Pangrok Sulap
All Nations are Created Special
All Nations are Created Special is a black and white woodcut print by the artist collective Pangrok Sulap. Emblazoned across this fantastical 10 metre long print is the Bahasa Malaysian phrase Semua Bangsa Tercipta Istimewa, which loosely translated means “All Races are Special”. Pangrok Sulap takes the translation one step further, as the title of the work declares “All Nations are Created Special”. Produced for Colomboscope 2022 and created in collaboration with Sri Lankan punk-rock band The Soul, this mythic masterpiece connects the island imaginations of the Malay and Indian Ocean worlds (specifically Sri Lanka and Malaysian Borneo). These two cultures have long been connected via the Chola Empire (c. 1030), but more recently, both endured British colonial occupation, thus sharing a history of forced migration under British administration. Today, both communities are considered disenfranchised minorities.
This intricate print morphs the religious and animistic with the popular, where traditional cultural customs in the harvesting of crops and the value of local cultural languages (such as music) are celebrated. While the ships of the Empire and their thirst for spice and maritime control sit on the fringe of this seascape, Pangrok Sulap places visual emphasis on the legacy of Malaysia and India’s shared folk-faith heroes that guide and protect. In working with a local Sinhala historian in Colombo, Pangrok Sulap were able to identify commonalities in dress (the sarong), object (the sampan), and language between these two historic communities.The work illustrates how ideological notions of race and nationhood are amalgamations of numerous faiths and languages, to which cultural inflections can never thus be considered ‘pure’. This assertion speaks specifically to the 1983 Black July anti-Tamil riots in Colombo and the dominance of a Malay identity in Malaysia. Indigenous Dusun and Murut peoples continue to rally against this political strategy by claiming that the newly formed Malaysia in1963 gave all peoples equal recognition in its establishment.
All Nations are Created Special was exhibited during a live collaborative performance by The Soul, during the opening week of Colomboscope 2022. The Soul’s song Dance Awake (2022) is specifically inspired by Pangrok Sulap’s work and can be exhibited alongside it. For further information about The Soul’s soundtrack, visit https://www.colomboscope.lk/pangrok-sulap-soul.
Pangrok Sulap is an Indigenous artist collective comprised of members from the Dusun and Murut clans of Malaysian Borneo. Pangrok means ‘punk rock’ and Sulap means ‘hut’, which colloquially refers to a resting place for farmers in Sabah, Borneo. The collective includes visual artists, musicians, and social activists who employ DIY strategies and spirit to provide local rural and disenfranchised communities with the tools to enact resilience and resistance. Their slogan is Jangan Beli, Bikin Sendiri or ‘Don’t Buy, Do-it-yourself’.
Initially established in 2010 by Rizo Leong, Jirum Manjat, and Mc Feddy, the group worked to assist marginalized groups through charity means. With growing membership since 2012, the collective uses print-making techniques in a collaborative effort with their local communities, spreading the power of large-scale prints as a means of activating social agency in a part of Malaysia that is of little familiarity with contemporary art. Since 2013, their primary medium has been woodcut prints that incorporate performative and process-oriented production. Typically their prints are cut by the collective, while the actual printing of the image is a community effort. The collective often invites audiences to dance on top of the woodcut blocks to imprint the ink on the canvas, while local bands play music. Committed to the need for education, the collective also raises awareness of locally-relevant social and political issues such as illegal logging, corruption, and the mining of historical memories.