M.Shafarin Ghani Artist

 By

Professor Dr. Zakaria Ali

Universiti Pendidikan Sultan Idris

  M. Shafarin Ghani collates two equally difficult concerns, to visualize the sound of music and to intone the timbre of colors. It would seem that to do that he must first portray a notion of space within which to display such collations, with the verve and drama they deserve. Hence, the first requirement is that he empties his canvas from unnecessary flourishes or unconnected references that would tend to clutter. He inserts instead the wavy forms, the undulation of cloud formations, as a way of suggesting the deepest of depths, in which he articulates how sounds can in fact be painted.

He does so by using a selected number of basic colors: blue, red, yellow, black, and white, with which to give form to melody, to concretize an abstraction. Undulations, transitions, contrast, recessions, progressions are the tools he employs, resulting in a set of imagery of minimal goings-on but, paradoxically, imparting maximal impact. They appear like an oasis of swirling brightness in the vast still desert of emptiness.

M Shafarin Ghani is less than sure if this is the best way to see sounds and hear colors. He is sure, however, that he must come up with a solution, no matter how temporary. And, for the time being, this is his.

Tanjong Malim

15 August 2011

 Curator Point of view : -

by

Scarlette Lee , Core Design Gallery

  I met Shafarin many years ago and I was only reintroduced to him February 2010. When I first saw his seascape paintings, I see a potential for him to develop himself this series. From then on we spent months talking about art, music and literature how all these elements should bring together into his art.

Shafarin’s paintings one can see that he is not attempting to explain the concept nor the structure behind his paintings. He just feels the emotional feel as he often claims it as being melancholic. During his first solo, I discovered his musical talents the way he bows the violin like a mad man as if being absorbed into the timber tone of the music. Then I came to realize his seascapes are his music and his music are his seascapes. That when I started encouraging him to bring the music out of his painting. “give us bold, give us daring and give us more angst in your paintings. I want you to pour yourself into the painting like the way you bring out the sound from the violin” During the first movement of Oeuvre he has managed transform his seascape from a two dimensional seascape to an endless horizon of the sky and the sea.

A good artist never ceases to perfect themselves. The next movement No. 2 Shafarin wanted to take it to another level. He took 1 year plus to re-explore himself. He spent several months in Lake Toba to be surrounded by the mysterious landscape of volcanic mountains to search his soul, mind and emotions to create this new series. And he has only grown even more mature in his colors and stroke. When we see the Ninth it is as if a huge orchestra he has compose with each of the instrument translating into each stroke of wave and each color becomes the crescendo of the music. When viewing Shafarin's painting, the concept and whatever theme becomes irrelevant. Human mind just somehow does not work anymore, the human emotions just flows in. It is just as

Simple energy.