Tenacity & hope

IN MID-2023, Khoo Boo Teik, a close friend from school days, asked me if I could design the cover of his book, Anwar Ibrahim: Tenacious in Dissent, Hopeful in Power. It got me thinking about a few pieces of art for the cover. “Tenacity & Hope” was one of them. It depicts flowers growing out of crammed and difficult circumstances, where freedoms were curtailed, boxed in; where thorns pointed inwardly; where menaces thrived, and where fruit and seeds were deprived of growth.

I have plans to do versions 2 and 3 of “Tenacity & Hope”, both photographs, but it will take time.

I did not use the drawing as part of a cover. I submitted instead a design depicting four Anwar Ibrahim prints by Stephen Menon. Read here. The drawing, however, was accepted as part of an online exhibition, curated by Stephen Menon, called “Black + White” by Art Voice Gallery, September 18-30, 2024.

Click HERE to DOWNLOAD the catalogue.