Oriental Express

Artist Statement

The artwork portrays a pair of elderly sitting at a table, devouring their food in an eatery. The background is filled with monochromatic tiles that resemble ‘Bokeh’ of pixelated squares of the subjects’ background. The tiles also signify architectural traits found within the setting that the artist ventured through; Hong Kong. Above the canvas lies a 3mm Perspex panel with wordings in Mandarin font being placed on top of it.

Through the artwork, the artist wishes to share his observation on culture and people from his travelling experience. Being in an alien setting, the artist expresses the feeling of awkwardness in adapting to new surrounding where he found difficulty to engage with other local people due to limitations in language barrier and different customary practice. The transparent Perspex panel gives the vibe of glancing through the front of a shop which often resembles the feeling of an alien being on the outside, looking in. The Mandarin font was done in multiple views (both flipped horizontally and vertically) to show the trouble that the artist goes through in making sense of the local language.

Artist Statement

‘Ha Ha Ha’ is one of the artworks from Khairudin’s latest painting series dedicated for his projected upcoming SOLO show in September 2016.

This new series will feature significantly different style and approach which includes typography and portraiture. The portrayed subjects were taken during his last year travel experience in various places such as Taipei, Kaohsiung, Singapore and Taichung. Feeling like an outsider, the artist expresses his feelings of awkwardness and disengagement to new culture, environment, languages and people. Throughout his experience, the artist was mostly caught up in rather awkward scenarios whereby the artist did not really comprehend what the conversations which were took place is all about.  Trying to play it cool, the artist was resorted to smile and spurt a blunt “Ha Ha Ha“ laugh during most of the gatherings. The reason behind the artwork is being rotated to 45 degrees is inspired by Chinese culture, taking cue to Chinese door greeting banner as or as the Chinese would refer it as “Chun Lian“. This artwork is a way of the artist of expressing his discontentment and frustration being in remotely alien space, having difficulties in engaging in a two-way conversation. He found himself troubled, emotionally disparaged as if being treated as an unknown object most of the time. Although feeling uninvited in most of the countless hours of conversations, the experience serves him as a reflection to alleviate the situation by improving himself in the future. However, the artist did not find the other party was to be solely blamed as they were simply exercising their culture and practices.

Artist Statement

‘Cramped’ highlights the human’s struggles especially those who are residing in metropolitan cities, having difficulty dealing with higher mortgage in property whereby the rented space are too limited and small, often being pictured as cramped with people. To make things worse, these people have to get used to live their life in a rush or faster pace.  The painting portrays people going through their daily routine passing by each other in the same space with lots of mortgage sticker being placed within the back and foreground of the painting.

Artist Statement

In the context of space limitation that was observed by the artist, this piece emphasizes on the busy life of the people in various places that the artist has visited. ‘Rush Hour’ is an attempt by the artist to display scarcity in a particular space while placing caution sign that reads ‘FOLDING DOOR KEEP CLEAR’ written in both Mandarin and English on top his subject. Despite the contradiction of both text and the subject, the artist intends to cynically, tease the tense situation that were faced by the subject. Moreover, the subject displays a juxtaposition of space through its various scales. The text is composed rather loosely as opposed to the crowded outlines of his subject as to delineate the positive and negative in space.

Artist Statement

“The only place where I am familiar with is the famous 24 hours convenient store, 7 Eleven which I visited regularly during my stay in Taiwan, I find it very easy to relate with the ’halal’ food choices sold there and it is one of the cheaper options for a Muslim like me “.

Artist Statement

Tranquility in The Big City by Khairudin Zainudin symbolizes the struggle of the local people of Hong Kong. According to the artist, life has become even more competitive for them when people from mainland China started to migrate to their country.

Through his observation from his experience, most local people would consume their food as fast as possible to make way for the others who are eyeing for the next available seat. This demonstrates how life in Hong Kong has always been revolving in a rush. Despite the busy surrounding where people go about their daily routine, the artist portrays a peaceful moment capturing the experience of having a tea break in a typical Hong Kong restaurant, or better known as ‘Cha Chaan Teng’.

The artist uses fashion branding stickers to represent the grooming economy in Hong Kong.  Noticeable and convenient this fast advertising method is, the artist tend to relate its usage to how people are competing against each other for attention just for the sake of their survival.

Artist Statement

Tonkotsu Flavor, Spicy Pork Chop Flavor, Vegetarian Flavor, Vegetable and Pork Flavor

are four pieces of painting shown below that captures the portrait of the artist himself, Khairudin Zainudin and his fellow artist, Safar Zin during their journey in Hong Kong. On top of the portraits are font stickers on top of multiple layered Perspex sheet. Sharing the same background of race, religion and beliefs with his travelling partner, the artist shares their struggle in the search for kosher/ halal food. The Mandarin characters displayed can be directly translated as a list of ingredients which can be found on the label of an instant noodle that was sold there. Since the artist is not well versed in the local language, the Mandarin wordings were comprehended as nothing more than just an abstraction to his eyes as the fonts are viewed in vertical and horizontal rotations. Even the numbers cannot be much of assistance to the artist in solving his dilemma. Three of the paintings are in red sticker while one is in green. The artist believes that the red color represents the Chinese culture and its people. Other than that, it serves as a reminder to the artist personally that those three ingredients in red letters are flavor that is not prohibited (contains swine) to be eaten while the one in green lettering is only permissible for Muslim. Moreover, Khairudin plays with bold color to attract his audience’s attention just as he believes what restaurateur would do to lure its customers. The artist wishes that the audience would be intrigued by the difference in his latest implementation and choice of colors.