086

EXHIBITED
Vision and Idea: Relooking Modern Malaysian Art, National Art Gallery, Kuala Lumpur, 1994, illustrated on catalogue, page 149.

This is an extremely rare hand-tinted gelatin silver print by veteran Malaysian photographer Ismail Hashim. He is one of the few artists who have helped change the public’s perception towards photography and elevate the status of photography as a form of fine art in Malaysia. Ismail’s works seek to capture the hidden beauty in the simplicity and uniqueness of everyday scenes and objects. Using a form of realism that emphasise in evoking atmospheric recollections in the viewer, Ismail presents his photographs as close to reality as possible without idealising the subject matter. His poignant pictures induce nostalgia in the viewer and prompt contemplation on seemingly mundane imagery that are vanishing and forgotten as a consequence of rapid change.

Dated 1986, Kedai Gunting (Barber Shop) depicts an old swivelling barber chair within a run-down wooden hut. From the torn calendar in the background on the right, traces of hair at the footrest, to the worn electrical standing fan that majority Malaysians would have come across, Ismail masterfully bridges the viewer’s memory of a barber haircut experience to the artist’s own personal encounter, presenting a complex layering of time and space. By tinting the lush greeneries peering through the window, Ismail may be alluding to the fact that these ordinary yet significant culture and way of life that define our sense of belonging and identity may be overlooked and taken for granted, perhaps more so than the diminishing Mother Nature. Exhibited in the pivotal exhibition Vision and Idea: Relooking Modern Malaysian Art at National Art Gallery, Kuala Lumpur in 1994, Kedai Gunting has not been seen in the public eye for almost two decades.

Born in Penang in 1940, Ismail Hashim went to Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) in 1972 and Washington State University in 1977. Upon return, he worked as a graphic design and photography lecturer at USM. The strength of his photographic works is the sensitivity and his profound study of the idea of the subject that he wants to studies. He was honoured with a retrospective exhibition at Penang State Art Gallery in 2010.