Malaysian punk artists use radical woodcuts to assert natives' rights
An art collective based on the slopes of Mount Kinabalu in Borneo, brought together by a love of punk rock, is using woodcut printing to defend native people, writes Nathan Thompson
Seven kittens occupy my shoes, left by the door of Pangrok Sulap's art studio, on the slopes of Mount Kinabalu, Borneo. They're curled up inside or lounging on the toe.
"I didn't want a cat," says Rizo Leong, a co-founder of the art collective, who lives at the studio with his wife, Mamet. "But one day I saw a kitten on the road and felt sorry for it." They now have 20 cats, sleeping in between paint pots and poking their heads out from behind sketchbooks in the converted primary school, on the edge of Ranau town. "When you save one, you have to save them all," he says.
Pangrok Sulap (" pangrok" is the local pronunciation of "punk rock" and " sulap" is the name of a hut used by the indigenous Kadazan-Dusun people) is into saving things. Since the art collective was founded, in 2010, it has developed a distinctive style and worshipped at the altar of DIY punk, taking its radical message to the front line of the fight to protect Borneo's depleted forests, animals and native people.
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The members met through a shared love of punk rock.
"When there is a punk gig in Sabah [their Malaysian home state], everyone gathers," says Jerome Manjat, a 32-year-old founding member. "So it's a good way to meet like-minded people."
Some members used to play music together but, once they learned woodcut printing at a workshop given by Indonesian band Marjinal, that art form became their sole focus.