Richard Koh Fine Art (RKFA) Kuala Lumpur is proud to present Indonesia based Malaysian artist, Nadiah Bamadhaj (b.1968), highly anticipated exhibition entitled SERAGAM. The exhibition which features Bamadhaj’s distinctive charcoal works on paper collageand prints will be on at our gallery from 24 Aug – 7 Sep 2012.

SERAGAM explores the idea of ‘penyeragaman’ the process by which social institutions encourage uniformity, by using the visual of batik. Bamadhaj sees the process of making batik, or ‘membatik’, i.e. the constant repetition of a motif towards the production of an art form, as a metaphor for a whole range of social and institutional practices in daily life. This constant repetition is a method by which such actions become understood as norms in our daily lives.

Within the drawings, Bamadhaj has used motifs selected from the historical dioramas housed in the Museum Benteng Vredeburg in Yogyakarta. Rather than refer to specific incidents in history, my selection of the diorama figures are based on what Bamadhaj sees as created stereotypes within society, a figurine of a societal norm, a visual of person or persons that have become caricatures of Indonesian society.

For Bamadhaj’s prints, she has chosen specific architectural forms from her personal experience. Three images make reference to architecture of Yogyakarta’s dispersed Kraton or Royal complex. The other built forms refer to structures in Kuala Lumpur where Bamadhaj grew up. Built environments are not only separate from their sites but consciously manipulated from its scale of architectural forms so they become incongruous not only to their original sites, but also to each other.

Bamadhaj’s art practice is predicated on a lifelong engagement with the political and historical forces that have shaped our cultural identities. She has worked in non-government organizations on HIV/AIDS prevention, human rights advocacy, and lectured in art in Kuala Lumpur. She is author of Aksi Write (1997), a work of non-fiction on Indonesia and Timor Leste, co-written with her late brother. In 2000 she began full-time art-practice, and was awarded the Nippon Foundation's Asian Public Intellectual Fellowship in 2002, electing to spend her fellowship period in Yogyakarta, Indonesia, where she produced an art-based research project on the social aftermath of Indonesia’s 1965 coup attempt.