This early work is a rare masterpiece of absolute quality. The pun-pun is more than just a bait. It inherently forces a reaction, of hunger and want, often with disastrous consequences. It is an entrapment using a small enticing sacrifice. Such is the nature of the imperiled world today, and life. This is just a small part of the ecosystem of the Essence Of Culture (E.O.C., Intipati Budaya) that Awang Damit Ahmad posited in 1985, one tied to the hard struggles of fishermen and farmers in Kuala Penyu, Sabah, in making ends meet. The series saw fruition at Shenn’s Fine Art in Singapore in 1994, but went almost unheralded until two decades later, when success in his Payarama series zoomed to a playback of his incipient E.O.C. series. Man is shown battling the vagaries of weather and want, with the alacrity of Cest la Vie. Nostalgia, romance, strife and valour, the series ran until 1995. The transition of Awang Damit Ahmad from fisherman-farmer to an artist-academician at the late age of 27 is one of the most phenomenal in Malaysian art. After his studies at the Mara Institute of Technology, now a university, he received his Masters at the Catholic University in Washington. He taught at UiTM, and retired as Associate Professor at ITM in May 2011. His accolades include the Major Award in Salon Malaysia III, the Minor Award in the Bakat Muda Sezaman and 2nd Prize in the Malaysian Bank Association art competition. On the international scene, he won the Gold Award in the Ecorea Jeonbuk Biennale and the Olympic Fine Art in London, both in 2012. He catapulted into the elite when he was chosen to exhibit in the Contemporary Paintings of Malaysia exhibition at the Asia-Pacific Museum in Pasadena in 1988. In the July 2022 Henry Butcher Art Auction, Awang Damit’s painting from the E.O.C. series realised RM 218,400. His works were on display at the Art Seasons booth (in collaboration with Henry Butcher Art Auctioneers) in the prestigious Art SG 2026, and received good feedback from visitors.