MENJEJAK GARISAN - BAHAGIAN 3 (TRACING THE LINES - PART 3)

Title                

Siri Bonda (Mother Series)

Year                

2002/3

Material           

Charcoal & Pencil on paper

Collection       

Artist

Exhibitions/Publications         

• “In Between the Lines – A Retrospective of Drawing Works 1976-2006”, Adiwarna Gallery, USM, Penang, 2005
• “Hasnul J Saidon - Private Viewing”, Artspace Gallery, Kuala Lumpur, 2005
• RA Gallery, Kuala Lumpur

"Bonda series", 2003, charcoal on paper.

SYNOPSIS

When Islam (including women in Hijab) began to be increasingly associated with closed-mindedness, fanatism, repression, and terrorism, I was reminded of my mother’s image.  I grew up with a childhood memory of my mother’s image praying in hijab while I was preparing to go to school.  For me, my mother is my light and angel on this earth.  She is a genius, creative, persistence, positive, bold in trying, friendly (with all people of various races and religions), and yet a very spiritually devout Malay Muslim businesswomen.  When Islam and the image of women in hijab was deconstructed or broken semiotically by the cunningness of media manipulation, my personal reading above became increasingly marginalized.  My private memory was attacked by calculative efforts of the global media (and its passive consumers) to form a collective negative reading of my personally untainted ‘text’. I had to fight back.