M’sian artist holds solo batik exhibition in NY

Dye-hard passion: Siti Azzah incorporated her mother’s personal items and elements from her home state of Penang into her batik theme exhibition. — Photo courtesy of Sinar Harian

Compiled by JO TIMBUONG, C. ARUNO and R. ARAVINTHAN

A MALAYSIAN artist based in New York successfully hosted her first solo exhibition at the Trotter & Sholer gallery that heavily featured batik to illustrate the life of Malaysian maidens.

Siti Azzah Syed Sultan, 24, displayed her work titled Anak Dara (Maiden) for two weeks in September at the gallery.

“It was like a dream come true for me. I’ve lived in New York for seven years and I worked hard to complete the works in this exhibition, ” she told Sinar Harian.

It took the artist four months to complete the exhibition which is presented in parts titled – Memasak (cook), Melipat (fold), Membalut (wrap), Menyentuh (touch) and Menghidu (smell).

Azzah incorporated many of her mother’s personal clothing into her art as well as other elements such as spices and items from her home state of Penang.

However, Azzah was a little sad that she could not share the limelight with her parents, who were her pillars of support.

She said she would not have been able to achieve success without her parents’ continuous prayers.

> Indonesian singer Anggun has the utmost respect for Malaysian singer Yuna, whom she said is in a class of her own.

“She is a modern Muslim woman and also a songwriter and singer with a unique approach and she owns her identity. Her talent is invaluable and we need to have more artistes like her, ” the 46-year-old singer told Harian Metro’s RapXtra.

Anggun, who shot to fame after the release of her album Snow on the Sahara in the early 2000s, advised aspiring Asian artistes not to be afraid to offer something different.

“Do not be afraid to appear bizarre or unique.

“New artistes need to find their own identity in creating their music to stand out. We don’t want to hear the same thing from them, ” she said.

She said artistes could take elements from their own background, upbringing and aesthetic cultural values and inject them into their work.

The Paris-based Anggun also expressed her sadness at how

Covid-19 had affected the arts, adding that she had made the most out of the situation by spending more time with her family and perfecting her craft.

“The beauty about the current situation is us learning to adapt and I am actually grateful for that because this is unprecedented. I know it is only temporary, ” she said.

The above articles are compiled from the vernacular newspapers (Bahasa Malaysia, Chinese and Tamil dailies). As such, stories are grouped according to the respective language/medium. Where a paragraph begins with a >, it denotes a separate news item.