24 feb - 16 mar 2016 10am - 6pm galeri reka

Transcription

24 FEB - 16 MAR 2016
10AM - 6PM
GALERI REKA
N AT I O N A L V I S U A L A R T S G A L L E R Y
P R ES E N T E D BY P R O J E K D I A LO G
SPONSORED BY CANADA HIGH COMMISSION AND ARTICLE 19
SUPPORTED BY BALAI SENI VISUAL NEGARA
24 FEB - 16 MAR 2016
GALERI REKA
BALAI SENI VISUAL NEGARA
POODIEN
C U R AT E D B Y
KG KRISHNAN
ONG JO-LENE
WILLIAM SIM
YA N A R I Z A L
K H AT I J A H R A H M AT
ENGKU IMAN
YO K E TA N
NADIA J. MAHFIX
ALEX LEE
YO K E TA N
I N LO V I N G M E M O R Y,
A P E N G O F LO R O N G M A S J I D B O N G O R ,
K OTA B H A R U .
CONTENTS
10
FOREWORD
B Y F U A D R A H M AT, P R O J E K D I A L O G
13
INTRODUCTION: MIND THE GAP
BY ONG JO-LENE
19
ITINERARY
23
T R AV E LO G U E : A C O U N T E R - P E R S P ECT I V E
TO T H E ‘ B I G B R O T H E R ’ N A R R AT I V E
BY J O H A N ZO L H A I D I
40
F U A D R A H M AT TA L K S TO P O O D I E N A N D
KG KRISHNAN
55
A N O K K E L AT E
B Y YA N A R I Z A L
57
THE PERSONAL AND THE POLITICAL
65
THE EXHIBITION OF ARTISTS’
F I E L D N OT ES
102
A R ES P O N S E TO K H A B A R DA N A N G I N
B Y J A S O N TA N
106
N OT ES O N D I A LO G J A L A N A N F O R U M
B Y M A R YA M L E E
108
N OT E S O N T H E A R T I S T S ’ TA L K
B Y YA P S A U B I N
110
PROFILES
116
PROJECT TEAM
118
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
FOREWORD
B Y F U A D R A H M AT, P R O J E K D I A L O G
Khabar Dan Angin is by far Projek Dialog’s most ambitious undertaking. Not only is it
our first activity outside of KL, it is also our first ever engagement with contemporary art.
This has perplexed our friends and critics alike. Staging a contemporary art exhibition
at the National Visual Arts Gallery appears removed from the urgency of activism,
sheltered from the streets and courts where our political battles are decided.
But pay closer attention to the controversies around the meaning of “Malaysian” these
days and you will find that the apprehensions are not just about the law or politics, it
resides along cultural lines and everyday encounters. After all, fear and resentment
are works of anxious imaginations. They take root where standard assurances no
longer suffice, yearning for security and control in a world that seems to offer very
little of either.
In an age of overpopulation, economic inequality, and environmental breakdown it has
become all too easy to romanticise the past, to yearn for an idyllic time when identity
was supposedly more authentic, no longer burdened by the demands of freedom
and plurality that defines contemporary politics. It is a tempting outlook, one that
continues to inspire prejudice, for nothing is more pacifying than to understand the
world in binary terms, one neatly divided between an “us” and “them”, culture against
modernity or purity against defecation.
The impulse to segregate identities, or awkwardness at the sight of female skin and
hair, or the repeated insistences for a medieval penal code, may appear nonsensical
to our more cosmopolitan sensibilities. But they speak to the very human need for
significance: to be recognised as unique amidst calls for greater equality or to feel
loved and saved even at the cost of misunderstanding.
It is for an honest conversation with this circumstance that we pursued Khabar
Dan Angin. We wanted to enrich our understanding of the political desires at work,
including our own.
But this was not to be found in mere factoids about different faiths but in the totality
of the process. This project, while set in Kelantan, is more about understanding
10
FOREWORD
“difference.” We wanted to confront, indeed be transformed by, the perplexities along
the way. With little experience and knowledge we could only improvise. A journey
outside our usual urban seemingly liberal confines, into a much maligned yet very
complex state, among 8 artists of different cultures and ideological persuasions, most
of whom began as strangers to one another. The different dynamics within the group
blended with the surreal dislocation into new territory and discourses to shape the
engagement, silences and pauses of encounter that graced this project.
To refine our worldview, to renew it away from the complacency of our most taken for
granted assumptions, was the guiding attitude throughout the visits and discussions.
Art is dialogical because it is, in its most very basic form, an invitation to see. And it
is ironic how we tend to forget just how crucial seeing is to experiencing Malaysia.
For what is the diversity we pride on, if not the commonplace encounters with the
rich colours, lines and shapes, of skin, food and built environment, that make up our
everyday culture? Would this not explain why so much premium is lately placed upon
regulating where we can look, so that day after day, slowly, we would be conditioned
to see a world in such a way that it would only reflect one dominant value over others?
This is to say little of course of the longer standing policies of censorship at work.
Khabar Dan Angin’s hope is that we find a moment to pause and reflect amidst
the growing acrimony of counterclaims that is defining our cultural discourse, that
if progress is to be measured at all, it should be upon an acute realisation that
alternatives demand new political imaginations.
If cynicism emerges from a lack of creativity, a deficient view of the promises and
possibilities before us, then we would do well to consider a greater place for art in
our politics.
In other words, if this project is to be “effective” it is in the delicate ways the works
can deepen your curiosity towards the difficulties of difference. Enjoy the show uols!
— A H M A D F UA D R A H M AT
MANAGING EDITOR, PROJEK DIALOG
F U A D R A H M AT
11
12
BY ONG JO-LENE
Nothing Is Original1
I would like to begin with the Acknowledgements because my work as a curator is
situated in the gaps between people and their ideas. It is a labour within and around
the labour of others. Here labour constitutes knowledge production; the opinions and
ideas that were shared with me through formal and informal conversations come from
a lifetime’s work. This procedural exposure is an acknowledgement of “unoriginality.”
It is a self-reflexive stance to mirror the capacity for embracing cultural hybridity (over
authenticity) that is key to the spirit of interfaith dialogue in (Peninsular) Malaysia that
this project set off to explicate.
At Home I Feel Like A Tourist2
Fuad and Yana of Projek Dialog proposed a framework of bringing a group of artists
through a week of interfaith literacy in Kelantan and thereafter exhibiting discursive
outcomes with the view of art as communication (as opposed to art as expression).
We discussed what Projek Dialog, an online platform promoting critical dialogue on
local religion and socio-politics, hoped to achieve from a curatorial exercise pivoting
from field encounters with various faith communities and why we would do this in
Kelantan. We first convened as a group at a workshop on the synergy between
Freedom of Expression and Freedom of Religion conducted by one of our funders,
Article 193 where we also invited several Kelantanese who are now living in the Klang
Valley as discussants.
1
“Nothing is original. Steal from anywhere that resonates with inspiration or fuels your imagination. Devour
old films, new films, music, books, paintings, photographs, poems, dreams, random conversations, architecture,
bridges, street signs, trees, clouds, bodies of water, light and shadows. Select only things to steal from that speak
directly to your soul. If you do this, your work (and theft) will be authentic. Authenticity is invaluable; originality
is non-existent. And don’t bother concealing your thievery - celebrate it if you feel like it.” — Jim Jarmusch in
MovieMaker Magazine #53 - Winter, January 22, 2004.
2
One of the keywords/phrases proposed by poodien during our mid-week group discussion reviewing what stood
out most about the trip to each participant.
3
Article 19 is a British human-rights organisation defending Freedom of Expression and Information. Founded in
1989, it takes its name from Article 19 of the UDHR.
ONG JO-LENE
13
Under the working title Religion and Spirituality in Contemporary Kelantan4 , I proposed
a working framework for the artists to respond to (not as a bounding parameter) —
(i) investigate complex coexistence of minority faith and cultural groups in the 95%
Malay-Muslim majority Kelantan (ii) engage in a circumstance whereby dynamic
modes of religious conviction pervades everyday life under the watchful moral
investment of the state’s long ruling Islamic political party (iii) explicate the dynamics
of a frontier-zone at a time when identity is contested and authentic prized over
hybridity across the country.
Our format of semi-official group visits to houses of worships and the various
communities led by Yana at first seemed like a juvenile school trip; Yana was often
mistaken the lecturer in charge of a ragtag bunch of cynical students. In hindsight,
while more self-directed time in the field is still something I would like the artists to
have, the structured mode of visit gave us access to community leaders that act as
authoritative agents in the community’s engagement with the broader community and
political networks.
In a landscape where ethnicity, national identity, social class and political governance
ultimately all become conflated into the singular affiliation of one’s religion, the
urgency of our study lies in the attendant issues surrounding religion and spirituality
stemming from power structures and privilege.
Time / Travel
The past is a foreign country5. PAS first came to power in Kelantan in 1959, just
three years after Malaya achieved independence. Islam was then a way of opposing
the Merdeka State6 but today Islam is embraced as a way of transforming the State
and is used with equal vigour by the nation’s ruling party. Going further back, parts
of modern day Northern Peninsular Malaysia belonged to Hindu-Buddhist empire
4
The exhibition Haunted Thresholds: Spirituality in Contemporary Southeast Asia arises from the collaboration of the
Kunstverein Göttingen and ‘Dynamics of Religion in Southeast Asia’ (DORISEA), a research network dedicated
to investigating the relationship between religion and the contemporary in that region.
5
In a curatorial meeting for another project that attempts to apprehend a particular place, Merv Espina quoted this
line from The Go-Between written by L.P. Hartley.
6
11th March 2015 episode of BFM Night School (hosted by Sharaad Kuttan and Ahmad Fuad Rahmat) on
Kelantan with Clive Kessler, Emeritus Professor of Anthropology and Sociology in The University of New South
Wales specialising in political Islam in Southeast Asia and globally. This was shortly after the demise of Parti Islam
Se-Malaysia spiritual leader Tok Guru Nik Aziz.
14
Langkasuka and later came under Siamese rule. Kelantan is popular dubbed as
“Serambi Mekkah” and “Cradle of Malay Culture”, the irony being the state government
banning traditional cultural practices such as Wayang Kulit, Main Puteri, Mak Yong,
and Manora.
The writings of Clive Kessler, Carol Laderman, Pauline Fan and the November 2008
Kelantan Special issue of Off The Edge provided building blocks to better understand
the place and people that would be our host. Nonetheless, we still ended up warped
from travelling through history in 2 weeks.7
But what are our ethical responsibilities as travellers and researchers? How do
we inhabit objective distance when it is separation perfected that we sought to
address? What should we do now that we have seen first-hand the injustices faced
by the Temiars and the destruction of their customary land that we as consumers
are complicit in? Do we need to justify our use of contemporary art language to the
Rumah Sahabat resident who held our hands thanking us for sharing their stories of
survival? I revisited FIELDS: An Itinerant Inquiry Across the Kingdom of Cambodia,
a consciously non-productive, roving-residency curated by Erin Gleeson and Vera
Mey that had informed my perspectives on itinerancy in curatorial practice and the
parasitic nature aspect of residencies requiring a host. 8 After the trip, I was fortunate
to have conversations with Vera Mey on the subject; reinforcing an inclination to
extend the element of care in performing the curatorial to a broader “community”
beyond the immediate stakeholders of an exhibition.
Field Trip As Workshop
The artists’ self-consciousness of their positionality was frequently discussed
throughout. The ethnographic stance and social observer position taken by the project
meant that participants were constantly oscillating between proximity and distance —
we were at once visiting outsiders and insiders sharing the socio-religious context of
the subjects.
Implicit to this project is the knowledge produced through our process of collectively
7
From a conversation with poodien upon returning to Kuala Lumpur. This is also referenced in his work for the
exhibition.
8
My interpretation of a line in Field Work by Vera Mey published on http://conditionsofproduction.tumblr.com
“The curatorial is invariable a parasitic gesture, reliant on a host, its positionality defined only through its context,
never in isolation.”
ONG JO-LENE
15
thinking against our own biases while learning about our disparate personal politics
and the larger socio-religious milieu. The curatorial task of finding a legitimate position
to speak from was largely informed by my participation in that process.
Excursions Out Of Limits
As we considered the limitations of a single exhibition’s capacity to touch on every
issue of concern we encountered, we were also faced with limited time in the field
to navigate the breadth and intersection of issues of substantial depth. Perhaps the
journey of reflecting on difference and similarity never ends.
As travellers in life, our encounters with many Others are often harshly limited by
time and distance. Our period of one to two weeks in the field can be considered as
reflecting this reality. The field notes presented here offer neither a representation
nor understanding, instead they offer possibilities in ways to inquire into beliefs and
unknowing, towards imagining our communion.
Etymologically, “excursion” and “excursus” share the same Latin root word of
“excurrere” which means “run out.” We travelled out of the centre, collectively
entering a concentration of encounters, and departures into threads of digressions.
To succinctly express the exhibition’s stance, I will appropriate a line Chen KuanHsing uses to introduce his concept of Asia As Method, “The more I go to Seoul, the
better I understand Taipei.” 9
9
Asia As Method: Toward Deimperialisation by Chen Kuan-Hsing, published by Duke University Press, 2010.
This line is also quoted in a review of the book by Eteinne Rolland-Piegue and A Translation of FIELDS by Hsu
Fang-Tze.
16
Antara Khabar Dan Angin
“Khabar angin”: Rumour or hearsay.
“Khabar”: News (of/from/about), newspaper.
“Angin”: Wind. Also refers to the concept of “angin” in Kelantanese Malay tradition
of healing rituals that encapsulates multivalent meanings of temperament and
desire 10. Interpreted as “inner winds” that are comparable to Jungian archetypes
by Carol Laderman.
