is free for anyone to use.
The interpretation of the word ‘Ubah’ is very subjective and it is merely a theme.
“The artist can use their own perspectives to interpret the word,” she added.
Haryany said the board has publicised the event to schools and various institutions since July and no one has questioned the theme.
She added there had been positive feedback in the board’s Facebook page promoting the competition.
“It shows that actually, artists are not sensitive about the theme but are more concerned abt the technical issues,” she said.
“Anyway, the organiser doesn’t impose any restrictions on participants. For instance, although the 2011 theme was not related to politics, we received political submissions,” she recalled.
“Art is very subjective, for you the red color (colour of the poster) may reflect something controversial but to me it is romance, just like the colour of roses,” she added.
CM: Don’t be too sensitive about word usage
Meanwhile, when asked by reporters at the DAP headquarters in Kuala Lumpur today, Penang Chief Minister and DAP secretary-general said, “Just because that word is used by us, it doesn’t mean that other people cannot use it.
Similarly, BN uses the word ‘Malaysia’ in ‘1Malaysia’. Does it mean that others cannot use ‘Malaysia’ any more? We should not be too sensitive about word usage.”
He added that logically, no political party should have a monopoly on any word and people who found fault were only being picky. “They can’t find any corruption in Penang so they have to do all this.”
However, Wong (right) said he cannot stop the committee from using it as it is their decision.“When I learnt that they are using ‘Ubah’ as the theme of this year’s competition, I also asked them what was the rationale behind it. But I can’t stop them using it although I anticipate it will become a topic of discussion,” said Wong, who is DAP Air Itam assemblyperson.
“I can’t stop them because the State Museum is a liberal institution, we promote arts and creativity,” he told reporters after an arts event.
‘Ubah’ was DAP’s battle cry in the last general election in its bid to capture federal power, although they failed to do so.
Using the theme ‘Ubah’ for the art competition, where applications for entry close on Sept 30, was seen as DAP allegedly trying to exert its political influence into the state museum and art gallery, which reports directly to the Penang government.
Wong said the Penang Art Gallery committee under the State Museum board comprised of 11 members.
The
committee is chaired by full-time artist and former state Education
Department director Tang Hon Yin, with State Museum curator Haryany
Mohamad as secretary, he added.The rest of the members are local artists, artwork collectors, art teachers and photographers.
“I’m the only politician on the State Museum board but since 2009, the competition’s theme has been purely the collective decision of the committee and I never interfere,” said Wong.
‘Committee brainstormed ideas’
Haryany said the committee members brainstormed ideas and suggestions among themselves and decided on the theme after discussion.
She denied there had been any “political consideration” in the discussions, adding that politicians have not been invited as members of the jury team.
“It crossed out minds to use ‘Transformation’ as the theme for this year’s competition, but we think that is too stiff so ultimately we decided to use ‘Change’ which is more common and popular nowadays,” said Haryany.
“Change has become a culture or trend of current society especially with the younger generation,” she added.
“Just like lepak, rempit, jomlah which are very popular words. We choose ‘Ubah’ because of its popularity,” she added.
Haryany said the rationale of choosing ‘Change’ is also to encourge artists to transform ideas in producing their art which now remains in a very conventional form.
The word ‘Change’ is not banned by the government or any other authority, hence is free for anyone to use.
The interpretation of the word ‘Ubah’ is very subjective and it is merely a theme.
“The artist can use their own perspectives to interpret the word,” she added.
Haryany said the board has publicised the event to schools and various institutions since July and no one has questioned the theme.
She added there had been positive feedback in the board’s Facebook page promoting the competition.
“It shows that actually, artists are not sensitive about the theme but are more concerned abt the technical issues,” she said.
“Anyway, the organiser doesn’t impose any restrictions on participants. For instance, although the 2011 theme was not related to politics, we received political submissions,” she recalled.
“Art is very subjective, for you the red color (colour of the poster) may reflect something controversial but to me it is romance, just like the colour of roses,” she added.
CM: Don’t be too sensitive about word usage
Meanwhile, when asked by reporters at the DAP headquarters in Kuala Lumpur today, Penang Chief Minister and DAP secretary-general said, “Just because that word is used by us, it doesn’t mean that other people cannot use it.
Similarly, BN uses the word ‘Malaysia’ in ‘1Malaysia’. Does it mean that others cannot use ‘Malaysia’ any more? We should not be too sensitive about word usage.”
He added that logically, no political party should have a monopoly on any word and people who found fault were only being picky. “They can’t find any corruption in Penang so they have to do all this.”
