Solo by prolific Malaysian painter Samsudin Wahab
By Layla Duckett

Samsudin Wahab, ‘Samudera’, 2020, oil on canvas 183 x 183cm. Image courtesy of Rissim Contemporary Gallery, Kuala Lumpur.

Peering through the looking glass that are Samsudin Wahab’s canvases, one falls into a tumultuous world where bodies are hidden in land and emotion colours the sky. The artist’s solo exhibition ‘Rindu Bayangan’ at Rissim Contemporary Gallery, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, is an introspective and enigmatic body of work. Captivatingly dark, his paintings visualise the confusing amalgamation of memories and experiences that gardens our subconscious mind. It is a collection of work that presents the viewer with a rabbit hole that leads not to wonderland, but down a path of hidden memories.

Samsudin is one of Malaysia’s most reputable contemporary painters. Well known for his tendency to combine fantasy and reality, his work usually offers an imaginative interpretation of truths. By way of weaving images associated to current affairs, his previous works provided subtle yet poignant visual commentary on social power, government control over the masses and issues of conspiracy. The result: Samsudin’s signature monochromatic, graphic and comic- like style, reflective of his time spent reading newspapers and Malaysian comics. His oeuvre is known to offer intriguing visual paradoxes that blur the line between the world of the real and the illusory.

Samsudin Wahab with his artwork, ‘Setaru’, 2019. Image courtesy of Rissim Contemporary Gallery, Kuala Lumpur.

Samsudin’s newest collection of paintings deviate from his familiar path, exploring a new contextual trajectory. These paintings are intentionally void of reference to any text or recent national news. The issues and battles of the external world that at times dictate our lives, such as the current COVID-19 pandemic, are put aside. Though some his signature graphic and dark imagery persists, in terms of subject matter, Samsudin paints from a deeply personal and internal source. What Samsudin prioritises and projects through this body of work is the increasingly neglected world of memories, experiences and emotions that reside within us and invariably make up who we are. Thus, what is presented cannot be read or researched but should be felt and contemplated by the viewer.

Without warning, when stepping into the relatively small space of the gallery, my eyes collided with the large, red, fleshy body and ominous face of ‘Tonggeng’. Its vibrant colour contrasts starkly against the white walls of the gallery while its sheer size immediately absorbs the viewer. As I move my gaze to the left, it falls onto the much smaller work ‘Rindu Bayangan’. The gallery’s limited space ensures that the viewer’s attention never strays from the paintings, generating an intimate and focused experience. In addition, I found the almost alternate display of large and small paintings to be effective in breaking the engrossing intensity of the larger paintings. The viewer is granted necessary intervals as they move through the space, allowing for their gaze to be transported into certain works, while at times observing others from a distance.

The title of the exhibition ‘Rindu Bayangan’ (loosely translated from Malay to English to mean ‘Miss the Shadows’) encapsulates the body of work’s expression of reconciling past traumas. The exhibition’s curator Hafiz Nasir expressed that the title emerged from Samsudin’s body of work resembling the poetic and soothing nature of a collection of love ballads. Intended to pull at the viewer’s heartstrings, it befits the sentimental and interpretative nature of Samsudin’s paintings.

Samsudin Wahab, ‘Parut Kengangan’, 2020, oil on canvas, 61 x 61cm. Image courtesy of Rissim Contemporary Gallery, Kuala Lumpur.

In ‘Rindu Bayangan’, Samsudin offers an unbarred view into the nature of his own state of mind. It is one that is alive, ever shifting and continuously grappling with past traumas, nostalgia and the present moment. This is especially true in ‘Samudera’, which is arguably the artist’s most intimate painting. A depiction of a boat floating down a river, it conveys his wish for more time with his late father. Standing in front of the painting, bathed in the work’s sepia sentimentality, his yearning to rekindle the lost time is palpable. Carefully executed, the work conveys the essence of the body of work to search and accept the troubles within oneself in order to express vulnerability and empathise with others. Samsudin presents visual anecdotes of loss and pain in order to lead the viewer to the understanding that self-acceptance is a journey filled with both the good and the bad.

Displayed across from each other are two paintings ‘Kenangan Luka’ (Wound Memories) and ‘Parut Kenangan’ (Scars of Memories). The viewer is presented with relatable anecdotes of revisiting painful or hidden childhood memories most significant to our adulthood. However, their opposing placements embroil them in a debate between whether it the trauma of the mind or the body that wields more influence over our growth. The former is a large canvas of fluid like bodies implicating the ephemeral nature of the physical wounds we grow out of. The latter, though smaller in size, depicts stronger imagery conveying memories as deep cuts and purple bruises. I found that its small size epitomised the nature of invisible mental traumas that permanently bruise and scar the plains of our mental landscapes. Together, they convey the nuances of what it means to heal physically and mentally, and the conditions that make up that process.

Overall, these surreal and eerie landscapes act as visual metaphors for the nature of the human mind. In the way land is weathered, eroded, reclaimed and shaped by external forces, these physical changes mirror the growth and evolution of an individual’s mind brought about by life’s trials and tribulations. The multiplicity of the mind is conveyed through the faces and jutting body parts inlaid within the landscape. Samsudin notes that these components work to symbolise latent memories and relationships that arise from the subconscious mind. Through these images, he reveals the intricate and obscure nature of the mind and importance of both the conscious and subconscious in the creation of an individual’s unique psyche.

Samsudin Wahab, ‘Kenangan Luka‘, 2020, oil on canvas, 183 x 183cm . Image courtesy of Rissim Contemporary Gallery, Kuala Lumpur.

Emotions of pain, regret, happiness and fondness are given a sense of tangibility through these landscapes. Samsudin literally grounds and gives the invisible space of the mind a sense of weight that intensifies their effect. In a world where moving forward and moving on are stressed as forms of ‘progress’ and ‘self-betterment’, Samsudin offers the viewer time to identify and sort through the impact of similar traumas. The expressions of his internal struggles, sentiments and reactions to the world through the paintings encourage the viewer to take on a similar journey of introspection.

Rindu Bayangan’ at Rissim Contemporary Gallery, Kuala Lumpur is on view from 17 August to 20 September 2020.