Repositioning Pua Kumbu Through Artistic Practice: Globalising The Local By Drawing Upon Diverse Malaysian Cultural Forms

Penyusunan Semula Pua Kumbu Melalui Amalan Artistik: Mengglobalisasikan Unsur Tempatan Menerusi Kepelbagaian Bentuk Budaya Malaysia

Abstract

This paper will discuss the stimulus behind, and implications of the artistic work of Pua Kumbu, the traditional fabric from Sarawak, experimenting with combinations of computer-mediated imagery, text and ‘traditional’ fabrics manufactured in Malaysia. This paper will look at the creative stimuli of the ‘modern’ and ‘traditional’, positing the modern as a product of globalisation and westernisation and the ‘traditional’ researcher’s work recombines diverse products of Malaysian oral and visual culture using ‘traditional’ fabrics as the canvas onto which words and imagery are placed. This paper will explain how the researcher practice-based approach to research examines the importance of expanding the Malaysian visual culture heritage in light of the enormous impact of globalisation on the art and visual culture in Malaysia. It will discuss the main objectives of this research and artistic output, which are to understand the problems, consequences and effects of globalisation towards art and visual culture and to produce artefacts that explicitly illuminate a new understanding of the dynamic that obtains between globalisation, contemporary art and craft traditions in the Malaysian context.