BUANASENI

Title: Lego Sportscar: A Birthday Boy's Legacy
Medium: Lego (Model #6743 "Creator" for 6-12 years old)
Artist: Daniel Ariff
Time/Date: 3:00pm, 2 June 2010
Place of creation: Shah Alam
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ODAY Daniel turns 5. It has been quite a journey for him to reach 5 years old as he struggled through life in 2 different countries (The UK and Malaysia) meeting all expectations whilst overcoming obtacles such as Mummy's intolerable dinosour-like screaming and Daddy's lack of attention to Daniel's achievements. Daniel started the day, his Birthday!, with normal school agenda but of course, glorified by the anticipated rounds of hugging by fellow class mates celebrating the glorious day complete with a chocolate-banana cake crowned with 5 candles for Daniel to blow. It so happens that Daddy is on a 1 week leave, so Daddy get to spend the whole day with the birthday boy, A Dad-Son appreciation day (...with the bloody BlackBerry vibrating all the time for incoming work e-mails)

Daniel continued the day with football clinic at the Goal Academy where he scored a goal which was heavily cheered by Daddy's screaming of "GOAL!!!!!!!!...." simultaneously pissing off the other parents. Who cares.... my boy scored a goal on his birthday - he deserves Daddy's overdue and rare attention. To celebrate this joyous day of birth in remembrance and sports achievement, Daniel got a Lego set from Daddy, a Model #6743 "Creator" for 6-12 years old. It is a Lego set for building a sportscar that is convertable to an F1 vehicle as well as a 4-wheeler. So Daniel embarked on another lego journey but this time, he did it alone without Daddy's help - really, Daddy did not intervene other than reminders for him to keep on referring to the instructions that came with the set. The result: An awesome striking green object. Perfect for my boy and of course, giving Daddy the ideal material for blogging (See portfolio of photographs attached below). Thanks Danny Boy,.. and Happy Birthday.

Title: Rengis
Medium: Photography
Photographers: Johan Ishak & Roslina Shaik
Time/Date: (various time of the days}; 29 & 30 May 2010
Venue: Rengis Island of Tioman Island
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...God created tropical islands, and there was Rengis...

Title: The Self Potrait
Medium: Pencil
Dimension: 37.5cm X 27.3cm
Artist: Johan Ishak
Time/Date: {Time not recorded}, 28 Nov 1989
Place of Creation: Shah Alam
Current Owner: With the artist
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T the age of 14, I attempted my first potrait by pencil. It's a self potrait based on a photo of me at the age of 8 (at the bottom right). This is the only self potrait I have ever done. Did a few more of images of friends and relatives but somehow I stopped doing it - the last was about 12 years ago in Australia. It requires too much time and it was, and is still, certainly a difficult task especially the eye bit. If you get the eye wrong, you'll get the whole potrait looking rather spastic in comparison to the original image. Perhaps one day I should try to do it again but maybe with oil paint instead.

Title: Lego of Masjidil Haram and the Kaabah
Medium: Lego
Artist: Johan Ishak and Daniel Ariff
Time/Date: 9:00pm, 18 April 2010
Place of creation: Shah Alam
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NOTHER Lego Saga with my boy but this time it's the Masjidil Haram with the Kaabah in the middle. We chose this to model as it is one of the most noticeable landmark in the world that is even visible from the moon. This site represents unity in the Islamic world whereby all Muslims pray 5 times a day facing a direction that leads to the Kaabah. It is a very sacred site to the Muslims almost on par with Masjid Al-Aqsa in Jerusalem.

Worshippers claim that they feel devine presents in their heart when performing the pilgrimage (ie. the Hajj) at the Kaabah - the act of submission to God after having the health, wealth and time to perform the preriquisites such as the declaration of faith in Islam (shahadah), praying 5 times a day (solat), fasting for 30 days (Ramadhan) and donate to the poor (zakat). The Hajj is the 5th pillar of Islam that completes a Muslim's duty to God, mankind and to him/herself. The Kaabah is located in the middle of an open area surrounded by a mosque, Masjidil Haram, in the city of Mekkah in Saudi Arabia.

It is believed, as well as written in the Quran, that Mekkah and Kaabah were founded and built by the Prophet Abraham (Ibrahim) and his son, the Prophet Ishmael (Ismail), peace be upon them. Abraham, peace be upon him (p.b.u.h), believed to be of the Mesopotamian-Assyrian stock, took a second wife, Hagar (Siti Hajar), from the Bedouins as Sarah (Siti Sarah), his first wife, could not give him any children. Hagar gave birth to Ishmael p.b.u.h and miraculously, Sarah later gave birth to Prophet Isaac (Ishak) p.b.u.h despite her old age. As a diplomatic solution to maintain peace in the family, Hagar and Ishmael p.b.u.h were sent to the desert of Arabia to start a life - where the Kaabah is. This humble beginning turned out to be a mighty nation today. Likewise, Isaac p.b.u.h also produced a similar titan. The former being the Arabs and the latter, Hebrew/Jews/Israelis, as foretold by the Angel Gabriel (Jibrail) to Hagar when left alone with his boy at the barren region.

Back to the lego construction, we sort of have an idea on how it looks like and decided not to refer to any photos. So we embarked on the lego construction for which the result is: As attached below - everything seems to be disproportionate and of course, architecturally, the lego reconstruction seems to deviate from the real thing. Nevertheless, it does resemble the real thing, I think. I am sure a glance of our work sparks the real thing in your mind.