STEEP & SAMPLE : Possible Futures/Impossible Present: Part I & II

A+ is pleased to present “Steep and Sample: Possible Futures/Impossible Present”, a group exhibition.

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While there have been many definitions of politics in the modern era, among the standouts are these two: Otto von Bismark in the eighteen-sixties said that “politics is the art of the possible”; the phrase would become a motto for political realism. In contrast, in the late nineteen-sixties, progressive revolutionary political movements all around the globe rallied around slogans like “be realistic, demand the impossible”.

Malaysian artists have long engaged with politics, whether through their practices, or as citizens and residents. Recent history has given them much to respond to: this exhibition, which marks the fourth anniversary of the Fourteenth General Election, presents twenty-one artists and their recent works.

It’s important to emphasise the range and diversity of perspectives here. A pessimist might imagine that different voices can only produce a cacophony. An optimist might hope that they all, somehow, come together in harmony. We suggest that neither represents what’s happening in the show. Sometimes what sounds like noise, upon closer attention reveals not chaos but complexity. And we’d argue against a concept of harmony that presumes the ideal co-existence of different people means a convergence towards a common denominator, or the harmonies of ‘90s boyband pop music (nothing against boybands).

We’re not attempting anything like a survey of what Malaysian artists are thinking and feeling about recent events. Rather, the better word to describe the organising principle for the show is: “sample”. We hope you’ll enjoy listening to what the various works each have to say on their own. But we also hope you’ll listen to how they bounce off each other. There is another word in our title, “steep”. We hope you can experience each individual voice steeped in the others.