He explored the 28 Arabic letters as expressions of the Sufi mystic’s longing for love and beauty in the world. This formal training led Mhd Din to incorporate the science of Arabic letters in his work, marking a shift in his art. In 1999, Mhd Din and his friend Ahmad Zakii Anwar began learning calligraphy from an Iranian master. Mhd Din often drew from these materials in his works, which he also intended to operate as vehicles for navigating the social and economic pressures of modern life. These ranged from Kris and Wayang kulit to rare coins, Malay medicinal manuscripts, and textiles. Mhd Din and his wife and fellow artist, Hamidah Jalil collected hundreds of Southeast Asian cultural artefacts. He saw his artworks as a form of preventive medicine, and the people who engaged with them as his patients. His aim was to develop artworks that could enhance the emotional and physical well-being of those who encountered them. He studied rigorously and traveled extensively across Malaysia and Indonesia, relying on Sufism as a vehicle to explore the multiple meanings associated with Southeast Asian objects. In the 1990s, Mhd Din began to develop “The Mystical Approach,” a wide-ranging theory that sought to understand the sources of the different shapes and forms in the world. He became a strong believer in traditional Malay medicine, and went on to study and practice traditional healing techniques. After two years of intense treatment, he was able to walk and perform silat again. Ignoring his doctor's pleas to amputate, Mhd Din sought treatment from his silat master Pak Hamin Bujang. Although doctors managed to join the ankle in place through an operation, gangrene set in soon after. In 1983, a motorcycle accident in Pontian nearly resulted in the amputation of Mhd Din's ankle. He also acted in a Singapore drama serial, Jejak Kembara (The Wanderer) in April 1980. In 1980, Mhd Din began acting in Malay theatre, with his first role as the character Laertees in a Malay adaptation of Hamlet by the Malay arts group Perkumpulan Seni. Career Īfter graduating from NAFA in 1976 he began his life as an artist plying old Bugis Street drawing portraits for tourists and travellers. Mhd Din was married to fellow artist Hamidah Jalil. In 1973, Mhd Din went on to study art at the Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts (NAFA), majoring in western painting, where he took to the Realist portrait painting style. At the age of 12, Mhd Din began to learn silat, traditional massage and herbal healing techniques. Formal education for Malay youths, meant the study of traditional art forms at the time. As a boy he was interested in art, experimenting in ceramics, making clay cups at the age of five. Born in Kampung Gangsa in Malacca, Malaysia, Mhd Din's family migrated to Singapore when he was two years old.
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