JEJAK SENI BANGSA

This exhibition highlights what and how did Universiti Malaya situated itself in the preservation of regional history and the founding of modern Nation State (Malaysia) through its museological visual art activities. It is generally stereotyped, at least at the public ground, that art does not involve any serious intellectual judgment. This exhibition directly demystifies such understanding in looking at the contribution explicated through artwork production, the artist's mind and environment, as well as curatorial works done. The exhibited artworks were specifically selected to show how the national historical journey was derived from cultural discourses that normally are in contrast, by referring to artworks as historiographical sources. Subsequently, sprouting artworks that reflected transformative spirit and understanding in looking at the idea of 'nation'. The artists were not only identifying themselves more independently and unchained of their original birthplace or the colonial superiority, rather they were celebrating the new nation state called Malaysia, appreciating local geniuses and indirectly, their artworks recorded the shifting of a new citizenship's identity that moved towards embracing the modern conceptual nation of Malaysia.