Noor Mahnun Anum
Scenes from Another Life:
Anum’s set comes to life through music and dancing, decorated much like her own living room. She draws her inspiration from her personal experiences, yet the environments she paints are fictional renderings of a domestic setting. From the geometric rug and bookshelf to her own books and records, you’re invited to listen to a playlist, including the soundtrack that inspired her painting An Evening (2026). Music from the Bollywood movie An Evening in Paris (1967) wafts through the space – evoking Anum’s memory of her sister dancing to these songs on stage at school.
Adding to the celebratory atmosphere is Disc (2026), where a woman dances in a beautiful green dress with a disco ball above her head – at a birthday party according to the artist. The green in her dress is a colour used by Anum frequently, as an ode to the Arnolfini Portrait (1434) by Van Eyck, and the outfit worn by Sharmila Tagore in the film An Evening in Paris. The recurring patterns of Penang floor tiles echo throughout the space, conjuring a homely feel, with sunset pink walls and sky-blue watercolours (aptly named the Blue Monday series after New Order’s famous 1983 song), complementing Shayne Phua’s nearby curtains.
Further Notes:
Reading Dave Hickey’s essay ‘Pontormo’s Rainbow’ in his book Air Guitar: Essays on Art & Democracy led me to research Isaac Newton’s Optiks, a book on prisms and the colours of the rainbow: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and violet. With these hues in mind, I combined the seven days of the week with the seven colours to create the Blue Monday paintings – ‘cerulean blue monday’ and ‘cobalt blue monday’, tributes to the track by New Order. The rest of the weekdays and their assigned pigments remain in my sketchbook for the moment.
I decided on ‘Cerulean Blue’, a small oil on linen painting of a squeezed oil tube, painted for my solo xxv (2010) which featured still lives and portraits. Instead of writing about the work, I decided to submit my thoughts on paper in watercolour. Cerulean blue is a favourite colour of mine.
Ralph Mayer, in The Artist’s Handbook of Materials and Techniques, provided a brief history: “A bright sky blue, quite opaque. Permanent for all uses. Known as early as 1805. Introduced by George Rowney, England, in 1870 under the name of Coereleum, derived from caeruleum, Latin for sky-blue pigment, applied by the Romans mainly to Egyptian blue.” From that initial piece, the exercise grew and continued with variations of the same pattern, differing only in lightness of wash or colour.
