작품 상세

Thick masses of the rhythmic throbbing lines like coloured arteries that had been Datuk Ibrahim Hussein’s trademark since 1975 dominate the bifurcating expanse that is conjured by the Calama Desert title. It would have flowed sinuously if not for the distraction of a double canvas which has the effect of an abrupt precipice. Herein, spools of parallel lines move in inexorable profusions, sometimes overlapping and sometimes intertwining, sometimes hitting an invisible cul de sac. A metallic sheen profuses in the Calama, part of the Atacama Desert, despite its lodestone of brown copper especially around the Norte Grande region around Chuquicamata and El Salvador with reams along the Andes sections of Andina and El Teniente. Chile is, of course, the world’s largest producer and exporter of copper. Calama in the local Kunza parlance means “a town in the middle of water” or “a place where partridges abound”. Calama City is the capital of the El Loa province. It is a curious coastal desert, perched on a rarefied 1,500m to 4,000 metres altitude, hyper-arid with an annual precipitation of under 15 mm. (Yet, in 2015 and 2017 a burst of showers turned the dry desert into a garden of blue-pink (Malva flowers), purple (Pata de guanaco) and reds (Garro de Leon and Ananuca blooms). It is extraordinary for its sustenance of a diversity of life with its salt flats (with its flocks of flamingos), geysers, lagoons, its felsic lava, the River Loa running through it, and flanking the Pacific Ocean. It is perhaps such diversity and positive energy of a desolate place that Ib celebrated in this work — high mountains, the sea, the river, a lack of vegetation and yet rich in minerals such as copper, molybdenum (a copper-deposit derivative), gold, silver, manganese, lithium, gypsum and sulphur. The top is bounded with dark midnight blue with a sea of purple below, and a curious small patch of pure white on top while the midsection reveals light hues of irregularly shaped swathes as an island blob and in supine abandon. A smaller version, measuring 29 x 34cm, called Antofagasta, is in the collection of the Sultan of Selangor. While inspired by the spirit of the ‘Good Earth’ place, Ib, as the artist is more popularly known, is not a landscape artist per se (an obscure female figure can be seen in this artwork, top left; blending into the landscape naturally in harmony). It was on the occasion of his invitational mini retrospective of sorts at the Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes in Santiago, Chile, in June-July 1991, which coincided with the visit there of then prime minister, Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamad. He was the first Asian to be accorded a major solo exhibition in Chile. As a follow-up, Ib was awarded the Orden de Bernardo O’ Higgins, Chile’s highest honour bestowed on a foreigner in 1996, the year he turned 60. He received the award in Kuala Lumpur. The Chilean Ambassador then, H.E. Octavio Errazuriz, praised Ib as one who “epitomized the Malaysian spirit, the colours of his beloved land, the richness of the oriental traditional.” In 1993, Ib was awarded Venezuela’s Order of Andres Bello “for personalities whose art and literature transcends international borders.” He was also given the Crystal Award of the World Economic Forum in 1997.