THE TRUE BEIJING HERO
KLIA Times magazine: interview 2008 by T. Vignesh
Published in KLIA Times, September 2008 issue, pp 3.
Abdul Multhalib Musa finishes in the top 100 in the sculpture competition in Beijing, held concurrently with the recent summer Olympics.
IF anyone had thought that national badminton player Lee ChongWei was the only Olympic hero in winning a silver medal for the badminton singles event, then they should give it a second thought.
Abdul Multhalib Musa, 32, one of Malaysia’s contemporary sculptors received recognition to be the first Malaysian to be chosen to contribute for his artwork, which is now displayed at the Beijing Olympic Park City.
His sculpture in Beijing is called ‘Two Sides’ and it was selected from among 2,700 other participants from around the world to join 99 other selected sculptors in the park.
“I was commissioned by the Beijing Government after entering an international sculpture competition in 2005,” he said.
“There were over 2,000 participants competing in the first round of the competition and from there, 1,000 were selected to enter the next round. Last year, I was informed that my art piece was selected together with another 99 sculptors throughout the world for the final round, and that is a great achievement for me.”
Multhalib, who studied architecture in UiTM, has now added this achievement to the number of International Awards and Residencies he has previously won.
His latest effort was the, ‘Twist’, which was recently displayed at the Wei-Ling gallery in Kuala Lumpur. It took him about two to three years to complete the work on the ‘Twist’.
“To complete a sculpture will take a lot of time, because when you do it the first time, it will not come out perfectly or come out the way it is supposed to. So when this happens, you throw it away and do it again. It also involves a laborious process defined by trial and error,” he added.
His art pieces can been seen in many places such as in Mid Valley, Hilton Hotel Kuala Lumpur, Wisma Selangor Dredging and even in several bungalow houses in Bangsar.
“Sculptors now are in demand among many rich people, because a sculpture is not only to beautify a place but it also brings out an image of the place or a person”.
Multhalib began drawing at the age of three as he used to draw on walls using crayons and colour pencils, and at the age of six, he had already won his first gold medal for an art piece that he produced in a kindergarten drawing competition.
“I guess that was the turning point in my life, where I knew that art is something I wanted to do in life,” said the artist.
“I am the only person in the family who is in this field. My father is a retired civil servant while my mother is a retired school teacher and my sister works with Mimos,”
“Although art does not interest them, they have been very supportive. My parents used to send me for art classes and encouraged me to be more creative.
“Ever since I was small up until now, the things that will make me happy is drawing, painting and making things. Now, this is my career, and I take it so seriously that even if I am not doing anything physically, I will be mentally planning my next sculptures.
“I will look at something and get inspired which will immediately trigger a lot of ideas. It can be anything. It can be from talking to people, looking at them or political issues. I have some pieces inspired by political issues”.
IF anyone had thought that national badminton player Lee ChongWei was the only Olympic hero in winning a silver medal for the badminton singles event, then they should give it a second thought.
Abdul Multhalib Musa, 32, one of Malaysia’s contemporary sculptors received recognition to be the first Malaysian to be chosen to contribute for his artwork, which is now displayed at the Beijing Olympic Park City.
His sculpture in Beijing is called ‘Two Sides’ and it was selected from among 2,700 other participants from around the world to join 99 other selected sculptors in the park.
“I was commissioned by the Beijing Government after entering an international sculpture competition in 2005,” he said.
“There were over 2,000 participants competing in the first round of the competition and from there, 1,000 were selected to enter the next round. Last year, I was informed that my art piece was selected together with another 99 sculptors throughout the world for the final round, and that is a great achievement for me.”
Multhalib, who studied architecture in UiTM, has now added this achievement to the number of International Awards and Residencies he has previously won.
His latest effort was the, ‘Twist’, which was recently displayed at the Wei-Ling gallery in Kuala Lumpur. It took him about two to three years to complete the work on the ‘Twist’.
“To complete a sculpture will take a lot of time, because when you do it the first time, it will not come out perfectly or come out the way it is supposed to. So when this happens, you throw it away and do it again. It also involves a laborious process defined by trial and error,” he added.
His art pieces can been seen in many places such as in Mid Valley, Hilton Hotel Kuala Lumpur, Wisma Selangor Dredging and even in several bungalow houses in Bangsar.
“Sculptors now are in demand among many rich people, because a sculpture is not only to beautify a place but it also brings out an image of the place or a person”.
Multhalib began drawing at the age of three as he used to draw on walls using crayons and colour pencils, and at the age of six, he had already won his first gold medal for an art piece that he produced in a kindergarten drawing competition.
“I guess that was the turning point in my life, where I knew that art is something I wanted to do in life,” said the artist.
“I am the only person in the family who is in this field. My father is a retired civil servant while my mother is a retired school teacher and my sister works with Mimos,”
“Although art does not interest them, they have been very supportive. My parents used to send me for art classes and encouraged me to be more creative.
“Ever since I was small up until now, the things that will make me happy is drawing, painting and making things. Now, this is my career, and I take it so seriously that even if I am not doing anything physically, I will be mentally planning my next sculptures.
“I will look at something and get inspired which will immediately trigger a lot of ideas. It can be anything. It can be from talking to people, looking at them or political issues. I have some pieces inspired by political issues”.
“I have future plans. I want to enter as many competitions as possible and see what happens then, because you can’t really plan anything as an artist,” added Multhalib.
