Mohammad Din Mohammad: The Mistaken Ancestor (Something New Must Turn Up series)

The Mistaken Ancestor provides a critical introduction to the life of Mohammad Din Mohammad. An artist, traditional healer, Malay martial arts master, writer, and collector of Southeast Asian objects, Mohammad Din was a Sufi mystic guided by the view that all things in the universe are interrelated. He drew on this sensibility in developing his art, which he intended to operate as vehicles for navigating the social and economic pressures of modern life. Featuring writings, artworks, and photographs, this exhibition catalogue offers insights into Mohammad Din’s life-long commitment to harnessing different facets of Sufi mysticism for the rejuvenation of the human body and spirit. Mohammad Din Mohammad: The Mistaken Ancestor is part of the Something New Must Turn Up series which offers a comparative perspective of how artistic forerunners in post-independence Singapore critically engaged with the conditions of multiculturalism, developmentalism and modernisation through ground-breaking explorations of media.

Publisher: National Gallery Singapore
Author Biography: Shabbir Hussain Mustafa is Senior Curator at the National Gallery Singapore, where he oversees Between Declarations and Dreams, a long-term exhibition that surveys art about Southeast Asia from the 19th century to the present day. From 2013 to 2015, he was lead curator of Siapa Nama Kamu? (What is Your Name?), the Gallery’s other long-term exhibition that focuses on art in Singapore from the late 19th century onwards. Prior to joining the National Gallery, he was curator (South-Southeast Asia) at the National University of Singapore Museum (NUS Museum), where his approach centred on deploying archival texts as ploys in engaging different modes of thinking and writing. It was at the NUS Museum that he initiated the critically acclaimed accumulative projects Camping and Tramping through The Colonial Archive: The Museum in Malaya (2011–2013), The Sufi and The Bearded Man: Re-membering a Keramat in Contemporary Singapore (2010–2012), and co-conceived the experimental space prep room | things that may or may not happen (2012–ongoing). In 2013, he curated In Search of Raffles’ Light | An Art Project with Charles Lim, a three-year collaboration with the artist that tracked the immaterial, mundane and irreconcilable traces surrounding Singapore’s fractured relationship with the sea. He curated SEA STATE with Lim for the Singapore Pavilion at the 56th Venice Biennale. Mustafa writes often, at times about the methodological considerations for the rethinking of curatorial practice in Singapore, and is a member of the International Association of Art Critics, Singapore Section. Teo Hui Min is a curator at National Gallery Singapore where she contributes to the curation of ‘Siapa-Nama Kamu?’ and ‘Beyond Declarations and Dreams’, long-term exhibitions about Singapore and Southeast Asian art from the 19th Century to the present day. Her area of research covers visual art practice in Singapore (1950s–1980s), investigations into the historiography of Singapore art history, and tracing the networks of Chinese art societies in Southeast Asia. She was previously a specialist in 20th Century Southeast Asian art at an international auction house. Hui Min holds an MA in Art History from University College London, and a BA in Social Anthropology from the London School of Economics.
Language: English
Country of Origin: Singapore
Page count: 160
Binding: Paperback
Search words: Mohammad Din Mohammad, Silat, Martial Arts, Traditional Medicine, Malaysia, Singapore, Southeast Asia, Spirituality