CORE contemporary art

Salam @ Peace: Awal Hurouf, Asal Hurouf II is the culmination of Husin hHourmain’s art over the length of the lockdowns necessitated by the COVID-19 pandemic. Comprising detailed contemporary calligraphy canvases in pop colour palettes, this series marks a time of reflection for both the artist himself as well as society around him in the face of meditative solitude. As Husin found time to think and wonder, his mind went back to his own past and key moments in his life. Quickly, he noticed a trend of ‘looking back’ flowering, particularly on social media where friends and acquaintances shared favourite memories as a way to reminisce or discuss what we might look forward to in a post-pandemic world. As Husin thought through what the pivotal moments in his own life were, his mind consistently returned to what is widely considered the defining moment in his artistic practice: his 2013 exhibition Awal Hurouf, Asal Hurouf.

With Salam @ Peace: Awal Hurouf, Asal Hurouf II, Husin participates in the social trend of reflection, while also posing challenges to himself as an artist. This new solo, which is a tight edition of twelve carefully worked mixed media paintings, in fact traces us through his career since 2013. He begins with Awal Hurouf, Asal Hurouf and the introduction of Arabic script as a socio-political icon into Malaysian contemporary art and takes us into his subsequent solo series Aku: Dalam Mencari Rukun… (2018) where he moved strongly towards the abstract expressionist styles that demarcated his very first works – think of Zero to Something / Zero to Nothing (2008).