Join Sabah Art Gallery programs, artists urged
KOTA KINABALU: Budding artists in Sabah must involve themselves in programs organised by the Sabah Art Gallery for exposure, experience and promotion of their artwork.
This is the advice Awang Fadilah from Menumbuk has for budding artists in the state who have the talent but do not know how to go about honing it and making themselves known to the art community.
Join Sabah Art Gallery programs, join local art clubs and participate in competitions, he said, adding that artists in Sabah should also use the Gaya Street Sunday Market as a platform to showcase their work.
Awang Fadilah, 46, is one of the 30 local artists who has been selected to showcase his work in the Pillars of Sabah 2.0 project.
The wheelchair-bound artist said he had been involved in the art scene for more than 20 years and his pieces had won awards in Korea and Japan.
“My identity is black and white artwork and my subject is usually the flora and fauna as well as the culture of Sabah,” Awang Fadilah said, adding that his disability was the result of a fall years back.
“It is an honour to be part of this project which is good promotion for the art community in Sabah,” he said, adding that it also reflected the government’s support and desire to help the state’s art community.
Awang Fadilah, who has also published children’s story books, said he was now in a collaboration with Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka to publish more of such books depicting tales of Sabah, its culture as well as his life in his village.
The Pillars of Sabah 2.0 was officiated by Tourism, Culture and Environment Ministry permanent secretary William Baya, who was representing Tourism, Culture and Environment Minister Datuk Christina Liew.
Meanwhile co-organisor of the event Jared Abdul Rahman said Pillars of Sabah 2.0 was launched in conjunction with WWF Earth Hour.
Jared, together with coorganisors Red Hong Yi and Melissa Lo, was instrumental in realising the inaugural Pillars of Sabah project which showcased iconic people in Sabah. It was launched on September 16, 2018, in conjunction with Malaysia Day.
This time round, Jared said they started discussions with WWF Malaysia, as one of the biggest things WWF had globally was its Earth Hour at the end of March, annually.
“In line with the theme Earth Hour and with a slightly more environmental, we chose to celebrate Sabah’s unique wildlife, especially the threatened species.
“After the success of the first one, we got a lot of following so we put the call out on social media to submit their interest to participate and from that we selected the 30 artists so that we can highlight different styles, background as well as experience of artists in the KK community,” he said at the launch of the project on Saturday night.
The Pillars of Sabah community art project is sponsored by WWF Malaysia and Nippon Paint (Sabah), with the support of Sabah Art Gallery under the Sabah Cultural Board, Sabah Tourism Board, Ministry of Tourism, Culture and Environment Sabah as well as Kota Kinabalu City Hall.
Occupying an abandoned prewar site in the heart of Kota Kinabalu, Pillars of Sabah was established with the aim to bring together the local community through art, and in the process highlight issues relevant to Sabah.
Since its inaugural launch in September 2018, the project has been well-received, creating a new, popular place of interest in the city for locals and tourists alike.
Not only has it succeeded in positively transforming a longneglected site within central Kota Kinabalu, it has also inspired the community towards a sense of active appreciation for art and its message.
The message this time round is that of environmental awareness.
Thirty new artists have come together to highlight threatened animal species found in Sabah and featured animals include the Sunda pangolin (Manis javanica), Sumatran rhinoceros (Dicerorhinus sumatrensis), Bornean sun bear (Helarctos malayanus euryspilus), as well as Borneo pygmy elephant (Elephas maximus borneensis).