writings
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.
writings
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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.
writings
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.
writings
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
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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
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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
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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
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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