Born in 1962 in Singapore, Salleh bin Japar is a conceptual multi-disciplinary artist whose work addresses concerns of identity and society, Muslim values, and globalisation. Salleh came to prominence with the seminal 1988 collaborative exhibition ‘Trimurti’, and in 2001 was a Singapore Pavilion representative at the 49th Venice Biennale.This work, together with ‘Paint the Heaven and Sculpt the Earth’, is part of a series of drawings done in Western Australia while Salleh studied at Curtin University of Technology (1989-90). With these works Salleh endeavours to unite or synthesise the notions of space and myth of the Australian aborigines within a context of the ritual aspects of Southeast Asia, especially of Indonesia. The broken fragments, almost fully united by the dark circular line, imply an aged fragility barely held together over time. In response to his faith, non-representational symbols often appear in Salleh’s work, such as the spiral and circle.
