Latiff Mohidin

Latiff Mohidin (b.1941)  
"I Stood Transfixed", 2018
Ink on Paper
32.5 x 21 cm

Latiff Mohidin: The Poetic Stillness of "I Stood Transfixed"

Presented here is a rare and intimate convergence of literature and visual art by the legendary Latiff Mohidin, arguably Southeast Asia’s most revered living modernist. This 2018 work, titled "I Stood Transfixed", offers a profound glimpse into the artist’s "Pago-Pago" soul, where the boundary between the written word and the drawn line becomes beautifully blurred.

The Work: A Synthesis of Form and Verse

Executed in ink on paper, this work is more than a mere poem; it is a visual meditation on memory and ancestry. The artist’s signature calligraphic hand—fluid, rhythmic, and pulsing with life—transforms the lined paper into a sacred space of reflection.

Analysis: Of Roots and Wings

The poem describes a moment of profound stasis—a grandson mesmerized by the portrait of his grandmother. Latiff employs a striking botanical metaphor, comparing her neck to a "clump of sturdy Beringin" (banyan tree). In Latiff's lexicon, the Beringin is a symbol of Southeast Asian resilience and rootedness, a theme that has permeated his work since the 1960s.

The tension in the piece lies in its second stanza:

"If I had made a move / the leaves / would have become / birds..."

This evocative imagery suggests that the subject is so alive that even a breath might shatter the stillness, transforming the "sturdy" roots into flight. It captures that ephemeral moment where memory and reality collide, a hallmark of Mohidin’s poetic sensitivity.

As an artist who represented Malaysia at the Venice Biennale and has been honored with a solo exhibition at the Centre Pompidou, Latiff presence is peerless in the region.

Before Latiff, much of Southeast Asian art was bifurcated: it was either traditional folk art or a direct imitation of European styles. Latiff broke this dichotomy. Having studied in Berlin but rooted in the soil of Negeri Sembilan and the streets of Kampong Gelam, he launched the "Pago-Pago" era. This movement was revolutionary because it centered the Nusantara’s own architecture—the pointed roofs of the Minangkabau rumah gadang, the stupas of Borobudur, and the lush tropical flora—as the foundation for high abstraction.

The Grandmother & The Beringin: He compares his grandmother’s neck to a "clump of sturdy Beringin" (Banyan tree). In Malay culture, the Beringin is a sacred, ancestral symbol representing protection, deep roots, and the bridge between the physical and spiritual worlds. By linking her to the tree, he portrays her not just as a person, but as a foundational, living monument of his heritage. Latiff acknowledges the matrilineal strength found in Minangkabau and broader Malay cultures. In the face of rapid modernization, he looks back to the "sturdy" ancestral figure to find his balance. This mirrors his artistic journey: wandering the world (the merantau) only to find that the most profound truths were already present in the "portraits" of his elders and the "Beringin" trees.

Leaves into Birds: The final lines ("If I had made a move / the leaves / would have become / birds...") suggest a delicate, supernatural tension. It implies that the portrait is so alive with "semangat" (spirit) that the slightest disturbance would cause this ancestral "tree" to take flight and vanish.