Why limit paintings to a canvas or even a wall when you can paint everything in sight? Walls, floor, ceiling; everything. That’s the approach of Singapore’s Rizman Putra. When he creates a piece, you don’t just view it. You experience it. You literally get to step inside his paintings.
Petal-like shapes branch out every which way, spreading like nebulous vines across the interior, one intuitive stroke directing the next until they cascade across all surfaces, enveloping the viewer in endless layers. The thick black linework is drawn in Chinese ink, forming varying, abstract shapes. Thinner lines fill them in, creating depth and texture. All of it is painted on clean white backgrounds that glow beneath. Putra’s work seems to dance within its spaces, and indeed, performance art is at the root of his style, since that’s where he comes from.
绘画何必局限于画布或墙壁之上？事实上，墙壁、地板、天花板，目之所及皆可成为你的画布。这种理念被运用于新加坡艺术家 Rizman Putra 的作品当中。他的画作不仅可供观看，甚至还能身临其境，让你漫步于他的绘画作品之中。
花瓣形状全方位延伸，像抽象的藤蔓在屋内蔓延；随性的笔触连绵不绝，覆盖空间的整个表面，将观众包裹在无尽的丰富肌理中。其中，较厚的黑色线条采用中式水墨，勾勒出多变且抽象的轮廓。再由精致线条填充其中，制造深度和纹理。所有的一切都绘画于荧白的墙壁上。Rizman 的作品仿佛在空间里舞动。这种看似行为艺术的表达方式，正是他创作灵感的根本来源。
“When performing, you learn the concept of endurance. The body has to go through a kind of surrender and control when you are in a state of performing your ideas,” Putra explains. “I adapt that to my works, which require a certain kind of discipline and meditation. The shapes take their own form, as I don’t set my work to look like objects, humans, animals or anything in particular. They’re characters having conversations and interacting with each other. “
Rizman 解释说：“我的创作就像一场表演，只不过这场演出挺考验人耐力的。当你将自己的想法表演出来时，你的身体同时也必须经历一种屈服与控制。我将这一点融入我的作品，这其中体现了一定的自律与冥想。所有的形状自然而成，我在创作时并不刻意追求要看起来像特定的物体、人类、动物或任何事物。这些形状的本身就是一个个的角色，彼此交流、互动。”
Putra is a Malay-Singaporean of Javanese descent. His parents were blue-collar workers but his mom enjoyed singing and making crafts at home. These activities sparked his creativity as a child, but he admits that he only enrolled in art school because he didn’t know what he wanted to do with his life. After graduating, he was conscripted into the Singaporean National Service and maintained his artistic leanings by drawing in a small sketchbook. “That’s when I started jotting down ideas for performances and in my time off I was getting involved with the performance art crowd,” he recalls. After serving, he started a multi-disciplinary collective called Kill Your Television and eventually earned his master’s degree.
Rizman是马来新加坡的爪哇族人，父母都是体力劳动工人。他的妈妈喜欢唱歌和手工，激发了他的艺术创作才华，但他坦承，自己最初入读艺术学校只是因为不知道将来想做什么。毕业后，他被征入新加坡国民服役，在此期间，他一直在一本小速写本上画画，以此来保持自己的艺术表达。“我从那时起记录了很多关于表演的想法，休假的时候，我还去认识了一些表演艺术人群。”他回忆道。结束服役后，他创立了名为“关了你的电视（Kill Your Television）”的跨界艺术团体，并最终获得了硕士学位。
In 2019, he painted his first immersive installation titled Chonteng, which means “doodle” in Malay. He had completed most of the painting himself but left a blank space in the middle of the dancefloor. At the opening ceremony, he passed out markers for the crowd to finish the rest. A DJ also played while a performer danced, her bright metallic costume shining brightly in the black-and-white room. “It was such beautiful chaos,” Putra recalls. “People were just enjoying the space and hanging out, everyone having fun drawing together.”
2019 年，他创作了个人第一部沉浸式艺术作品，名为“Chonteng”，在马来语中意为“涂鸦”。在这幅作品中，Rizman 刻意在中间留下一片空白。开幕当天，他给在场观众分发马克笔，邀请他们来共同完成剩下的部分。一旁，DJ 和舞者妙趣横生，让在场的所有人于黑白房间中熠熠生辉。“那场活动非常好。所有人都乐在其中，愉快地交流互动，大家都很享受一起画画的过程，”Rizman 回忆道。
Now most of Putra’s commissions are similar in scope—they usually specify that he paints entire spaces, from floor to ceiling. “The tedious part is to carefully fix the water-soluble ink so these high traffic surfaces are preserved and maintain the piece’s integrity.” He continued the Chonteng series in a stairwell at Singapore’s Goethe-Institut, a German cultural institute with a valuable presence across Southeast Asia. An extension of the project is also in the lobby of esteemed local venue The Substation, which is, unfortunately, closing its current location. “After so many years of living in Singapore, I am getting used to the idea that things are not going to be there for long.” In a separate piece, Smearing Impulsion, he took the idea of performance literally, laying on the floor and against the walls, tracing his own limbs and joints to form the shapes that covered the room. He also recently painted an art container in atypical fluorescent colors as well.
Rizman 现在大部分受邀创作的作品往往都带有“遮天蔽日”的气势。“最令人头疼的部分是固定好水溶性墨水，这可以避免来往人群对作品的剐蹭。”他曾在新加坡歌德学院 （Goethe-Institut）的楼梯间里延续了 “Chonteng”系列，这里是家在东南亚具有重要影响力的德国艺术和语言学校。除此之外，该项目也延伸到当地著名艺术中心“电力站” （The Substation）的大堂内，遗憾的是，该场地目前被迫关闭，他的那副作品不再被人看到。“在新加坡生活了多年之后，我已经习惯了事物无法长存这一事实。”在另一件作品《涂动力》（Smearing Impulsion）中，他直接以表演的形式，让身体以各种姿态贴在墙壁上，然后慢慢将这些轮廓填充至整个房间。最近，他还尝试把集装箱涂满荧光颜色。
It’s all an extension of Putra’s idea of the world being a stage: “I’m inspired by the concept of world-building,” he says. “In theatre, actors have to create a world based on a script. Because of that, I’m pretty much obsessed with the idea of how a work can engulf and surround an audience, placing them in another dimension.”
所有这一切都源于 Rizman 视世界为舞台的理念，他说：“我的灵感来自构建世界的概念。在剧院里，演员需要根据剧本，创造出另一个世界。所以我很想令观众完全沉浸在我的作品中，让他们置身于另一个维度的世界。”
Like our stories? Follow us on Facebook and Instagram.
Website: www.rizmanputra.com
Instagram: @manicjango
Contributor: Mike Steyels
Chinese Translation: Olivia Li