Khabar Dan Angin: Excursus on Faith in Kelantan11 is a congregation of speculative
findings and tentative questions exploring faith through its embedded element of
doubt and the mutability of facts to inquire into how we justify our beliefs.
— ONG JO-LENE
2 0 M A R C H 2 016
“We cannot start with the answer;
then there will be no room for questions.”
— poodien, 12 March 2016
10
Angin: Temperament and Desire in Kelantan by Pauline Fan published in Axon Journal, issue 5
http://www.axonjournal.com.au/issue-5/angin
11
“Khabar Angin” was suggested by KG Krishnan as the exhibition title during our group discussion. The project
title became “Khabar Dan Angin” through an invited intervention by Yap Sau Bin.
ONG JO-LENE
17
MAP RETRIEVED FROM
18O N D E R F U L M A L A Y S I A . C O M
W
ITINERARY
SUN
10 JANUARY 2016
0800
A L E X A R R I V E S AT K O TA B H A R U
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YA N A , J O - L E N E , N A D I A , P O O D I E N , E N G K U , A N D J O H A N A R R I V E AT K O TA B H A R U O N R AYA N I A I R ( K G M I S S E S H I S F L I G H T )
1330
O F F TO G U A M U S A N G W I T H D R I V E R AY E E
1700
C H E C K- I N TO A B E K I H O M E S TAY, K G . TA N A H P U T I H , G U A M U S A N G
1830
PA S A R AYA E C O N J AYA TO B U Y G R O C E R I E S F O R T E M I A R V I L L A G E
1930
A S T R O L L BY L I M ES TO N E H I L L S
MON
11 JANUARY 2016
1100
TEMIAR VILLAGE, KG. KUALA WOK
1330
DENDI JOHARI, OUR TEMIAR GUIDE LEADS US OFF ROAD
1430
W E L C O M E D B Y TO K H A L A K A N D V I L L A G E E L D E R S AT D E W A N A D AT
I N T R O D U C T I O N TO T E M I A R B E L I E FS , C U S TO M S , O R A L H I S TO R Y, A N D C H A L L E N G ES FA C E D BY T H E C O M M U N I T Y
1630
TO U R B Y D E N D I O F T H E V I L L A G E A N D T H E P L A N T S T H AT T H E TEMIARS USE. A SPLASH BY THE STREAM WITH DENDI’S SONS
1745
WA L K TO N E X T V I L L AG E TO V I S I T D E N D I ’ S
1900
SEWANG RITUAL HEALING DANCE
2300
SUPPER WITH THE VILLAGERS
G O O D B Y E S P E E C H B Y D E N D I & YA N A
0000
B A C K TO G U A M U S A N G ( W E S A W A S H O OT I N G S TA R TO G E T H E R )
R E L AT I V E
TUE
12 JANUARY 2016
1100
SWEE NYET KONG TEMPLE, PULAI
GREETED BY TEMPLE COMMITTEE CHAIRMAN
B R I E F H I S TO RY O F T H E H A K K A S E T T L E R S A N D
GOLD MINING IN PULAI
1330
WA L K E D TO N E A R BY C AV E H O U S I N G , Z H I X I A D O N G T E M P L E
1800
C H E C K - I N T O N U R U L’ S V I L L A H O M E S T A Y A T K B
ITINERARY
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ITINERARY
WED
13 JANUARY 2016
0900
B R E A K FA S T AT K O P I T I A M K I TA
1000
PA S A R S I T I K H A D I J A H A N D LU N C H
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R U M A H S A H A B AT: P U S AT P E R L I N D U N G A N D A N J A G A A N H I V . SESSION WITH CENTRE MANAGER AND RESIDENTS
1630
P I C K U P K AT, YO K E A N D K G F R O M K B A I R P O R T
1830
PA S I R P U T E H ( KU M P U L A N M A I N P U T E R I )
1930
D I N N E R AT T H E H O U S E O F K A K N A H A N D PA K A G E L ,
THE RAJA GENDANG
2100
M A I N P U T E R I H E A L I N G R I T U A L T H E AT R E
THU
14 JANUARY 2016
1100
M A S J I D A L- M U H A M M A D I , K E L A N T A N S T A T E M O S Q U E
INTRODUCTION BY IMAM TUA , ROSLI CHE SOH, JOINED BY I N T E R N AT I O N A L I S L A M I C I N F O R M AT I O N A N D D A’A W A H C E N T R E (IIDAC) FOUNDER, MOHAMMAD MICHAEL A .K.A . MUHAMMAD GHANA
1300
L U N C H W I T H I M A M T U A AT R E S TO R A N C I K G U
1600
A R U L M I G U S I VA S U B R A M A N I YA R T E M P L E TO U R
Q & A W I T H C H A I R M A N , D AT U K M A N I A M
2000
DISCUSSION AND REVIEW
2100
PA N TA I C A H AYA B U L A N A . K . A . PA N TA I C I N TA B E R A H I
FRI
15 JANUARY 2016
0845
C H U R C H O F O U R L A D Y FAT I M A ( J O - L E N E S K I P S C H U R C H )
S E R M O N F O L LO W E D BY Q & A
1330
M A S J I D K A M P U N G L A U T TO U R BY E N . R O S L A N ,
J A B ATA N M U Z I U M K E L A N TA N
1600
MUZIUM NEGERI.
A L- F A T E H , A N D T O K J A N G G U T
1800
DISCUSSION: PROJECT TITLE
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ITINERARY
E X H I B I T S - M I S T E R I F I R A U N , S U LTA N M U H A M A D S AT 16 JANUARY 2016
1000
G U R U D W A R A S A H I B , K OTA B H A R U
SERMON, Q&A, BRUNCH WITH COMMUNITY
1430
W AT P H O T H I V I H A N &
L E C T U R E A N D TO U R B Y T H A I - B U D D H I S T A S S O C I AT I O N
SUN
17 JANUARY 2016
0835
F L I G H T TO P E N A N G F O R A L E X
1500
B A C K TO KUA L A LU M P U R
MON
18 JANUARY - SUN 24 JANUARY 2016
W AT M A I S U W A N K H I R I , T U M PAT
POODIEN
ALEX LEE
ENGKU IMAN
WILLIAM SIM
KG KRISHNAN
ITINERARY
21
22
T R AV E LO G U E :
A C O U N T E R - P E R S P ECT I V E TO T H E
‘ B I G B R O T H E R ’ N A R R AT I V E
BY J O H A N ZO L H A I D I
T R A N S L AT E D F R O M B A H A S A M A L AY S I A B Y YA N A R I Z A L
Every visit outside our comfort zone shapes a perspective
unique to ourselves, different to that of the locals. Therein lies
the question of how to form a veritable perspective, balancing
the context of our lives with what we encounter. Especially
when the visit aims to give a counter-perspective to the existing
narratives. What is the significance of our journey here, and the
reaction by our artists?
In awareness of this, we acknowledge our limitations as
outsiders of different faiths and understanding. We intend to
seek a new point of view on Kelantan, although it was a brief
sojourn. Is the dominant narrative problematic?
For us (the artists, photographers, writers and curators) hailing
from different places, undeniably the current political discourse
elicits many fears relating to religious control. Inadvertently
the underlying question becomes, could a political narrative
shaped by religion engender a truly coherent society?
J O H A N ZO L H A I D I
23
To start off this essay, I shall use the concept of ‘spatial
consciousness’ as a guide to understanding our perceptions.
In his book entitled Social Justice and the City, geographer
David Harvey said:
“… enables the individual to recognize the role of
space and place in his own biography, to relate to
the spaces he sees around him, and to recognize
how transactions between individuals and between
organizations are affected by the space that
separates them. It allows him to judge the relevance
of events in other places (on other peoples’ “turf”)
– to judge whether the march of communism in
Vietnam, Thailand and Laos is or is not relevant to
him wherever he is now. It allows him also to fashion
and use space creatively and to appreciate the
meaning of the spatial forms created by others.”
The above excerpt illustrates how an individual’s perception of
a particular place is best understood in a wider context. Our
understanding of the places we visit are also affected by the
influences that have shaped our current being. Thence our
perceptions cannot be alienated from our social conditions.
The attempt to link outsiders with locals of any situation is
necessary, and as with any attempt at social change, the
outcome is determined by incorporating old perceptions into
new surroundings, producing fresher perspectives.
The Temiar, Deforestation and The State Government
Our first stop was to Kg. Kuala Wok, which is populated by the
indigenous Temiars of Gua Musang. Our one and a half hours
journey into the forest was marred with bewilderment at the
blatant deforestation of the area. What could they do if the
forest is their only source of livelihood?
It is now being replaced with infinite rows of rubber trees. None
of the wild shrubberies of the tropics. Rivers no longer gush
24
A C O U N T E R - P E R S P E C T I V E TO T H E ‘ B I G B R O T H E R ’ N A R R AT I V E
forth with the construction of water catchments at the highlands. Paved roads
and electricity exist not for the people, but for the logging industries. The houses
built as compensation could not replace the wealth of their own lands. They were
meagerly constructed, without any thought given to the social needs of the Temiar
community themselves.
Yes, we were there to understand a little of their ancestral spirituality, but the deep
anxieties surrounding their reality could not be ignored. This has overshadowed our
search of spirituality. Their material world and their existence are threatened in a
struggle against a bureacracy that neglects them. Till the very end of our engagement
with them, it was still on the grievances of land and economy.
The state’s economic machine tramples on without considering alternatives that could
ensure the Temiar’s welfare. Their worldview does not recognise “personal property”,
and that is the root of their conflict with the state authorities. They shared with us their
views of the universe’s existence and its relationship to mankind. Natural disasters,
according to them, were caused by an unrestrained harvesting of mother nature. In
fact, their social ills began when they were forced to participate in the logging industry
(for pittance) although they firmly reiterate that they are “unwilling to become slaves.”
Deforestation of Temiar region in Gua Musang
25
Swee Nyet Kong Temple – The Labours of the Hakka Community Settlement
Our second stop was at the Swee Nyet Kong Temple, nestled within the Hakka
community settlement in Pulai. The temple, rebuilt on 18th May 1967 from the ashes
left by the Japanese invasion, still displays fragments of the burnt temple as a sign of
remembrance. According to Uncle Lew, the Hakka community’s migration to the east
coast began due to a gold rush in the 15th century. Since then, many have decided to
stay on while others went back to their motherland.
We were briefed on the history of the Hakka community settlement and the temple
architecture, and the rest of the visit was filled with optimism. As with all other
communities, their reaction to our interfaith initiative was “No religion teaches its
followers to commit evil.” Then we proceeded to roam about the place on our own,
exploring all corners from the shady bamboo resting area to the Guan Yin temple up
in the limestone hills, across the lake from Swee Nyet Kong.
Rumah Sahabat – Shelter for HIV Positive Recovering Addicts in Kampung Masjid Kota
At this point, one might ask the relation between spirituality and Rumah Sahabat. All
its inmates are HIV positive. Kelantan has the highest number of HIV positive cases.
Gua Musang as a logging industry area is said to be a hub of HIV, where loggers
frequently solicit the services of sex workers. Almost everyone there was estranged
from their families and communities. And most felt that religion was their refuge. This
search for religion is implemented concretely through their daily programs. Perhaps it
was not a coincidence that the shelter was built in front of a mosque.
There, we earnestly sought to understand how religion has affected their
acceptance of their condition. Aside from their customary religious rituals, what
other motivations help them to consistantly keep up with the programs? Once again
the limitation of time had only allowed us to listen to their grievances without delving
into deeper issues.
The stigma from their surrounding communities are still an immense challenge for
them. As the burden of their mistakes are often stacked on their own shoulders,
we rarely see this as symptomatic of much larger issues — external influences,
government policies that affect the economy of every district, and how religious
institutions are used to continuously shun them as outcasts. These issues are not
exclusive to Kelantan, but exist in other states too.
26
A statue of Guan Yin at Zhi Xia Dong Temple
near Swee Nyet Kong Temple
With the manager and residents of Rumah Sahabat
27
Main Puteri – The Organic Art of the Local Community
At 6:30p.m. we continued our journey to the district of Pasir Puteh to witness the
traditional healing ritual of Main Puteri. Unfortunately our experience was limited, as
we had to head back by 11:00p.m. due to our transportation constraints.
Main Puteri rituals can range from two to five hours, depending on the the patient’s
illness. We did not have time to fully understand all the ritualistic processes and
requirements.
Once again we were left in a state of unsettling perplexity; could spirituality really
be found in these visits? Within this limited time frame, and the structure of these
predetermined programs that alsmost seem as though we were there as tourists,
‘outsiders’ who are only interested in peeking into these places of mystique, without
any real opportunity to be among them, to know their psyche (which makes no
distinction between traditional healing ritual, art and religion) and their perception on
the definition of mysticism and spirituality.
We began to recognise the limitations of our excursion and how this will be reflected
in the resulting artworks. If this program was indeed to understand the interfaith
relations of a state and to identify aspects of its spirituality that is not common in our
environments, will programs like these result in anything significant? Or surely there
are other alternatives to gain a deeper understanding?
Al-Muhammadi Mosque – The Relation Betwen the Monarchy and Religious Clerics
The next day, we were off to the Al-Muhammadi Mosque. Built in 1867, the mosque
evolved from its original wooden structure to concrete in 1922. Initially this mosque
was known as Masjid Besar Kota Bharu (the Grand Mosque of Kota Bharu) and this
mosque played a significant role as the centre of Islamic missions and education, till it
was known as ‘Serambi Mekah’ (the Verandah of Mecca). Among the key individuals
during the spread of Islam at that time were Tuan Taba (1840-1891), Haji Wan Ali
Kutan (1837-1912) and Tok Kenali (1868-1933).
