Towards a mystical reality : a documentation of jointly initiated experiences by Redza Piyadasa and Suleiman Esa

As graduates from the Hornsey College of Art in London (1962-1968), Sulaiman and fellow Malaysian art student Redza Piyadasa co-created a seminal artwork-cum-exhibition called “Towards a Mystical Reality: A Documentation of Jointly Initiated Experienced by Redza Piyadasa and Suleiman Esa” (TMR) at the Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka (Institute of Language and Literature) in Kuala Lumpur from 2-7 August, 1974. The exhibition showed an assortment of everyday objects and detritus but each indexing an event. In so doing, the artists presented a paradigm shift in how art was received and theorised in Malaysia at the time: art became a means of critical enquiry and discussions about the definitions of art informed their enquiries and creations, where the art object was secondary to the ideas and experiences provoked by it. This catalogue includes their 10,000 word manifesto.