042
b. Selangor, 1963
Jalaini Abu Hassan
Hi, There’s a Bomb in My Backyard
2008
signed and dated ‘Jai 2008 KL’ (bottom left), titled ‘Hi, There’s a Bomb in My Backyard’ (bottom right)
mixed media on paper
70.5 x 100cm
Provenance
Private collection, Kuala Lumpur; acquired through Valentine Willie Fine Art, Kuala Lumpur.
Estimate
RM 13,000 – 15,000
Price Realised
RM 11,880
Huge smoke plumes burst forth like a geyser in the foreground of the picture, sending off a sinister chill despite the somewhat playful connotation in the caption. This is one of Jai’s rare excursions into political terrain and sees him venturing outside Malaysia and beyond his immediate and familiar surroundings. Pre-timed bombs like those in Mumbai (Taj Hotel), Jaipur, Ahmadebad, Bangalore and Assam in India, the Gaza Strip and Pakistan have snatched lives of innocent civilians and caused irreversible damage to properties, while closer to home is the protracted insurgency in the volatile Deep South of Thailand.
