Closing Words by the curator

In this digital age, everything’s seems possible to be done in the computer. Few weeks ago I even found a computer application called “Poladroid” where you can drop images in and it’ll digitally process the image to look like a scanned Polaroid film. It’s funny how even the most meant-to-be analog things have become digital these days. This phenomenon of digitalism gives off an illusion that nothing needs to be done by hand. Yet that is a misconception and will remain a misconception. Sketchbooks have been around since the invention of paper and still haven’t diminished in their significance to artists. This exhibition features sketchbooks of painters, cartoonists, illustrators, architects, filmmakers, designers, and artists of all sorts, regardless of whether they work with technology or not. Drawing is the basis of all arts that involve visuals, and for that matter sketchbooks will be around forever.
It’s often the physical act of drawing that artists get inspiration from. It’s the openness of a blank page that gives all the freedom for the artist to draw, paint, paste, and damage. It’s those papers bound together that gives perhaps the disconnected, random sketches a sequence, narrative, or an identity as a whole. Sketchbook, either as private or public entity, is a space of freedom and expression for any artist; it is their companion and reflection of their identity.