From 5 to 27 March 2022, Rimbun Dahan presented an exhibition by Hijjas bin Kasturi, our permanent artist in residence, made during the pandemic.
We were delighted to have Beverly Yong as our curator, helping us to select from hundreds of works that Hijjas has made. The exhibition included oil paintings and acrylics on canvas, enamel on board, and works on paper. Works were for sale, with portion of the proceeds going to charity.
About the Exhibition
Through the pandemic, Rimbun Dahan has harboured an unexpected artist in residence – Hijjas Kasturi himself. During this time, he has made over 300 paintings, an extraordinary undertaking, whose ambition is rivalled only by its sheer range.
We think of Hijjas Kasturi as one of our nation builders, giving formal expression to Malaysia’s ambitions, identity and progress in the many iconic structures he has designed that shape our capital’s cityscape and beyond. For Hijjas, art and architecture are closely related, but artists are differentiated by their unique freedom.
Through art, he has gone back to exploring a more personal creative space, painting with no holds barred, taking on every day the challenge of the blank canvas.
He has found inspiration in the garden that Angela has curated and cultivated over three decades, in the art collection and in the life of Rimbun Dahan itself. In coming to the canvas, he finds he is met with the same questions as he has faced as a modern Malaysian architect – how to integrate forms that are meaningful to the local, how to be different and find an expression of self. The process of making has been experimental and intuitive.
The show follows some consistent themes that have grown out of his study of his immediate environment, often building on ideas that relate to a visual vocabulary already embedded in his architectural practice. There are compelling conversations happening between natural, sculptural, architectural and painted forms. In Hijjas’ frenetic, energetic latest foray into art-making, nothing stands still, all is dynamic and changing and bursting to find shape.
Renewal celebrates what it is to explore painting, and the processes of creative intelligence and inspiration. It is very much Hijjas Kasturi in the mode of “Grab it now, and see what we can do”.
Price List & Purchases
Download price list in PDF format.
To request larger images of the artworks or for more information, please email arts@rimbundahan.org or Whatsapp +6017 310 3769.
Catalogue
Download the catalogue, with essay by curator Beverly Yong, and background on Hijjas Kasturi: