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.
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Ilham x SAM Project: The Body Politic And The Body
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
Sau Bin’s The Grand Phantom Narrates (2004), which the artist describes as ‘a visual of a menacing phantom that lingers’. Photo: Handout
Ahmad Fuad’s Recollections Of Long Lost Memories from 2007 features 71 slide projections through which he inserted images into bygone historical events, effectively participating in the past. Photo: Handout
Hasanul Isyraf Idris’ 'HOL (Higher Order Love) Chapter 2.3, Wound: Environment Of Naga And Doubt' series (2017). These 40 mixed media on paper panels seem to represent the artist’s fleeting childhood memories which have a bizarre logic, and sometimes apocalyptic edge, about them. Photo: The Star/Shaari Chemat
Wong Hoy Cheong's 'Tapestry Of Justice' (1998-2004). Photo: Handout
Mohammad Din’s 'The Voyage' (1994), a work referring to a spiritual journey into mystic knowledge. Photo: Handout
Bayu Utomo Radjikin's 'Lang Kacang' sculpture was last exhibited in Malaysia in 1991 - over 27 years ago. Photo: Handout
After Redza Piyadasa's artwork 'May 13,1969' was exhibited in KL in 1970, he incinerated the piece the year after. The work presented in this Ilham Gallery show is a recreation of the artwork from 2006. Photo: Handout
