The still-life cortege is led by The Promise, 1995, where discarded robes are left on a windowsill, reminiscent of the Malay batik sarong that marked Fee Ming’s firsts steps in the world of painting. This time, the rumpled cloth with its monochrome simplicity is the anonymous garb of those who have promised to follow the path of the Buddha. Another still life, representing a bell in bronze and green, has received the inspired title of Reverberation of the Soul, 1995. Two studies in contrast of darkness and light show the dwarpa sculptures on the door panels of entrances to a temple. A dark interior is filled with the life of carved apsara—the dancing nymphs who tempted the God Vishnu in hermit reincarnation (Stillness II, 1995). In Stillness I, 1994, a water container is at the disposal of thirsty passers-by. These water-drinking stands are present everywhere in Myanmar. Fee Ming found them “an expression that the Burmese care for the needs of fellow human beings”.

Malaysian art critic and artist J. Anu describes enthusi-astically the mechanisms behind the surprising impact of images of everyday life. “The emotive quality that exudes from Fee Ming’s painting has always come from the artist’s own intense connection with the subject and how he sees it. It is an abstract quality that is difficult to pin down but is perhaps apparent in the intense love with which these paintings have been made… Everything he depicts are fragments from his own recent past. The artist lives the experiences before he actually paints them.”