Fossil Series: Opera Curtain

Zakaria bin Omar produced this piece while a resident artist in 2003 at the museum. His work thematically concentrates on social issues in Brunei and cultural identity. This work draws attention to Brunei's materialistic society and its members who have lost the ability of appropriate judgement. From the right of the picture, a woman, child and a man are each squeezed into a narrow space representing the past, future and the present. Other than working with Batik printing, the artist also uses raw materials common to life in Brunei, such as chicken wire and wavy galvanized sheets of iron, to create partially threedimensional work. Brunei society is envisioned as being on an opera stage on which fiction and reality coexist. With the raising of the curtain, the artist urges people to change the real society. (IR)