With its inaugural artist showcase by local artist Goh Abigail coming to completion, Telok Ayer Arts Club is excited to welcome Singapore-born, London-based creative director-turned-artist Ashidiq Ghazali for the Arts Club’s sophomore artist showcase from 29 October to 14 November, pegged with a flurry of activities including an opening reception, panel discussion and our first edition of Kelab Malam featuring some of Singapore’s nightlife powerhouses, and Ashidiq himself.
Titled silent in the petrifying silence, the showcase will see Ashidiq return to Singapore for his first solo exhibition and long-awaited DJ set, marking his first introduction as a painter and return to his underground roots in a serendipitous homecoming of sorts.
The works on display comprises stark hard-edged geometric paintings of acrylic on canvas that, on the surface, appear to be austere compositional studies on the play of bold colours, modular rectangular shapes and intrusive grid lines. Yet, these individual elements come together to balance precariously and harmonise in quietude. The title of the exhibition, silent in the petrifying silence, captures this wrought tension that Ashidiq has deftly breathed with reticent control into his canvas.
“I’m always drawn to the American Abstract Expressionist movement. The most iconic of the AbEx artists—Franz Kline, Clyfford Still and Robert Motherwell—have a raw, bold energy in their gestures, yet maintaining such simplicity in the composition. It is this very tension between the chaos and order that has driven my new series of paintings,” explains Ashidiq. “In my paintings, I am guided by intuition. I rarely work with a pre-planned composition, instead building the painting empirically, and inviting spontaneous responses to material and surface.”
The London-based autodidact shed his life as an advertising creative director to pursue artmaking entirely in April 2018. Having recently set up a studio just 15 minutes away from his apartment—and ever the consummate painter—Ashidiq escapes into the solitary meditative ritual of applying thin layers of translucent paint on his canvas with a brush every day of the week. With each thin layer taking a day to dry and a single colour block built on six to eight layers, the process is methodical and repetitive. The seriality of geometric forms in his works reveals within the painter a system of compulsion and obsession. In the enclosure of his studio, Ashidiq wrestles with his canvas, through finicky exactitude and unwavering precision, to establish an illusory order.
This artistic compulsion has been present and active throughout Ashidiq’s life. He was heavily involved in music—first in the early 90’s as one half of Singapore’s first mainstream hip hop group Construction Sight, and later in the decade as part of influential drum and bass DJ collective Guerilla.
As a nod to his deep underground roots in Singapore’s hip hop and drum and bass scene, Ashidiq will helm the decks for the Arts Club’s inaugural Kelab Malam (a thematic club night set to take place between artist showcases) on Friday, 26 October. He will be accompanied by veteran local DJs Aldrin, Brendon P, and music director Hasnor Sidik, who goes by Mr. Has behind the decks.
Other ongoing events include an Opening Reception on Sunday, 28 October, and a Conversations at the Bar session titled Sub-bass lines: the underground music scene and visual culture of the 90s on the evening of Monday, 29 October, where he will join other creatives involved in the music scene during the late 90s for a discourse on Singapore’s underground music history, its sub-culture scene and the visual culture it produced.
SPECIAL EVENTS
Kelab Malam feat. Mr. Has, Aldrin, Brendon P and Ashidiq
Date: Friday, 26 October 2018
Time: 9.00pm – 2.00am
Location: Telok Ayer Arts Club, 2 McCallum Street, Singapore 069043
Admission: Free (Table reservations via contactus@telokayerartsclub.sg)
Details: Envisioned as a new type of ‘social’ clubbing for the experienced partygoer, Kelab Malam brings back the days of intimate parties in tight spaces, with people schmoozing and vibing over tables filled with food and drink. There will be a customised menu of easy bar snacks and drinks designed with retro touches. As with all Telok Ayer Arts Club events, artful attention will be paid—in Kelab Malam’s case—to sound quality and presentation. This will be achieved with Devialet providing the speakers, usually meant for home use, for the night. Kelab Malam is a house party for all.
silent in the petrifying silence: Opening Reception
Date: Sunday, 28 October 2018
Time: 3.00pm – 6.00pm
Location: Telok Ayer Arts Club, 2 McCallum Street, Singapore 069043
RSVP: https://www.facebook.com/events/666214570427543/
Details: Join us for an intimate opening reception where Ashidiq will also be present. Telok Ayer Arts Club will be launching its Arts Club Specials, a seasonal menu responding to the artist and exhibition currently on view.
Conversations at the Bar Sub-bass lines: the underground music scene and visual culture of the 90s
Date: Monday, 29 October 2018
Time: 8.00pm – 9.30pm
Location: Telok Ayer Arts Club, 2 McCallum Street, Singapore 069043
RSVP: https://www.facebook.com/events/103902143897870/
Details: A semi-casual panel discussion among creatives with a shared history in Singapore’s underground music scene, Sub-bass lines explores the currents of ideas and ethos that permeated the sub-cultures of the late 90s, the visuals they produced, and the influence and translation the art forms have on each other. Moderating this discussion is Jasper Chia, who cofounded and ran the short-lived underground club Area 22, and joining him are Ashidiq Ghazali and Hasnor Sidik, formerly of the drum and bass DJ collective Guerilla. Additional speakers will be announced soon. This discussion is the first of Telok Ayer Arts Club’s Conversations at the Bar series.
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