Pangrok Sulap rages against censorship, corrupt politicians in 'Lopung Is Dead!'

A close-up of Pangrok Sulap's 'Ular Lari Lurus III' (woodcut print on fabric, 2018), which is based on a snakes and ladders board game. The highly-detailed work is layered with topical issues and images, including the fight against corruption and injustice, while various state issues in Sabah are also highlighted.

Whenever members of the Sabah art collective Pangrok Sulap complete one of their prints, they perform the sumazau, a traditional Kadazan-Dusun dance, on top of the carving blocks. This, they say, is to involve the community in all their works.

“We start carving on wood-board, rolling ink out onto the board and printing all together, followed by the process of printing, which has us stepping and dancing, to music that we play, on the cloth that we place on top of the board,” says Pangrok Sulap. (The artists chose to do their interview as a collective.)