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LITERATURE
Jai: Drawing with the Mind’s Eye, Rusli Hashim Fine Arts, 1997, illustrated p. 24.

Jai went into wall presentation of traditional kitchen utensils upon returning from his second Masters studies in New York. The bench coconut scraper, or kukur, takes centre stage in this work, juxtaposed with other common household objects such as a glass, a cup and even a banana. The kukur, which was popular among all the races once upon a time, is straddled like a horse, while the kernel of the coconut shell is scraped against a jagged sharp-edged metal.

Like in most of Jai’s works, the subjects are more than just embellishments of lines and colours, it reflects his sense of belonging and identity. He uses subjects of the common everyday materials as metaphors of traditional culture.