First of all, the review on A Matter of Time must be interpreted from the history of Redza Piyadasa’s development as an artist first. One thing that must be noted is that before this artwork was produced in 1977, there was an exhibition titled Towards the Mystical Reality in 1974. Around that period, Redza was advocating for artworks that have a strong intellectual conviction and strongly believed that artist should not focus on the formalistic anymore; but to act as a thinker, a theoretician. Due to his focus on the intellectual aspect of art, the attempt to develop a new philosophical rationale arises. As written in Empty Canvas on which Many Shadows Have Already Fallen, “they(Redza and Suleiman) sought to enrich a common intellectual bank from different positions, on different grounds, in different terms, dislocating the West as the discursive centre.”  His intention is even clearer in their manifesto for the exhibition, “they hoped to SOW THE SEEDS FOR A THINKING PROCESS WHICH MIGHT SOMEDAY LIBERATE MALAYSIAN ARTISTS FROM THEIR DEPENDENCE ON WESTERN INFLUENCE.”

He believed that, “ so long as they remained indebted to Western-oriented idioms, they would never make any significant contribution to the international modern art conversation because, truth be told, the works, “WOULD ALWAYS REMAIN DERIVATIVE AND SECOND RATE.”

With this thinking model, he indeed found an alternative; which is the Asian mystical way of expressions/interpretation. As stated in Towards the Mystical Reality essay, “WHEREAS ONE WAS MOTIVATED BY MYSTICAL CONSIDERATIONS, THE OTHER WAS ESSENTIALLY SCIENTIFIC!”

So what is the mystical way of considerations? It is an alternative way in perceiving reality. In the West, the tendency had been to isolate aspects of reality and study them consciously; however in the Far East the tendency had been to observe reality in its entirety. It is seeing that objects are also events, that the object is a collection of processes and events rather than entities. Moreover, with him realizing that the alternative is not originated from any religion but a philosophy strengthens his belief that this is the best way forward to replace the Western method of interpreting.

Returning to the A Matter of Time, it is very obvious that this is his continuous effort in proposing an alternative method that’s Eastern centric and sticks to our cultural root. Therefore, if the audience view this artwork in what he terms as the Western way, which isolates the artwork as one subject and study them, audience will only interpret it as meaningless and from my first visit of this work, stupid. Looking back, it is now understandable as well why during the opening of his exhibition in 1974, the renowned poet Salleh ben Joned urinated on the catalogue; probably realising that the exhibition just showcases empty bird cages, half drunk Coke bottles and many more which contradicts the conventional medium that is termed as Art.

Moving on, so what can we obtain if we obliged to his theoretical framework, the mystical way?  The object, which is the chair; is actually a collections of events and processes. The middle gap of the chair will raise question such as ‘what makes the artist to decide to saw that off?’, ‘what events lead him to do that and ultimately created that gap of this chair?’. There is actually an answer for this from my personal interpretation. Looking back at the artist’s shift of perspective; from formalistic to intellectual to discovering a new philosophy for local artist; all these events and processes lead the artist to saw that middle part off; all because of his desire to propose his idea to the audience, to change the audience’s thinking model and hoping to affect Malaysia art direction.

That gap, in summary, comprises the artist’s ambition, philosophy, vision, desire to change, deep research, frustration and mentality change. This, is the Eastern mystical way of thinking that he was advocating about; by not looking an object as the final reality, but to think deeper and investigate what created that final object.

Lastly, I always have the tendency to think how my interpretation of artwork can help me in my personal life, because I believe great artworks can really strengthen my personal development. Therefore, to conclude this review, the thing that I learned the most from A Matter of Time is that there are always an alternative in life; it is only up to yourself to discover it. Also, do not just think in one perspective and interpret merely on a surface basis. Look into the processes and events behind it; because who knows, you may one day discover something that no one ever discovered, which I think, is the meaning of innovation .