The practices of contemporary art in Malaysia might not be as animated as in Indonesia. Many changes, however, are taking place in this neighbouring country of ours. Some of them might prove to be intriguing art movements. They are not merely about the celebration for globalisation; rather, they reveal the different aspects of the maturing process within the art institutions there. This is a distinct advantage for Malaysian artists in the future, as we see the better infrastructure and the serious management efforts of such art institutions as the Balai Seni Visual Negara (National Gallery of Visual Art). Private initiatives like the Petronas Gallery in Kuala Lumpur have also sprung up, with the objective of furthering the art in Malaysia. This interesting development has so far escaped our notice in Indonesia, and there are not many exhibitions of works by Malaysian artists in Indonesia. Fortunately, three Malaysian contemporary artists—Jalaini Abu Hassan (Jai Jalak), Bayu Utomo Radjikin, and Chong Siew Ying—have now the opportunity to exhibit their latest works in Bali. The three of them have distinct characteristics, technical expertise, and talk about different themes. Jai has focused his attention on the issue of historical manipulations that he currently senses taking place around him. Bayu chooses to re-evaluate the issue of the Malay identity by playing with images. Meanwhile, Siew Ying explores the realm of the subconsciousness, the imaginary between fragments of memories and the contemporary realities. The FLOATED exhibition, therefore, serves as a kind of projection of how these artists read and attribute meaning to the social and cultural realities that undergo constant changes in an ever-increasing pace. FLOATED exhibition serves as a space in the midst of uncertainties; it might talk about signs and symbols perching on the edge of these artists’ beliefs with regards to some essential values. Jalaini Abu Hassan: History Revisited History is the version of past events that people have decided to agree upon. -    Napoleon Bonaparte (1769 – 1821) Malaysia is a young country seen in the context of the age of the Earth. In its young age, however, there has already been the burden of the “rapid development” (or rabid development). It turns out that this physical development does not take place alongside mental development. The two of them seem to move in an imbalanced way. -    Jalaini Abu Hassan, 2012 Jai presents a series of paintings with his trademark style: rather fierce, impulsive, provocative, full of cynical, satiric and narrative expressions. In his works, he often employs the collage pattern, with images that he believes support his intended meaning, taken from a variety of sources around him, which he further reworked and re-presented. His previous paintings used mixed media, as he combined acrylic paints and asphalt on his canvases. This time, he adds the element of transparent cloth with certain patterns to strengthen his chosen themes. Jai is consistent with his interest to present social and political themes, and today focuses on the tendency of political power to manipulate the history of a nation. Jai thinks that the distortion of history is a new tendency of the power that be, done for certain interests. “The tendency to distort history is probably nothing new in Indonesia or the Philippines, but here in Malaysia it is something new,” explains Jai. “It is unclear as to why this is so, but this might have to do with the current political propaganda. Perhaps there have also been increasingly more young people who are critical and voice that concerns.” In his statement, Jai writes: “The issues regarding the legitimacy of facts are so easily distorted, following the pointing fingers of the bureaucrats. History books are being questioned, debated, to follow those who are wiser in their interpretations. As a result, there has been a distorted view among the people who no longer examine issues about their origins. To me, this is a complex cultural agenda that is difficult to compromise.” In one of his triptychs, titled Steaks (2012), we see on the left canvas piece a portrait of a male in Malay costume; it is a portrait or an icon of a historical leader, the first king, who is smiling broadly with reddish complexion. His presence, however, has been made vague under the transparent fabric over the canvas. “I’m now interested in using patterned fabric. Once I put it over the image, the work acquires dual meanings, it seems shy, mysterious,” says Jai. The canvas in the middle presents images of two raw meat, with the word ‘steaks’ and a kanji character. The artist recounts how he just picked the character from a welcoming board in a Japanese restaurant. “I didn’t know what it meant. Later on, I knew from a friend that it meant ‘welcome’.” On the right canvas piece, we see the image of a dog, which according to Jai symbolises loyalty. We sense the context of the power that be through the image of a king or a Malaysian sultan with his reddish complexion. We also see the figure of the president of a superpower country, Barack Obama, looking