작품 상세

The need for co-existence and even making concessions to Nature, for a harmonious balance and survival, comes through in this significant work from the seminal Essence Of Culture (Intipati Budaya) (1985-1996) series by artist-academician Awang Damit Ahmad. Even with the vagaries of natural phenomena, an enlightened human being understands the vigilance and exigencies of taking the right actions, or face irreparable destruction. This multi-layered reality of causality is best exemplified and propounded in Seyyed Hossein Nasr’s Man And Nature: The Spiritual Crisis in Modern Man. Awang Damit manifests his case in a lopsided duality of the physical and the spirituality, between the natural life in a mock pohon hayat, and a more ambiguous and nebulous space. Even with the uncertainties of change and mortality, the decision lies with Man. One could feel the lively energy in this masterpiece. A relative late-starter in art, Awang Damit Ahmad proved his worth to win the hugely coveted Major Award in the 1991 Salon Malaysia with his work, Nyanyian Puteri Gunung, on top of his 2nd Prize from the Malaysian Banks Association art competition in 1988, the year he was included in the Contemporary Paintings of Malaysia exhibition in Pasadena, United States. After graduating from the Mara Institute of Technology in 1983, he pursued his Master’s at the Catholic University in Washington DC, in 1990. To think that it was only in 1975 that he quit his job as technician at Telekom Malaysia to pursue studies in art. He was to teach at UiTM from 1985 until he retired as Associate Professor in May 2011. His solo show at Galeri Prima (in collabration with Henry Butcher Art) this July will be officiated by the King and Queen of Malaysia.