By Ling Hui
KUCHING, May 4: Picture yourself being surrounded by ‘engkabang’ seeds falling from the sky like little propellers when you walk into Alena Murang’s next art exhibition.
Little helicopters floating down are what you see, but you may hear a melody because they actually represent music notes and the scale of the sape.
A fusion of visual arts and music through the presentation of ‘engkabang’ seeds is an idea that Alena, the Sarawak sape songstress and artist, intends to work on for her next art show.
Recently, at Hoan Gallery, La Promenade Mall in Kota Samarahan, she held her maiden solo art show titled ‘Colours of the Highlands’ that reminisced and revived some lost Kelabit culture.
With the exhibition coming to an end on Monday (May 8), a Zoom interview was held earlier today for Alena to share her feelings and thoughts about her first and upcoming art exhibit plans.
“There is a large wall painting (at the exhibit) called ‘Sedarir’, and on each side, there are two smaller paintings called Pentatonic Major Scales.
“They’re the last three pieces that I painted for this show, and basically they are falling seeds of the ‘engkabang’ tree. The seeds fall and they look like flying propellers.
“So, I started to build on this idea where the seeds are music notes. It represents songs or the scale of the sape. That’s what I want to do for my next body of work,” she said.
However, she noted, it may take her some time to paint and put together all the artworks for the next especially when ‘Colours of the Highlands’ was 10 years’ worth of work.
“Let’s hope that it’s not another 10 years until I have another art exhibition,” she added. — DayakDaily
