GROWTH, Solo Exhibition by Meriam Omar

March 10, 2022

GROWTH, Solo Exhibition by Meriam Omar

You are viewing a long artistic journey of Meriam Omar, who was born in 1957 in Sungai Ara, Penang. Harmonious colors in each of the canvases painted by this lover of beauty tell us a story of a person’s journey. Starting as a little girl with grand dreams, then a woman with many passions, a wife with a career, a mother ﬁlled with care and responsibilities. These elements indirectly contribute to the birth of ‘GROWTH’. When I ﬁrst looked at her paintings, I was so fascinated by the beauty were displayed and the dedication to the subject matter, paddy plants- which Meriam began to paint back in 2004.

We may have seen a lot of paddy ﬁeld paintings but none like the ones painted by Meriam. They take a different perspective in illustrating this famous local plant. Instead of depicting a paddy ﬁeld ﬁlled with coconut trees, buffalos, and a single traditional wooden house, she focuses only on the paddy plant itself. She painted them through her memory as she grew up in the northern part of Peninsular Malaysia. Her paintings are made intuitively rather than mimetic approaches with various colors and compositions. The repetitive and variable brush strokes lead to the paddy ﬂourishing, wandering around the canvas picture plane, suggesting a breezy panoramic view, funneling the audience’s attention closer to the paddy plants, such as in ‘The Humble Bow.’ ‘Growth’ series ﬁnds its change in ‘The Resilient Stalk 1’ and ‘The Resilient Stalk 2’. They look motionless in the foreground of a ﬂat and somewhat fragmented geometrical plane of colors. The paddy plants look like they have been cut and paste, similar to a collage on a ﬂat surface. It challenges Meriam’s understanding of form and color composition that obstruct the paddy plants from ﬂourishing freely. She has to obey the rules created by the geometrical shape of colors on the background. It is a battle of spontaneous activity and proper planning. It seems that ‘Growth’ is not meant to be concluded, at least not yet. Meriam always opens herself to possibilities to avoid being dull and passive practice, even though the subject matter remains the same.

Before painting paddy plants, Meriam loved to paint various English ﬂowers such as roses, tulips, daisies, and many more. She painted these beautiful ﬂowers on canvases, porcelains, woods, and even ready-made objects. Some would regard painting on porcelain or functional objects as a craft or hobby. Still, I would say that they are no different from painting on a canvas. They share the same values, including the meaning and tacit knowledge. Back then, she looked for something local, relatable, and closer to her before ﬁnally deciding to choose the paddy plant as a subject matter. This consciousness of belonging led her to question her self-identity in the context of ethnicity and religion. Being a Malay- Muslim and living in Malaysia for most of her lifetime, she realizes the close connection between nature, culture, socioeconomic and philosophy in a Malay- Muslim’s daily life.

Since rice has been the main food for the Malay people for centuries, the Malay people elevate the paddy plants to create proverbs, pantun, poems, and folklores related to many aspects of their lives. These indirect and metaphorical elements become a powerful instrument in advising and educating akhlak (moral values), adab (good manners), and even intellectual values that connect God, humans, and nature among the people. “Be like the rice stalk, it bends lower as it becomes laden with ripening grains”, a translation from a Malay proverb, “Ikutlah resmi padi, semakin berisi semakin tunduk” – is among the proverbs that best suit the akhlak and adab in the Malay traditional belief and culture. It teaches us the importance of being humble as a person and a servant of God, to be more content and submissive. In the context of politics, we might relate it to the famous phrase- “the greater the power, the greater the responsibility.” To this very day, the paddy plant still serves the Malaysian community in its nourishment, trade value, or spiritual well-being. - Syakir Hashim