Raja Lope Rasydi Raja Rozlan Sold at Auction Prices

RAJA LOPE RASYDI RAJA ROZLAN (b. 1972) BAROH, 2012, Acrylic and airbrush on canvas

If there is membership for the Theatre of the Absurd Art Club, Raja Lope Rasydi Raja Rozlan would be an honorary life member. His, however, is not as far-out as Chan Kok Hooi’s or Lim Keh Soon’s. Raja Lope is more strapped to the good old-fashioned fairytales and comicdom heroes such as Tarzan, Sinbad, Tin Tin and Mowgli although a robot-like creature managed to slip in on this triptych canvas. The canvas titled Baroh has a bird with insect wings and frog legs, a sharp-eyed insect Tinkerbell and a bat in human form. And a prehistoric buzzard, Tinkerbell’s pet and killer lackey. Baroh is a term used to refer to the Malays as “lowlanders” or “downcountry.” The connection, however, is ambiguous. The whole landscape is bleak and fraught with perils, but as a whole wondrous. It’s like an animal-world fantasy with nary a true human in sight. Raja Lope started with a Diploma in Fine Art at the Malaysian Institute of Art, Kuala Lumpur, in 1992, but followed up with a Graphic Design degree at Universiti ITM, Shah Alam in 1996. He was roped into Core Design’s stable of young contemporary Malay artists and featured in a solo at Core Design Gallery in 2013, and its grand show at the Art Expo Malaysia 2014 and 2015 under the Great Malaysian Contemporary Art side-event.