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live
in
canvas
F
or
Nor Hasma Ali, the
artistic streak in her
emerged when she was
only in primary school. It
is to those early days she
accredits her interests and
desire in art. At that time,
her focus was mainly on “awan larat”,
one of the most popular Malay design
patterns of an unending spiral design, with
the name roughly translating to mean,
“meandering clouds”.
Years later, her artwork carries the same
connotations of those early days – for
repetition in line and pattern is among the
hallmarks of her work.
Besides acrylic and mixed media on
canvas, she also adopts the use of vintage
postcards, buntings and signages – which
all add up to transform the pieces and grab
viewers’ attention in spades. In today’s
chaotic and stressful world, she believes
that art is about expression, genuine
expression. “It is about reaching the soul,
expressing emotions, portraying thoughts
and remembering experiences,” she says.
Asked of her passions, “travel” features
prominently in her responses. She visits
Langkawi Island, Penang and Pahang,
her hometown, many times throughout
the year. Nor Hasma Ali strongly believes
in the power of the mind, its subtleties
and unlimited possibilities. Her works,
whilst having acquired the strength of bold
strokes are also sanguine with emotion and
layers of thoughts and subtexts, a delight
to the viewer’s imagination.
In her pieces, the combination of
contrasting strong colours, patterns and
lines may first appear clashing in imagery
for the pieces are powerful statements.
However after time, one may feel therein
lies an expression of orderliness, a certain
symmetry, patterns of usage and deep
thoughts in pieces difficult to pin down.
Typography, geometry, numerology, strong
colours and repetition are characteristic of
her evolution of works.
Two pieces in particular caught my
attention, namely
où êtes vous
cochrane
and
où êtes vous
cochrane 2. They
record the changes that preserve the
memory of the past. The length of the
road, which once housed splendid old
colonial buildings, has recently been
cleared for development of modern
structures, thus with the pieces, a sense
of old world nostalgia is mooted to invoke
remembrance of the road. “I used to drive
by and see many people I knew. Now
going past that road, I feel a sense of the
passage of time. On one hand I feel sad
that it is a bygone era and at the same time
I also realise that all things are not forever
as life must go on.”
She adds: “Today, life is chaotic and
stressful, leaving very little space for us to
notice and appreciate the little and finer
things in life that whizz past right before
our eyes. We go into repetition day-in
and day-out, a colourless rhythm without
stopping for a breather. We need to open
our eyes to the world and capture these
messages.”
A Fresh Perspective
to Modern Art
Nor Hasma Ali:
Drawing on her inspirations, travels andmemories, togetherwith a desire to
create extraordinary artwork, Nor HasmaAli has succeeded in creating some very
memorable and trending artwork in the ‘abstract expressionism’ genre in theMalaysian
contemporary art scene.Through herworks–she relays amixture of emotions, feelings
and thoughts all packaged into acrylic andmixedmedia on canvas.
W o r d s :
M a r r i o n T a n
Nor Hasma … ‘Today life is chaotic and stressful,
leaving very little space for us to notice and
appreciate the little things in life.’