Paiman (Noor Azizan Rahman Paiman) plays with social mores and politics in his witty and well-informed art. Immersed in contemporary Malaysian life, his works make sly comments and witty asides, featuring well-known personalities in the guise of flying creatures swooping about the skies.

A large number of drawings from the series entitled 'The code' (Acc. nos 2006.195-234) were shown during 'The 5th Asia-Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art' at Queensland Art Gallery in 2006. The series portrays politicians and others speaking in typed exchanges in both Bahasa Malaysia and English that reveal the humour of everyday life, as well as the frailties of its prominent participants. The texts are quotations from newspapers, magazines and other media sources and are familiar to Malaysians.

Vivid and funny, these pointed commentaries also call on mythical beings from an earlier period in South-East Asian life to show that topical issues and controversial events in Malaysia's socio-political history are often like earlier stories.

Educated in both Malaysia and the United Kingdom, Paiman was awarded a Master of Arts in Fine Art from Manchester Metropolitan University in 2001. Previously he was a junior curator at the National Art Gallery, Kuala Lumpur, and lecturers in the Faculty of Art and Design (Fine Art) at Universiti Teknologi Mara in Perak in northern Malaysia. He has exhibited widely since 1991 in both solo and group shows, including the '1st Fukuoka Asian Art Trienniale 1999', Japan, when he was also an artist-in-residence.