down with bitter beans hanging on his neck like a tie. The image serves as a kind of mockery, a response tinged with humour in dealing with the issue of power. Meanwhile, the image of raw meat re-appears in another canvas. Jai seems to want to force the audience to notice these signs. Meat is a symbol for the phrase “mendarah-daging” (literally means “to be saturated in the blood and flesh”, an expression that means “to be inculcated”), in the context of the royal power that is inherited through blood relation. It is this power and might of the kings that has become central to, and affected, political life in Malaysia to this day, apart from the fact that the kings serve as the symbol of the guardians of ancestral values. To Jai, history is a crucial issue, related to the practices of politics in Malaysia today. To him, history presents floating signs with the potentials to blur the truth while creating the possibility of providing critical views. Jai is not only prolific in creating works of art and taking part in exhibitions. He is also an active lecturer at his campus. He recently opened a gallery space to exhibit works of the alumni of his university. Bayu Utomo Radjikin: Playing with Identity A nation is a society united by delusions about its ancestry and by common hatred of its neighbours. -    William Ralph Inge (1860-1954) Culture is formed through restrictions. -    Bayu Utomo Radjikin, 2012 As a member of the artists’ collective Matahati, and one who is most active in participating in exhibitions, Bayu has been actively supporting the development of contemporary art in Malaysia. House of Matahati (HOM) in Kuala Lumpur is a space for artists of the younger generation to exhibit their works. The space also promotes Malaysian artists. Bayu and his colleagues have been managing HOM for a few years. Bayu’s works are known by the art public there. From the time when he started to become active with Matahati group, Bayu often addresses various social and political issues through his paintings, both the global as well as the local issues. In her essay published in the catalogue for Bayu’s exhibition in Singapore in 2011, writer Rachel Jenagaratram writes: “Early in his career, Bayu often grappled with socio-political themes, and as early as his university days, he addressed issues related to war and global atrocities, portraying figures in fragile situations and highlighting their cause to viewers.” Bayu often paints in the figurative style, making portraits in a series of theatrical gestures. Bayu exaggerates certain gestures, poses, and human formations in an atmosphere that can be vague and mysterious, created to provide an ample space for interpretation for the audience. With Bayu’s technical expertise in painting and drawing, and his thorough understanding about the issues he addresses, the art public in Malaysia and in the greater Southeast Asian region have well appreciated Bayu’s works. In the series of works that he displays today, Bayu presents paintings with the addition of charcoal drawings. He presents portraits of people wearing a variety of attributes: headband, or fighter pilot helmet. The portraits are made in black-and-white on paper. He revisited his previous works—for example those from the “Unnamed” exhibition” in Kuala Lumpur in 2010 and “Face without Name” exhibition in Singapore in 2011, as well as his early works—to create this new series of works. “From 2000 onward, I have often revisited my previous works. Perhaps some things have been left unanswered, or perhaps I prefer to leave them open, as a mystery,” says Bayu. He began the series of the man with the headband with a question in mind regarding his identity as a Malay. Where lies this Malay identity within him? The characteristics of a Malay is invariably linked with clothing or attributes. One day, Bayu asked a friend to put a headband on his head, take a certain pose and be photographed. Bayu then transferred this picture onto his canvas. Bayu finds the audience reactions very interesting. He explains, “Many said that I was interested with the theme of the Malay hero doing martial art.” He then hypothesise that many Malaysians have dreams about their nation’s icons standing in glory. “Many people want to retain the image of the Malays in a certain stage of history, immortalising such images in the glory of the past,” says Bayu further. In his work, Seorang Jawa (A Javanese, 2012), he presents his self-portrait with a traditional East Javanese headwear of blangkon. Bayu’s parents are originally from Java, but he says that in their lives, the Javanese ethnicity is never discussed and neither does it take any real form. His self-portrait might then open a space for uncertain interpretation regarding the meaning of origin and self-identity. Identity becomes an element that can easily change, just like clothing or other attributes. This is especially true in the current era of globalisation, in which the issue of a “nation” is not merely about some fixed entity of a certain ethnic group and race. In another painting, we see someone in a fighter jet cockpit, with