Artist statement

At the core of my practice is an interest in Malayness, a term I see as propositional even though commonly racial in usage. In this context, the suffix ‘-ness’ forms a large motivation in my practice where I investigate, through constant (re)visions, its status as a (politicised) signifier. Geographically, the term captures a specific world located in Southeast Asia, or in particular, the region of the Malay archipelago. I think about the radiuses of Malayness, where I context-straddle between the specificity of my place of birth, the region and the world. The latter forms a parallel interest in my work. In particular, I take the ‘global’ as a slippery marker that promises inclusion but often poses conundrums. Such tensions notwithstanding, I see contemporary art as a qualifying entry point in accessing (and laying bare) issues of global belonging and citizenry, cosmopolitanism and difference.

The overarching methodology in my practice follows a decolonial framework. This entails going beyond Western and colonial ways of knowing. I foreground epistemologies that are usually relegated to the margins, with a focus on creative knowledge-making. Recently, I proposed the experimental method of “world” as a way to uncover stories and other generative methods connected to confabulations and storytelling. ‘World’ enables persons to self-author and engage in many modes of becoming; a complex personhood that is simultaneously entangled in contradictions. I attempt to glean everyday life stories and observations that are propositional, and in particular, I use historical materials to construct new sensibilities.