Art elevation
The Ilham Contemporary Forum is an experimental project seeking out thought-provoking Malaysian art and culture.
JUST when you think you have seen it all, KL’s Ilham Gallery ventures into the experimental with its latest project exhibition called Contemporary Forum (Malaysia 2009-2017).
There are some curiosities among the 35 works here, like a bunch of bananas hanging off the wall with tape trailing off the work, prompting the cleaner to ask if it should be cleared from the floor.
Another huge piece looks to be nothing, but a vast expanse of mudcracks mounted on the wall, gradually crumbling in bits and pieces and coming to rest on the ground beneath.
On the opposite end of the gallery, a brightly-coloured crab vomits silver glitter in a quiet little corner.
In any case, what’s so different about Contemporary Forum compared to other visual art shows?
Firstly, the half of seven project curators are not from the visual art scene. That already makes things interesting.
On paper, Contemporary Forum’s curatorial team, including Azzad Diah Ahmad Zabidi (curator), chi too (artist), Kat Rahmat (media/artist), Tan Hui Koon (National Visual Arts Gallery curator), Mark Teh (arts educator/researcher), Ong Jo-Lene (curator) and Ridhwan Saidi (novelist/playwright), looks like a curious combination.
Originally, each of them was briefed to select five Malaysian artworks or cultural projects, all created within the last eight years (“cultural projects” to include film, fashion, performance, comics, design and others). They will reconvene halfway through the exhibition run to deliberate on how to re-hang (or reorganise) the works.
Next month, these 35 works in Contemporary Forum will be reanalysed, moved around, regrouped. The exhibition will take on a different look, a different feel, a different meaning, perhaps – though how exactly depends on the outcome of this discussion.
“For the second hang, we will show the same works as in the first, but the curators will rethink the way works have been grouped and arranged, the relationship between the different works, and to think about alternative ways to present the show,” says Rahel Joseph, Ilham gallery director.
“The purpose of the project is to examine the curatorial process and question the entire method of presenting an exhibition (on contemporary art and culture),” she adds.
“The re-hang will be very interesting. At the start, as curators, we reached an amicable consensus about the 35 works. Some of us had certain things in common, some not so much. After the public forum (yesterday) with the curators, things might be totally different. It’s all about having thoughtful dialogue, creative friction and differing viewpoints. The re-hang could even raise the show to another level,” says Tan.
In fairness, there are few paintings in this exhibition. Instead, you will find installations, cultural projects, documentation work and research videos. Works from Haffendi Anuar, Samsudin Wahab, Sharon Chin, Chong Kim Chiew, Hasanul Isyraf Idris, art collective Pangrok Sulap, Liew Kwai Fei and Eiffel Chong will be familiar enough to the art enthusiast.
However, at the gallery, the more curious-minded can also investigate the mini student power exhibit, featuring a recreation of Universiti Malaya’s speaker’s corner, right to the inspiring stories behind Buku Jalanan, a reading club project, and the KL Bicycle Map initiative.
The second thing that sets this exhibition apart from the typical is that the curators did not approach the exhibition with specific themes in mind, settling instead for the broader “groupings” in capturing the explorative – at times, oddball – spirit of the show.
The four groupings are as follows: “Play, Negotiation, Resistance”, “Discomfort”,