Alena standing in front of ‘The Storyteller’, a double portrait piece accompanied by an audio recording representing different generations passing down oral traditions of the Kelabit. — ZULAZHAR SHEBlEE / The Star
KOTA SAMARAHAN: Alena Murang is a famous sape musician, but the Sarawak-born performer’s hands are not just for plucking the strings. She is also a talented artist.
Fifty of her paintings are currently on show in her first solo exhibition, Colours of the Highlands, from March 18 to April 30 at Hoan Gallery in La Promenade Mall here.
For Alena, art and music are ways for her to tell stories, particularly in connection with her Kelabit heritage and culture.
“I always see myself as a storyteller. Music is one way to tell stories, painting is another.
“In some of the artwork you’ll see elements of music or audio, like The Storyteller, which comes with audio,” she said at the show’s opening.
The largest piece in the exhibition, The Storyteller is a self-portrait facing another portrait of an elderly Kelabit woman named Tepu’ Sina’ Balan. It is accompanied by an audio recording of Alena learning Kelabit songs from her elders.
In the show notes, Alena described the Kelabit’s oral traditions as fading quickly in the face of modernity.
“The knowledge that exists in stories is largely expressed in songs and chants, and in no written form. Today, only a handful of Kelabit elders remember the songs,” she wrote.
The idea of keeping traditions alive is a key theme of Alena’s work.
“To keep the culture alive we need to evolve and adapt. We need to tell our stories in colour; that’s the context of this exhibition.
“With music it’s about adapting it to how we want to hear the music today, but to make these changes and adaptations with intention.
“So I do think carefully about what I want to paint, what I want to say, what I want to sing, what I want to wear,” she said.
This intentionality can be seen in a series of paintings inspired by Kelabit swirl motifs called “arit”, which were once carved in wood or stone but are rarely seen today.
Alena, who first saw the swirls in black-and-white photos, has recreated them in colour to represent themes such as earth, sky and water. “I wanted to bring them alive, so I painted them with colours and different inspirations.
“It’s about reclaiming what we’ve lost and re-imagining what they would look like today,” she said of the “arit”-inspired paintings.
The show’s collection also includes portraits, abstracts and botanical pieces of local plants.
On the variety of paintings, Alena said she had a lot of ideas she wanted to express and was still developing her style as an artist.
“I consider myself a young artist because a lot of my time has been spent focusing on music, so I still have a longer journey in the art world, a lot more to learn, develop and explore,” she said.
Hoan Gallery owner Hoan Kee Huang, meanwhile, said Alena’s art displayed a depth of research and maturity.
“I suspect many viewers, especially those with Sarawakian experiences, will find the show introspective and highly personal.
“Alena is a master at evoking the Kelabit community’s nostalgia and collective memories,” he said.
