The original sculpture in 1986.
As I type this, a landmark judgement is being passed on Syed Ahmad Jamal’s claim for RM5 million in exemplary damages from Dewan Bandaraya Kuala Lumpur (DBKL), for altering his public sculpture Lunar Peaks without his knowledge or permission.
Facts of the case:
- Puncak Purnama/Lunar Peaks is a public sculpture by national artist laureate Datuk Syed Ahmad Jamal. It was commissioned by United Malayan Banking Corporation Finance (UMBC) in 1986 and installed in the compound of the UMBC Building on Jalan Sulaiman in Kuala Lumpur.
- The sculpture was originally constructed from ceramic-glass, a high quality material symbolic to the art work. It is also the material used by NASA in the construction of spaceships.
- In 1996, DBKL purportedly altered the original medium of the sculpture from ceramic-glass to stainless steel without seeking consent from the artist.
- The amount being claimed in exemplary damages is RM5 million.
- The case was brought in 2003 under the Copyright Act 1987.
- The artist is represented by Wendy K. Lam. Judge for the case is YA Dato’ Azahar bin Mohammed. The two expert witnesses called are Prof. Dr D’zul Haimi Md Zain (lecturer in art at UITM) and Ooi Kok Chuen, an experienced art writer and journalist.
The verdict will be announced at the High Court (Trade), Level 5, Jalan Duta Kuala Lumpur this morning! We’ll update this post accordingly. If you have any extra information, links or views on this case, please comment away below!
Thanks to Nur Hanim Khairuddin for the images.
(SC)
After ‘renovation’ ten years later (1996).
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Congratulations to Datuk Syed Ahmad Jamal for winning his court case. RM750,000 is a far cry from the RM5 million asked, but let’s hope this could become a seed fund for research, for education or setting a council for promoting creative right for designers and artists against commercial or institution exploitations – too often we have heard of designers or artists, big or small, get screwed by clients, big or small ways.
Good on Datuk Syed Ahmad Jamal for taking action and highlighting the rights of artists in regard to their creations… It’s encouraging and hopefully this sort of disregard to copyright infringement will be a thing of the past soon. More structured licensing for copyright ownership would be a welcome and much needed boon to the industry, making such cases much more clear cut… Thanks for the article…
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People nknow nothing anout art! seriously! they doesnt have the taste, especially in music. But a piece of art is worthless. Every details of an art is meaningful. Beacuase it is has been gazeted also! So it cant be easily changed! Like many people and kids who doesnt know to appreciate it! I love London cause they know how to appreciate art! Not like Melaka, where there is so rapid development close to historical site! and the road is so rubbish! This mayor only know money and politics!
I guess everyone here has to side with the artist here but lets have some fun and play this from the angle of DBKL Defense Lawyer aight?
So this work of art has been sitting at a very busy traffic area since 1986?
I think we should be shown a picture of the sculpture in 1995, right before the alterations.
In 1995, was it still so white – purity/kesucian?
Wouldn’t the traffic smoke from such a busy road have stained the ceramic tiles over time? How bout staining from the acidic and polluted rain of the city?
Were there ceramic tiles which may have cracked or fell off?
NOW FOR SAKE OF ARGUMENT and common sense
lets assume the pure white tiles did become dirtier and dirtier,
did the artist or his representative make a documented effort to DBKL to have it clean before the changes were made?
This would establish how serious the artist was about symbolic purity of the work.
If there were no documents insisting that the work be kept pure/clean, why the fuss about the switch?
(I have only my memory to serve me, but I do remember it becoming very dirty over time. Can someone unbiased vouch me or correct me if I am wrong?)
If it was kept clean and maintained by DBKL, how much did each cleaning session cost?
Did switching to “stainless” steel bring down the long term maintenance or reparation cost?
If the maintenance cost was bought down significantly, and Datuk SAJ was asked permission, would the artist consider the switch since it would help city hall lower its expenses?
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ABOUT SEEKING PERMISSION FROM ARTIST
Was it in the contract that the gift from UMBC to DBKL that the artist should be consulted for minor/ major changes?
Is this standard practice for all the public sculptures in the country?
From Petaling Jaya to Kuching, there are hundreds of public sculptures, it is the standard procedure for the city council to seek consultation from the artists or designers for changes to the work once it has been gifted to the city/council?
Could it be that DBKL was merely following a pragmatic standard procedure in maintaining the many public sculptures it has?
If it was proper procedure to ask permission, is it possible that DBKL, with its many administrative changes over time, lost track of the procedures and contracts, thus leading to this lapse in judgement?
