작품 상세

The 1990s were heady days for Ahmad Shukri Mohamed with a work using butterfly motifs clinching the Major Prize in the one-off Malaysian Art Open (MAO) in 1994, while Insect Diskette, also with images of the papillon, won the Juror's Choice Award in the Philip Morris Asean Art Awards finals in 1997 (he won again in the same competition in 1999). Using chloroformed butterflies as an analogy of extinction, Shukri set them about in his Target Series, Bar Code Series and Diskette Series. This work, 939495969798, was highlighted on the cover of the eponymous exhibition, his first solo, at Art Salon, Kuala Lumpur, in 1998, and also on Page 29 of the catalogue. Apart from being chloroformed specimens like trophies in hobbies, the butterfly, one of Nature's most colourful creatures, could also end up as only images stored in computer diskettes. Besides the above accolades, Ahmad Shukri Mohamed, a founding member of the cult Matahati art collective, hit big time when he won the hugely coveted Major Award in the Young Contemporary Artists (BMS) competition in 1997 with his Cabinet Series, and the group went international in the landmark Matahati Ke Mata Dunia exhibition in Los Angeles, the United States in 2009. Apart from art-residencies in Rimbun Dahan (2003) and the Netherland's Exchange (2013), he was also invited for the Sharjah Biennial (2003), the Emaar art symposium in Dubai, United Arab Emirates (2004), the Asian Biennale (Bangladesh, 2001), the Asian contemporary workshop in Gazipur, Bangladesh (2002) and the Brande Workshop (Denmark, 2002). Late 2019, he had his 9th solo called Monuments at Segaris Art Centre, Kuala Lumpur.