However, unlike the early rise of all monotheistic religions that invariably began with
a revolution, the spread of religion in our country was amicable with the cooperation
between religion and the feudal system.
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Main Puteri
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In the Al-Muhammadi Mosque, contrary to the principle of
casteless communal living, there was a special room for the
VIPs, which was segregated from the commoners. Of course
class differences exist anywhere, and questions abound
whether these institutions only sought to address petty
issues such as matchmaking programs (“Destiny Jodoh Life
Partner” by the International Islamic Information & Daawah
Centre, supported by the Department of Islamic Affairs of
Kelantan, and the Council of Islam and Malay Customs of
Kelantan) but not the larger issues of class conflicts, the
incongruence with capitalist economics and the feudal
mentality that still relies on a big brother authority to protect
and manage the welfare of the majority.
The Arulmigu Siva Subramaniyar Temple – Community
Space and the Meaning of Fund Contributions
In the evening we went to the Arulmigu Siva Subramaniyar
Temple adjacent to KB Mall. The temple took nearly 40
years to obtain a building license and this was their main
challenge. This temple is seen as a principal communal
space for the minority ethnic Indian in Kelantan.
An interesting observation was the large signboard at the
temple building entrance, that displayed the names of those
who contributed funds for the construction of the temple.
One may question, could religious institutions and the role
of money really be inseparable? And could the presence
of the signboard indirectly demonstrate class differences
based on a person’s status?
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Al-Muhammadi Mosque
Interior Arulmigu Siva Subramaniyar Temple
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Church of Our Lady Fatima – The Inherent Challenges of Religious Institutions
The following day we visited the Church of Our Lady Fatima, a Catholic church to
witness their mass. It was interesting to observe that the word Allah was used even
after all the commotion that ensued in the fight for the right to use that name. As
Projek Dialog uploaded photos of our visit on social media, the story of Jesus turning
water into wine as told by the Priest was sadly met with strong objections and derision
by several Muslims. In fact, accusations of liberalism, among others, were hurled at us
from the start of our journey.
When we asked Father Francis about the Allah issue, his response was simply
that these matters were dealt with by senior officials, while he and the rest of the
congregation continue to abide by God’s will, as normal. He clearly stated that
“Religion is always contested and these challenges are something that all of us have
to face.” The church welcomed us with open arms, took us around the premises and
presented us with a history of the church and its community.
Gurudwara Sahib, Kota Bharu – Minority Communities and Land Issues
Our next visit was to the Gurudwara Sahib in Kota Bharu. Just like the Al-Muhammadi
Mosque, we observed their dress code and both males and females proceeded to
cover our heads. We spent time observing their prayer rituals which began with a
sermon in Punjabi. Sikhism is a non-proselytising religion. There are no missionary
acitivites in the country. They explained that each person should be left to the religion
and customs they were born into, as they believe that all religions guide their followers
to the truth - similar to the sentiments voiced elsewhere.
Presently they are facing land issues, we heard from a congregant that the state
government has enforced a ruling whereby non-Muslim houses of worship must be
located a few kilometres outside of Kota Bharu city centre. During our visit, they
mentioned that Sikh representatives from Kuala Lumpur will come to Kota Bharu in
a few days to discuss this matter with the state government. The Sikh community,
like the other faith communities there, are the minorities. Which begs the question,
are these minorities facing bigger challenges than the rest of the majority? Are
their challenges more pronounced than in other states where the majority do not
outnumber minorities so markedly?
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Beginning of Mass at Church of Our Lady Fatima
Prayers at Gurudwara Sahib
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Masjid Kampung Laut – The Lost Aesthetic Legacy of the Tropical Climate
On the same day, we went to visit the Kampung Laut Mosque now in Nilam Puri,
Kota Bharu. This is a relic of the earliest architecture in Malaysia, different from other
mosques that we are accustomed to seeing. It is a legacy of a tropical architecture
that was influenced by Chinese aesthetics (such as the three tiered roofs).
It is a lost architectural tradition, as newer mosques are built to resemble those in
Arab countries. The stark difference may be due to a cultural shift that prefers to
imitate foreign designs uncritically. Sadly, domes and other related designs are seen
as Islamic while adaptations of the old designs are no longer used.
Wat Mai Suwankhiri and Wat Pothivian – The Hidden Narrative of the Siamese
Kelantanese
Most of the wats in the Tumpat area were built due to the Siamese migration to the
south. They are said to be dating back to the Sukothai, Ayutthaya and even Bangkok
eras. Kelantan and Pattani of modern day Thailand are believed to be part of 2nd 15th century Hindu-Buddhist Kingdom of Langkasuka. Later between 1516-1902,
this area of northern modern Malaysia and the modern Thai provinces of Pattani, Yala,
Narathiwat were under the Malay Sultanate of Pattani. This is proof that the Siamese
played an important role in the course of our national history. Mr. Siri Neng Buah,
who was the former Director of National Heritage, however said that there is little
emphasis on the Siamese in the formation of our national narrative.
According to his research, the existence of the Siamese in the peninsula has been
recorded in Tun Sri Lanang’s “Sejarah Melayu.” This is explained in the text below,
taken from a Siamese political blog:
“Sejarah Melayu (1612) written by Tun Sri Lanang mentioned that the state of
Ganggayu (Khlangkeo) was built by the native Siamese upstream of the Johor
river. The town was built of black stones and its ruler, Raja Chulan was the
high king, and all the kings of the east are said to fear him. The Siam Gangga
Negara and Khlangkeo kingdoms were conquered by Raja Benua Hindi and
his kingdom in Pahang was then defeated by Malacca. Although failing to give
a date as a historical fact, Tun Sri Lanang affirms that Ganggayu is the original
Siam and its city was still in existence during the time of writing.
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Top: Motifs at Masjid Kampung Laut
Bottom: Wat Mai Suwankhiri
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The Siam Kot Monthienraban law book (1360) mentioned a Siamese annexe
known as Wurawari in Johor Tua Ganggayu (Khlangkeo). Historians only
differ on the name of the kingdom, but acknowledge the existence of a
Siamese kingdom in Johor. This proves that the Siamese have long been in
Peninsular Malaya, carrying on life under the kingdom peacefully and fought
against outside forces, especially Malacca that rose as a new power. They
were also intermixed with other Malay kingdoms such as Pattani, Kelantan,
Kedah and others, be it under Ayudhya’s influence or not.”
Within the limited time, we were only given an explanation on the origins of the Siamese
settlement in Kelantan. Then we toured around selected wats. Mr. Siri Neng Buah’s
version of history was enlightening especially to some of us who have lineage from
Tumpat where a majority of the Siamese Kelantanese reside.
The rest of the evening was spent exploring the area, identifying similarities between
the Siamese and Chinese Buddhist temples. Hierarchy still exists, most clearly
demonstrated by the placement of urns around the area. Those placed underneath the
sleeping Buddha secured the location with higher fees, while those who could not afford
to pay were kept under another roof. We were dwarfed by the sheer size of the sleeping
Buddha, a representation of the highest form of (internal) human enlightenment, a stark
image built to such scale. While the beginning of the process was a search for individual
meaning, it ended with a process of clear alienation from modernity.
Ritual as Visitors and Ritual of the Locals
Our visits were filled with rituals that were dualistic. In the name of spirituality, and
within the allocated time we made a pilgrimage from one place to another in search
of the fundmentals of religiosity in Kelantan. That was our ritual. However, there were
also informal rituals we became aware of, like the ritual of buying, taking pictures,
discussions of spirituality, social conditions and our perceptions as outsiders. From
there we began to reflect the real purpose of our presence there, whether it was simply
for the production of art or something more, while shedding new light on the matter of
spiritual dissonance. Will the modern world succeed in this modernisation process to
retain age old traditions in coexistence without any conflict?
— JOHAN ZOLHAIDI
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F U A D R A H M AT TA L K S
TO P O O D I E N A N D KG K R I S H N A N
BY BBY
T R A N S C R I B E D BY J O H A N ZO L H A I D I
E D I T E D B Y F U A D R A H M AT & O N G J O - L E N E
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F U A D R A H M AT TA L K S TO P O O D I E N A N D K G K R I S H N A N
F:
Poodien, let’s start with you. What did this project mean
to you, as the only Kelantanese in this project and having
migrated to KL and now to return again?
P:
That was what interested me most when I was invited. It
occured to me that it would entail a mixture of making art
and reflecting on my identity as a Kelantanese.
Most of my childhood memories are in Kelantan. But so
much has happpened since: politics and personal stuff.
My mother also just recently passed away. I am outsider
now. But there’s still a magical feeling to it all, so in a way
this is a good time for the project to happen.
KG:
It’s a strange coincidence because after PMR I applied to
attend boarding school since I figured that was the only
way I could get away from my family. I got accepted to
MRSM (MARA Junior Science College) Pengkalan Chepa.
F U A D R A H M AT, P O O D I E N & K G K R I S H N A N
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I didn’t have a negative experience, it didn’t last very long
anyway. I was later transferred to a boarding school in
Kuala Lumpur.
With regards to this project and what I think is interesting
about Kelantan are the perceptions that surround the
state. It’s a place where many have strong feelings
about. It’s like a blame compass here in our country even
though half of the people have little clue about it.
F:
To what extent is spirituality at all central to your
thought process?
KG:
I’m well versed with Hindu scriptures and teachings. My
mother has been on this pursuit of faith for a very long
time. She was born a Buddhist and after marrying my
father she got into the Hindu context, but yet she went
on to continue learning about Christianity. She was very
well versed in all these things.
So faith is something that I knew quite well in terms of
how it works and how people operated within it. But their
relationships towards it wasn’t something I necessarily
took.
I wasn’t lost in trying to study it. I think typically most
Asians are brought up in some faith, religion, or spiritual/
cultural rituals. They would exist in a society where one
way or another they were influenced and molded by
these fixed identities.
With that, I’ve developed a more mature feeling towards
religion and faith. I actively reject it. But I use those
conflicting feelings to address the work that I make
though not in a negative sense of channeling frustrations.
P:
Spirituality has many dimensions. For Malaysians,
religion is something to be reminded of all the time at
the level of everyday life.
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Unfortunately we weren’t encouraged to ask a lot of
questions about it and therefore were denied a better
understanding, particularly those who were born in
Kelantan and raised in our largely conservative MalayMuslim context.
My parents were of the older generation who were mostly
rural and illiterate. This was obviously determined by
poverty. Most of their children were able to attend public
schools and universities. I’m the youngest in my family but
I’m also not religious. I don’t practice any rituals.
I don’t think I’ve ever resolved my sense of alienation from
that context. Even after 10 years in KL, I see myself as
having escaped more than anything else.
It’s a systematic problem too tied the State’s agenda and
funds. The mainstream media also wields a lot of influence
in promoting this brand of Islam.
Even though Kelantan is currently governed by the
opposition, there was never an alternative discourse when
it comes to religion. It is seen as a battle of pieties. There
was never a space for a different view.
F:
When you look at how religion is politicised a lot in this
country, the impression might be that art should be the
last thing on the list of priorities. What can art do as
an interlocutor or some component towards a greater
understanding of religion and politics? Is it just a luxury/
leisurely activity or can it be considered as an actual form
of political engagement?
P:
No work of art is fixed with inherent meaning. It depends on
the practitioners and contexts as well. Each interpretation
cant really get away from the doctrines they are apart of.
But of course there’s still alot of things to do with art and
the kind of possibilities that could happen depends on the
discourse around it.
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KG:
To critique something would be the most superficial
reason to make art. You cannot attempt to critique
something when you are trying to make art. Therefore,
where it’s coming from needs to be genuine. Because
your experiences are what makes it “real.”
I chose to work on public spaces and its something that
I’ve been working for quite some time, that is the urban
development within many different context, mostly in Asia
like places in Hong Kong and Jakarta. I’ve explored the
very controversial bus rape case in New Delhi. I just rode
buses and I photographed how men and women operated
within such spaces, to see how these contexts shaped
the way we behave. It is something that affects me as
someone who were also brought up in a completely urban
context.
Our world is shaped by shopping malls, train projects
and migrant workers who built our cities but are forever
displaced. These are the urban narratives that I’m deeply
fascinated by because this is what’s built our realities.
Therefore, I chose to photograph public spaces in
Kelantan and see how are these spaces affect the way
people interact; are they reinforcing a certain kind of
power dynamic or gender inequalities?
So that’s what I chose to explore because I couldn’t
see myself talking about something I didn’t know. From
the observation in Kelantan, I was drawn to how some
religious spaces are experiencing difficulties with land
issues and I was sensitive to this because my experience
was loosely based on land. For example, the temple took
40 years to obtain the permit for its land use even though
the community leaders are quite close to Nik Aziz himself.
P:
Whether the art works are significant has more to do
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with the whole event, how you associate yourself with
the overall social relations at the exhibition and how we
interact with questions from the visitors and viewers. I see
the whole process as art.
F:
There’s a strong group component to this project,
even after half of the team went back to KL the other
half stayed.
Was this new to you or was it something that you
are already used to working with already? Art can be
solitary but there seems to be a lot of synergy and
camaraderie going on because all of you even stayed
in the same house.
P:
I haven’t been really involved with a lot of residency
programs so this is new to me. I needed to adapt during
the whole duration, from one week to another week and
then being given just one month to get the work done and
then to adapt to whatever other expectations.
KG:
Art is very lonely. Photography is an extremely solitary
medium because you do work on your own a lot, you
spend time going out looking, seeing and you come back
to continue reflecting and processing alone.
