Plenty of artworks have been inspired by nature, but have you seen those that were "made" by nature?
In the Forest Speaks exhibition, Petaling Jaya-based photographer-turned-artist David Lok, 66, believes that the works on display were produced in collaboration with nature.
“It was a very spontaneous and almost magical process – sometimes it was a little voice telling me to do something, other times it was simply an instinct.
“I completely let go of control and just let the forest speak to me and through me to make these pieces. That’s how the exhibition got its name,” he says in a recent interview at Studio DL, Sunway Damansara in Petaling Jaya, where the exhibition is showing until this Sunday (July 5).
Lok created the works within a 20ha tract of secondary forest in the Rantau Panjang Forest Reserve, Sungai Buaya, Perak. The site forms part of an ongoing forest restoration initiative by Green Tree Plantation, a conservation organisation founded by Lok and his partner, Moo Fook Yow, to restore degraded forests through reforestation.
The exhibition features nearly 100 paintings, tracings and furniture created by Lok. Using bark, mud, rain, light, leaves and other natural elements from Sungai Buaya, the works are more than just representations of the forest – they were shaped by it.
Forest Speaks also doubles as a fundraising initiative for Green Tree Plantation’s reforestation efforts.
A chance to give back
Lok drives to Sungai Buaya almost every day.
“It’s only about an hour’s drive away, and when I’m not managing the reforestation works, I’m just there, communing with the forest,” he says.
Since 2023, Green Tree Plantation has been working closely with Orang Asli communities in the area, planting about 10,000 trees across 153 species to date, including 22 species that are endangered or critically endangered in Malaysia.
With a fundraising target of up to RM75,000, every artwork purchased and every ringgit donated supports the planting and nurturing of another 8,500 trees at Sungai Buaya, helping to extend the restored forest area and continue the ecological recovery already underway.
“One of the endangered species we’ve planted is called Merawan Kanching. There’s only 400 or so left in the wild. And we’ve managed to plant 200 already. So it’s very exciting work,” says Lok, whose love of the forest began in childhood, growing up in Seremban and spending much of his time outside town.
“We started Green Tree because we believed restoration had to begin somewhere – with intention, with community and with the willingness to stay,” says Lok.
“What we have seen in Sungai Buaya is that when the forest is given time and care, life begins to return. Forest Speaks is our invitation to the public to be part of what comes next. The forest has always given to us. This is a chance for us to give something back.”
Another project that Green Tree Plantation is working on is the Waqf Food Forest near Tanjung Malim, Perak, which turns previously unused waqf land (an inalienable charitable endowment under Islamic law managed by a trust) into a sustainable food forest.
How nature inspires
Despite a distinguished career in architectural and fine art photography, with work noted for its sensitivity to space, light and atmosphere, Lok found the Sungai Buaya forest difficult to photograph.
It was only after experimenting with cameraless photography – using a mixture of the forest's soil and water on photographic paper – that he sensed the forest might reveal itself in a different way.
“Most of these prints look like clouds of beautiful, uncontrollable smoke. But in one specific piece, in a moment of pure magic, the swirling mud arranged itself into the perfect silhouette of the Burung Gagak Sura, from the Burung Petala Processions of Kelantan.
“This exact same silhouette appeared in a book I worked on years ago, called Spirit Of Wood: The Art Of Malay Woodcarving. It felt like the forest was saying hello by mirroring something from deep within my subconscious,” says Lok.
The forest kept offering new possibilities. Lok made charcoal rubbings of surfaces ranging from the pebbled dirt road to tree trunks, dipped watercolour-stained cloth into creeks and lakes, letting the water determine what remained before transferring the impressions onto Chinese rice paper and used sunlight to imprint the outlines of river silt and wildflowers among tall grass onto photographic paper.
“It was almost like child’s play, really. I just played along with the forest and let it express itself however it wanted to. And if you look closely at these works, you might notice the forest saying hello to you, too,” he concludes.
Forest Speaks is showing at Studio DL in Sunway Damansara, Petaling Jaya until July 5. Open: 9.30am to 6.30pm. Free admission. More info here.