As reported in Malaysiakini
弃“转型”取“改变”为主题
槟画廊解释纯因字眼流行
槟画廊解释纯因字眼流行
 |
随着2013年绘画公开赛主题引发党政不分的嫌疑，槟州立画廊委员会澄清，选中“改变”(Ubah) 纯粹是考量到这是时下流行的字眼，无奈却因此引发政治联想。
槟州立画廊委员会秘书兼槟州博物馆馆长哈雅倪(Haryany Mohamad)昨天傍晚与两名委员李凯和黄木锦召开记者会回应争议。
陪同者包括担任槟州博物馆局主席的亚依淡州议员黄汉伟。
委员皆非政治人物
隶属槟州博物馆局的州立画廊委员会共有11名成员，主席为全职画家及前槟州教育局主任邓康贤。
其它成员都是画家、艺术品收藏家、绘画老师与摄影师。
哈雅倪表示，绘画比赛的主题是通过委员“脑激荡”建议和讨论后敲定，毫无政治考量。
她澄清，没有任何政治人物担任比赛的评审。
嫌“转型”太拘谨生硬
哈雅倪解释，当局曾考虑使用“转型”(transformation)为主题，但却嫌太过拘谨与生硬，而改用更流行和普及化的“改变”。
“改变，已经成为当前社会，特别是年轻一群的文化与趋势，正如一度很流行的游荡、飙车、jom啦等字眼。”
她说，当局选用“改变”为主题，也是要鼓励艺术家突破传统和改变一贯的作画手法。
“政府等当局未禁止使用‘改变’一词，所以可自由采用。但这只是比赛的主题，我们希望参赛者自行诠释和发挥创意。”
早在7月就开始宣传
哈雅倪点出，其实他们早在今年7月就开始向学府等单位宣传比赛，但无人质疑为何使用此主题。
“当时，收到的反馈都相当正面。”
“艺术家没有对此主题感到敏感，相反的他们更加关注属于技术层面的参赛准绳。”
无论如何，她说，主办单位不为作品设限，就如2011年的比赛主题虽然无关政治，但却接获一些含政治元素的作品。
“偶尔是很主观的。比如你觉得(海报上的)红色富有争议，但红色对我而言却意味着浪漫，正如你送人的玫瑰。”
黃汉伟：不干预选题
此外，黄汉伟表示，他是槟州博物馆局内唯一的政治人物，但2009年至今不曾干涉绘画比赛的选题,完全交由委员会决定。
“我在获知主题为‘改变’后曾去了解缘由，但是不能制止他们。”
他说，槟博物馆是个自由开放的机构，必须鼓吹艺术上的创意。
“当然，我同时已预料到会引起讨论。”
槟州立画廊委员会秘书兼槟州博物馆馆长哈雅倪(Haryany Mohamad)昨天傍晚与两名委员李凯和黄木锦召开记者会回应争议。
陪同者包括担任槟州博物馆局主席的亚依淡州议员黄汉伟。
委员皆非政治人物
隶属槟州博物馆局的州立画廊委员会共有11名成员，主席为全职画家及前槟州教育局主任邓康贤。
其它成员都是画家、艺术品收藏家、绘画老师与摄影师。
哈雅倪表示，绘画比赛的主题是通过委员“脑激荡”建议和讨论后敲定，毫无政治考量。
她澄清，没有任何政治人物担任比赛的评审。
嫌“转型”太拘谨生硬
哈雅倪解释，当局曾考虑使用“转型”(transformation)为主题，但却嫌太过拘谨与生硬，而改用更流行和普及化的“改变”。
“改变，已经成为当前社会，特别是年轻一群的文化与趋势，正如一度很流行的游荡、飙车、jom啦等字眼。”
她说，当局选用“改变”为主题，也是要鼓励艺术家突破传统和改变一贯的作画手法。
“政府等当局未禁止使用‘改变’一词，所以可自由采用。但这只是比赛的主题，我们希望参赛者自行诠释和发挥创意。”
早在7月就开始宣传
哈雅倪点出，其实他们早在今年7月就开始向学府等单位宣传比赛，但无人质疑为何使用此主题。
“当时，收到的反馈都相当正面。”
“艺术家没有对此主题感到敏感，相反的他们更加关注属于技术层面的参赛准绳。”
无论如何，她说，主办单位不为作品设限，就如2011年的比赛主题虽然无关政治，但却接获一些含政治元素的作品。
“偶尔是很主观的。比如你觉得(海报上的)红色富有争议，但红色对我而言却意味着浪漫，正如你送人的玫瑰。”
黃汉伟：不干预选题
此外，黄汉伟表示，他是槟州博物馆局内唯一的政治人物，但2009年至今不曾干涉绘画比赛的选题,完全交由委员会决定。
“我在获知主题为‘改变’后曾去了解缘由，但是不能制止他们。”
他说，槟博物馆是个自由开放的机构，必须鼓吹艺术上的创意。
“当然，我同时已预料到会引起讨论。”
No comments:
Post a Comment