Nirmala Dutt (b. 1941, Malaysia) was one of the most prominent artists to have emerged in Malaysian art scene in the 1970s. After her relocation from Penang to Kuala Lumpur in the early 1960s, Dutt attended painting classes with artists of Angkatan Pelukis Semenanjung (APS) founded by Hoessein Enas. In a lifelong pursuit of education spanning across decades, Dutt studied art, art history, psychology and printmaking in various art schools in the U.S. and UK. Eschewing the dominant abstract expressionist and minimalist tendencies amongst her peers in post-independent Malaysia, Dutt cultivated a practice that included painting, photography, silkscreen, and collage. The Statement series marks Dutt’s direct and sustained response to urban poverty and the local environment, expanding from a 1973 award-winning submission for the Man and His World competition organized by Balai Seni Lukis Negara. The work documented evidence of urban pollution close to where she lived. Dutt's utilisation of documentary photography and text as a critical mode of social commentary persisted in the subsequent years. The affinity she developed for the squatter dwellers and children in Batu 4, Damansara inflected her approach, shifting the series' conceptual framework to one that was more political. Throughout her practice, Dutt was committed to making works to stir the viewer’s conscience to sociopolitical struggles locally and globally—war and conflict, domestic violence, environmental destructions, urban poverty—often spotlighting the plight of women, children and indigenous groups.
