Noor is an image based project that seeks to mediate different tangents of societal and political truths and untruths of the 21st century that shroud the artist’s selfhood as a Muslim living in Singapore. The project stems from what feels like a crisis of identity for the artist, one whose voice is warped by monumental forces of structures and systems, especially perpetuated by mainstream media. Within this societal quagmire, he feels that new realities are unjustly invented, imposed as a collective trait of certain communities. New realities that are ironically, becoming nexuses of contention, fear and confusion for the perpetuators alike. Noor, being the artist middle name, as well as “light” in Arabic, becomes the focus in this profound discourse. It encourages a dialogue that navigates through the poetics of light and space as well as traversing the notion of beauty and reality, of distance and nearness. The artist has begun the process of resolving the complexities plaguing his identity with a poignant overture; a calling, a cry to reclaim his comfort, heart and voice.
Noor stems from the artist’s observation of how overtly amplified noises are in today’s spaces; be it in physical or virtual ones. The notion of how much this distraction shroud the voice of the Self triggered the artist’s passion to offer points of negotiations. Noor manifests itself as a two-part image-based installation, in the form of an emotional as well as a critical response to this crisis of identity.
The artist feels that in today’s age, the Self is at peril of being unfairly heaped together by a set of stereotypes and preordained, parasitical classification- guilt by association. This worrying reality is more so apparent for the Muslim Self. There seems to be a caustic confusion, undermining the distinct and diverse individual beings, now seen as a single entity. As a Southeast Asian, Malay-Indian heritage artist who is of the Islamic faith, he feels that the effects and clutches of Islamophobia has reached into his placement and existence. The war on terror that culmintates over these years thrust Muslims into the forefront. The artist believes that it does not augur well for the identity to be clasped by a singular, tantamount attitude, consciousness and psyche, a radical view constructed, over time by higher forces.