Hand-cranked whirligigs add interactivity to Simon Soon's 'The Tyger And The Navigator' exhibition. Photo: The Star/Izzrafiq Alias
Art historian Simon Soon doesn’t just take us back in time in his first exhibition in Malaysia, he nudges us to tap into the power of imagination. He also taught himself how to compose a syair just for the occasion.
Using principally “found digital objects”, including songs, images, stories and poems that are available freely in the public domain, The Tyger And The Navigator (Sha’er Datok Keramat Dengan Sang Mualim) stages a historical epic on 18th century cultural encounters in the Malay world.
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The Tyger And The Navigator exhibition
Hand-cranked whirligigs add interactivity to Simon Soon's 'The Tyger And The Navigator' exhibition. Photo: The Star/Izzrafiq Alias
A visitor winds up Captain Thomas Forrest (left) and The Tyger, two hand-cranked whirligigs designed and created by Octo Cornelius and Prihatmoko Moki in collaboration with Soon, on the advice of Rismilliana Wijayanti and Iwan Effendi. Photo: The Star/Izzrafiq Alias
'Tipu’s Tiger' (carved and lacquered wooden semi-automaton, 1793). This is a mechanical toy created for Tipu Sultan, the Muslim ruler of the Kingdom of Mysore in India.
Female face buraq wears a clock around her neck (watercolour on paper, before 1907). Photo: Teungku Teungoh, Museum Volkenkunde in Leiden, the Netherlands
The design of the board for a board game called 'Atchin - Nieuw vermakelijk verovering-spel' (A New Entertaining Conquest Game), 1874, at the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam. Atchin was one of the names the Aceh Sultanate used to be referred to.
The King of Atcheen giving audience to Captain Forrest in 1764, by Charles Benazech and engraved by James Caldwell. Published Feb 15,1792, by Captain Thomas Forrest.
Soon’s 'The Tyger And The Navigator' is a project that attempts to reinsert allegory at the heart of historical inquiry. Photo: The Star/Izzrafiq Alias
Soon’s 'The Tyger And The Navigator' is a project that attempts to reinsert allegory at the heart of historical inquiry. Photo: The Star/Izzrafiq Alias
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