REVIEWING "HYPErVIEW" (1997)

This is another long entry, not for those with short attention span & lack sense of focus.

22 years ago, 4 years after coming back from my Master's in the US in 1993, I shared my hyper-viewing. I was partly echoing Ismail Zain's foresights in his "Digital Collage" (1988). The works were my respond to the emerging hyper-modernity then. Partly also in respond to the ultra-modernity of Malaysian art.

After I came back, sometimes I felt a bit like a stranger in my own country. I had a bad time justifying my ideas to people around me. I was taken by angst & cynicism. Angst & cynicism (and the eventual parodies) were even taken as my motivations, sentiments & 'artistic stratergies'. There were lots of arrogance in me too. The exhibition was also a reminder for myself of what to come & expect.

Today, most of us r hyper-viewing through social media & the internet on a daily basis. We are the hyper-viewers. Hyper-modernity & post-modernity are running amok. Many things are deconstructed & probably will b in a state of permanent deconstruction. There is no binding & unifying narrative. There are too many fragmented & opposing narratives, each deconstructing its others. Angst, cynicism & parodies are  everywhere, even fore-fronted for profits (bad news & bad people sell like hotcakes). They are like an orgy of media & online toxic discharges. Too much of online toxic discharges are bad for mental health. They epitomize a critical healing crisis period.

We are in a period of healing crisis. There are many clear signs for a society in a need of healing, now. We need healing, critically. Yet the call for healing has always been shut by constant denials & scepticism. The denials come in many levels - individually, collectively, insititutionally. I have experienced such denials & scepticism few years ago. Instead of 'belas' (compassion), many were attracted to 'belasah' (bashing each other). The healing is within. The healing takes place within the inner-net, not internet.

Wake up please. NOW.

22 years ago, or even 31 years ago if we include the foresight & reminder from my late guru, Ismail Zain, in 1988.