How A Penang-Based Gothic Artist Is Creating Ripples In The International Art Arena
Her art has gotten recognition from the international art community and even made an appearance in the 2014 San Diego Comic Con, so why haven't we heard much about En Tze and her Goth-inspired pieces?
By Samantha Khor — 21 Jan 2015, 10:49 AM — Updated over 9 years ago
Behind her soft-spoken demeanour and signature red hair, Penang-based artist and tattooist En Tze harbours some of the most imaginative yet gorgeously eerie artistic talents we have ever come across.
Not-So-Childish Doodles: Already a budding artist at a tender age of three, En Tze revealed that even then, her drawings tend to gravitate towards horror-related themes such as skeletons and monstrous creatures.
"I've been drawing since I was 3 years old. I don't know what's the first thing that I actually remember drawing, but I have kept most of my drawings as a kid and looking back at them there were some common themes," she disclosed.
"Mostly horror related stuff such as skeletons, haunted castles, Dracula and Frankenstein's monster, all of which I've been drawing since I was 4, and also lots of aliens and other strange creatures. Also food."
But the road to taking up art as a professional vocation wasn't an easy and straightforward decision. En Tze had wanted to be an artist since she was a kid, only to lose interest when told that being an artist is not a "proper job".
As she put it, "I wanted to be an artist since I was a kid, but after a while that interest faded away quite a bit as I was surrounded by people and media that told me being an artist wasn't a 'proper' job, and that it wouldn't be a good idea."
"After that I wanted to be an engineer for a few years, influenced by my father who is also a computer engineer."
Things changed when she hit her adolescent years and realised that "being stuck in a cubicle" was not something she wanted to do for the rest of her life, hence her return to art and this time, she's hell-bent on making it as an artist.
Gothic And Lowbrow Art Style: En Tze's art pieces often carry dark gothic themes not often seen in conventional art circles, with Asian influences incorporated within.
When street art started popping up around Penang a few years ago, the low-profile artist contributed a mural depicting a Chinese opera beauty with half of her face scraped to the bone.
Accompanied by strokes of Chinese characters that translate to ‘our art is dying’, the mural reflects the slow death of our tradition, heritage and culture – in particular the fading art of Chinese opera, a musical theatre of the Chinese community complete with dramatic makeup, headdress and costumes.
Sadly, the mural has since crumbled to almost nothing due to the gradual dilapidation of the mural wall.
Art is an avenue for En Tze to express her emotions and feelings; her drawings are often personifications of her inner thoughts with deeper meanings and stories attached to them.
The pieces are indeed hauntingly beautiful, but En Tze revealed that the darker twists employed into the subject matters has occasionally prompted "looks of terror" from people.
"When I held the De Rosis Nascentibus Art Exhibition a couple of years ago that featured gothic/dark art artists from around the world, some people took one step into the exhibition area and then just reversed right back out, some with looks of terror on their faces," she mused.
The exhibition, curated by En Tze and graphic designer Matrika Sasha Nehru, revolved around the mysterious nature of roses and featured artwork from artistes based in Malaysia, Lithuania, Russia, and UK.
Jane Of All Trades: Upon completing high school, En Tze decided to combine her passion for art with the tattoo trade, focusing in original tattoo artwork. Subsequently, she opened her own tattoo parlour HAVOC in 2014.
En Tze once started off drawing realistic portraits and since then has had her elbows deep in many other trades of art, including hand-painting shoes and shirts. At 18, despite scoring excellently in the high school certificate exams, she refused to further her studies into any field other than art and chose to stay true to her passion. Thus, she began to learn the trade of tattooing at Mandala Tattoo in 2012.
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That very year, she also founded the Malaysia Dark Alternative Movement as a platform to reach out to like-minded people with interests in dark alternative subcultures.
The movement started off as a Facebook page, where followers are able to express themselves and create conversations on all things concerning the dark alternative scene.
A disclaimer on the page clarified that they are not here to promote Satanism or anything against the law, as they are merely "individuals with a love for beauty from the darker side of things.
Experimenting With Fan Art: Besides creating art from traditional media, En Tze has also ventured into digital art mainly consisting of fan art based on her favourite TV shows like Orphan Black, Carmilla and The 100.
On the digital medium, she has taken to experimenting with art styles that are quite a far cry from her usual dark themes. A short tour into her Tumblr art blog revealed some comics-inspired pieces as well as some quirky art memes.
Her Tim Burton-meets-Orphan Black mash-up, in particular, did not just earn a mention from international 'nerd community' Nerdist, but also grabbed the attention of Tatiana Maslany, the show's leading star.
Her art was also featured during an Orphan Black fan meet-up at the San Diego Comic Con last year.
On a separate occasion, her highly-detailed rendition of actress Evelyne Brochu as female Thor was also retweeted by the actress herself!
Her highly realistic portraits are also worth a mention. We can hardly believe these were done digitally!
Being An Alternative Artist In Malaysia: Despite gaining traction and acclaim on the international front, En Tze feels that her unconventional art is prone to being shunned or ignored because of the conservative views surrounding the use of dark imagery in art.
"Right now, anything unconventional mostly gets shunned or ignored as the people here are very conservative. It's very tough for someone like me that's into the darker side of art to really go far here," she said.
In her opinion, the education system and media play huge roles in the make-or-break of the Malaysian art scene as well as locals' support and open-mindedness for the arts.
"Malaysians in general need to be more open-minded and supportive of the arts," she explained.
"Majority of us have been taught in school that art is pointless and not much attention is put into the importance of art. People are also too stuck on traditional and conservative views and are unwilling to open up to other perspectives or even try to understand things that are different from the norm.
En Tze is currently taking a break from tattooing to focus on personal projects, with hopes to venture into the film industry some day.
"I'm hoping to get into the world of film to possibly be an art director or production designer, or anything that might come my way really," she said.
"The art world is so huge that it's kind of silly to be stuck on doing just one or two things all the time so I'd like to explore different art forms as much as possible."
