Semangat Chandan: Journeys of Contemporary Artists from the Land of Grace marks the second chapter of Galeri Chandan's efforts to document and acknowledge the contemporary art practices of those that hail from the state of Perak.
It takes off where the first Semangat Chandan exhibition left off in June 2008, and again, sets its twenty-one participating artists metaphorically against the backdrop of the resplendent Bukit Chandan in the historic town of Kuala Kangsar and Perak's rich cultural heritage as a whole.
Semangat Chandan serves as a vehicle to gather these artists under the theme of a shared identity, but as artist Hasnul Jamal Saidon cautioned in the first installment of the exhibition, it "should not be seen as a literal and parochial representation of Perak", but instead, an epitome of "a point of return for the participating artists, to a shared sense of belonging and origin, more than a place of birth." (Hasnul Jamal Saidon, Semangat Chandan exhibition catalogue, 2008)
Today, that sense of return or homecoming is compounded by a spirit of convergence, as a number of the participating artists in the inaugural Semangat Chandan are exhibiting once again and are joined by others who come from their home state. |
