The Haji Family

Redza Piyadasa was a respected art historian, critic and artist who had contributed much to the development of contemporary art in Malaysia and the Southeast Asian region. Born in Kuantan, Pahang, Malaysia in 1939, he was trained as an art teacher at Brinsford Lodge in England but turned to pursue formal studies in sculpture at the Hornsey College of Art, London in the mid-1960s. Upon returning home, he taught at the newly established Mara School of Art and Design from 1969 to 1975, before leaving again for his Master of Fine Arts at the University of Hawaii in 1977.‘The Haji Family’ is part of a series of works called The Malaysian Series that spans from 1980 to 2005. This series primarily utilizes old Malaysian photographs obtained through various sources including family heirlooms and archival materials. Traversing across notions of culture and identity, his concern was to project a more ‘complex’ reality. Piyadasa’s usual conceptual approach also took a formalist turn with certain deliberate image-making strategies. This can be seen in the type of photographs selected (family portraits or single portraits) and the colours employed.