The recent flash floods that caused widespread devastation across the country serve as a timely reminder that climate change and environmental issues cannot be ignored.
In Malaysia, the role of arts and culture in discussing climate action has become more pronounced, with artists, theatre performers and others addressing these urgent issues in new and tangible ways.
One could argue that a more creative approach is required to communicate and educate the public. Can the arts this year play a role in helping us move towards a more environmentally friendly society?
Seruan Nadi: The Battle Cry Of A Dying River by Penang-based arts collective Ombak Ombak ARTStudio (Ombak) demonstrates that this is not only possible, but necessary.
The hybrid, mixed-media performance took place last month at George Town’s creative hub Hin Bus Depot. Additionally, it was streamed live on Facebook.
Seruan Nadi, co-directed by Izzardzafli Padzil, dancer Aida Redza, and ethnomusicologist Tan Sooi Beng, highlighted the plight of Sungai Pinang, Penang’s largest river basin and one of Malaysia’s dirtiest rivers, through the use of traditional musical instruments (gendang, tabla, dhol, Chinese drums, and guzheng), ethnic singing styles, dance routines and sajak (poems).
“When it comes to such weighty subjects, many people would be uninterested in watching a factual documentary or educational video. They might find it boring.
“However, when the same issues are presented through performing arts and mixed-media, you can capture their attention and pique their imagination. People would want to watch,” says Tan.
Seruan Nadi is based on Dr Kam Suan Pheng’s (an expert on rivers and flooding) research on the plight of Sungai Ara in Penang.
“Our field trip with Dr Kam took place in April. She explained what happens to rivers when humans attempt to control their natural flow during this river tour. As a result, landslides and flooding occur. We decided to make this the central theme of our story,” explains Tan.
This is not the first time the Ombak team has attempted to stage a mixed-media riverside show. They staged a site-specific show titled River Meets Light in 2011 in a different part of Sungai Pinang to trace the river’s historical and contemporary relationship with the local communities.
“The arts have historically been used as a means of communication. Which is also why we chose the wayang pacak (outdoor cinema) style,” explains Tan, referring to the mobile cinemas used by the government in the 1960s and 1970s to educate rural residents about development policies.
Videographer Andrew Han’s present-day drone images of Sungai Pinang from its source to the river mouth were intricately collaged with pre-recorded videos of the dancers playing and bathing in the river.
“Using just music and drama may have sufficed in the past. But in today’s world, film and video are part of our everyday lives. So we decided to include it in the performance,” she adds.
The video also features scenes from the last century that portrayed the gradual pollution of the river, its overflow when there is heavy rain and its canalisation.
Seruan Nadi, Tan explains, was originally intended to be performed on-site in Sungai Pinang.
“Had we performed there, the audience would have been able to smell the river, observe its pollution level, and make a connection between the performance and the river. And the residents of the flats near the river mouth would have been able to view the show from their balconies.”
However, with crowd control cited as a concern by authorities, Tan and her team were forced to alter their plans and present it at Hin Bus Depot instead.
Tan shares that there are plans to restage Seruan Nadi on-site at Sungai Pinang when the pandemic situation allows them to. For now, the performance video, available on YouTube, will be used as an educational tool for local communities.
Tan encourages environmental groups, schools and the public to use the video in their outreach efforts.
Into the deep
In Sabah, the discussion on biodiversity loss is as big a crisis as climate change.
And the art world is ready to join the conversation.
Twenty life-size sculptures – comprising a turtle, white tip shark, irrawaddy dolphin, dugong, spinner dolphin, hammerhead shark, manta ray, whale shark and the mighty Bryde’s whale – have set up home in Kota Kinabalu.
Made of polycarbonate and fibreglass, they span between 1.2m and 12.2m in length.
Visit these underwater friends at the Sabah Art Gallery open art space, located at the site of the former colonial Lands and Surveys Office building at Jalan Haji Saman. The site is bordered by landmark buildings HSBC, Tong Hing, Harrisons Sabah and Suria Sabah.
Wonders Of Wilderness – The Ocean (WOW 1.0) is the site’s latest presentation, with eight Sabah artists behind this art installation, namely Japson Wong, Rosmaini Sunarjo, Azlan Dulikab, Lim Sheng Haw, Oliver Kah, Yahz, Cannie Tan and Penny Chong.
WOW 1.0 will be launching this weekend (Jan 15).
“Sabah is famous for its diverse underwater world and wildlife. We are located in the coral triangle, a place which has the highest biodiversity in the whole world and is even called ‘The Amazon of the Seas’. Through these life-sized sculptures, we want to showcase the beauty of what Sabah has to offer,” says Wong, who is a marine biologist by training.
He adds that all these sea creatures are endangered in Malaysia, a plight the team want to highlight.
