It's almost a year since we've been to this quirky gallery, which is situated over in Pending.

I like the space, and the views:




There are two shows on at the moment, both highlighting Bornean creativity, and both interrogating what it means to be Bornean in the 21st century.

The first, called Roots & Remixes, features Jocelyn Sym, Leon Noel, Nagaia, Mira Hector (it's her picture at the top), Pici Pamg, Adrian Jo Milang, and Jasmine Dadi.

Here are just a few of the many interesting pieces on display:









The second exhibition, entitled Altered Natives, shows work by Elroy Ramantan, Marcos Kueh (more on him below), Mr Yeo (whom we know from Karya Badan, the exhibition of work by tattoo artists), Reef, Sang Tukang, T. Bagak, Tuk Dek, and Zakaria Pangaribuan.

It introduces itself like this: "Too many people think that Borneo is just headhunters, rainforests, and hornbills. But that cliched romanticised idea of Borneo does not really resonate with most of us who actually live on this island. That story belongs to our ancestors, not us. We need to start telling our own stories, what we are and have been going through so that we can honour and revolutionise what we inherited from our ancestors. They don't live here anymore, we do. We are not the typical natives. We are the others, the non-conformists and the weirdos. We are the Altered Natives."

Accordingly, there's an ironic edginess to many of the pieces:








A particularly notable piece is Kenyalang Circus, by Marcos Kueh. He has won many prizes, and recently topped the Young Designer category of the Dutch Design Awards for the project from which this piece is drawn.

It is a fascinatingly intricate and beautiful work:




But because Kueh always wants to ask us whether we're just seeing beautiful textiles or "really listening", I include the clues he gives us:

As you can see, it is captioned Homo Savagius Obedius.

And the text that goes with it reads like this:

Western intervention,
Started in gas station,
Was told to ease tensions,
Through giving kind pensions.

So in uniform, he went
Because Abang Monyet was god sent,
To be larger than life, his kampung he re-lent
Only in the end to live in disorient.

He's quoted here as saying: "Growing up in Sarawak, our history textbooks only had one chapter that covered both Sabah and Sarawak. I thought it was weird at the time... It made me wonder about what it means to be Sarawakian, and how post-colonial narratives have shaped Southeast Asia’s identities."

He continues: "Two aspects I [explore] in Kenyalang Circus are the 'independence' and 'self-esteem' of a decolonised Borneo. The two are intertwined with one another -- you cannot [achieve] independence without having confidence in your own existence." Borneans, he feels, have become less invested in their own narratives, and more ready to adopt, perhaps subconsciously, descriptions that derive from the skewed documentation of self-absorbed colonizers.

"As Malaysians," he contends, "we tend to internalise this negative notion of our own heritage, that we don’t fit the supposed bill of success just because we aren’t 'white' enough or good enough in certain aspects. But what it actually is, is that we do things differently. We should create our own examples, in a way that fits our values and showcase what we excel at. That’s what I want my work to convey."

Amen to that...