Tinggal Kenangan: Solo Exhibition by Izat Arif

“Tinggal Kenangan, a solo exhibition by Izat Arif at A+ Works of Art, is the third and final edition of the exhibition series Taman Kenangan (2019-2024). Featuring drawings, sculptures, and a diorama, this exhibition fictionalises an archaeologist’s discovery of an abandoned development project at the mythic Gunung Ledang. The artist-as-archaeologist here tries to make sense of the physical detritus left behind, as well as the hopes and dreams that sustained them. To that end, the archaeologist presents artefacts and field notes from an impossible time and impossible place: a tower of bricks each fired with the phrase “Impian,” ritualistic conjoined coconuts carved out of teak, and the plans for a factory to fulfil Puteri Gunung Ledang’s seven demands to Sultan Mahmud Shah. In Tinggal Kenangan, Izat does not resist the commodification of Malaysia’s land, culture, and history. Rather, in leaning into contemporary codes, styles, and genres, we discover a world that is strangely familiar, where every image has already been imagined and where meaning can no longer be relied upon. We are in a time of endless memory.”

— Lim Sheau Yun