Sharon Chin: Ingin Jadi Pelukis (Drawings 2013 – 2018)
Fundraising exhibition in support of Malaysian Art Archive and Research Support
13 – 20 Feb 2019
HOM Art Trans

The title of the exhibition borrows from A Samad Ismail’s (1924 – 2008) short story collection ‘Ingin Jadi Pujangga’ (Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka, 1994).

For many years, I was an artist who didn’t draw, or believed she couldn’t draw, which amounts to the same thing. In 2011, I moved from KL to Port Dickson. When I told the locals I was an artist, they always asked the same thing: can you draw me? So I told myself: I better learn! I was lucky to discover the work of Lynda Barry, an American cartoonist whose books ‘What It Is’ and ‘Picture This’ opened a doorway for me into drawing. She taught me that there are many ways to create an image, most of which don’t require technical skill, or ‘talent’, but enthusiasm, desire and the willingness to try.

The drawings in this show include illustration, activist work, and graphic journalism. There are also drawings for artworks I wanted to make, or had already made. They represent the thrill and challenge I find in drawing, as well as the joy of becoming an artist who fulfills the vision of what her local community thinks an artist is, and should be.

Below images from opening night. Photos by HOM Art Trans.