Pangrok Sulap
APT9
Established 2010 Ranau, Sabah, Malaysia
Located in Ranau, Sabah, Malaysia
Pangrok Sulap is a collective based in Sabah in Malaysian Borneo, consisting of indigenous Dusun and Murut artists, musicians and social activists who are dedicated to empowering rural communities through art. Membership is fluid and participation open, and their name expresses their make-up, locality and orientation: Pangrok means punk rock, and Sulap is a hut used as a resting place by Sabahan farmers. Their ethos is conveyed by the slogan ‘Jangan Beli, Bikin Sendiri’ (‘Don’t buy, do it yourself’). The group first came together in 2010 to conduct charity work in rural schools, orphanages and homes for the disabled. They began woodcut printing in 2012, making banners and posters to raise awareness about social and environmental issues in Borneo’s regional communities. Today they create lively and moving works that are impressive in scale and seductive in detail, depicting narratives relating to pertinent issues in Sabah — from illegal logging to official corruption.
The title of Pangrok Sulap's large-scale woodcut diptych Sabah tanah air-ku 2017 translates to ‘Sabah, my homeland’, which is also the name of the state’s official anthem. Through complex composition and intricate carvings, the work details the enduring aspirations and traumatic realities of a region whose people and natural resources are subject to regular exploitation. One panel shows the dream of an autonomous state: bright and open, with figures appearing in a landscape featuring the iconic Mount Kinabalu, and the state anthem’s final line, ‘Sabah Negeri Merdeka’ (‘Sabah, the Independent State’). The second panel is denser and thematically darker, representing disappointments with the treatment of the region by both national and international interests.
The work was created in a week-long, festival-style workshop held in an outdoor marquee as part of the town’s monthly, all-night markets in the group’s hometown of Ranau. The woodblocks were cut, inked, and pressed onto blockout curtain fabric – the only available material of substantial width — by members of the local community, who were invited to walk and dance over the fabric in bare feet, accompanied by live music. Impressions of these footsteps are clearly visible in the final work — an enduring trace of its joyful creation.
