So much of Ismail Hashim to unpack or repack
By Ooi Kok Chuen
May 2015 PENANG PALETTE
Some visitors were a wee bit befuddled, flummoxed and bewildered.They had trooped to photographer extraordinaire Ismail Hashim’s Unpack-Repack exhibition expecting a Retrospective of his wit and humour in his photo-“docucommentaries” on everyday life, the environment and politics – the stark contrasts, the ambiguous then-and-now telescopic format, and the mak-iloi2 telatah (idiosyncracies) of the people. You know, the usual panoply of hung photographs like taxidermised trophies, albeit some hand-tinted and with the iconic Ismail barbs and ribbings, for an inaudible chuckle...
Ooi Kok Chuen
is an art-writer and journalist, and the author of MAHSURI: A Legend Reborn (Ooi Peeps Publishing), an adult contemporary fantasy “movel” (a novel conceived as a mock movie) spun from a local legend.
