The Face in Meditation

Welcome to the Slow Art Guide for The Face in Meditation by Abdul Ghani Hamid, brought to you by National Gallery Singapore.

Inspired by the principles of slow looking and mindfulness, the Slow Art Guide will take you on a deep dive into one artwork in the Gallery. This experience is about slowing down, taking your time to look at visual art and savouring it in a conscious and deliberate manner. This guide features mindfulness practices that invite you to contemplate art as a sensory and reflective experience.

As this mindfulness-based experience is highly introspective and invites you to be present with your thoughts and emotions, it may feel quite intense or overwhelming at times. If this is the case for you today, please feel free to step away from this audio experience and head over to the Calm Room or any other space that feels safe to rest.

By the end of your experience with the Slow Art Guide, we hope that you will discover a deeper emotional connection with the artwork and also feel more grounded and rested in the present moment.

 

We will begin with a simple breathing exercise to prepare ourselves for a slow look at the artwork.

 

Take a moment to welcome yourself into this space. Express gratitude to yourself for taking this time out of your busy day to care for your mind, body, and spirit by connecting with visual art.

Gently bring your awareness to your breathing. Observe it. There is no need to change or modify anything. Just breathe. You may choose to close your eyes and rest them or keep a soft gaze as you look forwards.

Observe the in-breath and the out-breath and the rhythm of your breathing. Pay attention to your breath, and notice if each breath is long and smooth or short and quick. Breathing in, breathing out. Breathing in, breathing out.

If you wish, you can put a hand on your belly, feeling the warmth of your hand on your body and the affection it brings to you. Sense the gentle expansion and contraction of the belly with each breath. Allow your body to rest in the breathing. Allow your breath to support you.

Breathing in, breathing out. Breathing in, breathing out.

When you feel ready, gently open your eyes.

This is The Face in Meditation, by Singaporean artist Abdul Ghani Hamid. As we explore this artwork together, feel free to move around it in a way that is most comfortable for you. You may even sit on the gallery floor in front of the artwork. 

The work before us recalls batik, a technique of dyeing fabric with the wax-resist method that originated in Java. You see this in the strong, dark outlines of forms that are defined by bold hues. A dreamlike, meditative atmosphere is created through the use of soothing blue colours, the soft, wavy lines are reminiscent of electrical pulses, forming a surrealistic image of the human face.

Born in 1933 in Singapore, Abdul Ghani Hamid, the artist of this work, was a founding member of Angkatan Pelukis Aneka Daya – the Association of Artists of Various Resources – a society for Malay artists which organized solo and group exhibitions.  Although his works are considered abstract, his paintings are not simply about form and colour, but also hint at reality.

What catches your eye most immediately in this painting? Is it the mask-like face and contorted limbs in the upper half of the painting? Or is it the foreground, coloured in intonations of dark blue, suggestive of still water?

Let’s begin by looking closely at the face. Invite your eyes to trace the swirly lines outlining the face in meditation. Follow each straight line, each curve, each turn, each swirl, before settling on the eye on the far right. Notice how this section of the painting has the most colours and shapes concentrated in a small area. Observe the sharply defined brow, contrasted against the burnt yellow of the skin. What emotion do you think is being held here in the brow, with its slight furrow?

Notice how the eyelashes are the only disconnected lines in this painting.

 

Observe the dark purple arm gently caressing the face in meditation, its fingers slightly curled around the curve of the cheek. Trace the wavy black line curving up the forearm. Imagine this line as an energy line. Try to pinpoint a centre of calming energy in your heart, radiating in your chest. Let that energy travel into your shoulders, down your upper arms, into your forearms, tracing the same black wavy line running down the purple forearm in the painting. Let the warm, calming energy from your heart flow into the palms of your hands, and let it collect there. Now, let it radiate into your fingers. Bringing your fingers to your cheek, allow the energy to flow into your face. Feel the warmth. Feel the energy circulating through your body, connected, just as the wavy black lines in the painting.

Now, expand your awareness, moving beyond the internal space of the body and start sensing your surroundings.

The foreground of this painting, in shades of dark blue, suggests a calm pool of water. The brushstrokes here are much more distinct than in the blue space at the top of the painting. These bolder and more textured brushstrokes show us the gentle movement of the water, even though the pool is quite still. Now, imagine yourself gently immersed in this cool, dark place, soaking up the serenity and calmness of this water. Dip a finger into the depths of the water, feeling the coolness and wetness of it on your skin. What do you think this body of water is? Is it a pond? A lake? A reservoir? Is it in a cave by the sea? Where do you think you are?

 

Now, draw your attention to the hint of the reflection in the surface of the water. Imagine this subtle reflection of the face, flipped, as its secret interior world. We all have our secret interior worlds, where we can retreat into ourselves within the mind, as a welcome respite from daily stresses and troubles, away from the noise of the outside world.

In this painting, the artist’s interior state of mind is seen as a creative force, comprising an interplay between science, psychology and the spiritual. How do we enter our interior worlds? Meditation, as seen in this work, is one way of doing so.

Have you ever tried meditating? Taking time for oneself and retreating into your interior world can be an important healing exercise for your mind, body and spirit. One way to meditate is to be mindful of what is happening, as it is happening.

Start by bringing attention to your breathing. Let go of any desire to want to change the way you are breathing. The body knows itself best. It knows how to breathe, as it has done for years. So allow yourself to savour the sensations of your breath.

Breathing in and breathing out, notice where you feel the breath and how your body gently moves with each breath.

Close your eyes gently if you wish to, or keep a soft gaze, as you feel into what your thoughts are at this moment. Does the painting evoke any emotions in you? Where in your body do you sense this emotion?  

If you wish, you can gently place a hand over your heart to connect to yourself in a warm and kind manner.

The invitation is to be aware of the thoughts, emotions and sensations as they arise. Watch how they appear, stay for a while and then disappear.

Gently return to your breathing, bringing your attention back to your breathing. Breathing in and breathing out. Allow your breath to support you and anchor you. Breathing in, breathing out. Breathing in, breathing out.

Now, when you are ready, slowly open your eyes if they have been closed.

We have now come to the end of this episode of the Slow Art Guide.

If you enjoyed this Slow Art Guide, you can check out our other episodes featuring different artworks. Each Slow Art Guide is developed with unique slow looking and mindfulness practices to help you look at an artwork meaningfully. Artworks featured in the Slow Art Guide are from The Care Collection, a selection of artworks from the National Collection that are thematically organised for programmes that support wellbeing.

If you need a dedicated space for sensory and emotional rest, you can also visit the Calm Room, located in Basement 1 of the Gallery’s City Hall Wing. In the Calm Room, you can experience a 10-minute focused mindfulness practice.

We now invite you to continue your journey throughout the Gallery and to take your time to slow down and appreciate the art all around you.