The great thing about this project was that whatever we
were experiencing everyday was digested with constant
dialogue. We’d come back after the visits, we debrief.
And then the second week was different. Poodien and I
especially, we moved about together a lot and we were
interested in similar things. At the same time, we were
heading to different directions and it was energising in a
certain way to keep exchanging ideas and just discussing
things, not being stuck inside your own head. It helps
move your ideas forward.
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F:
It seems to me that there’s a significant variety of
insights in the mix as well.
P:
I think the first week was really important and meaningful
to me because its very “official.” We visited representatives
from each religious space. Without that kind of formal
program I don’t think I would have ever experienced
Kelantan as how it was explained during the first week.
When I go back to Kelantan I don’t really go to those kinds
of places.
It was a very moving experience — it was like going
through history in a week. We started with an ancient
form of religion like shamanism from the indigenous
community, to polytheism and then to monotheism.
It’s like we were passing through time, all cramped
into one place. So we really experienced how all these
differences blend and meet together.
F:
What were among the most significant moments of the
trip that really pushed you to produce for this project?
P:
I don’t know if this is culturally constructed or “natural”, but
I was curious about the relationship with water, namely
the water of Sungai Kelantan. We went there a few times.
We used a boat to get across the river to Kampung Laut.
I used that form of transportation a lot when I was a kid.
KG:
For me it was quite special going with Poodien because I
was watching him being reintroduced to that experience
all over again, though this time he was very much the
“outsider”.
F:
How do your respective styles of “looking” differ?
Painting I’m sure demands a different sense of the visual
than say photography, and vice versa.
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P:
My method is not always systematic but for this project I
knew I needed a specific duration with a definite objective,
especially with just a month to produce the works and
everything.
Despite that I knew I had to start from zero, even though I
had certain memories of the the place and its history. So
for me it was important to just register everything from
being in the space and from there to detect the emotions
and intuitions happening inside.
I wasn’t sure what the final product was going to be.
There’s no measuring or calculating. I did sketches but at
the same time it was important for me to also see from a
different medium’s perspective like video and sound.
F:
So you absorbed the moments and see what you could
cultivate as you went on?
P:
Right. But I also approached it with our discussions
before the trip in the background. We were discussing
freedom of expression and freedom of religion before
we went to Kelantan. I connected that with what I heard
about Tok Kenali and how his books were just banned
in Kelantan.
So the first image in my mind was Eric Drooker’s protest
poster about censorship. He’s one of my favourite comic
artists from New York and he did a lot of such posters
during his early career, so there’s one popular image that
he made in relation to censorship where the person’s
eyes and mouth were closed by different hands.
So that’s the first image that came up but after that
it’s about the trip and the randomness of it all. It feels
like you want to tell the whole story but you just can’t
really grasp everything within the two weeks. So overall
this project for me has different moments of picking up
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certain things here and there, to try and describe the
feeling of moving through history and time.
KG:
At some point, you just have to let the work speak back
to you and if you listen well it will tell you where to go. I
started going about photographing. At the end of every
day I would come back and pull up the images I shot
that day. I have a quick glance at them and see what I’ve
gotten. I’d then take a few quick notes and go through
the photos with Poodien. When I came back to KL I went
through the images again and finally started to study
what I had managed to record in that time and obviously I
had recorded several things that were thematic and from
there I chose what it was that I wanted to go with and I
made a cut.
That is kind of the process. Creating, evaluating and
going back, revising and doing it again, seeing what
work or didn’t work and why. So on that note there were
limitations to it. You can’t expect to go in and make a
mind-blowing project but it is more important that it is
honest because the small stories sometime are much
larger then the big ones because it can tell so much more
about that short period than the so called “big issues.”
P:
And there will be other subject matters that were
interesting but wouldn’t fit into the exhibit’s scope. We’d
have to find another way to continue that on our own.
F:
That’s where I find photography more curious in the
sense that it’s always this paradoxical thing. People know
in this day and age that it’s all about filtering and editing,
and yet we still relatively more faith in it, as if its supposed
to present something more “real” than a painting.
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P:
I think that applies to all artists. All in all, we are always
working with the expectation of the artist as some kind of
“shaman”, a maker of powerful images that can somehow
alter our perspective.
F:
But isn’t the demand for a “realism” of sorts greater
for photography? I am pushing this question because
Kelantan is, as you said earlier, so misunderstood in many
ways. Wouldn’t part of the task be about making images
against the stereotypical imagery to some extent? How
does this factor into your approach?
KG:
The trap of photography is how it replicates what seems to
be life in its most real form.
However, people forget that within those four corners is
something that you have chosen to depict. Even then we
tend to forget what we leave out. That’s just one form of
deception that photography has.
The other thing about the power of photography is that
it presents to you a definite image but it is also so much
more than that. That’s where my work is beyond my power.
One of my favourite photographer, Dayanita Singh said
this, “Say in this day and age where photography is truly
a democratic medium, everyone has a camera phone,
everyone is making image and so, say they are all words
and you know every single word now.”
So what you say with the words you can make is actually
going to matter because everyone can make the word
or write the same word. So what are you gonna say? Is it
fiction? Is it poetry? Is it journalism?
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F:
True. I always wonder, having submitted the proposal
for this project, what exactly am I offering to the public?
It’s certainly not Kelantan raw and real. It’s our larger
context through Kelantan through the eyes of these
eight artists I trust. So for me what is going to matter
more is the interactions and negotiations in the process,
than any final major “point” to it all. And this will depend
very much on what informs the different ways that each
artist frames his or her work.
My sense then is that it’s not about cold hard “reality”
so much as how responsibility meets creativity. There’s
a strong ethical component to this project, because
it’s departure point is Kelantan and because we will be
discussing faith at a time when religious identities are
shrouded with so much sensitivity and politics.
Which makes me wonder, what were your ethical
concerns along the way? Did you have worry about
accuracy or exotification and stuff like that?
P:
There’s always this thin line between exploiting the
subject and presenting the subject with dignity. It’s an
issue that always comes up with regards to speaking on
behalf of marginalised communities.
At the same time though we must still keep an open mind
for provocation, especially when we’re addressing taboo
subjects. We cannot move forward without breaking
some convention so there’s always a need to bring up
new issues and possibilities, possibly towards some kind
of creative destruction
KG:
It’s core to my practice. It’s not just with this project but
something that I realised I must have from the start. I
author ideas. I don’t present the truth nor do I speak as
an authority. I think this is true of many artists as well.
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The public may well choose to reject our ideas, which
is completely fair, and this allows us in return again to
question our process and findings. Our job ultimately is
akin to being field researchers of whatever it is our area
of interest would be like gender or religion or whatever.
Sometimes your ideas can move a conversation forward.
Sometimes they bring out anger in people, but there’s
also a reason why it does. So always going back to the
basic aim of how I author my ideas is how I shape my
ethics. I ask, are you making poverty porn? Are you
depicting victims or survivors?
By being a photographer I’ve come to realise that its not
just about taking photos. It’s also about studying images,
making images, allowing others to make images and
bring them out into the world.
F:
What are the kinds of conversations and questions that
you hope for Khabar dan Angin to provoke to its viewers
and visitors?
P:
To empower dialogue by seeing religion as historical,
grounded in a bigger context. Hopefully this will then
empower Projek Dialog to carry on with the cause. At
the same time it’s very interesting that this project was
formed by people of different backgrounds. Usually fine
art shows work around the same medium but in this
case we have splits across disciplines. So hopefully this
can push everyone towards a new understanding of the
subject matter.
F:
When I enter that space, I’m going to see the
conversations the team had and what it produced. That
to me is the dialogue: the exhibition component is the
most obvious part but I want to feel the birth pangs of
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different disciplines coming together and from a mix of
perspectives, and generations too – a formally trained
visual artist, two artist with backgrounds in architecture,
photographers using different approaches, curators.
That fascinates me.
P:
Yeah, the gallery format is quite old school. We should
see the whole event as an art form itself.
KG:
We’ve been talking about this a lot like there’s art
and then what happens outside of it. But at the same
time, there is the internal residue. Its going both ways,
what’s happening inside within our conversation among
ourselves internally and then the work we create and how
that resonates outwards. It just keeps going, like a sonar.
I’ve been in a couple of group shows before and its
usually a one man for himself kind of thing. However I
felt like on this one we went forward very much as a
team in some ways. Its a really nice feeling. Of course
Jo-Lene and Yana had a lot to do with the project. On
some level they were pretty much like the glue who
pulled the conversations into a picture we can all see
and talk around. But at the same time they couldn’t be
more different from one another.
So one takeaway here is today how the conversation
we’ve been having in the group chat over the weeks,
over the trip, the mediums that we individually specialise
in has influenced one another. There’s a thread that links
us all somehow.
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A N O K K E L AT E
I N T E R V I E W A N D V I D E O D O C U M E N TAT I O N B Y YA N A R I Z A L
Tracing our roots through memories - vague recollections of a past, of childhood,
lineage and forgotten places. Questions that were never asked. Every generation
experiences a displacement, in time or geography - hence an inevitable loss of our
personal histories. The holes in our understanding of heritage, the lives and conditions
we did not live but only live to experience its effects. In journeying through memories
to patch up our own ideas of identity, the question then becomes - how valid are
these memories? Perhaps they too are simply perceptions of the past, susceptible to
distortions of the khabar angin (hearsay) we have encountered to this point.
This paints a picture of Kelantan, its history, people and way of life - from the eyes
and personal narrative of Mr. Rizal Wong, born as Wong Heng Giap. A true “Anok
Kelate” (son of Kelantan) of Chinese heritage, who later converted to Islam. What
was it like, growing up as an ethnic and religious minority in Kelantan? Has Kelantan
always been as how many would perceive it today? What is the reality of life there, and
its transformation through the years? Mr. Rizal shares his most striking memories of
Kelantan, his deepest thoughts on a state he calls home, and his own transition into a
new religion within the context of his family and community.
In this too, perhaps we can confront our own perceptions of Kelantan preconceived
through khabar angin.
— YA N A R I Z A L
A N O K K E L AT E
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THE PERSONAL AND
THE POLITICAL
The world cannot be divorced from the self, in fact our understanding of the world
is rooted in the self, and the interplay of our collective selves. The world exists in
a state, perceived by our senses, processed within the context of our individual
experiences, that informs us how we are affected and our possible courses of action.
However, our individual contexts are also extended by the secondary experiences
of the communities we are in contact with, our collective selves, that force us to reevaluate our conceptions of the world. Such is the dialectical process of our beliefs,
that ultimately manifests in the way we live. For artists, this would find their expression
in their art.
It is obvious then, that our knowledge is limited to our connections, expanded only by
exploration. Still, the fallacy remains that by virtue of our human kinship, our collective
experiences would inevitably result in the same understanding of the world. Thus, the
same value systems must apply, that is, according to the standards we deem universal.
But our collective selves can be divorced from one another, living in disparate
communities that have evolved through the years in vastly different contexts - such
that no one person or community could claim to have consummate knowledge of the
world.
It is this acute awareness of our limitations and separation that should spur us to seek
connections outside our immediate sphere of understanding. Sometimes, we do not
need to look far. Often the richness of our diversity escapes our attention, unless we
look for them. Diversity exists in the unlikeliest places, and perhaps this is where its
acknowledgement is most needed and appreciated.
Kelantan has always been unique, in its language and sensibilities, the spirit and unity
of the people, and the direction it has taken for itself, unlike the rest of Malaysia.
At the same time, one wonders how much our notion of Kelantan are merely our
own unfair preconceptions, so much so that Kelantan is somewhat exoticised by its
countrymen. For many, Kelantan symbolises a monolithic religious state, dominated
by Muslim conservatism. The idea of communities living outside this narrative is
57
often overlooked. Have we duly considered their perspectives? This is what we aim
to explore, as visitors keen to observe the Kelantanese folk, from as many varied
communities as we can, conscious that our objective is not to measure by our set of
beliefs nor to impose, but to learn.
My personal interest in Kelantan lies in the fact that it is very much a hidden part
of my history, the place where my father grew up in, but spoke very little of. My first
encounter of Kelantan was when I was 11 years old, attending the funeral of my eldest
uncle. We rarely came back, and I would come to know the reason why subsequent to
this project. The times when we did, always felt like an awkward attempt to connect
to the Chinese side of my family. To a point that communicating with them almost
seemed like a mime show, as I did not understand the Kelantanese dialect then, nor
do I speak Cantonese, and they could barely understand me. So I had always felt
alienated from Kelantan, and by extension, to a whole chunk of history that I assumed
holds many secrets to understanding my father and my lineage.
As a person born of mixed heritage, one is constantly grappling between ideas of
identity. Perhaps it is a common struggle, but the anxieties are more pronounced
when things are less defined, and you are confronted at a very young age on the
question of what you are. The idea was that by filling in these gaping holes of my
father’s history, it would somehow appease my anxieties of what it means to be
partly Chinese, when I knew so little of it. After all, surely this place has shaped the
foundations of his worldview, which has affected mine throughout my life. I was never
given a clear context to unravel the enigma that is my father. Subconsciously, perhaps,
this deep-seated yearning to reconnect and to know this place more intimately, was
what partly led to me to suggest Kelantan in the conceptualisation of this project.
My father is a reticent man. After the weeklong excursion to Kelantan, I finally felt
that I had enough context to ask him about his past. It was also to reconcile my own
impressions of Kelantan. Funnily, my longest stint in Kelantan would be under a
project. So I began to ask.
“What do you remember of your childhood in Kelantan?”
He took a moment before answering.
“I had a good childhood. We all got along very well. The kids all played together, all
kinds of sports. Back then, there wasn’t anything much to do.”
