Hyrul Anuar: Peribahasa as a way to tell personal, visual stories

Digital artist, Hyrul Anuar, expresses the beauty of Malay proverbs. We get to know the person behind the vibrant artistry, and how his disdain for social media inspired his creative vision. He started from making smartphone art and is now going for something bigger!

In his years in Italy, where he was offered to join  Fabrica (United Colors of Benetton’s Communication Research Centre based in Treviso, Italy) in mid-2014, Hyrul underwent many hardships. It was the struggles he went through that became the catalyst for his venture into Malay proverbs and its conceptualisation into colourful characters. Since he sold off his laptop, the only medium for him to create artwork was through his phone, which further makes his art style even more remarkable.

Hyrul has been personalizing Malay proverbs in order to convey the things he’s gone through.

But through all of these colors, Hyrul Anuar has visualized many strong and often somber emotions, such as the passing of his father.

This is why his art speaks volume. It’s not only because it takes peribahasa to a whole new level, but because it uses the sharp contrast of colour to represent a feeling that is often contradictory, showing a sense of very deep – however inevitable – poetry to digital artistry.

Hyrul Anuar has come a long way, graduating from ASWARA, to working in prestigious advertising firm Leo Burnett. At the end of the day, it’s his endeavours to widen his skills into various art forms that makes him most commendable. “Certain orang cakap kat saya yang saya takde focus, sebab tiba-tiba saya nak buat filem, tiba-tiba saya nak jadi artist. Padahal saya nak explore full potential diri saya.”, says Hyrul.

Check out our original article on his artwork here.