BRIGHT-EYED and bushy-tailed, these fresh graduates from the fine art department of UiTM Shah Alam have very different styles and interests but they are united by their energy and their love for their craft, thus forming a sturdy triangle. The exhibition, aptly titled “Triangle”, is a celebration of their joint efforts.

Mohd Bakir Baharom, 23, chose to tackle a “heavy” subject: the harmful effects of smoking. Recently crowned the Grand Prize Winner of the Nokia Creative Art Awards 2005, this promising artist explores the hazy issue of smoking and the devastating effect it has on our bodies. Despite his youth, the gravity of the issue has rooted itself firmly in his psyche.

A self-confessed reformed smoker, he has friends who have suffered strokes as a result of tobacco abuse. He laments, “My own father had a heart attack because of smoking-related problems. I’ve translated my concern into a subject for my art. In my pieces, I’ve focused on three vital organs affected by smoking: brain, lungs, heart.”

He also gathers the lore surrounding cigarettes and transforms them into images in his paintings. He says, “You should listen to the way smokers talk. Apparently, cigarettes make them happy, the effect ‘pleasurable’.

I’ve used the metaphor of lotuses as pleasure providers in Bicaraku, Bicaramu Jua I. Lotuses are also icons of meditation, but in my pieces they have symbolic power.

“In Ia Berbicara Lagi II are my thoughts of why I can’t stop smoking,” Bakir explains. How interesting. Stream of consciousness as visual art! He goes on to explain his use of a new medium — smoke itself. “I use smoke as a medium. The brown spots in my paintings are the nicotine stains of different types of cigarettes, (even keretek) versus things like the exhaust from diesel engines. I’ve done lots of research with cigarettes and other forms of combustibles, like kerosene.”

Although the topic is a dead serious one, the paintings are anything but. Some of them are even ethereal and not without humour. The delicate layering effect on the surface of many of his canvases is created by a tedious process of smoking each layer onto the canvas and washing it off in between applications. The effect is almost watercolour-like.

As an additional hazard warning, Bakir inserts the universal logo for “Handle with Care” in several of his paintings to remind us of the fragility of our bodies.

Mohd Fazli Othman, 24, features his singular style of presenting traditional and cultural elements in a contemporary manner. His work focuses on imagery related to games of chance, from cards to horse racing. These images are colourful and larger than life, just like those used by the industry to seduce gamblers.

Fazli also uses pop culture symbols boldly in his large canvases. “They are a reflection of modern gamblers and popular images like the rooster. Horses are used as primary and secondary images. I also use playing cards and calendars highlighting horse races on wooden blocks resembling dice in my installation piece, Lambung Terlambung.”

Fazli cleverly chose to depict the dice in a positive way, as an attractive way to get attention. The installation is open to being moved around. He explains, “After all, dice is six-sided and when you move them about, you’ll get different results each time due to ‘chance’.”

Don’t be surprised to find a shark, a cockerel or horses as the primary focus of his work.

The shark is inspired by a brand of playing cards and animals like the cockerel and horses are used to fight and race for betting purposes. Fazli wants to show that on their own and taken out of context, the objects he portrays are beautiful but what they are associated with is not.

Muhd Sarip Abdul Rahman, 25, is obsessed with superheroes popularised by western culture. He shares, “My work is based on my experience of the influence of pop culture in general and superheroes in particular. My favourite superhero is Batman. When there is a contradiction between reality and fantasy, I use colours like black to emphasise the fantasy dimension. The superhero’s shadow symbolises the fantasy of the child, his wannabe persona.”

As an artist, he is also concerned with the influence superheroes, such as Superman and Spiderman, have on children and whether that influence is positive or longlasting. Fantasy figures are very influential and powerful as their images and values are continually exposed to impressionable young minds, especially those perpetuated via TV, which is omnipresent in Malaysian homes. Sarip questions whether young minds will be able to differentiate between right and wrong, and make clear distinctions in grey areas such as the use of violence (in the quest for justice) and aggressive behaviour, like fighting, in order to defeat baddies.

Sarip’s commentary on superheroes are presented in his works through large-scaled images of himself as a child together with well-known superheroes like Spiderman and Batman.

Some of his works, like You Make Me Angry and Windows to the Stars is three-dimensional with strings of ringgit notes. Sarip maintains that, “going 3D is unintentional. When I’m installing an art piece and when the two-dimensional work seems incomplete or unexciting, I will explore adding something to it to make it whole”.

The “Triangle” exhibition is on until March 26 at Galeri Seni Maya, 12, 1st floor, Jalan Telawi 3, Bangsar Baru 59100 Kuala Lumpur. Tel: 03-2282-2069, email maya@mayagallery.com.my. It’s open every day except Monday.