Besides the 3D sculptures, WOW 1.0 has digital augmented reality art and murals to bring this setup to life, as well as a community work component.
The team recently conducted a Sharktastic event at the Tanjung Aru Marine Ecosystem Centre (TAME) with the shark sculpture, in an effort to educate the public about shark preservation.
Together with the Malaysian Ocean Youth Ambassadors (Moya), they held an art talk and visited Kampung Kesuapan on Pulau Gaya, just off the KK coast, to learn about the fishing boat heritage. Here, fishing and boat driving are the main occupations.
“We conducted an environmental talk and exchanged ideas with the community on how to create a better environment for the place. The villagers also showed us their boats with designs from different places (Indonesia, the Philippines and Brunei) and how the new boats are created from fibreglass, among other components, which is very different from the simpler wood designs of their grandparents,” he says.
At the WOW 1.0 site, visitors will see a sea gypsy house mural on the exterior of the nearby building, with the art concept of a giant box filled with fish being poured out to sea.
The sculptures, many suspended in the air, create a kind of underwater world vibe in this open air public space.
“This is part of our effort to carve out an identity for the Sabah art scene. Places like Penang, Melaka and Ipoh are famous for their street art, but many people associate Sabah art with paintings of Mt Kinabalu, rafflesia or the orang utan. We (the artists) would like to create an art identity that reflects the diversity of Sabah and the artistic talent we have here,” says Wong.
Resilient thinking
Last month, the closing weekend of Sharon Chin’s printmaking art exhibition and community programme in Port Dickson, Negri Sembilan was marred by the continuous rain that plagued many states.
The flood water rose to knee level, about a metre above the high tide line.
“We know this because one of the artworks included a line of safety tape wrapped around the house at this height. According to the Coastal Risk Assessment Tool produced by Climate Central, scientists predict this to be the overall sea-level rise at this location by 2050 due to climate change. It was a shock to experience that level of flooding then and there!” says Chin, an artist who has lived in Port Dickson for 10 years now.
I Like This Place is a project about a mangrove beach located at Batu 1 in Port Dickson. The activities were held in a rented bungalow next to the beach.
Apart from handmade prints about the landscape and environmental issues of that place, and community programmes like printmaking workshops, beach walk and film screenings, I Like This Place proved that small initiatives can also draw an audience to places outside the Klang Valley.
“When it rained on that fateful Thursday (Dec 16), little did anyone expect that it was just the beginning. On Friday evening, a huge storm flooded the house.
“By Sunday evening, all had grown calm again. We closed the show with a seaside reading, with gentle waves lapping at the shore,” she says.
It was inevitable that some weekend events were cancelled, but many were simply rescheduled or modified.
“My producer Audrie Yeo, my partner Zedeck Siew, and I were determined to go on with the show. A few people who planned to travel from KL still made it down. We reset the exhibition and reopened to the public at 2pm. Audrie put a video of the previous day’s flood on the TV screen,” says Chin.
An artwork on moon phase and tides that was originally hung outside the house was moved inside.
The Fashion Party And Beach Ceremony was held in the evening instead of the morning.
“I am grateful we managed to go ahead with that event, which involved visitors putting on outfits sewn by tailor Hasnoor Fashion, then carrying my mangrove root prints to the beach, while dancer Ng Yann Chwen performed in front of the raging sea.
“We looked so fragile in that landscape, yet we were still clinging on, like mangroves, facing the storm. It was like practising climate resilience in real time! We had to watch the weather, adapt to changing circumstances, and maintain open communication with collaborators and visitors.
“We can’t control the weather, but together we can build a consensus reality about how to move forward,” she says.
For Chin, art is primarily an excuse to bring people together, and the content is only important because it serves as a catalyst for connections between people and place.
She points out how there is no place on Earth that is untouched by climate change. This beach site in Port Dickson is changing due to coastal erosion and severe weather. Her favourite mangrove tree’s roots are growing on bare rock and exposed to the air, indicating how much mud and sand has been lost.
“Understanding what’s going on in a small place makes climate change local, personal and concrete. I worry about how long the tree will survive. At the same time, I observe how resilient and adaptable it is – it has faced countless storms, not to mention two floods a day at high tide.
“It continues to shelter ants, snails and baby fishes. This may seem like a small matter, but many mangroves together shelter the land from severe weather, and help mitigate flood risk. The land knows how to heal itself. If you do not have a relationship to a place, you won’t know the right way to take care of it.
“We have to understand that climate change is a complicated global phenomenon that creates local realities. In facing climate change, community resilience is as important as infrastructure resilience. One-size-fits-all solutions (like carbon credit or indiscriminate tree-planting) that treat it as an abstract problem are ineffective and do even more harm. Local responses to local realities are the only ones that work,” she concludes.
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