Finding the 8Q SAM is in itself an adventure – especially when I was running late for the event. It is actually not at the Singapore Art Museum, but located just next to the building. As advised by the kind person at the SAM information counter, the 8Q SAM was easily found by following the arrows that were pasted on the floor. It would have been quite a nice walk, except that I was rushing for time.

The Masriadi Forum was held at the 4th floor of 8Q SAM and was organized to provide attendees with an insight of Masriadi’s works. On top of this, the Masriadi art exhibition – a collection of pieces in the last 10 years from collectors, was to mark the introduction of contemporary art in Singapore, Southeast Asia and beyond.

Masriadi, an Indonesian artist, has his own unique styles in portraying his works. Using black as his choice of colour, he is able to bring out his thoughts and expressions in a manner that is visually pleasing to the eye. Moreover, for someone like me who is not constantly exposed to art, Masriadi’s work is easily comprehensible.

The artist’s work was chosen for exhibition at the 8Q SAM because it contained a “glocal” element – an intersection between the global appeal of his art as well as an infusion of some level of appreciation of local culture. This local cultural aspect, however, was not without its pitfalls. A close examination of his pieces revealed the absence of his work for 2 to 3 years within the last decade. A further query revealed that these pieces were actually omitted because there was high similarity to Chinese contemporary art. While no reasons were given as to why these were left out, the exhibition was never meant to be a comprehensive display of his works, but rather, more of his styles.

Another aspect that I picked up from the forum was the economics behind an art exhibition. Apparently, the popularity of an artist’s works may be increased due to the higher exposure that’s given during an exhibition. As it was not 8Q SAM’s intention to aid in the resale of these pieces, collectors may have to take an undertaking not to sell the displayed pieces within the next 2 years. This is partly to prevent a rally in the prices of the artist’s work as the purpose of the exhibition is merely to bring about a higher level of awareness of his works and contemporary art.

Being a “non-arty person”, the exhibition opened my eyes to the idiosyncrasies of Masriadi and his works. Like most art, it sometimes need more than just a few blinks of an eye to fully appreciate the message (or the lack of it) that is being conveyed in each piece of work. I have definitely started to go beyond (canvas) skin-deep, have you?

Tags: Masriadi Forum, 8Q SAM