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Questions of ethnicity and zealous nationalism have long played a significant role in shaping artistic development in Malaysia, questions that were re-called and re-subscribed to in 2007 with the 50th Anniversary of Merdeka—Malaya’s Independence from British rule. Stepping outside post-colonial discourse, this oil rich, multi-ethnic, Islamic nation, boasting a Formula 1 circuit and its own twin towers, has become distinctive for its hybridity. It is this very cocktail, however, that holds it in a kind of helix, grappling with political balance and a growing conservative Islamism against and the emancipation that globalisation has bought. In a nutshell, it is an intricately woven social fabric that can easily snag, as was witnessed in last year’s shake-up at the March Malaysian elections.
Within this climate, contemporary art practice has flourished, engaging issues pertinent to Malaysia in this millennium. Its drive touches on a point made by Korean curator Jinsang Yoo. ‘Global politics and economy are already being led by cities, not countries… Therefore, it has become important for local cities to enhance brand values and showcase their original cultural capacities. The most effective tool for them is contemporary art, which is a kind of common language that enables universal understanding and satisfies cultural and intellectual demands of both the East and the West.’1
While the Malaysian Government has been slower in picking up on this cultural collateral which Yoo describes, and which we have witnessed in China, Malaysian artists have begun to define their own aesthetic alternative as an emergent force astute to global, and more specifically, regional conditions. It is driven by a generation of young practitioners hungry to disconnect from nationalistic figuration and that other progenitor, the Malay-Islamic... The rest of this article is available to subscribers of Eyeline