Izah Azahari
Creative art plays a crucial role in human society, not only as a means of self-expression, but also as a cultural and social communication as it allows us to explore the world, express emotions and thoughts, as well as connect with others on a deep and meaningful level.
Through creative arts, unique perspectives can be shared to challenge conventional ideas and inspire positive change.
Universiti Brunei Darussalam (UBD) Design & Creative Industries (DCI) Graduation Exhibition ‘Spectrum’ returned for its third installation on May 9 offering more opportunities and appreciation in the Brunei creative scene.
Dubbed Spectrum 2023: Lumen, the month-long exhibition showcases the works of 63 very talented students in the DCI programme in various clusters, from fine arts, fashion design, digital arts & design, game development, product design, publications, filmography, photography, architecture and interior design, and sculpture and installation.
The theme this year is Lumen, which means the international system of units (SI) of luminous flux, and painting it in the context of the exhibition, it seeks to shine a light towards emerging creatives in hopes that they, too, will flourish in the industry.
At the exhibition, the Bulletin spoke with four of the students to get a grasp of the meaning behind their projects.
Visual artist Khairul Aziwan bin Ardey said his project AZ Custom, centres on three custom-made sneaker designs accompanied by paintings entailing the backstory and meaning behind each work.
The first is a painting illustrating a skull and a lion. The visual artist explained that the skull represents death, while the lion represents power. The backstory of this painting is of a married man who experienced the loss of his wife and needs to have strength to move on with his life.
“Taking on my previous experience as a fine artist, I transmuted the painting onto the shoes,” said Khairul Aziwan.
He explained the depiction within his second painting that shows coloured robotic hands entwined in the centre surrounded by grey hands illustrating the negative impact social media might have, causing negative thoughts transpiring from negative comments.
“The colourful hands represent the person who supports you through negative times,” added the visual artist.
Meanwhile, much like his second painting, his third also follows a similar colour theme.
However, the third creation depicts encouragement to embrace uniqueness as the surrounding shoes in the painting are white and blurry, while the one in the centre is the only one in colour.
“I initially did not have any interest in creating custom-made shoes, but I began to get into it as a hobby last year, and since I already had the colours, I decided to go ahead and make this my final year project,” said Khairul Aziwan, noting how his interest grew even further to the point of starting a business.
“It’s the whole concept of not just painting the shoes, but also deconstructing the shoes and creating a unique pair of footwear solely for yourself,” he said.
He shared that he never really thought about what his source of inspiration is, as most of them come very spontaneously to him.
Although at times, he would get ideas off of social media platforms, such as Pinterest, the ideas often pop up out of nowhere.
“I’m thankful to all those who come here to support the exhibition, and for those who are interested in making their own custom-made shoes can come look for me here. I hope people enjoy Spectrum 2023: Lumen.”
Meanwhile, cartoonist Syahmi Soffriana, better known as Miyang Katun, from the Architecture & Interior Design Cluster of the Spectrum 2023: Lumen also spoke to the Bulletin.
His project, The Ragaman, is a diorama comic that shows the contrast between modern and kampong lifestyles.
Showcasing eight boxes that follow a shelf theme, each box carries different meanings of needs, entertainment, attention, emotion, and solution.
“The reason the composition of the boxes is in waves is because it correlates to my research paper that dives into the differences between life in Kampong Ayer and the modern lifestyle,” said Syahmi.
He noted that in the diorama, he tries to convey a message of taking care of children as an important aspect of parenthood because if a child is not properly taken care of during childhood, it may have detrimental effects on the future generation.
“It also depicts the importance of taking care of family ties, as nowadays a majority of people have moved out of their original village and the younger generation has a tendency of not knowing who their family members are,” said Syahmi.
He believes that every time individuals feel lost in their identity, they try to figure out their roots such as whether or not they really are Bruneian.
Touching on the process of creating his project, Syahmi said it took him two months, with the help of his friends and plenty of trials and errors using different materials until an overseas friend suggested a minimalist shelf design, similar to a comic strip.
“Nowadays, people like reading two-dimensional comics, and that’s why I wanted to focus on the pop-up concept to pull more interest back to reading comics,” he further noted.
Another student, Sylvester Chan Song Shan, who is a music composer and sound designer, also known as Matsuyama Tei, was encouraged by his Japanese friends to embark on a music programme leading to his final year project, Connections.
The project is a unique mix of various art forms and business elements, featuring a sound immersion concept and artwork exhibition, where visitors can immerse themselves in darkness, relaxed, and disconnected from the world.
Chan’s project highlights how music is a more powerful medium to convey immersion than other art forms.
With respect to the ongoing examination season at UBD, he currently has to switch the sound immersion experience to headphones.
However, to avoid losing the effects of the sound immersion, Chan focusses on mastering sound design and details of sound equipment to ensure the best possible experience for his audience.
Through the project, he aims to bring awareness to the importance of sound design, which is often overlooked in the local film industry, while also hoping to improve the market for both music composing and sound design, bridging his music fundamentals with the arts course he is taking, and ultimately, inspiring positive change.
Fashion designer Jazzy Amir is part of the Fashion & Design cluster in the DCI programme for Spectrum 2023: Lumen. Her project, The Beautiful Conversation of Luxurious Art, aims to promote slow sustainable fashion and develop the fashion industry in the country.
Jazzy believes that Brunei can learn from other Southeast Asian countries such as Malaysia, where fashion is a billion-dollar industry.
Her designs stand out from other local designers as she incorporates the Met Gala and luxurious fashion elements to allow individuals to express themselves through custom designs. She uses sustainable materials for her dress and beadwork, which she obtained from a friend to avoid wastage.
The dress design took two months of trials and errors through sketching, while Jazzy’s aesthetic preference for classic luxurious antiques inspired the design of the backdrop.
Having no prior sewing experience did not discourage her as she learned from scratch from social media platforms such as YouTube. Her project took a whole semester to create, and it took her five months to finish the dress from fabric searching to beadwork.
Jazzy would like to see fashion and design course being promoted more to encourage aspiring designers to contribute to the growth of Brunei’s fashion industry.
The exhibition is open to the public until June 9 at the Right Wing of Chancellor Hall, UBD, with Gallery Talks held every Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday throughout the one month, featuring six to 10 students sharing their creative processes.
