BUANASENI

Elephantman is here in Malaysia. He has always been here. He is Yusof “Gajah”, the reference many art scholars in Malaysia are familiar with in the realm of naive art. He is the epitome “naïve” art icon. A visual art advocate who rides the “naïve” art genre like no other has in this country. Yusof only paints elephants (“Gajah” in Bahasa Malaysia). Even if you think there are no elephants in his work, look again. It’s there. Look deeper like how you would in Where’s Waldo. A full 4 feet by 4 feet oil painting of forest or underwater scenery may seem to be elephant-less but you’ll be amazed at where the elephants are positioned (example: in the bubbles coming out from the mouth of fish). Try to look for an elephant in this  masterpiece (on the right) . Yusof intends to keep this work not for sale.

“Well, an elephant is divine to the Indians, symbolizes wealth to the Chinese and for Malays, who are predominantly Muslim, it reminds us of the year our Prophet Muhammad s.a.w. was born, the Year of Elephant of the Arabic records... " said Yusof "Gajah"

When asked about this weird habit, his answer was, “Well, all my work must have a Gajah (elephant). If there are none, those are not from my own creative mind. It may have been work commissioned by some of my clients who is fed up of Gajah. Hahaha… ”. His devotion, or rather, obsession with elephants has categorised him within the “naïve” art genre. Naïve art is a form of playful art that goes against logical boundaries. For example, an apple that is not round but square in shape. In other words, art work that perhaps a child would have thought of. Wikipedia defines Naïve Art as a classification of art that is often characterised by a childlike simplicity in its subject matter and technique. While many naïve artists appear, from their works, to have little or no formal art training, this is often not true. Yusof is one of the veteran artists who had early training at art cottage Anak Alam alongside other national art heroes such as Dato’ Johan Jaaffar (journalism and theatre activist). As mentioned earlier, Yusof “Gajah” is a reference in many art faculties of tertiary institutions such as UiTM and USM. When asked what he thinks about that, he jokingly answered, “Its an honor to be a reference. I was told that if students forget to make reference to Yusof "Gajah" for naive art, they'll end up failing their thesis. Hahahaha”.

Kak Zakiah, his wife, used to be a civil servant in the Transport Department, has opted to retire early from civil service and decided to be the marketing mind for Yusof. She says Yusof lack pricing strategy for his valuable art works. The combination of the two, creative and commercial values have resulted in an entrepreneurship that promises economic value in what Yusof "Gajah" does. His oil/acrylic/water colour paintings, wood sculptures, pewter pieces, illustrated story books along with other merchandises (of Gajah) such as mugs and tshirts has allowed them to enjoy a steady source of income not only locally but from foreign countries such as Korea, Scandinavia and Indonesia. He is also famous amongst the foreign consulates/ambassadors in Malaysia. To add, his wife, Zakiah has also started to do Batik (of Gajah as well).

“Its an honor to be a reference especially when students forget to make reference to me, they ended up failing their thesis. Hahahaha” said Yusof "Gajah" jokingly

As a mark of recognition, Yusof received a gold medal for the 1996 Grand Prix Award for Asia Pacific Cultural Centre for UNESCO. His success was on the back of his creative illustrative kids story book series that feature various animal caricature characters including, of course, a Gajah. I was privileged enough to be invited to his house (also his studio) where he shared with me many of his work that he dearly kept as his own collection as well as those still in progress for his clients. Yusof tends to shy away from galleries. His clients come to his house to buy his work. However, he aspires to own his own gallery (which will materialize soon in Plaza Damas) and also have his own museum.

In my conversation with him, I asked, “Why Gajah? Why not Cat? Or something close to the Malaysian story such as Tapir, or Tigers?”. He said, “Well, an elephant is divine to the Indians, symbolizes wealth to the Chinese and for Malays, who are predominantly Muslim, it reminds us of the year our Prophet Muhammad s.a.w. was born, the Year of Elephant of the Arabic records. By the way, my son has taken cat as his “naïve” icon”. I then joked with him, “Can I then use Cacing (worm)? So I can become Mat Cacing”. He suggested, with sincerity, “Why not Mat Nombor (Numbers)? After all you are an accountant”. In my mind, what a brilliant idea! I might just do that (painting work involving numbers).

It so happens that that day was my birthday and as a result, Yusof “Gajah” gave me a birthday present, a pewter necklace with an elephant pendant. Brilliant! What an honor to receive an iconic present from an iconic artist, Mr Yusof “Gajah”. Before I left, my eyes gravitated towards a very powerful piece on his wall. It was an abstract of an elephant in purple and orange from Yusof’s Fun Series. Purple is playful and orange is passionate (for me that is). The marriage of the two colours gave birth to a “Sexy” feeling. What is more appropriate is that the company I work for has purple and orange as its corporate colours. So, as it was preordained to happen, that piece was acquired by the company as a gift to YAB Prime Minister Najib Razak during the launch of the company (MyCreative Ventures Sdn. Bhd.) - an honour for the man they call Yusof “Gajah”.

I attended Malaysian Design Development Centre ('DDEC') Design Summit 2012 on 24 September 2012. There were many cool presenters touching the different aspects of designs such as product designs, computer images, automotive and more. One presenter caught my attention: Mr Shukor Yahya, a true genius in Islamic Art who saw the potential in Kufi. He is Kufi Rhapsody. Shukor had travelled in many countries including Singapore, Thailand, Indonesia, Australia, India, Bangladesh, South Africa, Greece, United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, England, Wales, the USA, Switzerland and China. With such vast experience, Shukor has developed a profound love for art to the point that he quoted "Art must contribute to the betterment of humanity and it has to be important". When Shukor started painting seriously, he revived the art of Kufi square and quickly earned a reputation for his unique approach in painting. His individuality in style makes many art enthusiasts mesmerized by the contemporary works produced by him over the years.

Shukor shared the history of Kufi. Kufi is a font developed by Timo Khan, son of Kublai Khan, who ruled Samarkhand. The local (Samarkhand) culture back then was very diverse and rich encompassing many interactions between Arabs, Urdus, Chinese, Persians and many more. This exchange gave birth to Kufi whereby cultures of these different people were synergised into a simplified artistic font. Timo later embraced Islam and the rest was history as far as Kufi's development is concerned. It flourished. This history is evidenced by an ancient furniture that was found with Chinese lettering in Kufic style. It was a wonder about which one came first, the Arabic Kufic or the Chinese and how the two cultures had influenced each other to make up a Kufi square.

Shukor has now commercialised Kufi. He went further to expand the horizons of Kufi from a simple Islamic Art to product designs such as Caran'd Ache watches. His creativity landed him Eastern Art prizes (Annya Sand Pize) naming him one of the top 15 best emerging artists in Asia. Kufi is unique in that it requires some knowledge for its appreciation. One has to know arabic alphabets in order to read it phonetically. Arabic is read from left to right. This is the same for Kufi except that the left to right goes further spiraling inwards clockwise in the Kufi square.

Shukor is passionate and hopes that Malaysian culture will some day incorporate Kufi to a more pervasive manner. Until then, he will continue to drive Kufi with his sincere passion. He ended his presentation with "Art is the ultimate expression of human soul. It tells the tales long past and dreams the future". To give a final gimmick punch to this all, he cheekily added "Picasso, your time is out. It's Kufi's time now". For those who wants to experience Shukor's Kufi, The National Visual Gallery, Kuala Lumpur, is currently showing the "Power, Hope and Land" art exhibition, beginning from 7th August until 19th November, 2012, at Gallery 2B; featuring some of Shukor's work. Alternatively, you can visit his web site at shukoryahya.blogspot.com