The Plantation is Not Past but Prologue

Refusing historical closure, treating plantation system. Review of The Plantation Plot organised by ILHAM Gallery in collaboration with KADIST, and curated by Lim Sheau Yun.

Spirit of the Studio

Spirit of the Studio (The Toffee: The Project Room, Kuala Lumpur, 6–29 September 2025) reimagines the gallery as four working ateliers that open into a common forum. Co-curated with Wong Jian Lin—with Jian Lin also serving as space designer—the exhibition replaces the white cube with partial studio

Two Journeymen: Wildlife Photography

Two Journeymen: Wildlife Photography (Pentago House, Kuala Lumpur, 2023) brought together the practices of Captain Sim Yong Wah and lawyer-photographer Ng Wymin in a dialogue about scale, attention, and the ethics of looking. Set not in a white-cube gallery but within Pentago House, a century-old shophouse, the exhibition emphasised how

Alam dan Hal-Hal yang Tak Selesai (Nature and Other Unfinished Things)

Banny Jayanata offers, instead, what Pramoedya Ananta Toer once demanded of literature: the capacity to “menciptakan kenyataan baru”, to conjure a new reality beside a broken one. His canvases practice a politics of tremor: they vibrate rather than resolve.

Observations Under The Flyover

SUKE. DASH. DUKE. In zooming on highways across counties, countries, continents, what are we blinded to? This is the question of Singaporean artist Yeo Tze Yang. His first solo exhibition since moving to Malaysia, it marks not a grand migration, but a drift into a different rhythm.

Zamboanga Encounters: Where Land and Sea Meet

Zamboanga Encounters: Where Land and Sea Meet (National Museum of the Philippines, Zamboanga, 2025–2026) explores the city’s layered history as a maritime and cultural crossroads. Co-curated with historian Felice Noelle Rodriguez, the exhibition gathers more than thirty maps of Zamboanga and Southeast Asia, alongside ethnographic drawings, photographs, and

safe spaces

When I was younger, I was supremely conflict avoidant. A disagreement with a friend, even over where to go for lunch, could send me into a spiral where I'd doubt if they would ever talk to me again. Either that or I would immediately capitulate. Nasi lemak at

blobbing/ blogging

I've been told that calling a collection of thoughts a blog is no longer cool and it marks me as firmly milennial. "It sounds ugly." Some prefer to simply call it "content" which to me disappears it into the vast ocean of the internet.

Observing the Subjects of History: Chang Yoong Chia’s Mythological Worlds

Co-written with Lim Sheau Yun. Exhibition essay for Thinking Like A Mountain, Chang Yoong Chia's solo at CULT Gallery from 23 November 2024-19 January 2025. In the town of Tangkak in Johor, Gunung Ledang, also known as Mount Ophir or 金山 (Golden Mountain), is a singular presence. As

Wajahmu Keluar Dari Jidatku: Sunlit legacies and the cyanotypes of Budi Agung Kuswara

Exhibition essay for Tiba Anak Cucu, a solo exhibition by Budi Agung Kuswara from 3 — 25 August 2024 at The Back Room. “It’s not really about the colours, it’s the sun.” Budi Agung Kuswara, otherwise known as Kabul, is pulling out his latest work, a large cyanotype. The

Strategies of Dissent: Works from the Ng Sek San Collection

Strategies of Dissent, co-curated with Lim Sheau Yun, presents over seventy works from Ng Sek San’s collection, situating artistic practices of Malaysia and the region within a longer genealogy of protest from the 1990s to the present. Anchored by Usman Awang’s 1949 poem Jiwa Hamba, the exhibition treats

Conversations with Hieng

Co-written with Lim Sheau Yun. Exhibition essay for That day, I was sketching on the street, a solo exhibition by Ong Hieng Fuong (9 July-31 July 2022, The Back Room) Tanjong Sepat, artist Ong Hieng Fuong’s hometown in southern Selangor, is organised by three main roads: Jalan Pasar, Jalan

writings

Gazing Into Absence: All the Lands Within the Sea

Co-written with Lim Sheau Yun as the curatorial statement for All the Lands Within the Seas. The doorway to dreams lies ajar, a sinuous road passes through. What will I find on the other side, where, with a shiver of fear, the bold would confront monsters? The void? – Henri Lefebvre

projects

All the Lands Within the Seas

All the Lands Within the Seas, co-curated with Lim Sheau Yun, was exhibited at The Back Room in Kuala Lumpur from mid-October to mid-November 2021. Anchored by archival and historical cartographic materials from a private collection, the exhibition was interwoven with new works by Amanda Gayle and Sabahan artist Bam

writings

The (Up)Ending of the Digital World: Wawasan 2020 and the Millennium Bug

Y2K: The end of the digital world. That was the doomsday prophecy of the millennium bug, one that could derail the seemingly upwards hurtle of Wawasan 2020. Unlike Wawasan 2020, Y2K was inescapable, urgent, and going to happen no matter what. It was a defensive operation, not an offensive attack.

writings

Liza Ho and The Back Room: A year of vivere in Kuala Lumpur

Originally published in Art & Market. Vivere pericoloso—living dangerously, borrowed from the Italian, was declaimed by Indonesian President Sukarno in 1964 on the 19th anniversary of the nation’s independence. It was only one year before the ill-fated 30 September coup which would dethrone the charismatic president, install General