FAWWAZ SUKRI

The War Veteran I, 2021 The War Veteran II, 2021

We are really struck by the practice of Fawwaz, who is part of the Ara Damansara Artist Collective. A strong painter, he makes works that are delightfully accessible through pop art imagery, infused with strong social and political messaging that feels relevant in Malaysian and global contexts. This pair, which debuted at Dua Konsultasi’s 2021 exhibition, Psychedelic, during Artober, exemplifies his sociopolitical consciousness as they draw parallels between the fall of Saigon and Kabul. Elmo is dressed as a Vietcong, painted on a cardboard box of Vietnamese goods, while Homer is an American GI on a box that contained Arabic goods. As Fawwaz draws this parallel, he speaks to the cyclic nature of wars, questioning if they are about resources rather than ideologies.