ART and NATURE

THE art of Batik has been closely associated with the Malay community in the south-east Asia. In Malaysia, batik is famously known in the east coast of Malaysia. The artist, a Terengganu born, where batik is most produced in Malaysia, grows up in a culture whereby the traditional ethics are still strongly bounded within the society. Suzlee Ibrahim’s installation of mannequin batiks is moved by his Movement Series paintings. In Suzlee’s ‘Movement Series’, he sees movement as life where every living thing moves. In ‘Birth’ as he names his installation, life is still the issue. It is about Man and Nature. Suzlee experienced batik since he was little. It is a village activity in which almost everyone participates in each home. Batik plays an important role in Malay community from birth to death. Today, it is still the most prominent dress items in the Malay wardrobe. The traditional batik motifs and colours are inspired mostly from the nature. Exotic flowers of the wild become the inspiration. Natural dyes from plants are used. Because of the batik making activities, the extracting dyes from plants and other processes a social network is formed in each village. The communal labour resulting to the foundation of the villagers’ income. From this core Suzlee Ibrahim presents his work using mannequin batik jutting out from the nature (trees). It is the birth of man into the world regarded to the law of nature. Symbolically Suzlee shows that life is life as long as man does not work against the nature.