CMAtira Ariffin
interview JORGE PEREZCHICA
Can you tell us about yourself and background as an artist?
I am originally from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, and I moved to London a few years ago when I received an offer to study architecture at the Architectural Association. As a person, I would categorize myself as somewhat an introverted individual. Ever since I was little, I have always had difficulties in expressing myself, so I found comfort whenever I dissolved myself in my own ‘art world.’ I don’t view it as a form of detachment from my surrounding, but rather it is my own way of communication or projection of what I perceive, feel, and think. It was a personal therapy. I’ve been drawing and painting for as long as I can remember, though I’ve never received any formal education or training in art. Art has never been something that I ever imagined to be a career path. It wasn’t something that I took very seriously in the past; it was more like a personal hobby, an escapism. Growing up, I have never really exposed any of my personal artworks to people around me (even my family) until the recent couple of years when I started posting my artworks on my Instagram and, to my surprise, it drew a lot of attention and people started following me just because they like my artworks. It gave me a lot of confidence boost to develop my artworks further and take it to another level.
Can you tell us about your hometown?
Kuala Lumpur, where I grew up, is the capital city of Malaysia. It is a vibrant mix of mismatched modern and old buildings, trendy nightspots, towering sky-scrappers, bustling street markets, mega-sized shopping malls, historic monuments, ornamented mosques and temples, colonial buildings and lush parks. It has a dynamic atmosphere where the country’s main ethnic population, the Malay, Chinese and Indian communities coexist in harmony and the blend of the different cultural influences gives the city an exotic buzz. And of course, we Malaysians are very proud of our food! The ethnic diversity has greatly influenced our local food. Malaysian food is all about the mix and fusion of mouth-watering Asian culinary traditions of the different ethnics. Needless to say, Malaysia will always retain that special place in my heart no matter where I am.
You post images on your Instagram from many places around the world — how far have you traveled and how has it influenced you? Do you have a favorite place?
To date, I have travelled and backpacked to forty countries across six continents. Traveling is indeed an overwhelming experience. It is almost like a personal pilgrimage in finding myself. Being in a new place freed my consciousness of what I perceived as familiarity, ordinariness, normality. It broke free all of those chains and I found myself enveloped in a strange, unfamiliar realm. These kind of experiences activated me as a person. I became alert, my senses sharpened and heightened. I found great inspirations in the new places I learnt about, the people, their history and richness in culture, social diversity, the pain and struggles, the dark sides of the places, the depth of shadows that are hidden beneath the often superficial exteriority of each place, the colourful atmosphere that decorated each place, the taste of the food, the smell of the street — all of this mix and jumble of things that clashed and coexist with one another, they made me see the world not just as black and white, but rather as a composition of various mixture of colours and textures.
On your social media it says “I want to fly to the moon of Saturn.” Can you tell us about that?
I love astronomy. When I was about nine years old, I wanted to be an astronomer. I was really keen on the idea that for a long time, I was buried nose deep in various encyclopedias about the planets, the Moon, the Sun, the galaxy, the blackhole, the various star charts, the Milky Way, and the space explorations. (Well obviously, a few years down the road my interest in architecture took over). So, a few months ago I was watching a fascinating documentary on Saturn and its 53 beautiful moons orbiting around the planet. I was so intrigued by it that a sudden thought just popped into my mind, “I want to fly to the moon of Saturn.” Previously, my Instagram tagline was “I’m an astronaut.”
What’s next? Any goals or plans for the future?
At the moment I am pretty much occupied with my fifth year design thesis. This year I am focusing on developing a Re-Generative and Resilient Architectural Habitat based in Central Africa, and I will be traveling to Rwanda early next year for research purposes. I am also in the midst of working on a personal photography project. I am documenting the homeless in London, where these unfortunate people merely exist and are viewed as “objects” within the urban fabric. I am interested in capturing the sense of isolation and detachment that they experience as well as the way they interact with the city, the way they view the city, and the way the city sees them. For next year, my aim is to try squeezing some time to develop a new painting series as well as launching limited edition prints of my previous artworks.
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