“There is no right or wrong in art. It is an individual expression. It is a passion. It is a reflection of one’s inner self. Everyone has it in them. Art is a medium to bring it out and to share.” , says Dato Shofry as I ask the question of what is his motto/inspiration of art. He is one of the artist that has joined us in preserving the traditional art and cultural heritage of Brunei in this Pause and Rewind III Exhibition.
Dato Shofry is one of Brunei Darussalam’s senior artist who sees art as part of a dream that he wished he could have when he was younger. He only began pursuing his dream at the age of 46 years old while residing in New York, United States as a diplomat. He has always been interested in art, he admires and buys paintings from his travels but he never had the chance to pursue art in school. By taking evening art classes while he was staying in New Jersey, he was then able to paint and study art. Like everyone else, he was clueless when he started as he was not experienced enough. Just like everyone else he did struggle in understanding art and having the confidence to do it. When he started doing art, he always asked his teacher if whatever he is doing is right or wrong but the teacher told him, ‘This is art, there is no right or wrong in it. It is just the expression of life’ which gave him the inspiration for his motto towards Art.
This full-time artist first exhibited his work in 2004 in New York, United States on the collapse of the 9/11 tower with the Statue of Liberty and got many responses from the audience thus gave him the encouragement to create more art. His theme of artwork is mainly based on what he sees daily, what caught his eye that inspire him especially views from his travels. Big Sur California is one of his painting that he display from his travelling that he display in this exhibition where he saw the magnificent view driving between San Francisco and Los Angeles on the Pacific Highway.
There are 4 artworks that caught my eye because of its relation to our country, Brunei Darussalam and it is hard to choose favourite. If I had to choose one that speaks preserving cultural-heritage, it has to be the Mangrove Forest. Dato Shofry painted this based on seeing the Mangrove forest as one of the most unsung heroes in preserving the natural beauty of Brunei. He believes it has been taken for granted and many just failed to appreciate its enormous contribution and significance. Which I agree upon, as the world developed to modernization, more shopping malls built and etc. people fail to see the natural beauty that Brunei has.
Dato Shofry expresses his opinion on the rise of technology and use of digital media in a way of wanting to preserve the traditional way of doing art. “I still want people to use the hands and not just through computers” he said. He understand the increase in popularity for digital art, but it is not for him and he believes the traditional way of creating art will not die, and the fine arts will still be strong. He wants to show people the beauty of Art and how art can portray certain stories that happen around the world.
He also expresses his gratitude in being able to be part of the Pause and Rewind III exhibition done by Creative Space to get people to come and have a look at these work of art and appreciate it. He hopes by doing these kind of exhibitions it will raise the level of appreciation of the arts in Brunei.