"I have lived on the lip of reason, wanting answers, knocking on a door. It opens. I have been knocking from the inside." (Rumi).
Pak Mail's digital collage, "Al Rumi" (1988)
Throwback 1997, HYPErview, little homage to our guru.
Manggis dari kebun Pak Mail (1988) bersatu dgn manggis six persimmons Fachang dan Rumi dlm lipatan ruang-masa (time warp) yg rentas 4 dimensi. Pak Mail dah lama kuantum, yg menulis ni baru nak terkial-kial.
A poem by 13th. century Persian poet (Rumi), fragment of 13th.century painting of mangosteens by a Chinese monk Muqi Fachang, and mangosteens from
his own (Pak Mail) kebun, nuanced by the cliche Malay take on 'manggis' as expresssed in oral, literary (hitam-hitam sitampuk manggis, sungguh pun hitam ku pandang manis - dont judge a book by its cover) and visual tradition (tampuk manggis motif in batik and songket). All converged in his digital collage, his fancy version of warped virtual space-time dimension, for us to make the connection. Ya, it has a zen undertone and sinked deep into my 'jiwa sakit' then, when I was in the 20s. And mannn, it still reveberates with the sempoi truth beyond 'reason' beyond 'discourse', 'intercourse', 'golfcourse' 'off course' susah jumpa dalam university 'courses' : the knowledge of Self (ilmu mengenal diri).
It is in this knowledge of self, ironic it may sound, that the centric 'I' begins to slowly dissolve.
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