Nur Aina Sofia Binti Shamsul Bahari humbly describes her work as being about an old cash note found in her father’s “tabung”. Yet this RM1 note, so dextrously replicated and enlarged, and stuck on a wall as if a painting in an exhibition, begs large and pressing questions.

Judge Shahrul found himself thinking about the value of our currency, in comparison to the past and also in the future. The devaluation of that RM1, which once could buy many things, is now putting Malaysians through hard times. From the point of view of the young person in front of the note, the old, weathered, devalued note may represent what may be in store for their generation in the future terms of how economic inflation will continue to affect value over time, and how it will affect families.

The artist has taken great pains to render the currency note, finding clever ways of expressing through different effects its range of patterns, marks and details, as well as the folds and creases and dirty worn edge that betray its age. Hung up in an exhibition, the RM1 note becomes invested with different kinds of values, as a work of art and design, a cultural symbol and historical document. As the young person takes a photo with her phone of the image of the Tugu Negara monument at the centre of the note, we sense the patriotism and historical pride of a young citizen, creating a poignant tension against a narrative of devaluation and future economic uncertainty. As Judge Shahrul noted, “The artwork is small, but it brings with it an impactful message”.