Building a "non-institution" institution with Shooshie Sulaiman
Building a "non-institution" institution with Shooshie Sulaiman is a process-centred Fellowship that follows Shooshie’s intention to house a second iteration of an earlier work, Emotional Library (2007), in a shophouse based in Malacca. Shooshie’s artistic practice has never shied away from embracing the personal, intuitive and emotive. All of which Emotional Library (2007) exemplifies as the entry point to this Fellowship.
With this philosophy in mind, the Fellowship works towards developing Tadika Kura-kura (The Kindergarten of Slow Curating), a "curatorial software" grounded in generating and refining new knowledge systems, while building networks that expand the peripheries of artmaking through community and kinships that extend beyond the human. Working with the artist, Tadika Kura-kura serves as the prelude to how a new landscape may be realised. Using Tadika Kura-kura as a ‘curatorial software’, the Fellowship follows the artist’s construction of Emotional Library (A House), other related sites in Japan and Sulawesi as well as creative centers that not only engage with Shooshie’s practice but considers the public’s encounter with contemporary art.
Through a series of curatorial labs and programmes in both SAM and sites in Malaysia, the Fellowship’s underlying ethos is guided by incubating alternative curatorial models outside the museum while building critical museology around Shooshie’s practice. These processes will be shared on Samplings, SAM’s experimental writing platform conceptualised for showcasing curatorial research followed with a publication to be launched in the later part of 2025.
About the artist
Shooshie Sulaiman (b. 1973) is currently recognised as one of the most important contemporary artists of Southeast Asia. Drawing from the culture of her homeland of Malaysia, her mixed identity, as well as her personal memories, Shooshie's practice is characterised by her diverse approaches such as drawings, collages, installations, and performance that at times appropriate natural elements from trees, soil, and water native to the land. Through them, the works inform viewers of the complex and inextricably connected relationship between human beings, nature and art.
key sites
related events
check out the line-up of free and ticketed events below!
click here to revisit ‘by way of slowing,’ where Shooshie Sulaiman reflects on land, soil, and sea in shaping our daily lives through a gathering with Orang Laut SG at Tanah dan Air and a natural pigment workshop.
resources
find out more about the fellowship via the resources below!
[ARTICLES] The Unstable Institution The Unstable Institution is an online series of visual and written research fragments that document Shooshie Sulaiman's Fellowship from the curators' point of view. Posted to Samplings, the series draws from the experiences of working closely with Shooshie to consider how we document, archive, and make connections between fragmented ideas and lived experiences. Each post explores a different aspect of Shooshie's mode of working to interrogate ways to build alternative curatorial frameworks centred around process-driven modes of thinking and artmaking.
[ARTICLE] Together-Gather
Offering a fluid space for documenting “Building a ‘non-institution’ institution” with Shooshie Sulaiman, the first post in the series of The Unstable Institution; Together-Gather focuses on Shooshie’s practice of involving the element of the “House” as one of her key mediums. Considering material, connections to the land, and collaborators—both seen and unseen—the post traces the philosophies that guide Shooshie’s Fellowship, which are often tied to the emotional and communal aspects that imbue spirit in the everyday.
Simryn Gill & Charles Lim Yi Yong: The Sea is a Field
Driven by a shared interest in the movement of people and things across borders, The Sea is a
Field is a reflection on the trips undertaken by artists Simryn Gill and Charles Lim Yi Yong as
they traverse the space that separates them between Port Dickson, Malaysia and Singapore. This presentation reveals the inner workings of the collaboration between Gill, Lim
and curators Chanon Kenji Praepipatmongkol and Selene Yap as part of the inaugural SAM
Fellowship programme, an initiative by the museum to support deep, open-ended inquiry
through long-term investment in artistic process.
Building a "non-institution" institution with Shooshie Sulaiman
Building a "non-institution" institution with Shooshie Sulaiman
Building a "non-institution" institution with Shooshie Sulaiman
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MerlimauSurau Merlimau (Surau SK Sempang)
Surau Merlimau is within the compound of SK Sempang, a primary school based in Merlimau (between Malacca and Muar). First constructed by British administrators in 1931 as a teachers’ quarters, the underutilised building was repurposed in 1995 as a Surau, becoming a space for religious teachings and a prayer hall for the students. In 2019, Shooshie, alongside her long-time collaborator, Tukang Ahmad Minhad and MAIX (Malaysian Artist Intention Experiment), embarked on a five-year project refurbishing the communal space. An exhibition conceived by Shooshie and her collaborators, Pameran Warisan Surau SK Sempang (5 July– September 2024), was presented after the refurbishments, illustrating the relationship between art and conservation in everyday life
Image of Surau Merlimau (Surau SK Sempang). Image courtesy of the artist
MalaccaMalacca House
Located along Jalan Jawa, Malacca House came into Shooshie’s ownership in the mid-2000s, before the street was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Jalan Jawa was known as the “entertainment valley,” where architectural features (such as night-soil walkways, and doors connecting the houses on the second floor) hint at how they were lived-in in the past. Currently, Malacca House is storage for Shooshie’s many collections amassed over the yearsand its restoration serves as the conceptual basis for Building a ‘non-institution’ institution with Shooshie Sulaiman. Malacca House will function as the permanent space for Emotional Library (A House), which Shooshie is still in the process of conceiving.
Image of Malacca House. Image courtesy of the artist
Kuala Lumpur12 Art Space
In 2006, Shooshie opened 12 Art Space in Kuala Lumpur, a venue which once housed many artist-led exhibitions, gatherings and forums for the contemporary art scene. Today, the unit holds years’ worth of archives pertaining to Malaysian art history, from artworks to publications, as well as materials collected for not-yet-realised artistic projects by both Shooshie and the plethora of artists who have passed through its doors. The documentation and archiving of these materials serve as a key node in Shooshie’s Fellowship with SAM, offering an opportunity to consider how we document, annotate, and historicise contemporary art.
Image of 12 Art Space. Image courtesy of the artist
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