PETALING JAYA, Aug 9 — Repeat Pattern is the manifestation of Pole’s gradual acclimatization to Kuala Lumpur over the course of his six-week residency at SGFA.  A comparison of Pole’s first and last works painted here, dissolve and the show’s title piece, repeat pattern, demonstrate a transition from a distant and survey-like scope of KL to a focused, more realistic depiction of a scene in Penang.

Dissolve, the work that anchors Repeat Pattern, spans the width of a gallery wall and contains stunning details of the KL cityscape.

The countless buildings, landmarks, and greenery are rendered meticulously by Pole, yet the variety of primary colours and block-like shapes lend to the work the feeling of a child’s play set -- at times the city seems haphazardly arranged, while at others it seems ingeniously constructed.

The painting captures a first visit to KL, marking the destinations a visitor would visit to better orient.

This work, the most detailed of the Repeat Pattern exhibition, is the one in which Pole is the most unfamiliar with KL and its personality.

Pole’s smaller works, aside and monologue, begun soon after dissolve, also convey Pole’s recent arrival to KL.

They appear like snapshots taken on a walk, perhaps Pole unashamedly slowing down sidewalk traffic to capture a shot.

In aside, Pole’s use of a small canvas to depict a bustling area of KL, bursting with vibrant reds and oranges while homes and storefronts appear stacked on top of each other, conveys Chinatown’s barely contained chaos.

Monologue seems to be the quintessential snapshot of a newcomer’s fascination with intricate and delicate beauty of Islamic architecture.

In this work, Pole’s strong sense of composition and form, which in the end elevate these works from mere snapshots, is clear.

While the Sultan Abdul Samad Building takes the centre and focus of the work, in the upper left hand corner is a glimpse of a Chinese style pagoda, its angular, square shapes at odds with the rotund curvature of the mosque just behind it.  This work almost unconsciously demonstrates another fact about KL -- its incredible religious, ethnic, and racial diversity.

Of all Pole’s works in this series, submerge is the most enigmatic.  The painting is an idyllic depiction of Lake Titiwangsa, with most of the canvas taken up by tranquil water and sky.

Yet the absence of humans in the work lends a tranquil and isolated tone to an otherwise bustling area in reality.

The work is transformed by the word “submerge”, because a sense of mystery overtakes the work.  One has to wonder what is meant to be submerged and what so needs to be hidden that it must be drowned.

Submerge marks an important step in Pole’s acclimatization process because it refers to when he becomes more than a tourist, no longer consuming as many sights and sounds as he can, and begins to take pause within the city.

Pole seems to realize that he actually has time to really see KL. There is a sense of a slower pace in this work, as if perhaps, this is the first opportunity Pole has taken to simply sit and observe the city.

Pole’s fascination with architecture is clearest in navigation, a work depicting the National Mosque.  He captures the dizzying juxtaposition of a checkered ground with a lanky spire abutted by a wide roof shaped into half pyramids -- all of this back-grounded by a teal carnival-like roof.

Along with submerge, this work takes on a slightly slower pace, a luxury afforded by the beginnings of comfort with a city.

Translation may be the least idealistic of Pole’s works.  It is an unsettling piece, seemingly from a garish post-colonial themed nightmare.

The perspectives are nonsensical and one might get a slight sense of vertigo after a glance.  What strikes first is the clash of pinks, reds, and yellows that give the work a slightly candied feel.

This work, unlike the others does not sit back on the canvas quietly; it leaps out demanding undivided attention.  In a room, it is likely the first work to catch the eye, portraying well the strange mixing that happens in KL as the city becomes more industrialized.

Finally repeat pattern; unlike the other works, it depicts the Malaysian sky as it usually is, cloudy and a whitish-grey.  The other works have a slight idealistic rendering, with blue skies and suggested sunshine.

However, after the adrenaline of a new city subsides, reality descends as what happens in repeat pattern.

Repeat Pattern is a fresh departure from Pole’s other works depicting Paris, Porto, and New Zealand. While those earlier works maintained Pole’s signature absences -- devoid of cars and people -- his semi-realistic fusion of photography and abstract painting, Repeat Pattern captures Kuala Lumpur’s chaotic sprawl as a young metropolis, ever too big for its trousers.

Not many places on earth can boast diversity of race, religion, class, and food like Kuala Lumpur can. Even the colours here show difference, being brighter, more saturated.

The sky is blue and the greens of a lush rainforest still dot the cityscape.  Pole, over the course of six weeks, has managed to capture important aspects of the city, particularly its architectural personality and its sometimes paradoxical mix of shape, form, and purpose among the cityscape.

All of these qualities have managed to create Pole’s most arresting body of work to date for it is the series that speaks most personally to Pole’s process of comprehending a new city.

A must-see show with a wonderfully different aesthetic take on Malaysiana. Exhibition is on till Aug 31.

Shalini Ganendra Fine Art 8 Lorong 16/7B, Section 16, PJ 46350, Selangor, Malaysia

Tel:  +6012 393 6669, +603 7960 4740 Hours: Tues to Sat, 11am-7pm Email: sgfa88@gmail.com

Chris Pole is an accomplished painter based in Christchurch, New Zealand, whose first works were abstract and utilized natural components (such as New Zealand soil) in their composition.

After extensive travel across the Middle East, North Africa, and Europe, Pole began to render some of his photos into painted depictions of strongly composed tourist scenes.

His inclusion of text, often enigmatic, on the works is often tied to literary and musical references and sometimes simply random.

Pole is also an accomplished exhibition designer at Christchurch Public Art Gallery in his hometown where he has had a hand in designing many acclaimed exhibits.

He is the current artist in residence at Shalini Ganendra Fine Art (SGFA) in Petaling Jaya.

This story was first published in the print edition of The Malay Mail, August 8, 2013.