‘I felt a great disturbance in the Force,’ remarked Obi-Wan Kenobi in ‘Star Wars: A New Hope’. Artists Jun Kit and Tan Zi Hao must have felt the same way. In the upcoming two-man, un-Jedi-related ‘Gangguan’ exhibition, the duo explores myriad forms of disturbances (or ‘gangguan’ in Malay) that plague our Malaysian existence.
In ‘Gangguan’, our understanding of social and political markers like ‘Bumiputera’ and ‘tanah air’ will be challenged by drawings, videos and installations that revolve around literal themes of soil and earth. Dig deeper into Jun Kit and Zi Hao’s eclectic catalogue of works and you might just decipher the contradictory relationship between nationhood and social identity. ‘Be inspired by the black elements in the show, such as ink and soil, and hopefully establish a heightened desire to garden,’ shared Jun Kit, ‘or a heightened sense of imagination for what’s unknown.’ Wong Boon Ken