Like the story-teller Boris Karloff, Hamir Soib is a master of the macabre. Representing the artist at his best, The Eruption Of Desire portrays a volcanic eruption of thick brown smoke that conceals what appears to be a peaceful country scene in the background, but on closer inspection, looks more like anamorphic forms lodged in a slippery cavernous slope. Often dealing with the subject of death and apocalyptic themes, Hamir reveals the afflictions of contemporary humanity. Here, he depicts pent up emotion as smoke or forms unfurling explosively into the atmosphere, perhaps as an allusion to the destructive effects of human desire, an emotion that can be seen as a fundamental motivation of all human action and often thought to be connected with obsession and craving. Hamir Soib, a late bloomer among the founding members of the cult Matahati group, is known for his works with sharp socio-political commentary about issues and events at home. He founded The Gudang warehouse art space in 2002 and he held his first solo at The Gudang in 2005. He is also active in theatre and film productions, besides painting. He won the Best Art Director award with Zuraini Anuar in Erma Fatima's Perempuan Melayu Terakhir in the 14th Malaysia Film Festival. In 2005, he won the Incentive Award in the Shah Alam Gallery Open. Hamir was a finalist in the Sovereign Art Award Hong Kong in 2007. As a Matahati icon, he was from the same Class of '91' graduation from the Mara Institute of Technology. He won a Consolation Prize in the Dokumentasi Kemiskinan competition in 1990. In May 2017, Hamir held a solo called the self-explanatory 'Small Works' at the Segaris Art Centre in Kuala Lumpur.