58
I pressed on whether there were any racial tensions. After all, they were a small
minority, and he did mention that the row of shophouses he grew up in were mostly
owned by the Chinese.
He insisted there wasn’t. Not even any attempt at proselytising. The attitude was
largely that they respected one another, but never delved into another’s religion. I
suppose that is true of Malaysia at large, which I have always described as good
at coexisting in the same space, but never really understanding each other. This
‘tolerance’ model works to some extent, and can become problematic after a certain
point, as we have seen in recent years.
I asked if they were ever conditioned to believe in any racial stereotypes when they
were young. He admitted there were occasional mentions here and there, but very
rarely, and as children they never took it to heart. Again, this resonates till today. The
open secret of closeted racism that emerges behind closed doors.
I tried to gather his sense of affinity towards Kelantan, and whether he felt more at
ease with a fellow Kelantanese than someone of the same ethnicity from another state.
“Of course I feel most at home in Kelantan. Kelantanese generally get along better
among themselves than with other people. Regardless of race. I think it’s the language.”
Which led me to question why we rarely went back, when I was younger.
His answer, “It wasn’t economically feasible back then. The roads were bad, there were
no highways like there are today, it’s a long journey home. And we wouldn’t have a place
to stay (wouldn’t want to impose on our relatives). Hotels were expensive.” I understood
then.
Did he have any qualms about converting to Islam when he wanted to marry my
mother? Was the process easy?
“We didn’t really think about it then. I just went with the flow. We went into the mosque
(in London), the imam officiated it, and it was done. No fuss.”
Do you think you would have had second thoughts, if it were to happen now?
Considering how strict things have become.
YA N A R I Z A L
59
“Maybe, who knows. But Alhamdulillah, Allah has given me hidayah (guidance).”
When I asked him, ”What do you think of Kelantan? How would you describe it?”
He took a more thoughtful pause, finally responding with
“Kelantan is a state of much potential, but is held back politically. At one point, we were
more developed than Terengganu. We used to pride ourselves over that fact. We used
to say to each other, you would know where Kelantan starts and Terengganu ends, by
the roads – ours were just much better. ”
I shared with him my observation that the pace in Kelantan is completely different, and
the people seemed more laid back. In fact, I discovered a signage at a restaurant that
perhaps encapsulates this, it read “Cuti – Sesuka hati, Bila-bila masa” (“Holiday – As
you like, Any time”).
His reply, “I wouldn’t say the people there are more laid back. They are hardworking
and enterprising. There are just not many (economic) opportunities there.”
Perhaps, especially considering the many successful people Kelantan has produced,
though many now reside in Kuala Lumpur. However, it might also be a conscious
decision to live simply rather than succumb to the clutter and vagaries of modern life
- a subversion against the modern world, if you will.
It struck me, after the interview, how political most of his answers were, even when
they were not the focus of my questions. His thoughts about family life and his
journey into adulthood always revolved around financial struggles and the academic
opportunities it afforded, while his responses on Kelantan were always tied to
economic development.
I suppose it speaks the truth of our existence, that we cannot escape politics, even
in our personal narratives. How deeply the political situation of our time affects the
options we have and the way we live. In a sense, these personal narratives give us a
much richer understanding of history, an imagination of the times, rather than dry,
official accounts that make us feel nothing of the gravity of such events.
Storytelling itself is an art. While many do so verbally, artists convey their thoughts
through their respective mediums. In this project, we attempt to bring the sensory
experience of Kelantan in this modern day, with its vestiges from the past, told through
the many competing narratives of its communities. Each has their own account of
60
Kelantan’s evolution that has greatly affected their sense of identity and way of
living – and their connection to the land and its diverse peoples. The indigenous
Temiars have a version of history where they were the original peoples of Kelantan,
once occupying lands that have now developed into towns such as Kota Bharu, that
they voluntarily vacated to make way for immigrants. Likewise, the Thai Buddhist
communities also have their own version, where they were the original settlers of the
land. These narratives of ownership are familiar methods used even till today, perhaps
as a way of claiming validity for their existence.
For my own story, there are still many parts missing in uncovering my lineage, a
significant portion of history I may never know, leaving me with dispositions and
experiences the roots of which I have no explanations nor words for.
Upon reflection, perhaps every generation experiences a displacement and a loss of
some sort, retaining within it ambiguous traces of a past we did not live but only live
to experience its effects. My grandfather, removed from his homeland in China and
the family he left there at a young age. My father, born into a Malay-majority land,
traveling the world, immersing himself in a new religion and ultimately settling outside
of Kelantan. And finally myself, a hybrid almost entirely divorced from my Chinese and
Kelantanese roots.
Even in these contexts, we evolve as people through our own journeys. My father was
not always a strait-laced family man, he was once fun-loving and adventurous. I was,
at some point in my life, a strict conservative, averse to all that I deemed contrary to
my beliefs. Cultures and religions evolve in this way too, parallel to the sensibilities of
the times. The Thai Buddhist wats, for example, have shrines for what appear to be
Hindu deities, and deities common to the Chinese tradition. Syncretism happens in all
cultures, all around the world.
Such realisations should make us humble in our perception of other cultures and
ideals. There exist to this day, communities that practice value systems and an
understanding of the self and the world so radically different from ours, that modern
life has effectively shunned in its empirical rigidity, as irrelevant. The healing rituals
of Main Puteri and Sewang of the Temiars will seem so foreign to our modern
sensibilities, yet these communities experience a very real utility in these practices.
Thus, they persist in spite of official prohibitions. A culture cannot be simply erased
from its people.
One wonders why such things should be jarring for us now, when notions of spirits, the
inner self, and the otherworldly have always been present in our universal heritage,
YA N A R I Z A L
61
manifested in various cultures. It survives even in major world religions of today.
Herein lies the space for art, to evoke a sense of ambiguity that we have forgotten is
inherent to life – more so than that, to tell a story of these communities who are living
it every day in their practices and lives, much bigger than the constraints of art.
Mysticisms aside, we should never discount the value of individual experiences.
Nowhere is this more apparent than in our visit to Rumah Sahabat, where the elderly
men simply wanted a chance to be heard, and ultimately for the community and their
families to give them a chance at redemption. Their individual stories of falling into
addiction that has led to HIV point to larger issues that have seemingly slipped under
official radars.
Every encounter is a chance to question and weigh ourselves against the world.
Always, the process of understanding can never be progressed without questions
being raised, and this is essentially what we did – asking these communities their
perspective on things.
Exploration is in itself, an exercise of faith. A search you will not embark on except with
the firm belief that sincerity will ultimately point you the way, that these experiences
will shape you, and that variances in every person’s journey is God’s will. In this fleeting
life within this vast expanse, it is only befitting that we commit ourselves to the task of
learning and making peace in every foreign land, or lands we have forgotten – these
are our reminders for humility. To accept the richness of humanity and acknowledge a
kinship among us that transcends our beliefs and rituals, and extends to the universe.
I hope that this body of work will move you, to put yourself in the shoes of the observer
or the subject, to provoke thoughts and reflections in your experience of their world – I
feel this is the essential work of art.
— YA N A R I Z A L
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63
64
THE EXHIBITION OF
A R T I S TS ’ F I E L D N OT ES
66
T H E E X H I B I T I O N O F A R T I S TS ’ F I E L D N OT ES
67
1. One of Engku Iman’s drawing vandalised by colouring inside the lines crusader.
2. A packet of keropok (fish crackers) in Alex Lee’s installation was stolen
68
69
ABOUT KHABAR DAN ANGIN:
E X C U R S U S O N FA I T H I N K E L A N TA N
BY ONG JO-LENE
Khabar Dan Angin: Excursus Of Faith In Kelantan presents artists field-notes from
encounters with various faith communities across the Northeastern peninsular
state straddling the Malaysia-Thai border.
The project was initiated by Projek Dialog, an online platform that aims to promote
open and critical dialogue on religion, culture, and sociopolitics in Malaysia. As part
of their work in disseminating and generating content that shares diverse voices,
ideas, and opinions, Ahmad Fuad Rahmat and Yana Rizal proposed an idea to bring
a group of artists on a field-trip to Kelantan — a place and people often remarked
upon in terms of their difference — and present the discursive outcomes from the
field encounters in an art exhibition.
The participants of the field-trip comprising of 8 artists, 2 curators, and 1 writer
began outlining their investigation along two threads — to engage in a circumstance
whereby religious conviction pervades everyday life under the watchful moral
investment of the state’s long ruling Islamic political party and concomitantly,
to reflect on the complexities and dynamics of coexisting minority faith groups
practising various religions, traditional performance rituals, hybrid forms of spiritual
devotions, pre-modern cultures, and cosmology.
We each came into the 2 week trip at different time durations and from different
personal links to Kelantan — Poodien is from Tumpat, Engku is from Rantau Abang
near the Terengganu border, KG attended boarding school in Pengkalan Chepa, JoLene was visiting for the first time the place where her parents courted, while Yana’s
father is from Kelantan yet this is her longest trip there. The itinerary (printed on
the wall behind you) was structured to introduce the basic precepts of various faiths
groups and the challenges they faced through direct interaction with the various
communities, though most of the time community leaders acted as an interface. The
second week was self-directed by the 5 artists who stayed on, roving along two the
main waterways of Sungai Golok and Sungai Kelantan.
It quickly became apparent that the urgency is in the attendant issues surrounding
religion and spirituality, such as land issues faced by the Hindu temple and
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A B O U T K H A B A R D A N A N G I N : E X C U R S U S O N FA I T H I N K E L A N TA N
Gurdwara, pondering if religious conservatism is the problem and solution at the
much needed Rumah SAHABAT shelter for recovering drug users living with HIV,
and the long history of prosetylising of the Temiars and the obscenely blatant abuse
of their customary and basic rights, which our own consumption habits in the city
are probably implicitly contributing to.
As we turned to gaze back at ourselves, we asked if we were any different from a
travelogue? In some ways we were tourists but we were not outsiders in the sense
that we are part of a landscape where religion, ethnicity, national identity, social class
and political governance ultimately all become conflated into the singular affiliation
of one’s religion. Poodien remarked that “at home I feel like a tourist”, underscoring
a sentiment of not just new experiences even for a local “budak Klate” but a sense
of displacement and not belonging. What unexpectedly grew out of our mode of
moving around in a rag-tag group sharing confined spaces and broad encounters
together was a workshop dynamic amongst us that was a safe-space too. We would
like to extend this discursive space for random bubbles of thoughts in the exhibition
through a living journal wall (to your left). Participants will be continuously posting
notes, photos, sketches, clippings throughout the duration of the show. We would
also like to have you post your suggestions, comments, questions, and reflections
on this wall.
While our time in the field was brief, the expanse of complex multivalent narratives
encountered lead the artists on excursions into various lines of inquiry and ongoing
research. They are presented here as works taking off from their speculative
questions and tentative findings. Some of the works draw from the self, through
confrontation or introspection. These works touch on themes of dualism in human
experiences and understanding and also attempts to apprehend the notion of a
“traditional” Kelantanese-Malay psyche, or the memory of it. While other works
look at the sociopolitical to return to the age old question of religion and state
governance and some reflect on the personal as political, how our devotion to other
worldliness effect our everyday actions and material constructions.
This project — a field-trip, workshop, exhibition and events — hopes to spark a
space for critical openness to carefully consider the aesthetics and politics of a
more inclusive national narrative while being grounded on an acute awareness of
the gaps and uncertainties inherent to conversations across difference, even within
our own methodology.
— ONG JO-LENE
ONG JO-LENE
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1
2
NADIA J. MAHFIX
WAHYU
1 . H A W A ’ 2 . N A R 3 . ‘ A R D D I G I TA L P H OTO P R I N T, L I G H T B OX
59.4 (W) x 42.0 cm (H) each
2 016
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4 . M A’A
3
4
A R T I S T S TAT E M E N T
“What you seek is seeking you.” – Jalaluddin Rumi
We are seekers and explorers passing through the doors of Time, constantly in search
for answers to our fleeting existence in this world. We too are creatures of reason and
because of that we are haunted by the million-dollar question, “Why do we exist?”
Perhaps in order to understand the purpose of our lives, we need to look into the
purpose of creation itself. The universe is vast expanding and it is bigger than all of us.
God (or whomever you choose to believe in) has revealed to us various signs and
revelations in many forms. If we look into the basic elements of creation (Water, Air,
Fire & Earth), you can see an abundance of signs. But unfortunately, in our everyday
hectic modern lives, we are too distracted that we fail to see what is already right in
front of us.
These “wahyu” are all around us, we just need to open our third-eye and look into
what is beyond the obvious. Perhaps, therein lies our answer to whatever it is that we
are looking for.
NADIA J. MAHFIX
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74
WILLIAM SIM
H E R E , L I S T E N ( K E L A N TA N )
S O U N D I N S TA L L AT I O N W I T H G R A P H I C S P R O J EC T I O N
8 SETS OF 1 HOUR CLIPS
2 016
On the afternoon some of the artists crossed over to Thailand,
I had to stay behind because I did not have my passport. While
I was stuck on the other side of Sungai Golok it dawned on me
that the only sound and light can freely cross state lines.
This triggered me to experiment on how we visualise what we
hear and justify our beliefs. Presented here are audio field
recordings supported by lines of light mapping where they
were recorded. The sounds can be vaguely heard throughout
the gallery but take on a different life when you press your ears
against the wall to get closer to the source.
Can we imagine a place by only listening to its sounds?
What do we really know about a place if we only hear of it or
read about it?
Khabar, khabar angin, khabar dibawa angin.
