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) which was first presented in documenta 12, to be shown in a shophouse based in Malacca. Shooshie’s artistic practice has never shy away in embracing the personal, intuitive and emotive, which Emotional Library, being the entry point to this Fellowship, exemplifies. The Fellowship is developed with this philosophy in mind, and together with the artist focuses on the prelude of how an art space may be realised.

In this prelude, the Fellowship attempts to build a 'curatorial software' that will eventually shape the artist's construction of Emotional Library II and other related sites as creative centers that not only engage with Shooshie's practice but considers the public's encounter with contemporary art. Throughout the Fellowship, a series of curatorial labs and programmes, both public and in-house, will take place in SAM and sites in Malaysia. It will also chronicle the larger unseen praxis to Shooshie's artmaking which typically involves multiple collaborators and communities, human and non-human, working in various sites in Malaysia: generating 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

Through key sites within Muar, Malacca and Kuala Lumpur as case studies, the fellowship follows Shooshie's practice as she discusses critical approaches to museology, alternative curatorial models outside the museum, and what it means to collaborate with constituents.

related programmes

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resources

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Related information

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