An experience of creating a monument:Laman Arca "MIM"UiTM- 2005-2006

"public art generates an instructive critique of how community has been variously positioned in recent years. A central question is how can public art, like post-Minimalist, site-specific practices, retain or produce some sense of identity and particularity when we experience neighbourhoods as "one place after another"; or how can community-based art allow for local participation without succumbing to the domination of market forces or institutional management?''
Miwon Kwon (2002).One place after Another: Site- Specific Art and Locational Identity, Cambridge, Mass: Mit Press

Among the public-art projects I was involved with in Malaysia was building a landmark for UiTM( MARA University of Technology). It was named as "Laman Arca Mim".That was a great experiences for myself in terms of managing a commission work and having the opportunity to collaborate with other professionals such as architects, civil engineers and bureaucrats. It was a collaboration of ideas from several young sculptors and a re-known Malaysian sculptor Ramlan Abdullah, to finished and completed within 18 months from the process of getting the budget, developing the ideas till the execution at the selected site.

The idea of the landmark derived from the "Jawi Calligraphic letter" which sounds like the letter "M" and is the first letter in the word "Malay".Supporting the main form of the sculpture "Mim" are several lines of text and quotations from the former and current Malaysian leaders which were sandblasted to the surface of nine local granite boulders . The team went through a lot of difficulties and challenging issues in terms of technical knowledge and expertise, however the project was completed on the expected time and officially launched in November 2006.