WILLIAM SIM
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KG KRISHNAN
SACRED/SPACE
PHOTO PRINT ON PAPER , FR AMED
8 nos., 59.4 x 42.0cm each
2 016
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C U R ATO R ’ S N O T E
Sacred/Space is a study in contradicting prevailing popular imagery of public spaces
in Kelantan. From the cliches for tourism (the colours and businesswomen of Pasar Siti
Khatijah, the largest sitting Buddha in Asia collaged with Malaysia’s oldest surviving
mosque) to the stereotypes for mainstream reportage (shop signages with jawi script,
billboards imposing women’s dress code)
The 3 clusters depict starting points of different routes in apprehending a typology of
public spaces and by extension the shaping of social interactions in the state. Devoid
of human presence, the images present silent landscapes of control.
Beginning from the cluster on the left, the horizons marked by fluid bodies of water
subtly hint at a flow from vernacular design and natural materials towards Arabised
architecture and human-made technology. The center cluster is a jagged composition
of built-spaces depicting state-provided sports facilities with the absence of a public
swimming pool is marked by an empty grid and a small shrine engulfed in weeds. The
set leaves us with a pair of images — land covered in secondary growth and water
flooding the frame — to continue the question of how much can nature (and the social
nature of publics) be controlled.
KG KRISHNAN
77
ALEX LEE
C I N E M A N A?
M I X M E D I A I N S TA L L AT I O N
D I M ENS I O NS VA R I A B L E
2 016
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A search of “Kelantan cinema” will lead you to a Sony Center in
KB Mall.
All cinemas must comply with “Entertainment Control and Places
of Entertainment Enactment 1998”, written years after the last
cinema closed its doors.
The answer to the questions of “Cinema dekat mana?” is often
replied with such surety and confidence.
To some it opened up doors to a deeper understanding and the
rewriting of some preconceived ideas of Kelantan.
A rumor is an alternate reality that has neither a sure form nor
conclusion; hence it is always followed by “rupa-rupanya begini.”
ALEX LEE
79
Cinemana documents the ludic hunt for a cinema in Kelantan through equally playful
sketches. Architect-artist Alex Lee embarked on an oral survey asking random people
that he encountered during the field-trip if there is a cinema in Kelantan? The title
Cinemana is a portmanteau combining “cinema” and “mana” (the Bahasa Malaysia word
for “where”) that when read out loud sounds like “sini mana” (where is here).
Cinemas itself are not banned by PAS state government. However, since it enforced the
Entertainment Control and Places of Entertainment Enactment (1998) which includes
rules such as gender segregation in terms of audience seating, no screenings during
the evening Maghrib prayer, on Thursday nights and during the Muslim fasting month of
Ramadhan, no cinema operator has taken up the offer.
Before and during the field-trip Alex noticed inconsistent declarations as to the
existence of a cinema in Kelantan in his conversations with friends and strangers alike.
This survey extends this subject and mode of inquiry to draw out intimate recollections
of a public memory and the nuanced sentiments that individuals candidly let slip in
informal conversations.
The method was also motivated by our encounters with “new” perspectives through
accounts from the Temiar’s solely oral history tradition and a remark from the state
mosque’s Imam Tua, “… cara Klate tak semana mencatat sejarah” when asked for the
precise date of a historical event.
The modern world is suspicious of oral transmission, associating it with human
unreliability in precision, remembering, and objectivity. But the written historical record
is susceptible to changing powers through the passage of time. Cinemana hopes to
provide a cute little intermission in the disassociation our faith in the written word and
the mutability of facts.
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ALEX LEE
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YO K E TA N
T H E DAY I P L AY E D G O D
The Gardener plants,
The Gardener prunes,
The Gardener decides
What dies and what blooms.
D I G I TA L I L LU S T R AT I O N ,
LIGHTBOX
8 4 . 1 ( W ) x 11 8 . 9 c m ( H )
2 016
But
Would you cut a rose
With such cruel ease?
If you could hear it whisper,
“Just one more day, please?”
82
Our last act before leaving Kelantan was making the collective
decision to euthanise Apeng the cat.
We had all noticed a cat caged by the house opposite our
homestay. We thought nothing much of it (being cat-ladies
we knew that cats sometimes need to be quarantined), until
Yoke pointed out that the cat looked like it was suffering from
Sporotrichosis, a severe fungal infection. It is also known as
Rose Gardener’s disease.
Our homestay in Kota Bahru was in an area mottled by garish
mansions, a range of middle-class houses, and dwellings of
people living in poor circumstances. Apeng’s family lived in the
latter. We went to ask Apeng’s humans for permission to take
him to the vet and explained our suspicions and that Apeng has
Sporo, a chronic and contagious infection that can spread to
humans. Our van driver, Ayee kindly obliged us too.
Once in the van, the overwhelming smell of Apeng’s open lesions
covering half his body filled the air with foreboding silence. It was
indeed Sporo. The vet advised that without stringent and proper
medical care that could take months up to a year, the fungus will
cause him to rot away alive; Apeng’s human had her hands full
with a household of children with a baby on the way. Putting him
down was the most humane thing we could do.
The vet told us that Kelantan has exceptionally high number of
Sporo cases, probably due to high number of stray cats. We hope
to be able to do more than we (decided we) could do for sweet
little Apeng. Please let us know if you’d like to help.
YO K E TA N
83
I N G AT- I N G AT LU PA
CHARCOAL AND INK ON PAPER
D I M ENS I O NS VA R I A B L E
2 016
84
Khatijah Rahmat draws as a form of self-confrontation and is
interested in the human figure as a narrative vessel to explore
personal and public memory. In a series of charcoal and watercolour drawings, the artist’s self-portraits are seen in various
poses in allusion to the patients’ own gestures when undergoing
the traditional Kelantanese healing ceremony known as
Permainan Puteri (Main Puteri). Seen from another angle,
through acrylic on plastic drawings, a new conversation begins
between the absent gaze of the charcoal portraits and the quick
ink lines of a Main Puteri members hard at work. The two planes
of images, however, will never touch. There is a gulf of memory
separating two narratives, both claiming radically different ideals
for the problematic title of ‘Malay’. It is also the felt distance
between the artist and the Main Puteri ritual witnessed in
Kelantan and the new spaces now open when one considers
the alternative personal narratives lost to the present-day Malay,
who believes he is saved by Islam from his primitive, lost roots.
K AT R A H M AT
85
86
B I A R M AT I M E L AY U
E X TENDED DR AWING , INK ON PAPER
11 2 ( W ) x 1 5 2 c m ( H )
2 016
The artist’s spare image is seated, her legs stretched and facing
the viewer. For the Malay spiritual healer or Bomoh, this is well
understood: the patient is ready for treatment. The artist has
sat in this position numerous times, exposed since childhood
to a number of spiritual treatments of varying methods and
allegiances to Islam – yet she recalls every cause to be extrinsic
- typically, the result of someone’s schadenfreud.
Main Puteri permits the idea that there can be an intrinsic cause
for ‘illness’ (an illness can come from one’s inability to express
oneself fully). Yet the artist faces her inked reflection sightless
and still awaiting a cure. The artist finds no will to recreate herself
healed. Instead, she is covered in false modesty, haunted by the
derision often expressed by modern Malays about their roots.
Curt words from a YouTube comment, directed at footage of a
Main Puteri session, capture the sentiments precisely: “Biar Mati
Melayu, Jangan Mati Iman”, as if a clear choice must be made.
The only choice to such a strict dichotomy is self-annihilation,
a further rejection to understand oneself – and so the portrait
remains.
K AT R A H M AT
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88
ENGKU IMAN
KILANG AGAMA
WOOD, FABRIC , ACRYLIC
75 ( W ) x 12 0 c m ( H )
2 016
Sejadah adalah secebis kain yang digunakan oleh para penganut agama Islam sejak
kecil. Kita memandang sejadah sewaktu kita menjalankan ritual sembahyang, lima
kali sehari. Bermula dari situ, kita memikirkan tujuan agama, masalah kehidupan dan
kekuatan tuhan melalui pandangan kita terhadap sejadah. Sejadah memainkan peranan
yang penting terhadap pemandangan kita sewaktu berlangsungnya ritual sembahyang.
Susun suai sejadah merupakan perwakilan visual kepada dua gabungan ritual:
formal dan separa-formal. Kedua-duanya berlangsung secara harian. Ritual formal
yang berteraskan agama memainkan peranan bagi menemukan jambatan di antara
keinginan manusia yang seringkali terasing dengan alam manakala ritual separa-formal
adalah keberlangsungan kehidupan yang mengguna pakai material-material kehidupan
yang wujud.
Sejadah adalah perwakilan kepada ritual formal tersebut. Produk-produk harian yang
disusun semula di atas sejadah adalah perwakilan kepada ritual separa formal. Keduaduanya bertindih di antara satu sama lain dan menimbulkan persoalan mengenai
kekuatan ritual-ritual tersebut di dalam menentukan sudut pandang seseorang
mengenai makna kehidupan itu sendiri.
Tidak dapat dinafikan masa memaksa individu untuk memahami kewujudannya di
dunia. Maka permainan susun suai gambar adalah keinginan seseorang bagi mencari
jambatan pemahaman yang dapat menghilangkan keresahan kehidupan. Ianya
merupakan pengulangan yang tiada akhir, bermula sewaktu kecil; pada kali pertama
seseorang memandang sejadah dan terus mengulanginya sehingga akhir hayat dengan
harapan bahawa keresahan akan ketidakmampuan manusia mampu di atasi.
ENGKU IMAN
89
ENGKU IMAN
PI LI H BU LU
DR AWINGS ON PAPER , STICK Y NOTES
3 0 n o s . , 210 ( W ) x 2 9 7 c m (H) e a c h
2 016
90
Why do so many see social media as a suitable platform for people to play god, to
determine who’s right and who’s wrong, who is the most useless and who’s not and
last but not least, who deserves to be in heaven or hell? This guiltless activity has been
happening for quite a while, ever since we were kids, like sticking the “kick me” note on
a “loser’s” back. And here I am only providing another platform with a straightforward
title and without finding a refuge behind a religious veil.
ENGKU IMAN
91
POODIEN
D A R I K E T I A D A A N S A M PA I K E S I N I ( I N S TA L L AT I O N , A 3 - PA R T S E R I E S )
1. DA R I K E T I A DA A N S A M PA I K E S I N I: A DA
I N K O N PA P E R , 12 5 x 12 5 c m , 2 016
2. DARI KETIADA AN SAMPAI KE SINI: WAN
O I L O N C A N V A S , 1 5 0 x 11 7 c m , 2 0 1 6
3. DARI KETIADAAN KE SINI: TIADA
I N K O N P A P E R , 11 2 . 5 x 1 0 0 c m , 2 0 1 6
92
1
2
3
POODIEN
93
POODIEN
1. DA R I K E T I A DA A N S A M PA I K E S I N I: A DA
I N K O N PA P E R , 12 5 x 12 5 c m , 2 016
94
1. Karya ini diberi tajuk ‘Dari Ketiadaan Sampai ke Sini’. Ia satu
siri yang terdiri daripada tiga karya yang berasingan (3 dalam
1- triniti). Usaha utama karya ini adalah untuk merungkai dan
mempersembahkan universaliti manusia dalam menterjemah
hubungan dan kesedaran kewujudannya di dunia ruang 3
dimensi (atau empat termasuk masa - spacetime) ini yang
dikongsi bersama (kesedaran itu) dengan kesemua umat
manusia. Merasa wujud/ada ini adalah satu kesedaran kolektif.
2. MASA: Usaha untuk merungkai dan menterjemahkan
kewujudan ini juga terbatas (kalau ia dilihat sebagai batasan)
dengan masa. MASA (time) adalah subjek seterusnya yang
cuba diekspresi dikarya ini, termasuk masa yang diperuntukkan
untuk projek ini (yang amat terhad), masa munculnya seniman
dan material ‘masa’ secara umum yang dipenuhi sarat dengan
aspek-aspek khusus seperti evolusi, sejarah, mitos, sains, politik,
ekonomi, fizikal, meta-fizikal dan juga masa peribadi-masa unik
setiap individu dan perkaitannya dengan masa diluar yang sarat
dengan aspek-aspek yang disebut diatas. Jadi hasil karya ini
seperti satu perhentian dalam masa (freeze time/block universe)
atau ‘masa-masa’ yang terhenti pada setiap penonton.
POODIEN
95
POODIEN
2. DARI KETIADA AN SAMPAI KE SINI: WAN
O I L O N C A N V A S , 1 5 0 x 11 7 c m , 2 0 1 6
96
3. Pintu masuk karya ini adalah ditengah tenaga tengah
(third force) yang punya kiri-kanan. Subjek pertama ditengah,
dengan imej yang terletak ditengah. Representasi imej seorang
perempuan - IBU, Ibu saya yang baru saja meninggal dunia pada
30 October 2015. Imej Ibu saya ini mula dilukis sejak 2013 tetapi
belum pernah dipamerkan, sehingga masa membawanya untuk
dipersembahkan. Aksi melukis dan mempersembahkan Ibu saya
dalam identiti pakaiannya sebegitu dan kedudukannya yang
menghadap tegak memandang ke depan adalah satu konfrontasi
peribadi dengan seniman (dan penonton). Ibu sebagai physical
body dan vessel yang melahirkan saya dan kesedaran menjadi
saya. Ibu seperti bumi (MotherEarth) — tabung benih memproses
material makanan (chemistry) untuk kesinambungan hidup yang
dibungkus kewajiban, kewajiban dia mengadap tuhannya —
pencipta yang seakan wujud dari awal masa. Satu terjemahan
kepercayaan agama yang punya permulaan untuk masuk dalam
aturan masa - masa yang lain. Unjuran masa yang berbeza
dalam kesedaran yang berbeza, contohnya terjemahan masa
dalam kajian saintifik yang punya unjuran masa yang lebih jauh
kebelakang (the past, the beginning). Masa, sebelum masuknya
terjemahan masa mengikut konsep kepercayaan tertentu yang
mencipta pencipta kepada pencipta saya. Sejarah panjang
pencipta kepada pencipta saya digambarkan dalam batik yang
dijatuhkan di sebelahnya. Representasi batik kepada batik yang
materialnya menyelinap dalam masa sehingga ke hari ini. Ia
mencatat seperti sejarah, tetapi (dipaksa) dilupakan dimensidimensi warnanya yang menembusi dan menerjah masa dan
mencatat beberapa dimensi agama seperti ritual, ekspresi, mitos
dan material artisitik. Representasi Ibu hitam putih (kelabu)
seperti menggambarkan jiwa yang abadi, Tetapi tiada, hilang
dari masa. Dia sendirian (ada/tiada) tanpa latar belakang (tiada/
hilang). Invisible.
