작품 상세

Awang Damit Ahmad is an artist with a soft heart and great compassion, of human sufferings in tragedies of history. Not all his E.O.C. (Essence Of Culture) are about life's struggles, on land and water. Here, Renongan Yang Hampa - Minamata, Awang Damit rues about the Minamata tragedy which was dramatized in the eponymous film in 2020, with the lead played by Johnny Depp, from photographs by the great Eugene Smith (whose wife wrote the book on Minamata). Awang Damit also rues about the atomic-bomb devastations of Nagasaki and Hiroshima, which instantly killed nearly 300,000 residents, including some South Korean workers. Minamata in the Kumamoto prefecture in Japan has become a byword for environmental disaster, when the Chisso chemical factory dumped methylmercury into the sea from 1932 to 1968, causing neurological diseases like ataxia, numbness of limbs, loss of sight and hearing. Elsewhere earlier on, Awang Damit had lamented, in prints, about the Sabra and Shatila massacre of mostly Palestinians. Awang Damit Ahmad became an artist by accident, being a late starter at the age of 27, when he studied at the Mara Institute of Technology, after working several other jobs. He had already started on his Essence Of Culture (Intipati Budaya) series in 1985 and later studied for his Master's at the Catholic University in Washington DC, and continued the series on his return in 1990 until 1996. His clutch of prizes includes 2nd Prize in the Malaysian Bank Association art competition, the Minor Award in the Bakat Muda Sezaman in 1984, and the Painting Award (and Consolation Prize, too) at the Salon Malaysia III at the National Art Gallery in 1991 for his Nyanyian Petani Gunung (now in Petronas Collection). He also taught at his alma mater, Universiti ITM, retiring as Associate Professor in May 2011. In 2022, his E.O.C. (Perjalanan Malam, 1989) and E.O.C. (Ingatan Waktu Kecil, 1985) were sold for RM212,800 and RM218,400, in Henry Butcher Art Auction November edition and July edition, respectively. In Henry Butcher March 2021 Art Auction, his E.O.C. (Apa Khabar Ledang, 1992) was sold for RM224,000.