Deciphering Briggs

SIR Harold Briggs composed of fruits and vegetables on Malaysia’s Independence Day? That’s right.

The market-going public in Seri Kembangan new village will be greeted by a large portrait of this historical figure, artfully composed with all kinds of colourful fruits and vegetables.

They’ll be invited to buy these fruits and vegetables, and talk about this figure and how he has impacted their lives and personal histories.

This site-specific interactive art installation is the brainchild of the young and multi-talented artist Tan Zi Hao who’s Seri Kembangan-born, bred, schooled, and yet all throughout his schooling years, knew nothing about the history of the new villages and the role played by Sir Harold Briggs in their formation.

Although using vegetables and fruits to compose portrait heads is not new to art (it’s a form made famous by 16th century Italian painter Giuseppe Arcimboldo), Zi Hao puts a twist to this by using real fruits and vegetables.

In Deciphering Briggs (In Search of Relevancy in a Physiognomy of Someone Relevant to New Villages), he transports art into the interactive space of a wet market, turning the public space into a platform for exhibiting and viewing art.

He will try to use art as a tool to spark interactions and conversations.

Deciphering Briggs alludes to the process of finding the answers to questions that we’re still trying to decipher today: how did the Briggs Plan inadvertently affect the lives of countless new village residents; and who decides how new villages are evolving today?

Deciphering Briggs is on today from 8am-noon at Seri Kembangan New Village Market Square, in the vicinity of 1948 Artspace. Call Tan (017-2604739) or Chu Chu Yuan (017-2352745) for details.