Lot 261: YUNIZAR

YUNIZAR B. 1971 CORETAN RASA II (THE SCRIBBLES II) SIGNED AND DATED 2008 LOWER RIGHT ACRYLIC ON CANVAS 220 by 200 cm.; 86 1/2 by 78 3/4 in

Singapore, JENDELA: a play of the ordinary, NUS Museum, Gajah Gallery, Singapore, 5 March- 19 April, 2009

The repetition and technique in scribbling marks a desire for meaning to be limitless in perspective. The spontaneous lines are a reflection of the artist's inhibition with the constricting form both text and image sometimes takes. Coretan Rasa II (Scribbles II) comes from a series of paintings entitled 'Coretan' that began in 2006. The works are composed of illegible scribbling in lines across the canvas, appearing as fragments of text that struggles to find form or intelligent representation. Working with limited colour, mostly monochromatic, his works reveal a play of lines and textures coming together to create clear rhythms and strong composition. The simplicity of visual elements within his works, according to Yunizar, is the result of a personal aesthetic judgment. He seeks beauty, especially in the trivial and in what is deemed by all else as useless and unimportant. To capture intuition and impulse, that is the great aim of the artist.

Also, there is a long history of oral traditions or 'Sastera Lisan' within the Minangkabau culture. A need to seek narratives in its various forms has always been at the center of the pidato adat (ceremonial orations) which is at the heart of the Minangkabau culture. This is evident in the Coretan series, where the method space is used is crucial to narrative. The position of poetic prose within the swirl of lines overwhelming the canvas belongs to a need to release self from the outlines of what has been constructed before. There is an unwillingness to allow the silence to form markers that leave the audience with a contained reading. Instead the abstraction acts as a sensation without an end.