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U N D E R S T A N D I N G H A T T A

PROLOGUE

Understanding about Mohd Hatta Ismail is like a kid trying to understand William Shakespeare’s poet they said.

Understanding about Mohd Hatta Ismail is like a kid looking at Leonardo da Vinci’s artwork they said.

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Indeed it is very deep and abstract, but as he present his slides I was amaze that how Mr. Hatta find their own weird interest in relating art and sculpture to architecture. Mr. Hatta is an architect that fantasize on his own things by practicing on art, sculpt and architecture.

UNDERSTANDING MR. HATTA

The first topic has made me confused about this public talk, is it about architecture or arts but that never change my mind to listen to his talk. The first topic was about him trying out materials, molding and sculpting a bowl. He said that he was trying out form and material when he was molding the bowl. What interest me most is that all his bowls has different texture, material, and shape, that shows that he have gone through this process call design process. It makes it more interesting when you put a picture of process. Mr. Hatta said he did all this is because he is trying to understand surface.

Papier Mache Bowl by Mr. Hatta

What I first saw on this picture he talk about is like an optical illusion of something covering an object, maybe I was too sleepy to focus. It was an ornament that is used in a building.

​The next topic he talk about is also not related to architecture, that is canvas paintings. The first art that he paint is a two lady in a painting with two rocks. He was not trying to imitate human anatomy on his paintings he said.

Artworks by Mr. Hatta

When he said that his paintings is trying to understand the canvas by having a dialog with the canvas, He asked the canvas what the canvas want. This dialog reminds me of Louis Kahn, the dialog with the brick.

The Brick Dialog by Louis Kahn

Understanding lines artwork by Mr. Hatta

In each painting he show us is an understanding of what is he trying to understand, he said that he was trying to understand lines at its natural self because normally we start from lines to form to shape. He understand lines by understanding the surface too, it is like architecture + art.

When he said that he was creating a silhouette and not an abstract, that was shocking for me because what we see is an abstract but what he sees is a silhouette. This explains that perspective on something is very subjective.

Creating a floating artifact by Mr. Hatta

Next the Museum Sultan Abu Bakar, he was not designing the building but he did interior managing in terms of how the artifacts should be place and how it should be design. Firstly he said that he want to create a simple and minimalist way for the artifacts, with a glass box to act as the stand makes the artifact to be floating. In this design, I observe that he was trying to appreciate the artifact by making people to focus on the artifact more and not the stand and he made it!

Lembing Hierarchy by Mr. Hatta

All the vertically standing lembing are history of different people who wield it, the special lembing that is with the yellow scarf is belong to someone important, too sleepy to remember.

Artwork as a backdrop by Mr. Hatta

Artwork by Mr. Hatta

In this series of public lecture, I learn that Mr. Hatta follow himself and he follow his own way. He told us that he found perfection in imperfection, he has his own weird ways in approaching design, for instance like the dialog between him and the canvas. He always tries to understand what does that thing want to be then he design it accordingly. I feel that is a very interesting talk by Mr. Hatta, from the bowl to the artwork and to architecture. I felt terribly sorry for not paying attention on the last few topic and not taking enough picture for this blog because I personally am a fan of public lectures, hope that forgiveness is shown.

SILALIMA by Mr. Hatta

What I love most about the Museum is that he relate decorating the interior to his artwork by saying that artwork can be a background. I find that he really loves to paint, an architect that loves painting.

SILALIMA by Mr. Hatta

Artwork in SILALIMA by Mr. Hatta

For the Nr NeXT Courtyard House topic, I literally felt lost because of the lack of sleep that is killing me.

CONCLUSION

The doors are place in that position because he wanted to make the space feel like one. In this building, he told us about the painting he made in one of the bedrooms. It makes me laugh for that moment.

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