Haffendi Anuar – Interiors

Richard Koh Fine Art (RKFA) is thrilled to present “Interiors,” a solo exhibition by Haffendi Anuar (b.1985), a prominent Malaysian artist known for his thought-provoking works that challenge conventional narratives. The exhibition will be held at RKFA’s Singapore gallery from 15 July to 5 Aug 2023.

Haffendi Anuar’s artistic practice, shaped by his MFA studies at Oxford, delves into the kain pelikat, a traditional Malaysian cloth, reimagining it as a symbol of architecture and construction. “Interiors” represents a continuation of Anuar’s exploration of this concept, where he seamlessly integrates elements of history, identity, and resistance.

The artworks showcased in the exhibition will shed light on the enduring colonial ideology and gaze on the Malays, dismantling the myth of laziness and the rest associated with them. In this series, Anuar ingeniously reinterprets the kain pelikat as facades and screens, employing various textile materials such as rice sacks from Asian supermarkets in Oxford and London, gunny sacks sourced in Malaysia, coffee bean sacks, and dyed and painted canvas and calico.

While colour plays a significant role in these sculptural pieces, Anuar emphasizes their sculptural nature rather than their textile origins. Intriguingly, one of the exhibited works features a scanned page from John Turnbull Thomson’s book, “Some Glimpses Into Life in the Far East” (1865), describing a colonial officer’s dinner party in Penang. This inclusion underscores Anuar’s fascination with the domestic, particularly as portrayed in colonial texts, and how his sculptures echo the qualities of curtains, rugs, hammocks, and cradles.

Haffendi Anuar’s “Interiors” exhibition promises to captivate viewers with its compelling blend of historical inquiry, cultural reinterpretation, and evocative sculptural forms. Join us at RKFA’s Singapore gallery to experience this thought-provoking and visually stunning showcase from 15 July to 5 August 2023.

For more information, please visit www.rkfineart.com or contact info@rkfineart.com.

Haffendi Anuar’s (b.1985, Malaysia) current work looks at the kain pelikat, a type of colourful plaid tubular transnational ‘male skirt’ usually worn domestically and sometimes as an informal labour uniform in parts of the global south. Oriented in relation to his childhood memories of encountering and being enveloped by the fabric, his research and exploration into the iconography of the garment encompasses personal family photos, archival photographs, images from social media and the Internet and looks into the fabric’s origin, social utilization, visual patterns and formal structure. From the materials gathered, he would reimagine the fabric as constructions for hammocks, cradles and nets, working in a process that incorporates collage, layering, painting and sewing. 

Haffendi initially studied at Rhode Island School of Design in Providence before completing his undergrad degree in Fine Art at Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design in London and an MFA at the Ruskin School of Art, Oxford University, Oxford. Recent exhibitions include Flat Lands (solo), A.I. Gallery, London in 2021; Midday Stanza (solo), Richard Koh Fine Art, Singapore in 2019; Elephant Utopia (solo), Art Taipei in 2015; A Life Beyond Boundaries (The Geography of Belonging) (group),  JWD Art Space, Bangkok in 2021; The Foot Beneath the Flower (group), Nanyang Tech University ADM Gallery, Singapore in 2020, For the Few and the Many (2-person), Beers London, London in 2019 and head, heap, heat, Institute of Contemporary Arts, Singapore in 2018. His works are in the collections of the Singapore Art Museum, Singapore, Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, Battersea Power Station, London and Khazanah Nasional Berhad, Kuala Lumpur. He is a visiting tutor at City and Guilds of London Art School, London and lives and works in London and Kuala Lumpur.