Status – Khairul Arshad

Khairul Arshad
152.5 x 152.5cm
Acrylic on Canvas
2023

In 'Status', Khairul Arshad foregrounds the staircase of the traditional Malay house, not merely as an architectural feature, but as a vessel of cultural symbolism and personal rhythm. Executed on a square canvas in acrylic, the structure conveys progression, physical and temporal, it suggesting an ongoing negotiation between heritage and contemporary life. The staircase becomes a metaphor for forward movement, self-discipline and the structuring of time in one’s daily existence. 'Status' is not just an image, but a threshold, bridging the formal with the familiar, the structural with the symbolic. Arshad’s work offers a poignant meditation on how built environments and the objects within them shape, reflect and quietly narrate the lived realities of those who inhabit them.