LIAC continues to spearhead the aims on how art and life of the local community which are site-specific-base are bridged, positioning art as an inclusive commodity in the social system, which penetrates as a paradigm shift from art as individual luxury, to art as a collective necessity. This systematic vision is well articulated by celebrated Malaysian sculptor Dr. Rosli Zakaria, who was the initial founder of LIAC in early 2012, and now operates his own community art space known as “Tukang Arca Art Space (TuAS)”.
As a brand of itself, LIAC gained traction since 13 years ago up until its latest celebration of LIAC#5 of Art discourse with its latest theme “Art Resonance: Celebrating Roots, Inspiring Communities”. LIAC focusses on the other side of the spectrum, of “Art for Society”, rather than “Art for Art Sake”. This different market segment emerges from the social gap in Malaysia’s social stratification, as well as socialization, in where typically Visual Art is normalized as an exclusive product of society and high-culture, presented in a confined gallery space, limited through selectivity, as well as scarcity of its collectors and audience at reach.
This gap itself allows the society to normalize a standardized benchmark of “High Art”, and “Low Art”. Hence, High Art represents a higher class of social stratification, which demands high education, in a high-culture setting. Thus Low Art, signifies everything vice-versa. However this normalization of looking towards High and Low art does not entirely portray the whole picture of the global Modern or Contemporary art scene. Personally, it just reflects the mindset of certain sub-groups in the art society.
Andy Warhol was claimed avant garde, even though part of his Body-of-Works (BoW) revolves around the bridging-blurring gap between High Art (High-Culture) and Low Art (Popular-Culture), eventually emerging as a movement of Pop Art with works such as “Campbell’s Soup Cans (1962)”, a series of 32 paintings of a mass produced commodity products which are inclusive icons, where almost everyone in America would have a can in their kitchen shelves. It was a mass production product at the heydays between capitalism and consumerism, altogether celebrated in a high art fashion of how Warhol stated that his version of Campbell soup would still make a difference, at least on its signature at the front-back of the work.
Yee I-Lann has been collaborating with native weavers across Kota Kinabalu, Sabah to make “Tikar (Woven Mats)” since 2018. One of the works “TIKAR/MEJAPLASTIK (2023)” highlights the notion of contemporary art on how she fabricates the past traditional medium with the present contemporary platform she acquires as an artist based in her motherland. The iconic forms through its ambiguous colors weaved by the local community, incorporated by modern chemical dye, and recycle plastic waste altogether bridges underrated inclusive community practice of local community with exclusive overrated high art platforms in a whole contemporary art setting, exhibited worldwide.
In Malaysia, personally I have witnessed some artist who declares their stand of art as for the elitist, making money out of this lucrative market demand, however still portraying art subjects of traditional material culture related to the B40’s, of foods, textiles, architecture, patterns, etc which in my opinion does impose a strong paradox on what’s elitist about the final outcome, which is claimed elite for elite. This side of the Malaysian art landscape represents the shallow overrated definition of the art market, which if true, is so limited, as well as dictated blatantly by the demands, and taste of its art collectors.
How do we address Art as a reflection of society and culture? If art itself is so limited to the dictation of its collectors. Are we moving backwards to classical ages where art is only produced for patrons, or after 68 years of independence as a nation, our art schools like ITM, USM, MIA, UM, etc still teach us that art is still confined by patron elites? We are aware that Datuk Lat was awarded the “Anugerah Seniman Negara (ASN 2024)” particularly for his iconic “Lat Kampung Boy” series, ranging from stories of local society and culture. The exclusive side of it was the artist’s Art style, and direction upon interpretation of the whole working masterpiece, other than that was inclusively about B40’s stories of multicultural communities living in Malaysia.
These questionable gaps of such a saturated art market segment claimed for the elitist, even though it has gained traction over the decades, it also sparks a dialogue of resistance, and response. Lendu International Art Camp (LIAC) which started 13 years ago is one of the responses by the art ecosystem taking place at Melaka. This market segment of “Art for Society” preached by LIAC took its toll long before the “Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)” were developed in 2015 as part of the 2030 United Nation Agenda for Sustainable Development. LIAC also addresses the values of “DAKEN2021” as an inclusive national cultural policy approach. In fact LIAC highlights the main thrust of “MADANI’s (2023)” six thrust “Daya Madani (Innovation)”, as well as aligned with the central theme of 47th ASEAN Summit in 2025 of “Inclusivity and Sustainability”, where Malaysia was the elected ASEAN Chairman.
LIAC#5 this year 2025 which operates as site-specific, paved its way in the academic community ecosystem of UiTM Lendu, Alor Gajah, Melaka. The 4 days Art Camp made its opening on 30th October 2025, and closing ceremony on 2nd November 2025. LIAC#5 is an International Art Camp collaboration between the faculty of Art and Design UiTM, Melaka, Balai Seni Negara (BSN), SWM Environment Southern Zone, Kumpulan Pelukis Negeri Melaka (KPNM), Angkatan Pelukis SeMalaysia (APS), including SEA art practitioners from Indonesia and Thailand.
From one point of view, I believe that LIAC#5’s modus operandi is closely related to the “Stigmergy Theory”. Here, the context that I would like to state is that LIAC transcends the concept of art which is typically viewed as a product of exclusive commodity, and applies it to the practice of expressive culture. From the individual to the collective taste of the community, art is formed as a product of its environment, at the same time a reflection of its society and culture.
The term stigmergy was initially coined by biologist Pierre-Paul Grasse indicating the mechanism of indirect coordination where agents interact with each other by modifying their environment, these modifications are considered as “traces”, which stimulates subsequent action among the agents (Community). One of the interesting points about this theory is that collaboration on works of public art are seen as more decentralized in practice rather than centralized in process. Here, decentralization in terms of practice lessens the social stratification gap between the artist and local community at practice, where art is a participatory process to be practiced by any level of social class or hierarchy.
When discussing decentralization of the art as participatory practice, the ideas and concepts are still coordinated by a specific community which acts as check-and-balance the 2P’s of Profession, and participation between the artists and its community. This whole process of acculturation between the different participants of gender, generation, social, and economic background, creates a whole new assimilation of the new celebrated identity, which creates a collective taste, and inscribes the sense of self-reflection, as well as self-belonging. The bright side, repositions art not only limited as commodity products circulating around certain social economic class, but towards an inclusive commodity which can be participated, and practiced by everyone in the community, so they can become a part of the whole art process.
In a nutshell, the art market segment is not limited to the “Elite for Elite”, nevertheless it revolves around a more broader context of how art is a product of culture, and culture does not exist in void, culture is created, developed, and cultivated as stated by Professor Koentjaraningrat. The former art market segment has been too saturated with overrated exclusive claims which does not lend itself to the new policy of cultural and economic policy which favours inclusivity over exclusivity of society in terms of social, and economical background. Thus, “Art for Society” such as LIAC#5 is viewed as alternative to lend a solution through the gaps as addressed in SDG’s (2015), DAKEN (2021), DAYA MADANI (2023), as well as ASEAN 47th SUMMIT central theme of “Inclusivity and Sustainability”
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