AOTM: Old Laundry Shop by Amirudin Ariffin

This painting is one of eight by Amirudin Ariffin in the collection of the National Art Gallery of Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur, and is an exquisite portrayal of ordinary working life. It is a beautifully composed picture of the inside of an Indian laundry with two old men, both balding and pot-bellied, who run the establishment. The building is rudimentary and wooden and rather dim inside—perhaps without proper windows. Some aspects of this painting resemble the style of the famous American artist Edward Hopper, depicting a prosaic, somewhat unglamorous, scene but with perfect mastery of the mood of the place and its light. 

We can well imagine the hot sultry atmosphere inside which necessitates the two men working bare from the waist up to keep themselves cool. One of the men concentrates on reading the newspaper in an effort to distract himself from the boredom of his job. The other looks out of the window or hatch towards the bright light outside. He seems to have a vacant expression and we cannot be sure if he is looking at a customer or simply looking out and daydreaming, wishing he were free to go outside and escape from the drudgery of this place. The two men are not communicating, presumably as bored with each other as they are by the place and their jobs. A picture of their presumed hero Mahatma Gandhi stares at them from the wall, seemingly wishing them peace. An old radio stands high on a shelf to give them some entertainment. We see some piles of fresh laundry neatly folded and ready for collection, whilst another pile lies on the table waiting to be ironed. The man with the newspaper seems in no hurry to get on with it. 

The painting neatly captures the feeling of the place. The men clearly do their jobs, but also spend time trying to distract themselves and thinking about the outside world either through looking out at it, reading the newspaper or listening to the radio. Their work is just a job, nothing more; they seem unstressed but also not particularly enjoying it. We can imagine ourselves in there with them, experiencing the heat, the boredom, the routine quality of their work, and their desire to be somewhere else. We feel exactly what it is like to be in this place. In this sense, Amirudin has brilliantly caught the spirit of this establishment and that of many others just like it. As in many of Amirudin’s paintings, the light has been beautifully captured with the bright yellow glow of tropical sunlight coming through the hatch.

Amirudin was born in Temerloh, Pahang, but spent five years in Penang as a child where he attended Francis Light Primary School. He took an early interest in art in his primary school days and liked to copy posters of Hollywood films. After school, he joined the Royal Malaysian Air Force where his artistic ability was first recognised and he was tasked with making drawings for training materials. After leaving the Air Force, he became a street artist and undertook some art training through a Singapore-based correspondence college. He then joined a printing and advertising company, eventually becoming its art director. He subsequently taught graphic art and design in a private college, before ultimately becoming an independent professional artist. Today he continues to paint as an independent artist besides teaching master classes in his studio in Kuala Lumpur.

Amirudin’s life and works have been recognised in a recent book Colours of Malaysia: The Art of Amirudin Ariffin by Graeme Wilkinson and Bo Li, published by Sunway University Press. The book is available for purchase at press.sunway.edu.my.