It was an ill North-Easterly (Iraga) wind that blew no good at the estuary, and the splinters and shards of a broken boat and utensils were remnants of an unfortunate incident. The struggle is accentuated by the more hard-edged and sharper forms compared to Awang Damit Ahmad’s usual organic shapes. The estuary, presumably at Awang Damit’s Kuala Penyu hometown, is shown here as a empathetic witness to the incident. The bad memory, together with the damaged parts has been buried and forgotten, acting like a catharsis, perhaps like the way the Japanese hung up bad oracles on temple tree branches, to be rid of them. But fishermen, hardy souls with an indomitable spirit, are used to such vicissitudes, and are often the better for the experience. After all, the day’s work was done, and tomorrow is just another day. Iraga, produced between 2003 to 2011, represents a saga with fetching metaphors, of Awang Damit’s growing up and struggles in Kuala Penyu which has become a stoic lesson as fond memories. A relative late-starter in Art, Awang Damit Ahmad has built a reputation as an artist as well as academician since graduating with a Fine Art diploma from the Mara Institute of Technology in 1983. He followed up with a MFA at the Catholic University in Washington DC, in 1989-1990. He was in the Malaysian art delegation in the Paintings of Malaysia exhibition in Pasadena, Los Angeles, in 1989. After winning 2nd Prize in the Malaysian Bank Association art competition in 1988, he landed the hugely coveted Salon Malaysia Major Award in 1991 with his work, Nyanyian Petani Gunung (now in Petronas Collection).