Literally translating as ‘linking or connected frames’, Jai’s latest solo show at Valentine Willie Fine Art is an analysis of storytelling in art. As a process artist, it is natural that Jai’s focus not only embraces the physical acts of making, but also the wider intellectual consideration of how we understand them, which in itself, is also a process.

A painting is a storyboard of ideas, a window into another world, whether in isolation or part of a larger series of images. Sometimes this is clearly narrative and sequential. At others, what we see in front of us is remote and mysterious, with few clues to its meaning. Its understanding, is therefore a process of immediate recognition and/or sustained inquiry to unlock secrets and generate new ideas.

In Bingkai Berangkai Jai emphasises the ‘frame’ – or borders that contain an image. By connecting a diverse system of new paintings, whose interlocked configuration blurs the boundaries of the frame, he encourages an alternative rhythm of interpretation. Increasingly self-reflexive, this complex visual inventory is then filled with chance and opportunity to relate, in new ways, to his observations, imaginings and autobiographies.

Literally translated as ‘linking or connected frames’, Bingkai Berangkai is a solo exhibition by Jalaini Abu Hassan (“Jai”) that attempts to deconstruct the elements of visual storytelling.

In Bingkai Berangkai, Jai emphasises the “frame”, or the borders that contain an image. By connecting a system of new paintings, whose interlocked configuration blurs the boundaries of how images are contained, the exhibition encourages a different rhythm of viewing, one that is not limited by a specific narrative or the spaces created between paintings through standard display tactics. Images of beetles, children, bomohs, storytellers and the artist himself all meet in visual interactions with elliptical titles. It becomes the viewer’s responsibility to generate their own meaning from the paintings. Bingkai Berangkai is a welcome new chapter in the career of an inquisitive and thoughtful artist dedicated to process and form, the art of storytelling, and the stories told about art.