S. Amin Shahab's solo exhibition `Cermin Mimpi' showcases works which are
filled with symbolisms and fantasy, writes OOI KOK CHUEN.

GEORGETTE Chen (1907-92), the great pioneer artist, once told S. Amin

Shahab: "Your works are rough, but sensitive."

Chen was then teaching at the Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts in Singapore,

where Amin was studying from 1975-77.

Amin was among a small group of Malaysian Malay artists taking up fine

arts at the academy, and his batch included M. Nasir and rock band Sweet

Charity's Rosli Mohalim.

What is curious is that while most artists there developed a style

depicting romanticised versions of tropical paradise and nubile sarung-

clad maidens dubbed the Nanyang Style, Amin was different.

Like Nasir's, Amin's works seem to be on another wavelength, another

satellite. Working independently, both somehow came up with what is a

curious mixture of Mysticism (Sufism) and Surrealism, replete with

symbolisms and fantasy.

"My works are very un-Nanyang," conceded Amin, who turned 50 in

February.

"They tend to ask questions about life. I have experienced all kinds of

problems in life, including many unusual ones," he added cryptically.

His solo exhibition, Cermin Mimpi (Dream Mirror), now on at Balai

Berita, the office of the New Straits Times Press (M) Bhd in Kuala Lumpur,

reflects best his persona, philosophy and penchant in art, showcasing

works done since 1982.

On show are 42 paintings in oil on canvas, mixed media, ink on paper and

sculptures in concrete. They are priced between RM700 and RM25,000.

Besides working on canvas and sculptures, Amin is also involved in the

film and music industry, having etched a name as a lyricist and telemovie

director.

His subjects are some enchanted realm where sea and land are blurred and

marine-like creatures seem to assume amphibious prowess.

His Soul Ship Series was effectively launched at the French restaurant,

Bacchus, in Kuala Lumpur, in 1983, officiated by (Datuk) Syed Ahmad Jamal.

The works are strongly inflenced by motifs of the Neolithic period and the

Dong Song cultures.

Soul Ship is based on the legend about the dead dressing up and setting

sail for an unknown destination in a boat.

This was the period when reptiles and skeletal fish like the coelanth,

insects and cave-like murals form a kind of visual hieroglyphics in his

works.

Scone-like receptacles abound in his works, included for their hardness,

curious shapes and patterns and capacity for emitting all kinds of sounds

and echoes.

His works took on religious overtones after his 2000 trip to Mecca for

his umrah, with the ubiquitous eye acting like an observer and the

observed, with a consequent loss of privacy.

But his earlier works, like those in the 1980s hogged by the triple

album covers for Kembara (which comprised Nasir, A. Ali and S. Sahlan),

are more lyrical and mystical with its obvious play on suspended windows

or archways.

In the 1993 Anugerah Industri Muzik, Amin won the Best Album Cover award

for pop band Illusi's Menggapai Pelangi.

He and Adam Ahmad co-wrote the Fauzi Marzuki-composed Teratai Layu

diTasik Madu, which won the TV3 Juara Lagu Song of the Year 1993. It was

sung by Fauziah Latiff.

He also wrote the lyrics for other award-winning songs like Umpama Mimpi

Dalam Mimpi (performed by pop-rock band Damasutra), Kekasih Awal Dan Akhir

(composed by Fauzi Marzuki and sung by Jamal Abdillah), and Suci Dalam

Debu (performed by Iklim, Juara Lagu 1990).

Parallels in the careers between Amin and Nasir are uncanny.

They first met while studying at Nanyang, but their inclinations in

music and films were not evident then.

It was in Nasir's recording debut, Untuk Pencipta Seni, in 1979, that

the lyricist-composer partnership began.

Besides the album covers for Kembara, Amin penned the lyrics for hits

like Keroncong Untuk Ana 1 & 2 and also wrote the lyrics for Nasir's

phenomenal Canggung Mendonan (Awkward Stranger).

His lyrics breathed life into other Nasir compositions like Kejora

(performed by Search) and Sekuntum Mawar Merah Sebuah Puisi (Alleycats).

Both were also members of the Malay artists coterie, Angkatan Seni Lukis

Anika Daya (Apad), set up by A. Ghani Hamid.

In Amin's Studio Effendi, which tells about the love between an artist

and a ghost, Nasir was the lead star opposite Erma Fatima. He also

directed Nasir in Senyuman Seorang Seniman.

His other lyrical works include Ini Bukan Komedi and Komputer Cinta.

While Nasir is hugely successful as filmmaker (director/producer),

actor, musician, music composer, Amin has made his niche as a lyricist,

telemovie scriptwriter and director. Both are noted for their poetry in

prose and music.

There's more. Their wives are twin sisters. Amin's wife Junaidah Johari

(Da Da) is the sister of the late Junainah Johari (Na Na), Nasir's first

wife.

Na Na and Da Da were the singing duo, The Ideal Sisters. Da Da wrote the

script for Kembali, which Amin directed (it won the Anugerah Skrin in

1995).

He's now working on a telemovie, Helah Harimau Jadian, after a six-year

hiatus.

Amin has written lyrics for songs sung by Seha, Shidee, Nash, Alleycats,

Aishah, Francissca Peter and Khatijah Ibrahim. He wrote the lyrics for the

song, Kecacatan, for Freddie Aguilar's Malay album.

"Those days, we were paid a flat rate of RM120 for our lyrics. There

were no royalties," he recalls.

Apart from the Nanyang tutelage, Amin's growth as an artist took a

different path.

Born in Batu Pahat, Amin had always been interested in art. His

architect father Syed Hashim was a Sunday painter after the British

tradition, and encouraged him to take up art. He was drawn to the works of

Indonesian artists like Widayat and Amri Yahya, and made regular forays to

central Java and Irian Jaya (for carvings). It was in Pekalongan in

central Java that he picked up batik painting, which formed part of his

early oeuvres.

In Singapore, he had an early mentor in Sarkasi Said, and met artists

like Lim Yew Kuan (son of Nanyang's founder- principal Lim Hak Tai), the

Seremban-born Lai Foong Mooi who lectured there, Khoo Sui-ho and Mohammad

Mohammad Din. "I was allowed to put up in a Malay art gallery in North

Beach Road which was owned by Syed Hussein Al-Junid," he says.

His early works are characterised by the Soul Ship series with its

morbid themes, with the boats signifying vehicles of death, rather than a

shot at freedom.

But whether on canvas, celluloid or "vinyl", Amin shows a consistency in

his themes, treatment and style - they revolve around life, human emotions

and the environment, using complex interpenetration of realms and portray

a dream-within-a-dream technique.

His early art promoter was Rahime Harun, 1983-85, before the recession

set in. Then he switched to film direction with the help of Polygram's

Doreen Chia. He began to write scripts for TV dramas, then directed them,

like Potret Dan Lagu (1984), which was banned by RTM purportedly for its

"socialist" fervour.

He was working on an ambitious 40-episode Cendana Pura, a historical

drama on the final days of the Malacca Sultanate in the early 16th

century, when another economic recession hit, in 1998.

Amin has traced his roots to the lineage of the son-in-law of the

Prophet Muhammad.

To him, life, with the element of time, is a dream, of one ceaseless

being being drowned in the ocean of surrealism.

Cermin Mimpi ends at Balai Berita, 31, Jalan Riong, Kuala Lumpur, on

April 30.

* The writer can be contacted at ooi@nstp.com.my