Grace Ho’s 'Rural Symphony', a hanging gallery featuring idyllic imagery of kampung life in Malaysia, is a visitor favourite. Photo: Ong Soon Hin/The Star
CAUGHT up in our fast-paced lives and the daily grind, it’s no surprise that we often overlook the small pleasures of simply slowing down and appreciating the wonders that exist around us.
Bank Negara Museum and Art Gallery (BNM MAG) in Kuala Lumpur reminds us to take a moment to rediscover Malaysia’s rural roots and cultural heritage through Jiwa Membumi: The Soul of the Land, a group exhibition.
Running until Feb 25, the exhibition showcases the deep ties between nature, culture, and the beauty of village life through photos, paintings, sculptures, videos, and installations.
It features 83 artworks from 12 artists, including Eric Peris, Alan Ng, Ariff Awaluddin, Soraya Yusof Talismail, Azman Karib, Azul Adnan, Chong Kok Choon, Grace Ho, Grez Chan, Nora Yusuf, Supian Ahmad, and Hariz Hamdan.
“Jiwa Membumi celebrates the power of photography in inviting everyone to reconnect with what makes Malaysia special – its nature, culture, and community. Through these artworks, we think about the importance of preserving our heritage and caring for our environment for future generations,” says BNM MAG director Noreen Zulkepli.
“The exhibition also aims to spotlight Malaysia’s rich cultural identity, its social and economic journey, and progress, while showing how artists play a key role in capturing and sharing these stories,” she adds.
A different world
Taking up the entire level 3 space, the exhibition takes visitors on an adventure to breathtaking and nostalgic scenes that are getting harder and harder to come by, such as star-studded night skies in Terengganu, village suraus that are the centre of the community, and uniquely designed bus stops set on lonely rural roads.
Step into a dark room to get a better view of Ho’s Stardust, a series of photos taken in Kampung Mangkuk, Setiu, and Kampung Jambu Bongkok, Marang in Terengganu that took her two years to capture. The backlit photos further emphasise splendour of the dark night skies blanketed by millions of sparkling stars.
Or “meet” the Perak Man in Azman’s latest project, Lenggong Legacy, Heritage, Terrain And People, which explores themes of heritage, culture and human connection in Lenggong, Perak. Don’t forget to read through the interactive “Read Me, Find Me” narratives and see if you can match the descriptions with the portraits.
Curator Siti Melorinda Khuzaina Sakdudin, says that BNM MAG wanted to not only showcase the physical landscapes of Malaysia’s countryside, but to also show what constitutes a rural life.
“In this exhibition, you also get to look at culture and traditions, like language, for example – in Supian’s Lost Spell, The Series, which documents traditional shop signages in villages across Selangor, Perak, and Johor, you see how language evolves differently,” she says.
Elsewhere, Formations Of Faith by Azul offers a series of photo-collages that looks at old suraus in rural parts of Kedah, Selangor and Kelantan. These spaces are not only used for prayers, but are also vital community spaces used for weddings, study groups and local meetings that are under threat from modern development.
“All of these things form a part of our roots, and through photography, you get to have a kind of wholesome appreciation for the rural lifestyle and learn new things,” adds Melor.
Coming into focus
Jiwa Membumi also happens to be BNM MAG’s first large-scale photography-focused exhibition.
From analogue photography veterans such as Peris and Ng, whose classic black-and-white photos highlight charming paddy field landscapes and the raw beauty of Malaysia’s rainforests, to Nora’s Countryside vs Cityscape installation, which offers a fascinating take on the differences between rural and urban life through time-lapses and photographs shown side by side, visitors get a view of rural life through varied and distinct perspectives.
“For a lot of us who live in big cities, we tend to be disconnected from the lifestyles of those living in small towns and rural villages, so through this exhibition, we wanted to highlight that there are still many Malaysians living a way of life that others may think have faded away already,” shares assistant curator Amirah Salleh.
She points out that the part of the exhibit that draws the most attention from visitors is Ho’s Rural Symphony, a hanging gallery featuring idyllic imagery of kampung life in Malaysia, such as children playing, neighbours chit-chatting, and animals wandering around.
Another favourite is Chong’s Rapid Change – we follow his journey to Junjung, a small town in Kulim, Kedah, where he photographs bus stops filled with character, reflecting the local culture.
However, after returning two years later, Chong finds that many of the bus stops structures have been replaced by modern, standardised designs or dismantled completely, resulting in his Vanishing Depot series.
“(Chong) Kok Choon’s photos made me realise that it’s been quite some time since I last took a bus anywhere, so I’d like to try that, even if it’s just in KL. I hope visiting this exhibition inspires you to go out there and see for yourself the different sides of Malaysia that still exist today,” concludes Amirah.
Jiwa Membumi: The Soul Of The Land is showing at BNM Museum and Art Gallery, Kuala Lumpur until Feb 25. Open Tuesdays to Sundays, 10am to 5pm. Free admission. More info: museum.bnm.gov.my.