Art incubating in Kuang? Rachel Jena finds out what’s been hatching

It’s hard not to think of Rimbun Dahan as an incubator, a vitrine where warm lights and soft bedding create the ideal atmosphere for eggs to hatch. After all, Rimbun Dahan’s studios in Kuang have been fostering resident artists for almost two decades, providing both the physical setting and the luxury of time for artworks to spring to life.

Haslin Ismail and Rob Gutteridge have been nurturing their art here for the past year, and Rimbun Dahan couldn’t have picked two more different artists for their annual residency programme. Haslin is the consummate sci-fi artist, whilst Gutteridge is the scholarly type, on hiatus from his role as Head of Drawing and Printmaking at Adelaide Central School of Art. ‘It’s like yin and yang, Jekyll and Hyde,’ jokes Noor Mahnum Mohamed, residency alumni and current PR Manager when we move from Haslin’s studio to Gutteridge’s. ‘Heaven and hell,’ interjects photographer Puah Chin Kok who was also with us that morning, sending everyone chortling. Haslin’s studio – next to Gutteridge’s at least – looks like a messy teenager’s, and despite having produced over 50 works for this residency show, Gutteridge’s studio is pristine bar one bizarrely long trail of dead ants. What everyone’s really referring to, however, is the contrast between the two artists’ works.

Haslin is first to talk about his. Some have now reached colossal proportions and they’re far less clumsy than the works from his budding years. The macabre elements have also been toned down (partly due to becoming a firsttime father last year), and the general theme across Haslin’s residency works – imaginative as always – is of good versus evil, as inspired by the Japanese anime ‘Ghost in the Shell’. Adopting the futuristic police thriller’s characters and its super-modern setting allowed Haslin to indulge in his love of machinery and mechanical part details, and he has executed these impeccably. Indeed, it’s the immense level of detail that’s the main draw of Haslin’s latest works – ‘even one small area took five to six hours (to perfect),’ he explains.

The artist’s meticulousness does suggest obsessive behaviour, and it’s not helped when he tells me that he has watched the anime ‘Steamboy’ over 50 times. OCD much? He’s not sure. ‘Macam pernah dengar,’ says the yet-to-be-formallydiagnosed sufferer. ‘I love detail, process and form. That’s why I’ve experimented with a variety of mediums – acrylic, books, paper, pastels.’ This variety – and they’re all in the exhibition – does affirm Haslin’s skill as an artist, but the persistent sci-fi theme does raise the question of whether those without an interest in this subject will be able to connect with his works. ‘I don’t think that’s a problem because the main thing is that I produce beautiful works,’ he argues.

'Avatar' by Rob Gutteridge

Next door in Gutteridge’s studio and impromptu ant graveyard, the a
tmosphere is different as it’s just painting upon painting of clouds across skies of pinks, blues, and purples. If the artist suffered from neck injuries from all the looking up he had to do to capture this subject, he hid it well when he talked about this body of work titled ‘Enigma Variations’. ‘They may appear to be about clouds, but they’re lots of other things too,’ he states. Those ‘other things’ are the hidden faces, imaginary spaces, and figures with the musculature of Charles Atlas that appear from the outlines of the clouds. The seasoned eye will note unmistakable traces of the Classical or High Renaissance periods (‘I have a great love for Michelangelo,’ says Gutteridge), and his academic inclinations are cemented further when he elaborates on his paintings. How they are made, for example (‘it comes from a more intuitive, instinctual beginning. Then, it moves into a space – intentional – between clouds and figures’), or how ‘that space in between’ or non-space that’s neither cloud nor figure is what Gutteridge places huge emphasis on, as it allows viewers to ride on the powerful back of suggestion. Despite these cerebral justifications, however, Gutteridge’s clouds carry very personal connotations from the artist; Gutteridge painted them as a form of escapism – it’s easy to forget that one year is a long time to be away from home.

Still, clouds for the artist were the strongest commonality between home Down Under and his adopted home in Kuang – ‘we all have a sky above us,’ he offers, later extending more universal arguments for his work in an email, ‘Something fairly obvious I forgot to mention is the redemptive role of beauty in my work. I try to make paintings and drawings that are beautiful, bringing the experience of beauty into the lives of others. It’s my contribution to counter the negativity in the world.’

Maybe yin and yang isn’t such a good description for Haslin and Gutteridge because at the core of it, their concerns are identical; both spoke to me about their love of form (Gutteridge for the human figure, and Haslin for twirling organic shapes of flora that he used as inspiration for the machine parts in his works), and beauty for both artists is at the heart of their work. Above all though, these two artists know what makes a good show and that’s what you’ll enjoy this month at Rimbun Dahan – incubator and magical place to look up at clouds or step into wholly different worlds.

Catch the 17th Rimbun Dahan Residency Exhibition from Feb 12-26. Check out the event listing for more info.