The Link title recurs like a monogram in Dato’ Sharifah Fatimah Syed Zubir’s oeuvre throughout the 1990s right into the early 2000s. It’s a ruminative séance into some novel sensations with or sans some nebulous place, invariably always, the central link or clasp encapsulating whispers or laughter, and with echoes emanating thence. The ‘knot’ is deceptively structured but could break into loose tendrils like one in 2003. No need to get over- fixated with what the titles portend, but the alchemy of colours and pulsating forms lulling in a kind of harmonious resolution. Dubbed the First Lady of Malaysian Art, Dato' Sharifah has an unrivalled posse of works since graduating from the pioneering batch of students from the Mara Institute of Technology (now a university) in 1971. Her academic scrolls extended to a BFA (Reading University, England, 1973-1976), and MFA (Pratt Institute, New York, 1976-1978), under the JDR III Fund fellowship. Her promised latent talent was shown in 1972 when she won the Minor Award in the Malaysian Landscape competition. Two major awards followed – the Major Award in the Salons Malaysia in 1979, and the 1981 Bakat Muda Sezaman award. In 2007, she was conferred the Dato’ title by the Sultan of Kedah. A staple of the Utara group, she held her first solo at the Alpha Gallery in Singapore in 1972.