the head covered in a fighter pilot helmet. Bayu says that the idea about the man in helmet arose at the time when the Gulf War was taking place in the nineties. The war was aired live on television. Bayu remembers that at the time the American fighter jets already had sophisticated instruments sending instructions directly to the helmet. The mask adds a certain mystery, too, because then there is a difference in self-realities: the internal and the external. An ambiguous I is thus formed, in which there is the value of obedience, strengthened through equipment and instruments. In Malay life, there is also the value of obedience that might even be strengthened, made rigid, mystified. Therein lies the potentials for rebellion and violations. Chong Siew Ying: Imagined Landscape (Mindscape). I've travelled through deserts, mountains and long beaches, and that feeling of space always finds its way subconsciously into paintings. I intend to reduce space and time to the level of nothingness – so that a place could be anywhere, located in any time, a space for the imagination. - Chong Siew Ying , 2008. The artist Chong Siew Ying manly focuses on three dimensional concepts associated with internal values, such as relationship with nature, the overshadowing of spaces of origin, and human beings in their intimate, lyrical, and poetic aspects. Chong Siew Ying once said that her works are more autobiographical in nature, as expressions to tell about her conditions. In a rather long period of time, Chong Siew Ying has divided her life between two cities: Paris and Kuala Lumpur. As a female artist of Chinese descent in Kuala Lumpur who has spent a lot of her time in Paris, Ying combines a variety of natural elements in the transitional in-between space, between East and West. She presents images of nature that gives rise to a floating and lonesome feeling. Although these are presented in black-and-white, we can still see strong brush strokes with controlled emotions, therefore maintaining the harmony of the whole. Siew Ying’s paintings give out mixed emotions; they are a mingling of landscape paintings reminiscent of traditional Chinese paintings with the chain of mountains and the misty forests, prairie landscape and trees in the American west, and images of her hometown. The elements might seem like fragments of her memory and visions about a hometown of nowhere, composed subtly and humbly on the canvas. In Me, Underwater (2012), she presents a coconut tree on a tropical beach with calm but deep waters. From afar we see a chain of mountains over the horizon and clouds in the sky temper the fierce sunlight. We see Ying’s self-portrait submerged underwater, like a shadow that suddenly appears on the mirror. The landscape contains many mysteries. The painting with the charcoal drawing that is then rubbed over and brushed leaves unique and distinctive traces and ambience. In another work, we see a female figure that seems to be stumbling forward with closed eyes. The ocean and clouds are behind her, creating an impression of drama and cinematic atmosphere. Ying admits that she does not take pictures of her objects as observation materials. Rather, she takes such images from exhibition pictures, films, and other sources that are familiar to him and have the potentials to create compositions of images, which in turn might serve as a temporary destination or home. “I work a lot with emotion and instinct,” says Ying. She automatically and easily works directly on her canvas, discovering her narratives as she works. To her, that is an imaginary journey to gather together vague fragments of memories and indeterminate destination, through the puzzles that expand over the horizon. The Space of Reflection The social and political themes that Jai represents in his fierceness and Bayu addresses in his neat images meet Siew Ying’s poetic transcendence. With each artist’s character and artistic exploration, we are able to see how the Malaysian figurative realism develops to this day. The modern figurative painting has developed there since the early seventies. The media of charcoal, asphalt and collage are indeed nothing new for painting; still, it is interesting to see how these materials found favour among the painting practitioners in Malaysia (as well as in the Philippines and Indonesia). This tendency is accompanied with a variety of methods and efforts in the search and discovery of visual symbols. The “FLOATED” exhibition might serve as a space of reflection with regards to the multitude of individual problems in dealing with the cultural models of the regional society in contemporary Southeast Asia. Jai once commented that narratives play a key role in the practices of art in the region, because it is in this region that the interactions of a range of social, cultural, and economic aspects have occurred in the most dynamic ways since the nineteenth century. This is the place where a variety of symbols and signs have taken place. Globalization, therefore, is only a momentum that increases and intensifies the process of encounters and merging of signs and symbols.