THE ART OF Adi

The Noma Concours for Picture Book Illustrations has been organised biennially since 1978 to discover up-and-coming illustrators, graphic designers and artists in Asia, the Pacific, Africa, Arab States, and Latin America, to provide a venue at which they can present their works and to offer incentives for their creative activities.

 

THE RED CAGE

 

Synopsis:

Apit loved to catch small animals and birds in the jungle. Once he caught a beautiful bird and put it in a red cage. Every day he fed it and played with it, but it seemed unhappy. One day he dreamed that he was inside the cage and the bird was outside, playing with him and feeding him. Apit grew bigger and bigger until he was too big for the cage. He woke up screaming and released the bird.

 

Profile

 

Asmadi Bin Abdul Wahab

Malaysia

Runner-up award

 

Born in 1976. Animator, comic artist, illustrator and art director for publishing and animation companies. Has worked on comics and animations including Anak-Anak Sidek (Children of Sidek) series.

Comments by a Juror:

Congratulations! Your work has great individuality. The selection of materials for the ingenious collage and the concise shapes are ideally matched, conveying a primitive feeling in a natural and effective way. The calculated selection of background colour and the method of rearranging the same elements in the battle scene to create a stirring sense of excitement are highly effective. I anticipate a further demonstration of your individualistic style of expression in the next concours.

 

Comments on judging in the Noma Concours:

All these artist enjoyed the effects of different materials in the creation of their works.

Mr. Wahab exploits the different texture created by corrugated cardboard`s characteristic layers, successfully incorporating the interesting effect of peeling off the surface. Conscious of the rough texture, he uses collage and vigorously applied white paint.

 

Matsumoto Takeshi

 

Mr. Takeshi Matsumoto (Japan)

Born in 1951. The eldest son of Iwasaki Chihiro. Graduated from Dept. of Arts, the Faculty of Fine Arts, Tokyo University of Fine Arts & Music. He founded "Chihiro Art Museum" as the first museum specialized in picture books in the world in 1977 and Chihiro Art Museum in Azumino in 1997. Director of Chihiro Art Museum Azumino and Nagano Prefectural Shinano Museum of Fine Arts and acting superintendent of Chihiro Art Museum (Tokyo). He also works as a writer and he has given lectures in various places. He has published several books about Iwasaki Chihiro and on picture books and has supervised a number of art books.