Reconnecting art lineages: Ilham Gallery x Singapore Art Museum exhibit in KL

Visitors taking a closer look at Nadiah Bamadhaj's 'Quiet Rooms' (2009) wall installations at Ilham Gallery. This work tells the tale of a married couple's difficulty in conceiving a child, an ordeal worsened by the relentless scrutinty and surveillance from the kampung (village) community. Photo: The Star/Shaari Chemat

As you enter Level 5 of Ilham Gallery in Kuala Lumpur, and embark on being illuminated by its latest, and last exhibition for the year – The Body Politic And The Body – you will come face-to-face with KL-based artist Yap Sau Bin’s The Grand Phantom Narrates.

The large red-and-white installation which appears to be a frame sticking out on either side of a wall, was Sau Bin’s response to the momentous resignation of Tun Mahathir Mohamad as Prime Minister back in 2003, and suggested how institutional power shapes and influences individual subjectivity.