Going to an Art Expo for the First Time!

Hi readers! Today I want to share my experience of going to an art exhibition for the first time!!! So without further ado, let’s start with the story!

On a Wednesday morning, my teacher suddenly said, “ Dear students, this Friday afternoon, our school will provide a bus to go to an art expo. However, you have to pay the entrance fee by yourself. It’s only fifteen ringgit. If you have the time, go and check the expo out. You will find cool stuff there!”.

At first, I was like, “ What??? Fifty ringgit??”. Hahaha, please forgive my stupidity readers. At that time, I was so shocked by the ticket price.

Then my teacher answered with a laugh, “ No, no, it’s fifteen, ONE FIVE “.

I answered in embarrassment, “Oh, okay”. Later on, my friend and I decided to give it a go.

*Time skip to Friday afternoon*

We gathered together in front of the bus stop at block C. There were quite a lot of students, so by the time we were on the bus, the teacher made sure to take attendance. Thus, our journey started. We arrived at MATRADE Exhibition and Convention Centre (MECC), Kuala Lumpur by 3:30 p.m. and was given approximately one and a half hours to roam around the expo by ourselves before we had to gather at the meeting point again.

I was so excited and wondered what it would be like inside. After all, I have never been to an art expo before and was so eager to find out. I excitedly dragged two of my friends inside and was momentarily astonished by what greeted me.

There, by the entrance, stood majestic bones of a dinosaur. I was awed and bet that it must have been difficult to make something of that quality. Although, I wasn’t sure whether it was made of real bones or not. Anyway, after admiring it to my heart’s content, I continued with my journey of art. There were numerous amazing and unique pieces of art. Every step I took brought me to a corner that would take my breath away. On the second corridor, I found this super realistic human painting with very detailed muscles. At first glance, the human figures reminded me of those titans from the anime series Attack On Titan. Though I supposed this piece of art had a hidden meaning behind it, but due to my incompetence, I couldn’t comprehend the meaning behind this piece of art. I don’t even know what the two figures were holding, were they swords or wands?

Next, as I was walking forward, I saw this eerie-looking sculpture with humans jumbled together and a river of blood flowed in the middle. Maybe it was a metaphor for humans who use one another as stepping stones to reach the top? Well, this is only an amateur guess based on my comprehension.

There was also this beautiful lady in green which had been amazingly created out of a medium which I didn’t recognize. As silly as it may sound, I was only walking and doing window shopping without really paying attention to the additional information attached next to the art. I didn’t even realize it was there until the last thirty minutes.

Despite that, I found it fun to admire other people’s works which vary greatly in style. In one place I found a realistic elephant’s head carved out of wood. At another place, I found a metaphorical painting of man sitting on top of another man while holding a hoe and a painting made from simple lines using colored crayons. I also found a unique piece of art of three little boys conversing happily while eating their meals. I stepped closer and surprisingly, it turned out that the picture was made out of folded colored paper!  It was amazing and at the same time mind-blowing as I realized that there are no specific criteria which define an artwork. Art is just a way to express oneself freely, without boundaries and rules. That was one of the things I learned from this journey.

Like an adventurer in a magic world, every step I took brought me to something new. Things to learn and things to admire were very common in that place. I came across these two art pieces which taught me another important lesson. The first one was a painting of a lady and a little girl in white looking at a group of sheep with a burning forest in the background. The little girl was holding a bunch of colorful balloons and it was amazing how the light and color play made the balloons stand out from the other elements in the painting. The second was a sculpture of a winged human. The bright lighting from the top of the sculpture gave an angelic vibe to the sculpture, making the whole art look otherworldly and amazing. At this point, even without anyone telling me directly, I knew that lighting plays a big role in an art expo. It can enhance the beauty of an art and possibly catch the attention of a buyer.

I reunited with my friends at the Japanese art section and one of my friends shamelessly dragged me to take a picture with a beautiful Japanese lady *cough cough*. I was quite happy as we had gotten a wonderful photo together with a gorgeous lady and an amazing background.

Nearby that section, I spotted a wonderful painting of a lady in blue surrounded by purple flowers. It was such a mesmerizing and beautiful painting. My friends and I took a lot of photos there as a reminder of our awesome findings.

We continued to walk and stopped at a section where we came across donut-shaped wall decorations. We giggled and exchanged jokes, saying that it really made us hungry and crave some donuts. They were really cute and realistic!! At that moment, I really wished I could just snatch the donuts and eat them!

Not long after that, we bumped into our teacher. He explained to us that in an expo like this, artists usually work together with a gallery and the benefits will be divided equally. He also mentioned that those pieces which had a small red circle attached to its name tag meant that either someone had bought it or someone had a bid on it. That was new information for me as I didn’t even realize that there were some red dots on the tags I had passed by.

After that, we parted with the teacher and went our own way. We stopped by an Indonesian gallery and I saw a beautiful Borobudur temple made out of copper and brass! It was mentioned in the info tag nearby that the artist, Nyoman Nuarta, made the art piece out of concern of the Borobudur temple which had been severely hit many times. He wished to preserve Indonesian culture through his artwork. Furthermore, I found a small orange-red dot on the name tag! As an Indonesian student, I somehow felt proud that the hard work of a fellow Indonesian had successfully been sold.

At the end of the day, we gathered at the meeting point and went back to the university safely. Although tired, I was glad that I decided to give it a go because I have learned many valuable lessons from this journey.