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Paintings featuring flying figures are a favourite of artist Khoo Sui Hoe since the 1970s as it indicates flights of fancy, an escape or an ideal of freedom in the physical and imaginative sense. It also signifies a joust of celebration in the way the floating forms recall Marc Chagall’s paintings. This work was inspired by the murals of the ancient Dunhuang Caves in China. One may even harkens back to the story of Peter Pan who spirits away little children in the dead of the night, to a far away land where adventure awaits and nothing is impossible. Sui Hoe’s works are replete with flying themes as can be found in his retrospective book, Painted World – page 100 (Flying Up), page 111 (Flying Coo-Coo), page 149 (Flying Over The Village) and page 155 (Courting).

Educated at Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts, Singapore and Pratt Institute, New York, Sui Hoe received the Honourable Mention at Salon Malaysia in 1969. In 1974, he was awarded the prestigious John D. Rockefeller 3rd Fund Grant. Sui Hoe is the founder of UTARA, a group of Malaysian Modernists from Kedah and Penang in 1977. His works areheld in the collection of public and private institutions and corporations.