A Small Town at the Turn of the Century

I thought of writing something a little different today after discovering an artist who took amazing surreal photograph that reflects my home country, Malaysia. After being here in Taiwan for a long time and have not been practicing my writing ever since my diploma time. I thought, why not ?

“A Small Town at the Turn of the Century” is a series of forty square-format c-type photographs taken by Simryn Gill, an artist who works in sculpture, photography, drawing and writing. She has different background culture as she was born in 1959 in Singapore, grew up in Malaysia, after that she was educated in India and the United Kingdom. Now she lives and works in Sydney, Australia. “A Small Town at the Turn of the Century” is the first solo show of her work in New Zealand.

This series of photographs were taken in Simryn Gill’s home town of Port Dickson in Malaysia. The photographs highlight people whose faces are covered by tropical fruits, which act as a replacement for their heads. There’s a variety of fruits shown, including watermelons, durians, jackfruits, and many more which are all Malaysia Tropical fruits. 3 of the photographs that I have chosen which are 29, 35 and 40 consist of an individual from different background. One of them was a female rubber tree plantation worker, a Chinese male fruit hawker and an Indian male standing in front of his motorbike and a small blue store behind. Each of them showed different occupation and status of the 90’s. Both the subject and the background of the photographs are well contrasted for example, the green and red fruit, the blue and red fruit and the dark and yellowish-green fruit.

The colorful compositions and strange combination of fruit heads and human bodies convey a surreal and humorous aesthetic. The compositions of 29 and 35 are quite similar. Both the main subjects were placed on the centered while the main subject of the 40 was placed on the left side. The color combination for 35 is my most favorite ones among the 3 of them because of the use of pop colors. The different shades and patterns of the blue stall was enough to make the individual stand out with his white t-shirt. On top of the blue stall, there is a strip of red little flags which helps to decrease the concentration of the rambutan. The colors of 29 and 40’s photograph were not as pop as 35. In 29, it gives a kind of gloomy and coldness to the viewer because of the unsaturated of the green grass, red fruit and the dark purplish background. The composition of the photograph is what interest me, the worker were placed in the middle and were surrounded by the rubber trees. The Tree trunk were arranged randomly but conveying a sense of balance and harmony at the same time. For the last photograph which is 40, the composition was not as balance as the first two pictures. The man was sitting on the left side of the of the picture with a huge fruit on his head, to balance up the picture a little, a stack of yellow-greenish fruits were taken to add some weight on the right side.

Although clues are given about the photographed people through their variation of pose, clothing, interior, exterior, and accoutrements that suggest activities, in this case, all of the individuals are working, but without faces, we won’t really know them as individuals or their personalities. Covering the head move the images away from being portraits and into the broader realm of context. The context however is not necessarily to be as revealing as the viewer might wish. I personally felt that the photographer was using the different Malaysia tropical fruits as a kind of identity or races for the individuals. Malaysia consists many kind of races after the post- colonialism. Although consisting of Malays, Chinese and Indian just like jackfruit and rambutan, but all of these races are known as Malaysians just like the fruits family.

The combination of human subjects with fruits also invokes the close relationship between humankind and the plant world. As during the turn of the century from the 1999 to 2000, Malaysia was rich with different kind of tropical fruits and plants like rubber tree and palm oil. They are the main export income of the country during that time of the period. Individuals from photograph 29 and 40 have occupations related to fruits, working with nature in order to get their income. As the tittle state “A Small Town at the Turn of the Century (1999-2000)”, these photographs were also a kind of record of what was going on during the turn of the century in Malaysia. Simryn took photographs of the individual’s lifestyle and the occupation of Malaysian from different class during that moment. For these 3 photographs, it will be a rubber plantation worker from class 3 and both possibly stall owners from class 2.

Simryn Gill creates her works by drawing images and resources from her surroundings. As a result, her many bodies of work track her well-traveled biography. She used photography as a way to record or shows the truth that had happened during the turn of the century from 1999 – 2000. To turn away from realism, Simryn substitute the individual head using fruits to create a kind of surreal and playful composition. This series of Photograph really show a kind of Malaysia’s identity by using the Tropical Fruits, different races of individual and also the familiar scene in Malaysia.