Artist Statement

The title is loosely based on Mahathir's Look East Policy (1982) during his first term as Prime Ministry to boost the Malaysian economy by imitating and replicating an economic model of Asian Tiger countries – Japan, Korea, and Taiwan. The relationship between these countries has been spanning over the centuries beyond the geopolitical borders we know now. Pandang Timur: Gema was shot in Repek, Kelantan while facing the horizon that delineated politics and conflicts of the South China Sea. Using video and the internet as a medium, the work explores the parallel between real and hyperreal that allows us to see the changing spaces or images, or the representation of the latter, as a means of changing life. The artist reimagines a diachronic relation between countries surrounding the South China Sea in the form of waves resonating, bouncing and influencing the fabric of history, culture, economy, and politics in the region. The cinematography intends to reproduce the sense of banality by implying a long shot and static camera, while the movement is simultaneously stimulated by the tidal waves.