Lot 103
HAMIR SOIB @ MOHAMED
b. Johor, 1969
A BOARD GAME, 2007
Mixed media on canvas
122cm x 366cm; diptych, 122cm x 183cm each
PROVENANCE
Private Collection, Kuala Lumpur;
acquired through Wei-Ling Gallery, Kuala Lumpur.
EXHIBITED
Imbasan, Wei-Ling Gallery, Kuala Lumpur, 2007.
ESTIMATE RM 45,000 - 65,000
PRICE REALISED RM 46,200
|
Hamir Soib’s works are often an enigma, surreal and with multiple abstruse meanings and images bordering on the Gothic. Often, the only clue is the title, and it’s obvious that Man is hostage to the whims and fancies of greater unseen supernatural forces. Here, the Supreme Being with a shadow of a face is pointing with one hand at the starting point of the ‘board game’, while the other supporting the board from the bottom. But what it will trigger is unclear, for there are no chequered board panels but an open ‘landscape’ with the only clue being the tilted twin spires of the Twin Towers in the distance in a thicket of black morass and with interconnecting streaks. On the far right, an enormous serpent is seen toppling the board from beneath, breaking the board into half. Following the journey of the ‘game’ from left to right, one will encounter an apocalyptic storm amidst the city, only to come back to the end point of a traditional kampong house in front of lush greeneries and blue skies - perhaps signaling the origin of where we all came from - home.
Hamir Soib is a late emergent artist from the cult Matahati artists’ co-operative partly because he was then occupied in theatres and films. His career as an artist truly took off in 2002 when he set up the art space Gudang, which signalled his greater involvement into painting. Like his Matahati founding members, he graduated with a Bachelors of Fine Art from UiTM in 1991. He won the Young Artists Incentive Award organised by Galeri Shah Alam in 2005 and was a finalist of the Sovereign Art Award, Hong Kong in 2007. He was also a non-resident artist at Malihom art residency, Penang in 2007. Outside the visual art world, he was co-Best Art Director with Zuraini Anuar in the 14th Malaysia Film Festival, for Perempuan Melayu Terakhir.
|