Faiq in a scene from 'Fragments Of Tuah', which wraps up its run at KLPac this weekend. Photo: Connie Chan via Five Arts Centre
THEATRE: 'FRAGMENTS OF TUAH'
Venue: Pentas 2, KLPac
Date: ends Sept 7
This isn’t your textbook Hang Tuah. Fragments Of Tuah - part documentary theatre, part cultural excavation - takes the legend apart and rebuilds it with memory, myth, and personal reflection. In the spirit of Merdeka, it asks: how are heroes remembered, and who gets to tell their story?
Last chance to catch it! Running at Pentas 2, KLPac until Sept 7, Five Arts Centre’s boldest production of the year blends the Hikayat Hang Tuah with contemporary voices, turning history into a conversation that still matters today.
At its heart is Faiq Syazwan Kuhiri - a one-man theatre and music force whose performance anchors the show with raw energy and emotional heft. He is joined on stage by musician OJ Law and sound designer Shariman Shuhaime, under the direction of Mark Teh.
This work was developed over three years by Teh, Faiq, Syamsul Azhar, and Wong Tay Sy.
After its Kuala Lumpur run, Fragments Of Tuah carries Malaysia’s stories abroad - heading to Japan this October for the Kyoto Experiment festival, one of Asia’s leading showcases of contemporary performance.
More info here.
Nadirah's artwork 'hanyut in tears' (pearl-pinned text on lightbox, 2025). Photo: The Back Room
EXHIBITION: NADIRAH ZAKARIYA'S 'AIR MATA AIR'
Venue: The Back Room, Zhongshan building, KL
Date: Sept 6 to Oct 5
Photographer Nadirah Zakariya presents Air Mata Air, a contemplative exhibition, curated by Eva McGovern, that maps a return to self through two primal sources: the body and water.
When the world overwhelms, Nadirah turns instinctively to water - lakes, rivers, oceans - as places of refuge and renewal. This intimate connection takes shape in the Back Room gallery through fabric panels paired with backlit lightboxes, where image and text merge in a play of shadow, translucence, and memory.
The title itself holds a double resonance in Bahasa Malaysia: air mata means “tears,” while mata air refers to natural springs. Tears carry both joy and sorrow, and Nadirah evokes this spectrum with words pinned to the lightboxes - phrases like hanyut in tears (“drowning in tears”) and rindu stings like saltwater (“missing someone stings like saltwater”). Each pairing becomes a meditation on fragility, resilience, and the emotional tides that shape us.
The result is a gallery transformed into an inner landscape - a space where grief and longing coexist with clarity and release, leading visitors to step quietly into their own reflections.
Free entry. Open Wednesday to Sunday, 12pm–6pm. The opening reception is at 7pm today (Sept 5).
More info here.
Sabahan artist Tresyah Join seen at her first solo exhibition 'Echoes Of Existence' at Rissim Contemporary in KL. Photo: The Star/Low Boon Tat
EXHIBITION: TRESYAH JOIN's 'ECHOES OF EXISTENCE'
Venue: Rissim Contemporary, Bangsar, Kuala Lumpur
Date: ends Sept 14
Sabahan artist Tresyah Join presents her first solo exhibition, Echoes Of Existence (Tullinggou Koposion in Dusun language), a meditation on memory, nature, and transformation.
Her semi-abstract landscapes - alive with birds, fish, and butterflies - merge oil and collage into layered visions of flight, fluidity, and renewal.
The series began during the stillness of the Covid-19 lockdown, when Tresyah, then a student moving between Kuala Lumpur and her hometown of Ranau, turned necessity into invention. Working in hotel rooms and makeshift studios, she cut and collaged fragments of painted canvas to save time, a method that has since evolved into her signature.
In Echoes Of Existence, this collage language deepens into metaphor: piecing fragments into wholeness, Tresyah reflects on memory, resilience, and the shifting landscapes - both inner and outer - that shape us.
Free entry. Open Friday to Sunday, 12pm–7pm.
More info here.
A visitor browses pre-Merdeka newspapers and publications at the 'Seeds Of Resistance: Journey Towards Independence' exhibition at GMBB, Kuala Lumpur. Photo: The Star/Muhamad Shahril Rosli
EXHIBITION: 'SEEDS OF RESISTANCE: JOURNEY TOWARDS INDEPENDENCE'
Venue: Level 1, GMBB creative mall, Kuala Lumpur
Date: ends Sept 29
Poet and author Raja Ahmad Aminullah, renowned for his vast personal library that spans pre-WWII publications and an unparalleled range of “Malaysiana” titles, has assembled a pop-up exhibition at the GMBB creative mall.
Titled Seeds Of Resistance: Journey Towards Independence, the exhibition allows history buffs and curious visitors to trace the currents of pre-Merdeka thought through the printed word.
The show opens a window onto the ferment of ideas that shaped Malaya’s path to nationhood, from the early 1900s to the 1960s.
Raja Ahmad has gathered a selection of rare books such as The Real Malay by Sir Frank Swettenham, magazines such as Qalam, Mastika, The Malayan Monthly, photographs, and newspapers – fragments of a period when independence was still an urgent dream.
Among the exhibits are copies of Declaration of Independence from 1957 in four languages, a tangible artefact of the country’s turning point. Newspapers such as the Penang Shimbun, published during the Japanese occupation and Utusan Zaman sit alongside journals and pamphlets, their fragile pages carrying both the urgency of political struggle and the aspirations of ordinary citizens.
Seeds Of Resistance: Journey Towards Independence is open 11am-7pm daily, free admission. A forum titled “Writers and the Spirit of Independence: Poetry as Resistance” will take place on Sept 6 at 3pm at Level 3, GMBB, held in conjunction with the exhibition.
More info here.
A view of the ‘Rasa’ Merdeka! exhibition, a collaboration between Senimalaya and Galeri Puteh, at Ruang Teduh (a new art gallery) at Exchange 106, TRX in Kuala Lumpur. Photo: The Star/Azlina Abdullah
EXHIBITION: 'RASA' MERDEKA!
Venue: Ruang Teduh, Exchange 106, Tun Razak Exchange, Kuala Lumpur
Date: ends Sept 16
In the spirit of Merdeka, Ruang Teduh, a new art gallery in Kuala Lumpur, is presenting ‘Rasa’ Merdeka!, a collaboration between Senimalaya and Galeri Puteh. Featuring works by 31 Malaysian artists, the exhibition explores independence not just as history, but as a living, evolving idea - one that continues to shape identity, belonging, and national pride.
The artists include Masnoor Ramli, Johan Marjonid, Ahmad Shukri Mohamed, Long Thien Shih, Hamir Soib, Rafiee Ghani, Ramlan Abdullah, Bayu Utomo, Kide Baharudin, Ika Sharom, Azizan Paiman, Husin Othman, Umibaizurah Mahir, Azzaha Ibrahim, Lina Tan, Abdullah Jones, and Suddin Lappo.
Through painting, installation, sculpture, and mixed media, the artists - a mix of newcomers and established names - explore Merdeka in different registers: some through everyday rituals and memory, others by reimagining national icons or questioning inherited narratives. Several works also take a critical look at how freedom and unity are negotiated in today’s Malaysia.
Together, these voices create a layered portrait of the nation - nostalgic yet forward-looking, celebratory yet reflective.
Free and open daily, 'Rasa' Merdeka! invites visitors to experience Malaysia’s artistic pulse and engage with curators for deeper insights.
More info here.
