Interview: Amar Shahid on art as a passport to time travel
Bringing in days of future past with some satirical orders into the moment.
For this multilingual artist, art is an intellectual form and a lifelong project. Throughout his prolific career, Amar has moved seamlessly around different disciplines, creating new, uplifting, and complex narratives of local experiences that incorporate layers of references from the past and present.
Your paintings seem to invite the viewers to try to decode them. Can you tell us the recurring references you employ?
My penchant for the use of visual symbols stems from my interest in their linguistic values. Different symbols are employed by different cultures and carry with them differing meanings. Some of these meanings are blasphemous to other cultures and sacrilegious to others; it is not always compatible. Thus, by employing it I once again tried to change its context and meaning, in order to achieve the Semantic Shift effect.
How would you yourself describe the themes?
Although not intended, a lot of people stated “nostalgia” as a recurring theme in my works. Personally, I try to employ questionable symbols that dangerously border on the sacrilegious, as I intend to question the property of its meaning. I do often find myself applying a lot of graphic designs in my work, particularly on the show posters and Japanese record cover series. At the moment, my works could be divided into two main visuals: the photograph series and the pop-visual series – one is very photo-realistic, and the other is more graphical in its presentation.
Some of your vibrant paintings take on a life of their own! Is that something you plan ahead of time or is it spontaneous?
My works are often planned meticulously from the start and so are often no longer spontaneous. The use of elements and design are often pre-calculated, and could sometimes feel more like labour. Indeed, I am merely labouring to ensure that the ideas get across. Any vibrant results are often a product of understanding design and maximising the use of contrasting elements, while simultaneously manipulating elements that I know would excite me and the viewers. If the work does not excite me in the planning stage, there is a good chance that it won’t excite the viewers either.
How does it feel when you make the final touches and can finally put the brushes down?
I find that a work is never finished until it reaches the collector’s home. Even if a work is on display, there is a good chance that it could be returned to the studio, and I would have to find ways to improve it. However, there are a few works that I feel are finished and I no longer want to alter them. They are usually very personal works, and as soon as I felt that they were finished, I felt at ease knowing that I already put my all into them. They are hung in my studio, and I get to watch them with content every day adjust the space after?
I feel that the threat of machines replacing art is greatly exaggerated; if anything, it more or less only simplifies the act of automation for repetitive art like concept drawings and illustrations
What is happening in pop culture right now that excites you?
Right now, language is being extremely weaponised, for better or worse. The rise of social media had only amplified this and we are now seeing its true destructive effects. I’m really interested in harnessing the power of language and seeing how it could be applied in social media and politics, particularly in the field of visual language.
I’m also interested in the debate on how AI is replacing human creativity. I feel that the threat of machines replacing art is greatly exaggerated; if anything, it more or less only simplifies the act of automation for repetitive art like concept drawings and illustrations. Great art is always about ideas and not just technical execution. That’s why art is able to survive the invention of photography. Long ago when photography was invented, there were also similar debates that it could replace painting, but we now know that is not the case. Photography has become its own art discipline, and I believe that AI could also become its own art discipline, should we be able to harness its power and understand its existence as another artistic tool.
Photography Herbe Yap
Creative direction and styling Syazil Abd Rahim
Makeup Joey yap
Hair Nicole Ng
Photography assistant Floyd
All outfits by COS
