033
EXHIBITED
Utopia, Wei-Ling Gallery, Kuala Lumpur 2011, illustrated in catalogue.
Haslin is a UiTM graduate with a Bachelor of Fine Art, and has recently garnered much attention and recognition for his surreal and fantastical art pieces. His elaborate works intertwine surreal and outlandish elements which stem from an imagination rooted in fantasy, comic books and science fiction.
Haslin had a solo exhibition in 2009, titled ‘Exorcismus Persona - Windows into the Fantasy Worlds of Haslin Ismail’ at RA Fine Arts, Malaysia as well as numerous group exhibitions spanning 2008 to 2012 including ‘Young and New: Part I’ at House of Matahati, Malaysia (2008), Malaysia Emerging Artist Award (MEAA) 2009 at Soka Gakkai Malaysia, and ‘18@8 - 1 Malaysia: Beyond the Canvas’ at Wei-Ling Gallery, Malaysia (2009). An artist-in-residence at Rimbun Dahan in 2012, Haslin has also won numerous awards, the most significant of which is the Grand Prize for ‘In-Print: Contemporary British Art’ in 2006, as well as the Grand Prize for the prestigious ‘Young Contemporary Art Award’ at National Art Gallery Malaysia in 2010. Haslin’s works have been collected by respected private collectors and institutions both locally and abroad.
The Very Extraordinary Voyage depicts a fabricated futurist world in paint and other materials; an exploration of the world we live in today and a consideration of what may be in store for the future. Measuring 3 metres by 3 metres, it is a notable piece both for its considerable size and impact. It appears to be the culmination of years of work, showing outstanding technique and brilliant composition. Like many of Haslin’s other pieces, it is inspired by the notion of fantastical worlds and imaginative creatures, featuring puppets, robots and more. A giant foot floats on a sea of blue, with machinery forming the innards, flowing out of the ankle - is it robot or is it human? It forms the bottom of a ship-like object that seems to be made out of wreckage, manned by robots and other creatures, floating under a sky of purple in a heavy atmosphere. Puppet strings are visible, hinting at what seems to be one of Haslin’s favorite themes - control by external forces, a notion that is expressed in books such as Orwells 1984, and in books by H.G. Wells, an author that Haslin is known to read. Geometric forms with sharp points convey the futuristic landscape, demonstrating inhospitable topography and inorganic life. In a world which is increasingly steeped in technology and modernisation, works like Haslin’s force us to think about nature and human consumption. Will there come a point in time where robotics and human life is so intertwined we no longer know where one begins and the other ends?
