Weekend for the arts: 'Ethereal Echoes' exhibition, 'I Love Perak' film series

The Star

10-05-2025

EXHIBITION: LAI LOONG SUNG'S 'ETHEREAL ECHOES'
Venue: Wisma Kebudayaan Soka Gakkai Malaysia, Jalan Bukit Bintang, KL
Date: ends June 8
Ethereal Echoes: Sketches And Recent Works, an evocative solo exhibition that traces the four-decade artistic journey of Selangor-born veteran artist Lai Loong Sung has taken over the Soka Gakkai Malaysia (SGM) art gallery space.
It offers the public a rare opportunity to engage with over 80 deeply reflective works — including manuscripts, oil paintings, and ink pieces — created by Lai between 1986 and 2024.
Rooted in both philosophical insight and personal revelation, Ethereal Echoes draws inspiration from the ancient Chinese text Zhuangzi, where 'Tianlai' (Heavenly Sound) refers to the 'unspoken word' — the soundless sound that echoes from the universe and the depths of the human soul.
As Lai shares, 'Ethereal Echoes is a melody from the heavens and a sound born within humanity.'
This exhibition represents the culmination of Lai's ongoing reflections on the complexities of contemporary life — from war and environmental degradation to the impact of rapid technological advancement — woven together with intimate expressions of the inner self.
The show is divided into three sections, each part of the exhibition invites viewers on a deeply contemplative journey.
Free admission exhibition. Open: 11am-5pm. Closed on Mondays.
More info here.
DANCE: 'THE QUIET IS SO NOISY'
Venue: Damansara Performing Arts Centre (DPAC), Empire Damansara, Petaling Jaya
Date: May 10 and 11
Need a break from the hustle and bustle? Presented by Kongsi Petak, this solo contemporary dance performance offers an alternative to the usual weekend rush — an invitation to experience sound and silence through movement.
Created and performed by Gabriel Wong, an award-winning dancer based in Sabah and Paris, The Quiet Is So Noisy is solo performance that merges physical poetry with emotional depth.
Drawing on the language of contemporary dance — the work delves into the emotional contradictions of silence: its capacity to soothe or suffocate, to heal or estrange.
Through intricate choreography and raw, embodied movement, Wong navigates themes of mental health, loneliness, and resilience, offering a visceral exploration of what it means to be alone with one's thoughts in an increasingly noisy world.
More info here.
FILM SCREENING: 'PERAK I LOVE YOU'
Venue: Centre For Film's Research & Appreciation, Alam Budiman, Shah Alam
Date: May 10, 8.15pm
Tonight, the Wayang Budiman series is hosting "Perak I Love You", a special screening featuring two short documentaries highlighting the unique charms of the Malaysian state of Perak.
Uthaya Sankar SB's 2025 film Kenangan Di Lorong B is a heartfelt love letter to Taiping, the town he grew up in, while Ansell Tan's The Forgotten Railway Of Kinta Valley (2024) explores the overlooked history of the Ipoh–Tronoh railway branch — once the vital artery of the Kinta Valley's booming tin mining era.
The screenings will be followed by a sharing session with the documentary directors and a Q&A session, moderated by Amir Muhammad.
Established in 2014, the Centre For Film's Research & Appreciation serves as a dedicated community space for the study, preservation, and appreciation of cinema.
More info here.
Esther Geh's 'The Peranakan Kitchen: The Kamcheng (watercolour on paper, 2022), which is part of the group exhibition at Harta Space. Photo: Artemis Art
EXHIBITION: 'MORE MEN (AND A WOMAN) WITH PLANTS'
Venue: Harta Space, Ampang, Selangor
Date: ends May 30
Continuing its ongoing collaboration with Harta Space, Artemis Art presents More Men (And A Woman) With Plants, the latest iteration of a thoughtfully evolving exhibition series by Penang-based artists who draw inspiration from, and pay homage to, one of nature's most enduring yet often overlooked presences: plants.
Featuring works by Ch'ng Kiah Kiean, Cheah Meng Kwok, Esther Geh, Fuan Wong (also the series co-founder), Howard Tan, IMMJN, and Thomas Howell, the exhibition goes beyond the conventions of botanical art.
Here, plants are not merely subjects of study, but vessels of memory, emotion, and time — rendered in a range of mediums from ink and photography to glass and mixed media.
Each work offers a distinct lens into the ways flora can reflect inner states, cultural imprints, and our ever-evolving relationship with the natural world.
This also marks the third instalment of the Men In Plants exhibition series, following earlier editions in George Town.
Keep an eye out for workshops and artist-led tours happening throughout the exhibition period.
More info here.
A view of Tan Zi Hao's installation series 'You Again' (steel and stainless steel, 2022) at the group A 'Colloquy' exhibition. Photo: Wei-Ling Gallery
EXHIBITION: 'A COLLOQUY'
Venue: Wei-Ling Gallery Kuala Lumpur
Date: ends May 17
Wei-Ling Gallery is showing A Colloquy, a group exhibition featuring eight contemporary artists whose practices investigate the complexities of language and typography as forms of expression.
Among the highlights are the Malaysian debuts of Kameelah Janan Rasheed (United States) and Cian Dayrit (Philippines), both internationally recognised for their critical engagement with text-based art.
On view through May 17, the exhibition spans the entire gallery space in Brickfields and includes works by Choy Chun Wei, H. H. Lim, Ivan Lam, Marcos Kueh, Tan Zi Hao, and Yin Yin Wong (Netherlands).
By employing diverse approaches - ranging from installation and painting to print and mixed media - the artists examine typography not merely as a vehicle for clarity, but as a mutable, expressive medium shaped by cultural and technological shifts.
More info here.
A view of 'The Plantation Plot' group exhibition at Ilham Gallery in Kuala Lumpur. Photo: Ilham Gallery
EXHIBITION: 'THE PLANTATION PLOT'
Venue: Ilham Gallery, Kuala Lumpur
Date: ends Sept 21
The Plantation Plot is an art exhibition featuring the work of 28 artists from South-East Asia and the Americas, showing how plantations shaped the world we live in today.
The exhibition, curated by Lim Sheau Yun, looks at plantations, which were big farms that grew just one kind of crop, like sugar or rubber, to sell across the globe. These farms were part of European empires that grew wealthy by using people's labour to harvest crops.
The exhibition takes inspiration from Jamaican writer Sylvia Wynter, who thought of plantations not just as places, but also as stories about power and control.
Plantations needed a lot of workers, many of whom were forced to travel far from their homes. For example, workers from India and Sri Lanka were sent to harvest tea, while people from the Amazon were made to collect rubber on land they already owned. Many of these workers were treated as less important than the crops they were forced to grow, and their lives were changed forever.
This exhibition is a collaboration between Ilham Gallery and Kadist, a global non-profit arts organisation.
This weekend, Filipino multimedia artist Cian Dayrit will be speaking about his art practice and its intersections with activism, colonial histories, and critical geography in an artist talk (May 10 at 3pm), followed by a hands-on cartographic workshop (May 11 at 2pm), both held at the gallery.
More info here.