Strong female figures dominate Ali Rahamad’s canvas even during the early Anak Alam days in the 1980s, usually symbolic, sacred and spiritual. The Mother Earth, the succour and nurturer... even in war-torn Rwanda and Kosovo. Here, the head profile with an exotic horn to boot evokes the Spinx head, Nefertiti herself perhaps, like a guardian from the past overseeing the desert and reminiscence of Egypt’s glorious past. And with the story that Man and Nature are one. The inspiration came from Ali’s 1979 visit to the Aswan and the Valley of the King and Queen. Hey, let’s do The Bangles’ Walk Like An Egyptian. Ali Rahamad is regarded as the living embodiment of Anak Alam, the loose artist’s coterie associated with Nature and the Environment. A remarkable vagabond artist, he had stayed for periods of time in Holland, Germany, the United States and Sweden since leaving Malaysia hitch-hiking in 1971. But he’s back home in the Kampung Serom base in Johor, and had a major solo, Kembara Di Sarang Seni at the National Art Gallery, Kuala Lumpur, in 2011-2012. In The Edge auction on March 2015, one of his works fetched a premium of RM33,000.