Extract from "Masterpieces from the National Art Gallery of Malaysia"
《Journey》2001 Mixed media construction 143cmx 115cm
Born: 1972
Education:
1991 – School of Art & Design, University Technology MARA (UiTM), Shah Alam
Mohd. Suhaimi Tohid’s Journey has a mechanistic, factory produced feel about it and this has been brought about by this young artist’s mode of treatment which includes the overall whitish colour of the form and the inclusion of plastic sheets and mechanistic parts in it. The work is made up five vertical box-like compartments. Each compartment contains imagery dealing with a specific subject. The overall theme is Asean or the Association of Southeast Asian nations. It is a statement about the march into the new millennium and its entailing socio-cultural problems. In the first compartment we find the bank notes of the region; in the second, we find a round compass and a danger sign; in the third, we find symbols pertaining to the information media, computer circuitry, television censorship and also the national flags of the region; in the fourth, there are larger fragments of the flags of the Asian nations; and in the last panel, we find images pertaining to logging activities and deforestation and among the images in this grouping is that of a small boy watching the ravaged landscape. A lonely butterfly is included here as well symbolising an endangered nature and its life forms. The new interest in the social issues by the younger artists and their attempts to comment on societal issues is indicative of how much has changed in our younger artists’ perceptions. There is cautiousness today about the idea of material progress.
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