Chope: Same Old Faces

There's a common breed of creature in the Klang Valley arts and entertainment circle best known as the multi-hyphenate. Actor-directors, singer-songwriters and models who act, sing, dance and promote facial cleansers and attend product launches are of course fairly common anywhere in the world but, what I'm referring to is the many personalities who dabble in very different fields. Like a filmmaker who acts, writes poetry and short stories, takes photos and also appears on the theatre stage… and DJs on the weekend.

Such people are not unusual here. One might sometimes see the same person appearing in the credits of an indie film, an art exhibition, writing a column in the newspaper and publishing books—all while juggling the usual marketing and promotional work that comes with the territory. The result is that a book reading and a short film screening could very well be organised by the same people, involving the same people too. And, most unfortunately, attended often by the same people.

Let me give you a specific example (and shamelessly promote a project I'm involved with at the same time). I have an essay published in the first volume of the New Malaysian Essays. It was compiled and published by Amir Muhammad, who is best known to the general public as a maker of communist films, but who actually started out as a columnist in a newspaper. The book was laid out by a design company that is run by Fahmi Fadzil, who, in addition to being a columnist in this magazine, is best known for his work in theatre. Those are very different fields.

Some say the result is the impression that the local arts scene, particularly from the English-speaking community—rightly or wrongly—are an exclusive club comprised of the same 50 people who are Jacks and Jills of all trades deemed "creative." Homogenous, the nicer ones would say. Incestuous, others prefer.

It's a silly notion, of course. After all, anyone and everyone is free to write, act, direct, sing or splatter some paint on canvas and call it art. The fact that so many artists are infusing their energy into such a wide array of endeavours, in my opinion, is not merely indicative of how much they’re doing. Instead, it shows that others are doing too little. The problem isn't the "same old faces," I think. It's the lack of new faces.

Of course, that's a sweeping generalisation. Indie filmmaking used to be synonymous with Amir, James Lee, Ho Yuhang and Yasmin Ahmad. Today, the pool is far bigger, with many new directors who have taken the baton and ran with it. Many of them are specific in their focus—very few multi-hyphenates here. There are also plenty of young upstarts who are creating their own music and street fashion scene.

Nevertheless, the fact remains that the arts—specifically stuff with little commercial value—remains a niche in the Klang Valley. So it's little surprising that a writer, indie filmmaker, theatre, musician is hardly a fulltime job. With time and excess creative energy, what's the sensible thing for a musician to do? Make films, of course.

In economics, it's commonly accepted wisdom that competition results in better quality products at cheaper prices. Applying that principle towards the arts, be it music, film, theatre or what have you, and it seems obvious that the more people we have involved in the arts, the more vibrant and lively the scene will be, with productions improving in quality too. So why isn't this supposed hegemony being threatened by a new generation of talented young mavericks? Or will we have to import foreign labour to do the work that we don't want to do?

Brian Yap is a man of many punctuation, but the hyphen remains elusive to him. Write to him at brian@freeform.com.my