At the End of the Day Even Art is Not Important

Ahmad Fuad Osman is one of Malaysia’s most interesting contemporary artists, who has been creating work since the early 1990s. His work draws on Malay and Malaysian culture, history and sociopolitical events, with a lot of emphasis on research. A mid-career survey of Fuad’s work, called “At the end of the day even art is not important”, is being held at the National Art Gallery, which looks at the past 30 years of his art. So, we sit down with Fuad and exhibition curator Shabbir Hussain Mustafa, to reflect on Fuad’s journey as an artist thus far, what lies ahead, and why it is so important for an artist to provide sociopolitical commentary.