For example, Tugu Negara, the French Sculptor would be long dead by now, who would be the proper party to consult if changes for some reasons needed to be made?
For example, if a section became a safety hazard over time, or conflicts with new constructions in the area.
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Here are some other points to consider –
What if the public opinion and professional opinion did not feel that the change to stainless steel depreciated their appreciation for the sculpture?
Since it is a public work, DBKL defense could have conduct a public poll, or office workers in the vicinity, showing pictures of the work in various stages, and ask them if they felt significant difference after the change.
(This could affect compensation value)
If the public opinion is not valued, is this not a form of elitism, where the artist and experts maintain authoritative interpretation about what constitutes art / not art?
Was DBKL able to find any unbiased or objective art professional given the stature of Datuk SAJ?
Wouldn’t anyone who said anything negative about the work be ostracized in the small Malaysian art community?
Could it be argued that the ceramic to stainless steel change is not significant since the sculpture needs to be understood in its entirety – “Puncak Purnama”.
What does “Puncak Purnama” mean exactly?
That the white ceramic is related to the city folks keeping a strong pure soul while it bustles along is understood but how does it connect with the central theme?
But really, the public would have no idea that it was Space Age ceramic tiles unless it was written. What they could objectively appreciate was the abstract and angular form.
If the whiteness was really important, what if the steel was painted white? Would Datuk accept changes?
When Duchamp added a moustache to the postcard of the Mona Lisa, it changed the interpretation of Mona Lisa from an art historical icon to an insignificant doodle.
In this case, has there been a similar occurrence?
Has the work lost its ‘soul’ by merely changing the surface quality?
Is it now representation of the mechanization of those living in KL?
What if the public now associated its shininess and surface quality to the Petronas Towers and saw it as society’s positive progress towards modernity?
If I loose all my teeth and replace it with gold, am I still the same person or am I someone else entirely?
If I was unconscious when that dental surgery occurred, am I entitled to RM5 Million compensation?
What if I became more accepted and famous after changing to golden grills, should I still be awarded compensation?
Hey, just asking some honest and fun artsy questions here k…dun anger
The thing is, as I understand it, they didn’t ask the artist before they proceeded with the changes,..
I’m sure they did have their own reasons for putting in the extra cost of building it in to a more ‘efficient’ sculpture,.. as one would change to a more fuel efficient car,…
How about one of our lovely heritage buildings,.. It sure takes a lot of extra cost and effort to clean those intricate wood carvings,.. perhaps one should , for convenience sake and if one was the owner, reinterpret what the artist had wanted and put in some stainless steel beams instead,.. better yet how about Henry Moore’s Reclining Figure in elmwood, couldn’t make much difference to change it in to stainless steel, so easy to clean and ‘loads’ would agree that it could give such modern symbolism for many out there,…:).. after all the artist isn’t around anymore anyway,..
Syed Ahmad Jamal looks quite lively though…
As for it being specified in the contract, ermmm,.. I don’t recall anyone finding a contract for the pyramids,.. no wonder they’ve been subject to so much abuse through out the years,..
As for the whiteness of the sculpture, the colour was only half the defilement as I understand it,.. for as stated in the article above, it was the ceramic glass itself that had symbolic meaning.
For me the crux of the matter is the apparent disregard and disrespect for art, treating it like just another DBKL building that needed a new coat of paint.
Thanks for posting that,… airing out what some actually think. At least with your post some can actually shoot those arguments down and say “That’s Why!”,.. I’m sure loads out there could word it much more eloquently than I but since no one had yet,…. (now, one couldn’t leave them views there hanging like that for too long)…
Much more can be said and hopefully will be,.. Anyone else with a “That’s Why” answer….?….
firstly, I am very incested by suasana’s comment, yes, incested, not incensed! thats how disgusted i am.
i think suasana do not understand what purity means, just like how dbkl tainted the purity of the work by anyhow changing stuff, suasana has tainted the purity of this victory by anyhow asking all these questions.
How about one of our lovely heritage buildings,.. It sure takes a lot of extra cost and effort to clean those intricate wood carvings,.. perhaps one should , for convenience sake and if one was the owner, reinterpret what the artist had wanted and put in some stainless steel beams instead,.. better yet how about Henry Moore’s Reclining Figure in elmwood, couldn’t make much difference to change it in to stainless steel, so easy to clean and ‘loads’ would agree that it could give such modern symbolism for many out there,…:).. after all the artist isn’t around anymore anyway,..
+1