POODIEN
97
POODIEN
3. DARI KETIADAAN SAMPAI KE SINI: TIADA
I N K O N P A P E R , 11 2 . 5 x 1 0 0 c m , 2 0 1 6
98
4. Kiri-Kanan: Kiri dan kanan adalah imej representasi yang
dipilih sepanjang perjalanan di Kelantan. Diterjemah dalam
bentuk lukisan - dakwat (melukis dan menulis). Kiri dan kanan
disusun membentuk petak dan bulatan. Bentuk asas di antara
rationality (petak) dan irriationality (bulatan). Tetapi sususan
kertas lukisan tidak disusun secara literal berbentuk bulat dan
petak, cuma diberi cadangan invisible garisan petak dan bulatan.
Imej dan material karya juga diterbalikkan logik antara satu sama
lain — neutral dan semulajadi di dalam petak, dan imej tidak
neutral dan intervention manusia di dalam bulatan — termasuk
lapisan intervention seniman dengan limitasi permukaan dan
medium karya, dengan anggapan format medium yang dipilih
(kertas bersaiz 25cm x 25cm) sebagai satu objek natural.
5. Kiri: ADA Dalam petak ada vertical dan horizon. Satu vertical
yang turun (graviti) dan berhenti di lanskap tanah dan air
(tanahair) tanpa langit. Di horizon ada pengulangan lanskap
yang sama, proses meditative yang dilalui seniman satu aksi
menentang masa: masa spesifik yang terhad untuk menyiapkan
titik akhir karya dan aksi menentang kesemulajadian arah masa
dan evolusi perkembangan bahasa & technologi (mechanical
reproduction of languange) dengan mengulang produksi lanskap
yang sama (boleh jadi Sungai Kelantan, atau mana-mana sungai
jikalau tidak diberi konteks) yang menjadikan badan (software
dan hardware) seniman seperti mesin cetakan. Lanskap yang
penuh melalui penghilangan (ketiadaan) dari kiri ke kanan —
langit, tanah, air dan angin (invisible), ke penghujung bahasa.
Angin, membawa banjir besar (the Big Flood) - air dan khabar,
merubah landscape (space)
6. Kanan: TIADA Elemen-elemen intepretasi manusia dalam
mengdefinisi kewujudan/Ada. Ada dua lapisan kesedaran dalam
intervensi manusia di sini - satu dari imejan dan juga bentuk
fizikal asal limitasi material yang diolah seniman. imej paling
atas dalam bulatan adalah ‘petak’ bahasa yang dipotong-buka
dan ditembusi cahaya (printing) menjadi salinan di dinding. Teks
Jawi, adaptasi dari teks Arabic menjadi teks rasmi awal Bahasa
Melayu menterjemahkan bahasa bunyi (mulut) kepada bahasa
visual (mata) — dari telinga ke mata — verbal society to text
society.
POODIEN
99
Di sebelah kiri atas, Imej Tok Halak (shaman Temiar) dalam
gesture trance, berkomunikasi dengan Tuhan — middleperson
yang menghantar dan menerima pesanan. Imej Tok Halak dilukis
tanpa background landscape — misplacement/displacement,
terapung. Di hadapannya imej sebatang kelapa sawit, tumbuhan
bukan asal yang ditanam secara meluas atas kehendak industri
ekonomi moden yang merosak keseluruhan ecosystem hutan
(monocrop) dan sistem hubungan social spiritual masyarakat
orang asal. Mengikut kata Tok Halak ia adalah satu perang
terkini, perang besar ke atas alam, keatas Tuhan, dan banjir
besar sebagai bala- san (The Big Flood). Imej paling bawah
adalah imej Tok Kenali, watak ulama yang dihormati di Kelantan.
Potretnya sering dipasang di dinding rumah dan kedai. Ia adalah
imej pertama yang keluar dari kotak idea saya sebelum ke
Kelantan untuk projek ini. Berita mengenai buku Tok Kenali
(atau buku mengenai Tok Kenali) yang baru dikeluarkan yang
diharamkan Kementerian Dalam Negeri. Saya terbayangkan
imej popular Tok Kenali (salinan-salinan imej yang sama yang
dipaparkan di ruangan rumah/kedai dan museum) dilukis dalam
gaya rekaan poster popular menentang censorship oleh Eric
Drooker (seniman/aktivis asal New York, lahir). Tetapi dengan
pengelohan lebihan bahu tangan yang terkeluar dari format
kertas yang bermula dari belakang kertas, memberi simbol
wacana yang berlingkar sekitar satu agama tidak mungkin
punya upaya untuk membuat resolusi baru. Setiap kepercayaan
punya sejarah sosialnya tersendiri dan naratifnya berkaitan
dengan sebab akibat khusus disetiap zaman ia lahir. Ruang
dialog demokratik antara agama adalah penting untuk melihat
dan memahami bagaimana ia berkembang, bertembung antara
satu sama lain, untuk melihat hubungan kita denganya dalam
kesedaran sekarang dan masa mendatang. Budaya cencorship
tidak akan dapat melahirkan orang yang berkeyakinan dan
berkualiti, tidak demokratik dan tidak sejajar juga dengan masa
yang makin membuka langitnya kearah kesatuan kesedaran
yang saksama.
100 T H E E X H I B I T I O N O F A R T I S T S ’ F I E L D N O T E S
101
A R ES P O N S E TO K H A B A R DA N A N G I N
B Y J A S O N TA N
The plan was to escape the norm, to see the country from beyond Facebook and the
blue-lit screens of mobile devices; to apprehend it directly, palpably and whole; anew,
from another place.
Eight artists based in the Klang Valley were chosen to go away to Kelantan, the state
run by the Islamist party, PAS, and the stage for the national “hudud” pantomime that
will probably climax with the tragedy of a society in thrall to all things prurient but dead
to the joys of self-knowledge and discovery.
As a muse, Kelantan is heavily pregnant with the projections of the media and the
desires of politicians with their eye on the prize. Partly for this reason, it looms large
in the thoughts of the Klang Valley’s middle class. Would it be possible for the artists
to respond to Kelantan as anything but the proto-Islamic Malaysian state, and to draw
new perspectives on faith from their acquaintance with it?
Projek Dialog was taking no chances. It organised visits for the entourage (two of
whom are Kelantan-born) to meet the people and see the places it thought artists
should. Well, someone had to do it.
A glance through the itinerary shows its political correctness, which can engender a
conformity of thought akin to that demanded by fascism if pushed too far. The overprivileging of interfaith thinking runs the risk of becoming dogma itself, especially if it
becomes merely a trenchant position taken in relation to the discourse of “authenticity.”
The interfaith project then becomes immobilised as a vehicle of exploration. However,
if the title of the show is any indication, the curators were not unconscious of the need
to remain reflexive in how they navigated the enterprise.
----“Angin”, wind, was once understood in a greater sense than to mean just a purely
physical phenomenon of climate and weather. In this, Kelantanese knowledge of “angin”
is not alone. In the Vedas, the ancient Hindu scriptures, wind is expressed as the idea of
Vata, that which moves things; it is the prime motivating force of your being that governs
your perspicacity, comprehension of, and adaptability to the world at large.
102 A R E S P O N S E T O K H A B A R D A N A N G I N
In Chinese knowledge, wind is a cosmic and geographical phenomenon (Feng Shui)
that is reflected in the microcosm of the human being, for whom its sympathetic
movement is crucial to “prosperous” good health. (“I’m glad the feng was with you,”
said a kind friend to me after I’d had an especially close shave with my maker.) Then
there is, of course, that idea which is more or less understood across religions, from
Christianity to animism, as spirit — at root of which is the Latin for “breath.”
Thus, Khabar dan Angin: Hark, what news of the “Islamic” state? What carries on the
wind blowing from Kelantan through this fair and benighted land?
----Kelantan is a former protectorate of the kingdom of Siam and an Unfederated Malay
State, among its other known and less well-known origins. Within the borders of this
historically cosmopolitan milieu now is Islam, as popularly identified with the Islamist
PAS state government in its current incarnation.
It must have been tempting for the artists to have perceived most or all of what they
experienced in Kelantan as a manifestation of religion – in particular, of PAS Islam –
given the totalising effect of how Kelantan has come to be popularly discussed as a
theocratic state in the making.
However, theology is one thing; the relationships between followers and their faith,
quite another. The latter is likely more to do with the pervasive influence of local
circumstances and wisdom than one’s firm grasp of theology. As has been observed
by learned writers, in their expressions of their faith and by their practice of their
religion, local communities modulate and even alter its meaning, even as they attempt
to organise themselves around its tenets. In this ultimate relationship of fidelity, it’s
complicated.
----Seen in this light, there is a feedback loop between dedicated followers and their faith
by which one has an effect on the other. The first task of the artist here, then, would
J A S O N T A N 103
be to sensitively attune his or her self to the existence of such a relationship, as an
interested observer.
At the artist talk, William Sim remembered his pleasant surprise at hearing the sounds
a Buddhist temple while on tour. This then triggered for him thoughts about what he
was experiencing. Sim was engaged by more than just what he was seeing.
The sense of hearing (among others) is a transducer, something that converts one
form of energy into another; in this case, vibrations are transduced into electrical
impulses that stimulate thinking in response to what is heard. Sim caught the vibe of
the place.
Being so attentive lends to entrainment, a phenomenon best shown by how two
pendulums swinging at different frequencies eventually come to swing in time with
each other. It also measurably occurs in the frequency of brainwaves when we listen
to or make music, especially in a group. This kind of entrainment is speculated to
improve our ability to perceive things as they are (and not what we want them to be) by
harmonising thoughts to a clear, single frequency while minimising extraneous brain
activity or mental noise. It is possible that a soundtrack of ambient local sounds and
the rhythm of a place could lead to the same effect, if we are open to it.
In contrast, perhaps the over processed and tortured intellectualism demanded of
contemporary artists militates against a genuine artistic response, not least because
being overly self-conscious fundamentally changes the relationship between observer
and observed.
People are arguably more effective observers when they are in sync with the moment
of what they are observing, and can inhabit the space and time of their circumstances.
----Pilih Bulu by Engku Iman perhaps encapsulates the potential of the show’s objectives.
Choose your plumage, she seems to say, because our relationships with our maker
are as various as there are a multitude of creatures; your relationship with God is a
private one.
Profiles of people and cats are pithily rendered from the back in graceful line drawings,
accompanied by sticky notes that identify personal predilections and private visions of
heaven and hell as refracted by deep fears and desires. Who are these people, have
104 A R E S P O N S E T O K H A B A R D A N A N G I N
we met them before? Who will they be when they turn around to reveal themselves
to... us? The notes are as pithy as the drawings, and might be proof that brevity is the
soul of wit. The artist evidently inhabits her zeitgeist (a cat’s private hell is “neraka
dengan timun” referencing viral videos of cats and cucumbers) and is a keen observer
of social lexicon (for a man in a clinch kissing another, hell is “neraka tanpa aircond”,
hell without air cond).
Pilih Bulu is beautifully explicated in how it conveys that the diversity is found within
a seemingly homogenous “faith community.” Playfully, the artist brings to light that
interfaith and intrafaith dialogues are but kissing cousins — perhaps born of a source
more profound than either.
— J A S O N TA N
2 2 M A R C H 2 016
J A S O N T A N 105
N OT ES O N D I A LO G J A L A N A N F O R U M
B Y M A R YA M L E E
D A T E : 5TH MARCH 2016
T I T L E : BERGERAK
PA N E L I S T: S H A N J E Y P E R U M A L , N O R H AYAT I K A P R A W I , S H I K A C O R O N A ( S H I E K O R E TO ) , A M I N L A N D A K , M A R YA M L E E
M O D E R ATO R : A H M A D F U A D R A H M AT
DENGAN SENI (MOVEMENTS THROUGH ART)
We invited 4 Malaysians making a difference in society through
their creative labour in different mediums — an illustrator, two
filmmakers, a comic artist and a guerila documentary filmmaker.
They may use similar platforms but the styles with which they
approach social issues have fundamental differences.
For Shanjhey, the director of critically acclaimed film JAGAT,
he wanted to break away from the “Malay-Chinese-Indian”
narrative of Malaysia and show Malaysians what being an
ethnic Indian is truly like here, especially an ethnic Indian from
low social economic background. Before films, he was in the
line of producing shows for TV, but decided that he couldn’t be
there because TV does not allow showcase of poor people (this
is an actual policy).
Norhayati Kaprawi is well-known for her documentaries that
challenge the male dominated narratives of religion. She
inspires many with her “just do it” attitude to producing thinking too much gets nothing done.
