Assalamualaikum wbt.
This post is part of the #IdolaSeni series to show my gratitude to five Malaysian creatives who agreed to become respondents for my team and I’s research paper, ‘Instagram as a Platform for Emerging Visual Artists to Build Their Brand’.
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“Seni merupakan bahasa yang difahami semua orang tidak mengira bangsa dan bahasa. Jika hasil seni anda berkualiti, bukan hanya pada mata rakyat tempatan, malah hasil seni anda akan dihargai masyarakat antarabangsa juga.” — Teme Abdullah @ @itsteme
Teme Abdullah bukanlah nama yang asing lagi di Malaysia. Lagi-lagi kalau anda aktif dalam komuniti seni tempatan ataupun jika anda seorang bookworm yang wajib melawat MPH setiap minggu. Sebenarnya, ramai kawan saya yang bukan peminat seni pun follow beliau di Instagram dan Twitter.
I discovered Teme back in 2015 because I loved reading his blog and found myself agreeing with a lot of his unique views, and because of his brilliant sketches of buildings, of course. His book #PelukisJalanan was beyond inspiring. He put smiles of the faces of many. And of course I want to give a big congratulations on the recent launch of #ArkitekJalanan!
I really wanted to make it to PBAKL to get myself a copy of Arkitek Jalanan but could not because I was abroad. Was really disappointed, especially as some copies had special cards in them!!! So I made sure to order a copy online as soon as I could. The Iman Publication website kept crashing, and new results kept appearing for the term ‘Arkitek Jalanan’ on Twitter the week it was released.
Sangat sangat MENGAGUMKAN sebenarnya, melihat rakyat Malaysia tergila-gilakan sebuah buku. People said they queued for hours to get a copy and asyik habis stok. It is honestly AMAZING, especially when the book is about study motivation (I know he doesn’t like it to be categorized as a ‘dakwah’ book, haha) and the best part is– people don’t even know what he looks like! That means, people genuinely like his work because of its impeccable brilliance, and not because of any other factors. I’m probably too young to know, but I’ve never heard of this kind of book craze happening in Malaysia. Especially a book that doesn’t have a title like Suamiku Encik Ketam or Paus or what have you.
Grandma’s house’s doorbell isn’t working, and the postman didn’t leave a message, so my copy had a looooong journey before finally reaching me. And Alhamdulillah, today it finally did! I finished reading the book in the span of a few hours.
Brb, busy fangirling over the fact that Teme touched this book. The 78th book he signed. Not as cool as the yellow cards, but it’s something!
