When Sharon asked me to write something for ARTERI about ‘darkness’, she had initially asked me to write about Projek Wayang’s performance of Wayang Lampu during Earth Hour.
Unfortunately, my thoughts went to what Lim Kit Siang wrote last March 16th, when Karpal Singh was to be charged with sedition: “Darkness descends every day with Najib Razak getting closer to become the next Prime Minister.” I’ll follow this thought thread for a while, before embarking on a slightly different tangent in another post.
So, now that Najib has indeed become Malaysia’s next premier, many questions arise, including:
− How will Putrajaya’s relationship with the media (old and new) change?
− Post-Perak and Umno General Assembly, how will the sixth PM further strengthen his position?
− How will Malaysians take to this new steward? Or equally valid: How will he take Malaysians? Will he take them in (literally)?
Why so political one??
Seni tak mampu terpisah terlalu jauh dari lingkungan realiti sosialnya. And so, I wonder how (visual and performing) artists will take to a post-Tun Badawi Malaysia. What kind of narratives will we carve out of these shadowy days? How will we document the flux, the ebb and flow of national life? Or won’t we?
Equally interesting is the thought: how will older works be read and re-viewed?
A few works immediately come to mind:
~
1) Zan Azlee’s R.A.H.M.A.N.
Now that Najib confirms the list’s prophetic powers (R: Tunku Abdul Rahman, A: Abdul Razak, H: Hussein Onn, M: Mahathir Mohamad, A: Abdullah Badawi, N: Najib Razak), what can Malaysians look to next? Or… will there be none after?
~
2) Ahmad Fuad Osman’s ‘Recollections of Long Lost Memories‘
What kind of visual interventions of iconic moments can we imagine? Or are things too close for comfort at the moment? I can’t imagine Hakim being at the scene of Altantuya’s murder, for instance…
Recollections of Long Lost Memories
Slide projection
Variable in size, Total 71 pieces
Image 8 of 36
~
3) Instant Cafe Theatre’s ‘2nd First Annual Bolehwood Awards’
Post-March 8, some thought that Instant Cafe’s brand of irony was dead – that the politics Malaysians were watching and reading was already too far-fetched to be satirised. But will we see a change, an increased need for this mode of reflection?
Instant Cafe’s Jo Kukathas playing Ribena Berry. Image source here.
The days ahead seem fraught with all sorts of uncertainties. As a young practitioner based in Malaysia, I can’t help but feel scared and excited at the same time: that under the cover of this proverbial darkness, there might be room yet to move around and do the work we believe needs to be done.
~
Fahmi Fadzil adalah seorang penulis dan penggiat seni persembahan. Dia merupakan ahli kumpulan teater Five Arts Centre, penyelaras kumpulan eksperimentasi Projek Wayang, dan rakan kongsi di studio grafik Bright Lights At Midnight.
# Are We There Yet?? (http://awty.wordpress.com)
# Projek Wayang (http://projekwayang.blogspot.com)
# Bright Lights At Midnight – Graphic Design & Multimedia (http://blam.com.my)
# The Fairly Current Show (http://www.popteevee.net)
Recent Comments