BIRING is Yusof Ghani’s tribute to the cock-fight, a raw explosion of energy and passion on canvas to symbolise the heroism and strife of mankind. LOKE POH LIN writes.

YUSOF Ghani’s latest magnum opus, Biring, hits you like a 10-tonne truck. Your senses are flooded with an explosion of colour and passion… yes, the impact is instant and it is powerful.

The energy captured in many of the big pieces is so potent that it is quite plausible to stand in front of them and get engulfed in the fight for life the cockerels in the paintings are engaged in. One can almost smell the blood and hear the ruckus as they fly all over the canvas. After we ourselves had settled down and smoothed our own ruffled (emotional) feathers, we sat down with the affable artist to chat about Biring.

What exactly does the word mean? “Biring is a colloqualism for bird. In Malay, the word is also used for orange, vermillion… that shade which is merah kekuning-kuningan,” Yusof explained. A colour which is generously used in quite a few pieces in this exhibition. Biring is Yusof’s tribute to the cockfight, a phenomenon which symbolises the heroism and strife of mankind. The cock-fight is closely linked to Malay culture and it is embraced by everyone from kampung folks all the way up to the royal courts.

Yusof also uses the colourful cockerel as a metaphor for pride, false bravado, or, as he puts it, “tipu helang”. In a way, it is his comment on society. “Cock-fights are all-consuming, a compulsion, like gambling. It mirrors human nature when we are unable to balance or control ourselves. This is the content, the morals, morality. “I’m using the sifat (characteristics) of the animals to show this. We should look around us, look for balance, what’s right and wrong,” said Yusof.

The 54 paintings which make up Biring are the result of two factors: stimuli from travel (in 2006, he made no less than seven trips to Indonesia: Surabaya, Bali, Jogja, Macassar, Bandung) and what Yusof maintains as his support system: the people around him (family, gallery owner, artists) who provide inspiration and support.

Yusof said, “From all this comes Biring. I can’t come up with another Biring right now. Maybe in another six months. Energy-wise it is difficult.” This collection is the fruit of what Yusof terms as his “imagination and reality”, one which is full of what he calls semangat. On his return from those Indonesian sorties, he would feel what he terms “the semangat rising”. The fusion of his imagination and the reality of the cock-fight? An explosion on the canvas expressed with paint and passion. Yusof recalled, “When I’m working I become like a fighter cock. Painting’s like a kind of therapy, a letting go of emotions, a release, a total release of the imagination. There was no planning, no premeditation. Once I start, there’s no telling how it will finish, this dialogue between me and the canvas.”

No wonder Yusof Ghani’s works are infused with such strong colours, strokes, flourishes. They are all part and parcel of the semangat. Yusof strongly believes in “the power of art to move and illicit a response and the power of the visual”. Biring is testimony to this.

His first piece in this series, Biring I , is a double-frame painting of awesome magnitude. The strokes are mega bold; the use of reds, oranges and black almost overpowering. Lim Wei-Ling of Wei-Ling Gallery remembered that this piece started with a lot of orange. Yusof confirmed this. As he worked, more and more black was used to depict details, overlapping and interplaying with the burnt tangerine hues.

As work progressed on Biring II and III and the subsequent pieces, Biring IV Biring XI the artist’s strokes became finer, the flurries and flourishes more defined and the colours more subdued, only to be regenerated into a bigger fire again later in the series. It is a huge departure from the kind of work this well-regarded and prolific artist is known for, his Topeng and Segerak series, his love of the human form. It is amazing that he has gone out on a limb to explore the unfamiliar, the new.

With Biring, his ability to absorb the life-anddeath energy and pathos of the cock-fight and transform those impressions into tangible art is a triumphant sign of his prowess.

Biring, the exhibition, is proudly sponsored by Peninsular Gold Limited and will be accompanied by a hard-cover book to mark the launch. The book is available for sale at the gallery and at all major bookstores in Malaysia.

Biring runs at Wei-Ling Gallery till April 2, 2007. The gallery is located at No.8 Jalan Scott, Brickfields, Kuala Lumpur. Opening hours: Mon-Fri 12pm-7pm. Weekends by appointment. Tel: 03-22601106/ 017-8877216, fax: 03-22601107, e-mail esmelimweiling@yahoo.com or go to www.weiling-gallery.com. Admission is free.