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The Strange Women & Their Macabre Stories
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“Entranced and Terrified by The Strange Women & Their Macabre Stories” showcases paintings, drawings, sculptures and installations by Meme. He was inspired by works of four women artists/writers who have been the subject of his studies for many years: Holly Black (The Chronicle of Spiderwicks), Camille Rose Garcia (The Magic Bottle), Audrey Niffeneggar (Her Fearful Symmetry, The Adventures), and surrealist painter Leonora Carrington – figures are known for their influences on the gothic ethos. A true fan of the tradition himself, Meme expands his visual language to the realms of dreams and the subconscious.
With “Entranced and Terrified By The Strange Women & Their Macabre Stories”, Meme takes us further into the other side of what seemed to be an innocent fairytale, into a more complex labyrinth of strange stories and tales of deeper mysteries and nightmares.
Anniversary of an Uninteresting Event (1-3)
Mixed media on paper
42.5 x 55 cm
2002-2011
Text and photos courtesy of TAKSU Singapore
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Cinematic / Dramatic
Khairul Azmir Shoib, or better known as Meme, was born in 1975 in Taiping, Perak, Malaysia. As a “writer of pictures”, Meme constantly strives to create series of visual poetry that records silent conversations between the self and the others.
Mixed media on paper
39 x 29 cm each
2009
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Each Object Spoke The Words of Fortuneteller 2
His oeuvre threading along with the macabre often denies or betrays any categorization; his work is simply outlandish in its own myth.
Acrylic and ink on paper
122 x 38 cm
2010
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Funeral Procession, Blytheism, Moonlight
Art writer and curator Gina Fairley says of Meme’s work: “He flutters between the surreal and a more mainstream fiction of pop-horror populated by villains, demons, perambulating skeletons, ghosts, and magicians. Meme unleashes the innocent fairytale to a more layered, labyrinthine realm of strange stories environmentally alert.”
Acrylic on canvas
25 x 140 cm each
2011
.jpg "Inside My Imaginary Forest 5")
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Inside My Imaginary Forest 5
Mixed media on canvas and paper
48 x 28 cm
2002-2011
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Sylvia
In Meme’s words, “...these paintings depict the women symbol in the male unconscious.” He aligns his palette and raw broad strokes to her blue emotion and, while given a name, her open engagement remains anonymous.
Acrylic on canvas
90 x 143 cm
2011
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The Betrayer
Pen on paper
70 x 78 cm
2010
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Anniversary of an Uninteresting Event (1-3)
Meme describes his paintings as “...a silent conversation between the corporeal and ethereal world. That is the point – they offer total anesthesia.”
Mixed media on paper
42.5 x 55 cm
2002-2011
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The Dark Forest (1-10)
Monoprint
43 x 30 cm each
2010
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The Force
Acrylic on canvas
152 x 230 cm
2011
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The Shadows of the Crows Darkened the River
“I view my paintings in a reconstructing and deconstructing phase. They are not a repetition but a variation of the ideas that I have developed over the years,” Meme says.
Mixed media on canvas
91 x 143 x 29 cm
2011
The exhibition runs through July 14, 2011 at TAKSU Singapore.
Text and photos courtesy of TAKSU Singapore
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