This readymade or found object alludes to that infamous incident at the Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka in 1974, when Reza Piyadasa and Sulaiman Esa’s seminal Mystical Reality exhibition received a drenching (literally ) criticism from the enfant terrible of the Kuala Lumpur literary scene, Salleh ben Joned. While Salleh himself writes of the “simple act of unzipping my trousers and zipping up my mouth” he was undoubtedly itching (to use another bodily metaphor) to explain his position. In an open letter titled “Kencing dan kesenian: surat dari Salleh Ben Joned untuk Piyadasa,” published in 1975 in the Dewan Sastra, he responded to Piyadasa’s challenge to give the rationale for his uncouth (kurang ajar) gesture of pissing on the Mystical Reality manifesto in the corner of the exhibition space during the opening.

At the heart (perhaps this is the wrong bodily metaphor) of Salleh Joned’s gesture there seems to have been a critique of what he saw as Mystical Reality’s confusion of the relationship between art and life. Here is what he says “Piya! Piya! You want art, but how confused you are about what art is. You want reality, but how innocent you are about reality. Reality? Just remember the rainbow arc of my piss, the fountain of life affirms and celebrates the unity of reality: the vulgar and the refined, the bawdy and the spiritual, the concrete and the transcendent, the stinking and the mystical, the profane and the sacred.” The intrepid and insightful art collector, Pakhruddin Sulaiman, has given us a record of Piyada’s own response to being on the receiving end of this savage lesson in the Zen of art. He writes, “Rupa-rupanya, menurut Piyadasa, wujud seorang “mahaguru” Zen yang telah berjaya “mengajar” mereka berdua (yang masih “greenhorn” dalam falsafah Zen pada waktu itu) secukup-cukupnya tentang apa itu Zen sehingga serangan “mahaguru” itu tidak terbantah oleh mereka.”

My own gesture of presenting this enamel urinal along with the title “Air Abang Salleh” pays homage to Salleh Joned’s masterful deconstruction of the salient pretension of Modern Art – the interchangeability of art and life. There is also, however, in the respectful honorific “Abang” of my title, a gentle critique, much more in keeping with Malay decorum (adab), of Salleh Joned’s own pretensions to radicality. He has after all, in spite of all his ill-mannered and uncouth anti-traditional posturings, which many of his contemporaries found most offensive, been lifted up, out of the 1970’s Kuala Lumpur underground, and assimilated into the canon of modern Malaysian culture.

See Also:
Who is Niranjan Rajah?
La Folie

Air Abang Salleh, circa 2013 is on display in the Pokok Pauh Janggi exhibition which runs from 5th Aug – 30th Sept 2023 at the Kapallorek Artspace in Bandar Seri Iskandar, Perak.

https://sallehbenjoned.blogspot.com/2016/02/the-art-of-pissing.html

http://sentapmalaysia.blogspot.com/2008/09/piyadasa-obor-yang-telah-padam.html