Shika uses her art as a way to talk about transgender
community and the intersectionality of LGBT issues with
106 N O T E S O N D I A L O G J A L A N A N F O R U M
others, focusing more on what everyone contributes to the
society than traditionally imposed boxes of conformity.
The question of reconciling with commercial projects with
passion projects came about. Amin Landak, up and coming
comic artist says funding does not dictate the direction of
his drawings. I too shared my views — as I direct the topics
for Dialog Jalanan’s bi-weekly episodes, that funding is not a
hindrance to be critical of society’s plights.
How do artists navigate sensitive issues in Malaysia? They
just do it. Artists understand that their art is a medium for a
conversation, it constantly invites dialogue, even without the
artists’ physical presence.
— M A R YA M L E E
P R O J EC T C O O R D I N ATO R F O R P R O J E K D I A LO G
2 2 M A R C H 2 016
M A R Y A M L E E 107
N OT E S O N T H E A R T I S T S ’ TA L K
B Y YA P S A U B I N
D A T E : 12TH MARCH 2016
W I T H : N A D I A J . M A H F I X , K G K R I S H N A N , YO K E TA N ,
ENGKU IMAN, WILLIAM SIM AND POODIEN
M O D E R ATO R : YA P S A U B I N
The Artists Talk session held in the exhibition space was a good opportunity to listen
to the participating artists’ experience and reflection of the project, as contrast and
complementary to the compact curatorial framework and texts, the well-publicised
curator’s walkthrough with public and media interviews.
The artists were open with their personal motivation, politics and values, perception
one wished to explore or challenge, or to return to places one is aware of but never
experience in full, to engage and reflect anew or as a considerate visitor/observer.
There were question and discussion from audience on the perceived depiction or
(unfair) representation of the subject matter of Kelantan, or implication of personal
moral values or spiritual belief and practice in context of the nature of this project - it
could be a convenient generalised perception by audience of what an artist think or an
artwork could/should fully represent – it nonetheless reminds me that conversations
and projects like this is an essential part of diversities of cultural expression and
criticality of intellectual engagement of an informed society.
— YA P S A U B I N
2 0 M A R C H 2 016
KUALA LUMPUR
108 N O T E S O N T H E A R T I S T S ’ T A L K
109
PROFILES
P O O D I E N (b. 1979, Kelantan. Lives and in Kuala Lumpur) deals with various
subjects, medium and form, including painting, digital graphics, installation and
performance. Methodologically, he crosses over between direct action, social
experiment, collective work, and individual creation, focusing on confrontation and
force between the individual and society. He is particularly concerned with issues of
individual freedom and the problem of obsolete, unchanging, dogmatic, foundational
truth. Deriving his influence from various art practises and schools of thought as well as
‘ordinary everyday life’, the Situationists, and punk ethos, Poodien tests his open-ended
experimental works against the responses of the public and the realities of his social
context. In 2009 he was a winner of the Malaysian Emerging Artist Award. He held his
first solo exhibition Becoming at Richard Koh Fine Art Kuala Lumpur and was invited to
the 4th Singapore Biennale themed If The World Changed in 2013.
K G K R I S H N A N (b. 1989. Lives and works in Kuala Lumpur) is a journalist,
photographer, and spoken word artist. He also maintains a commercial photography
and art directing practice. His art explores ideas concerning sexuality, gender politics
and the intimacy of human relationships in contemporary cultural contexts. His work,
both writing and photography, has been widely published around Southeast Asia and
occasionally appears in European and American publications. KG recently shown in
Obscura Photo Festival (2014) and Persona: An Investigation Into Self (2015). His
work Continuum won the major photographic prize at the Xishuangbanna International
Photo Festival 2014 in China.
W I L L I A M S I M (b. 1988. Kuala Lumpur) is a young artist who began his practice
focusing on in the photographic medium and is currently expanding to other forms
such as instalations utilising various media. He defines his practice as a narcissistic
exploration of his own self though now that is more of a departure point to larger
questions stemming from personal experience and viewpoints. William has shown
at several curated exhibitions and festivals including Obscura Photo Festival (2014),
Xingshuabanna International Photo Festival, Persona: An Investigation Into Self (2015),
and a recent post-internet show Circle Jerks in Kuala Lumpur.
110 P R O F I L E S
K H A T I J A H ( K A T ) R A H M A T (b. 1984, Kuala Lumpur) is a visual artist who
draws as a form of self-confrontation and is interested in the human figure as a narrative
vessel to explore personal and public memory. She has a Post-Baccalaureate in Studio
Art from the School of the Museum
of Fine Arts, Boston and read Philosophy and Politics in Edinburgh University,
focusing on Postcolonial Literature, before a six-year corporate career in strategic
communications for both Public Relations and Advertising. Rahmat’s work functions
in a neat dichotomy between two different visual languages serving different purposes
- her whimsical illustrations of animals have the burden to charm offering stories for
universal consumption while her figurative work carries a more intrinsic purpose often
explicating issues of personal myths.
E N G K U I M A N (b. 1990, Terengganu. Lives and works in Kuala Lumpur) studied
architecture before becoming a visual artist. Her simple and clean illustrations belies the
complex sardonic humour rooted in Malay youth culture. Refreshingly unafraid of being
brash, she draws from ironies, paradoxes, and crude colloquialisms that she observes
as a young, Malay-Muslim woman in a landcape of increasing fundamentalism in urban
Malaysia. Iman has been actively showing her work in Malaysia in exhibitions such as
Hidup Terlampau Selesa (2014) and Making Space: We Are Where We Aren’t (2015) in
Kuala Lumpur, My Story, My Strength (2015) and Eyeball Massage (2015) in Penang.
A L E X L E E (b. 1990, Ipoh. Lives and works in Penang) is trained as an architect.
Alex has initiated several independent projects in his hometown -- The Ipoh Bus Project
sought to revive interest in small town bus stystems, LOCAL an architectural commentary
zine, and Tiny Art Space in the old town heritage trail zone to promote interest in local
art and design. He was at Lostgen independent art space in Kuala Lumpur where he
helped work on placemaking and community mapping of the Jalan Sultan area. He was
recently selected to participate in Transactions In The Field a masterclass and art project
on challenging the role of citizen participation through participatory public art.
P R O F I L E S 111
PROFILES
N A D I A J . M A H F I X (b. 1982, Kuala Lumpur), is a self-taught photographer with
a background in psychology from the International Islamic University, Malaysia. Growing
up in the 90’s she identified with the musical movement of the time. Nadia had been
part of several group exhibitions such as Beyond Our City : Lights & Myths (2010)
organized by Goethe-Institut, DATUM: KL – reViewKL (2011) organized by Malaysian
Institute of Architects and the most recent one was The Two Mountains Photo Project
(2014) a joint-exhibition of Malaysian and Japanese photographers. In addition, Nadia
has self-published a photobook, Is This The [n]? (2014) and sold-out all 80 copies
available. Nadia recently was made finalist at the prestigious Asia Women Photographer
Showcase, the biggest award for women working with photography in Asia.
Y O K E T A N (b. 1981, Ipoh. Lives and works in Kuala Lumpur) is an illustrator
based in Kuala Lumpur. She has spent more than 10 years in the advertising industry
before commissioned art projects lead her to rediscover her drive to make art. Her
commissed works Cherita Orang Dulu-Dulu and Kabuki Koi can can be seen in
Publika, Kuala Lumpur. She has since made works for a pop-up gallery in Art Row,
Publika and has exhibited in My Story, My Strength (2015) an exhibition of women’s
stories of surviving sexual and domestic violence organised by Women’s Centre for
Change in Penang. She has an interest in reinterpretating popular stories or folklore
an myths, often combines manual illustrative methods and graphic elements.
J O H A N Z O L H A I D I (b. 1988, Kota Bharu. Lives and works in Kuala Lumpur)
is a writer with a degree in architecture from Universiti Bumiputera. He has written
several reviews for exhibitions, theatre, and books for online arts journal Daily Seni
in 2015. Johan then wrote for Projek Dialog, focusing on issues relating to culture
and religion. He participated in Sekolah Falsafah, an independently organized school
offering classes on philosophy. Johan is now actively involved in Socialis Alternatif,
a section of Committee for a Workers’ International, an international association of
Trotskyist political parties.
112 P R O F I L E S
O N G J O - L E N E (b. 1981, Ipoh. Lives and works in Kuala Lumpur) is an
independent curator based in Kuala Lumpur. She is part of the curatorial team for
SEA Project to research the development of Contemprary Art in Southeast Asia from
1980s - present for an exhibition jointly organised by Mori Art Museum, National
Art Centre, Tokyo and The Japan Foundation Asia Centre. She held the positions
of Center Manager and Arts Programming Manager at MAP @ Publika, an arts and
culture platform situated within the urban district of Publika in Kuala Lumpur. In this
capacity, Jo-Lene co-curated the annual MAP Arts Festival and the PUBLIKArt
series of public art commissions under the direction of labDNA’s Nani Kahar. In 2014
she curated Making Space: We Are Where We Aren’t, My Story My Strength, and What
You See Is What You Get. She was selected to participate in the 8th Berlin Biennale
Young Curators Workshop and The Japan Foundation’s young curators programme in
Southeast Asia, Run & Learn: New Curatorial Constellations.
L I Y A N A S A R A H R I Z A L W O N G ( Y A N A R I Z A L ) (b. 1987, Kuala
Lumpur) who goes by Yana Rizal is the principal editor and coordinator of Projek Dialog,
a social outreach program to encourage further discourse and understanding among
Malaysians on issues of religion, culture and sociopolitics. She is also a core team
member of PUSAKA, a non-profit arts institution established to conduct research and
document traditional arts in Malaysia and the region. She has represented Malaysia in
the 1st ASEAN Interfaith Roundtable in Ayutthaya, Thailand. Yana is frequently invited
as panelist or moderator at public talks, most recently she moderated the KataKatha
Southeast Asian Conversations on Culture & The Arts in Kuala Lumpur. She was also
selected as a panel presenter at the RightsCon SEA summit in Manila 2015, and for the
Muslim Exchange Program 2015 under the auspices of the Australia-Malaysia Institute.
P R O F I L E S 113
PROFILES
A H M A D F U A D R A H M A T (b. 1981, Selangor) earned his M.A. in Politics from
University College Dublin and his M.A. in Social Philosophy from Marquette University.
He is Eeditor in Chief of Projek Dialog and the instructor and organiser of Sekolah
Falsafah, a grassroots initiative aimed to promote Western Philosophy to a wider
Bahasa speaking audience. Night School, the show he co-hosts with Sharaad Kuttan
on BFM radio, discusses philosophy and social theory. Fuad was a delegate at the
2010 World People’s Conference on Climate Change and the Rights of Mother Earth
in Cochabamba, Bolivia and has presented at various conferences on issues relating
to the politics of freedom at home and abroad. He is currently researching critical
theoretical engagements with Malay pop culture. Fuad wrote an essay accompanying
Kamal Mustafa’s solo exhibition Hulutopia at Fergana Art Space in 2015.
P R O J E K D I A L O G is a social discourse project that aims to promote healthy
debate and understanding, within and among the diverse cultural, ethnic and
religious groups in Malaysia. The project is a joint effort among several organizations
and individuals who are committed to the progressive development of social issues
in Malaysia.
114 P R O F I L E S
115
PROJECT TEAM
EXHIBITION
ARTISTS
poodien, Engku Iman, Nadia J. Mahfix, KG Krishnan, Yoke Tan,
Khatijah Rahmat, William Sim, Alex Lee
C U R ATO R S
Ong Jo-Lene and Yana Rizal
C U R ATO R I A L A S S I S TA N C E
Kevin Chan
EXHIBITION DESIGN
Chuah Chong Yong
VISUAL IDENTIT Y & DESIGN
Kevin Chan
SOCIAL MEDIA
Maryam Lee, Johan Zolhaidi
PROJECT ADVISOR
Ahmad Fuad Rahmat, Projek Dialog
VENUE LIASON
Tan Hui Koon, Curator, National Visual Arts Gallery (NVAG)
With thanks to The Corporate Communications and Technical
Department of NVAG
116 P R O J E C T T E A M
P U B L I C AT I O N
EDITOR
Ong Jo-Lene
WRITERS
Ahmad Fuad Rahmat, Johan Zolhaidi, Ong Jo-Lene, Yana Rizal,
Maryam Lee, Yap Sau Bin, Jason Tan
DESIGN
Kevin Chan
T R A N S L AT I O N S
Yana Rizal, Johan Zolhaidi
PHOTOGR APHY (ART WORKS)
KG Krishnan, Nadia J. Mahfix
PRINTING
Print Wizard Sdn. Bhd.
PRESENTED BY
SPONSORED BY
SUPPORTED BY
Published by Projek Dialog in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
© 2016 Projek Dialog, contributing writers, photographers, artists.
P R O J E C T T E A M 117
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
THANK YOU TO
All the communities who welcomed us into their sanctuaries,
the representatives who took time to speak with us, and the
individuals who shared personal stories.
Our friends at the National Visual Arts Gallery for taking this
journey of dialogue with us and organising the many student
group tours to the gallery.
PUSAKA for their assistance in our visit to Main Puteri group
in Pasir Puteh.
And to Apeng for the life lesson in his death.
ONG JO-LENE THANKS
Vera Mey, Lee Weng Choy, Jason Tan, and Koon Tan for their
professional advice and friendship.
KG Krishnan and Yap Sau Bin for their help in developing the
title Khabar Dan Angin.
Kevin Chan for being a partner in every project.
poodien
118 A C K N O W L E D G E M E N T S
K AT R A H M AT
A C K N O W L E D G E M E N T S 119
121

24 feb - 16 mar 2016 10am - 6pm galeri reka

Transcription

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