was conceived and initially developed during my trips to Sarawak (East Malaysia)
in 1988 and 1991. I saw the masks of the Kenyah and Kayan (local tribes) at museums, "long houses" (tribal residences), and antique shops.A local artist brought
a group of foreign artists and me to those places and he talked about the rituals and the usage of masks.
I found masks interesting
as they could be used as motifs in paintings to make cultural statements - about ceremony and rituals. They can also be used
to preserve our slowly eroding local cultures and offer opportunities for a social commentary on human pretensions and falsehoods.
We're like hiding behind masks, sometimes for good reasons and sometimes not.
The early experimentation of
