Once there was a book

Gem of a book, 1981
The few rare copies still in my keeping...

 On the 16th of September, Sarawak will celebrate its independence being a party to the formation of Malaysia.  As part of remembering history I'll create some posts on what  it means to be a Malaysian as I have experienced it.  This is the first of the series I call " Once there was a ...".  In this first posting I will touch upon a small book of mine.  It was published in 1981 in Kuching, Sarawak.  The book was entitled " Lukisan Pameran dan Puisi MOOD".  The book was meant to accompany my first solo art exhibition at the Sarawak Museum in Kuching.  The exhibition besides displaying paintings also presented some of the poems in graphic forms.  A close friend of mine Mr.Reg Salisbury consented to read and record the poems at the recording studio of RTM, Kuching.  The recorded poems in English were played during the exhibition hours. To read examples of my poems in the book please go to this link here...

Part of my crew for managing the exhibition in a group photo, 1981.
Note the portrait at right.  A close-up of the painting and poem is shown below.

The book has poems in English and Malay.  The above poem is Malay is incorporated in the book.

Part of the poem, extracted from the book.

The book is a real gem in many ways.  Copies of it were kept firstly at the US Library of Congress, and then other libraries like the  National Library of Australia Collection and Yale University Library.  To have it kept by these libraries was a real reward for all the efforts I made to realize the exhibition and the book. 1981 seemed years ago but it is close to my heart even to this day.  Enjoy one of the readings of the poem by Reg Salisbury here  .  The book incorporated 7 pages of sketches I did which acted as catalogue for the paintings.  These sketches can be seen here . 

Happy Malaysia Day, Sarawak!


  (Note:  On the 16th of September, Sarawak will celebrate its independence being a party to the formation of Malaysia.  As part of remembering history I'll create some posts on what  it means to be a Malaysian as I have experienced it.  Check out the rest of the postings by following this link here.)