Urban series | Ardi Abdullah
Maps have always played a central role in Ardi's compositions, providing him with a means of translating his ideas into symbols and signs, charting his journey through
the urban landscape. Ever since he was a child, he has been intrigued by their imagery and social significance, embracing them as a way of seeing of the world.
In Urban Series, the artist employs mental cartography and a mark-making technique,
to articulate the language of his drawings. He mixes three colours of Chinese ink and batik dyes to create a riot of explosive hues. Armed with a dropper, a suction pump
and straws, he spreads the ink and dyes in a multitude of ways, fusing Eastern media with modern expression .
Viewers are invited to explore Ardi's close-up studies as a vehicle for feeling rather
than form. He leads the observer through his trajectory of motifs, swirls and shapes
that flicker off the paper, forming patterns that are to surface and resurface throughout. These interventions are spontaneous, even accidental at times, because of the unpredictability of batik dyes.
"My intention is for the viewer to eavesdrop on the language that I am trying to bring
out from my markings," he says. "They are meant to have a meditative effect, as we
trace the plane of each frame." A former art instructor and graduate of RMIT and LASALLE-SIA College of the Arts, this is Ardi's thirteenth group exhibition to date. |
