Made primarily of tissues and medical gauze, delicate materials, the canvasses housing these substrates demonstrates the mastery and control of technique in their handling. Each grid like composition is reminiscent of sacred geometry, an abstraction of matter and thought. Each composed image is presented in monochromatic hues, behind the white of layers of gauze and tissues. Tissues and gauze, usually used and disposed, are retained here, sealed behind the sheen of polycrylic polyurethane, a water-based varnish used to bind, protect and preserve the organic matter under it. Uniform, repeated patterns, sizes and shapes employed by the artist suggests order, structure and stability. It demonstrates the maturing of a resolution that contrasts and conceals emotional stresses and personal struggles by a calculated process.

 

Working with gauzes and tissues since 2015, Saiful Razman is highly cognisant of the attributes of these materials. Their porousness allows breathing and healing. They absorb, trap and remove unwanted matter from surface. They are amongst the cheapest and most accessible materials deployed on a daily basis in a slew of circumstances and it is perhaps not too outrageous to describe them as amongst the necessities of today. The artist layers his tissues and gauze to form stronger, connected membranes. The composed image we see appear like gateways, not dissimilar to the ‘anjung’ and ‘serambi’, allowing us limited access to the stories and histories that lie behind them. The geometry on the canvasses are somewhat stoic, even monolithic, giving little away. Within these limits, we feel curiously bidden into abstract contemplation. Fibers from layers of gauze creep and climb like webs and roots within what could be an otherwise minimalist structure. From the title of each canvas, we begin to understand that what stands before us are parts of a greater whole, a family, a Future Love as Saiful Razman describes. These are Saiful Razman’s reflection of personal pasts and a manifest of his processes.

 

Because we are generally better able to manage expectations and routines within it, architectural structures bring about order and offers confidence. In living, we habitually repeat various daily routines, creating recognizable patterns until an accident breaks our rhythm and calls for mending and healing. If then, the clarity towards our intended or inferred path is not restored, our sense of loss, deficit or misfortune, is heightened. Most of all, the mind begins to ramble, fired with questions that could at times confront logic. At work, the artist construct systems, arrange and rearrange materials, and draw tableaus to frame and tame such distresses. As ‘tragic’, ‘indulgent’ or ‘austere’ the lives of artists might appear for those peering in from the outside, their humanness is as genuine as any other.

 

 

Khai Hori - Sept 2019