#KoraliReview - Inertia by Mariyam Omar

The gallery is hushed this afternoon, the paintings a blend of vibrant red, dark, and light. Some textures catch the eye, and often the subjects have a seductiveness, drawing the eye to them.

These paintings have the intimacy of the contents in a young artist’s sketchbook, possessing a rawness that at times means hastily executed, as though attempting to capture what might soon be lost.

Inertia is personal, yet it has a gaze, a way of observing and portraying its subjects. The faceless figures with delicate hands and feet have a self-consciousness that is expressed in several ways. Their posture is affected, their nakedness is strategically exposed and concealed. They are aware of where they are, the line they tread. They are objects of desire as well, calling out for our attention.

The subjects also seem to be placed at the whim of great personal forces, depicted as a simple, stylised chaos from which they are emerging or into which they are descending. Do they want to remain as they are when confronted with the world, its choices? Are they victims of their own ignorance, frozen into place by conflicting needs and feelings? Do they wait for a push to overcome this stasis?

In the paintings, I tried to find the subjects’ confrontation with the wider community or societal structures that the artist mentions in their statement. However, that seems a missing aspect in these pieces – their subjects seem very insulated from the world. That is, unless we the public are adding this element in our own interactions with these paintings. If so, we complete them, and without us they would remain unfinished, but I doubt this is the case.  

The installation, which also appeared at the Fabulous Art Show, is the best executed symbol of the artist’s intent. Its central position in the gallery space commands engagement. The red doorway acts as a portal to someone’s psyche yet the flowy shapes behind it reveal nothing. It seems to say if we peer behind the curtain of our everyday interactions, we are forced to confront the sheer mystery of our human experience. And its expression through a shared language bears all the limitations of the medium. We are essentially unknowable, even to ourselves – the ‘cycle of knowledge’ begins with us examining our subjectivity and finding nothing.

There is a lot to read into, and maybe that is all I am doing. To me, the exhibition is personal, but too direct and self-conscious, and far from masterful in its execution. It is lacking those deeper dimensions and subtleties of the works of artists the Gallery 350 has previously exhibited, that can enhance and convey the message better and invite deeper engagement. Maybe I’m not the ideal visitor, but I would encourage everyone to experience Inertia nevertheless, and to be open to seeing and interpreting the works in novel and personal ways.