Malaysia Tragedy

Malaysia became an independent country in 1957. During the pre-Merdeka period (before independent), which is in the 40s, artists in Malaysia perceive our country as a peaceful and beautiful country. On 13 May 1969, which is the post-Merdeka period (after independent), a tragic incident was happened in the Malaysia history. A racial issue that created riot in Kuala Lumpur area and Klang area, Malay and Chinese were fighting and killing each other, every citizen in the country was hiding in the house. The reason of this incident is sensitive to talk about and there are some rumours says that it is related to politic.

After this tragic incident, Malaysia artists were all shocked and did not know how to give response to this, but there are 2 artists who did arts to respond to this sensitive incident. Ibrahim Hussein, one of the most famous and richest artist in Malaysia, created an art titled 'May 13th'.

"May 13th" by Ibrahim Hussein.

This art is in black with a red line and white circle but when we look closely it has a Malaysia national flag and a number 13 hid under the white circle. The appearance of the art and the title are clearly related to the May 13 tragedy. Ibrahim Hussein painted a Malaysia flag and cover it with black colour, obviously it means Malaysia was in dark period. I personally think the red line represents the blood of the people who died in this incident and the white circle represents the hope of Malaysia, which mean we still have hope. Maybe?

Another artist who responded to this incident is Redza Piyadasa. He is one of the first Malaysia artist who do conceptual and abstract arts. In response to the tragedy, he created an art titled 'May 13th, 1969'.

"May 13th, 1969" by Redza Piyadasa.

It is a coffin shaped 3D art, standing on a mirror with Malaysia flag wrapped around it with some black paint covered. The standing coffin with Malaysia flag shows that Malaysia is still alive on the outside but it is actually dead after the May 13 tragedy. The mirror reflect the people who go towards the artwork and view it, which we can see ourself in it that means we are part of dead Malaysia. The original artwork are destroyed by the artist himself but recreated a replica in 1970. This artwork are currently owned by Singapore and placed in Singapore National Art Gallery. I, as a Malaysian, feel really sad that non-Malaysian appreciate Malaysia arts more than Malaysian do.

There are an interesting event happened, which is a Malaysia famous poet, Salleh Ben Joned peed on Redza Piyadasa's art and it is surprised that he did not get arrested. Every artist was shocked and discussing about it during that period. They wonder is there any hidden meaning of his behaviour but he is just simply did not understand Redza Piyasada's arts and thought those are crap.

Salleh Ben Joned.