The Resisting Body: Figurative Painting as a Means to Register Social Protest in Malaysian Art

저항하는 몸: 말레이시아 미술에서 사회적 저항의 수단으로서 형상회화

In Malaysia, figurative painting has increasingly become a means for artists to pose questions about presumptions of power and assumptions of history. The body, its potentially breached boundaries and defenses, forms an integral component of the battle for political influence. The degree of control over one's own and other people's bodies has become a measuring stick to determine the power of potential political leaders. Anxiety about boundaries and access to powerful bodies is intertwined with the questions of who has the right to hold power; the relevance of moral bodies and of what comprises an ideal self or selves. These questions are raised in intriguing ways in contemporary Malaysian art. While eschewing a direct take on current politics, Malaysian artists have increasingly turned to the body to address issues in Malaysian history, culture and the distribution of power. This paper will explore some works by three artists in particular, Wong Hoy Cheong, Nadiah Bamadhaj and Ahmad Fuad Osman use the figure to problematise dominant narratives in Malaysian history. Their work variously challenge political, racial and gender hierarchies and in so doing, reveal them as social constructions.