Hari Ini Dalam Sejarah (This Day in History) addresses some of the contradictions and difficulties inherent in framing a national consciousness, and the ways in which it is represented – a familiar theme both in the artist’s personal experience, and for communities either side of the Causeway.

Vincent Leong’s practice engages with structures and systems of representation to get audiences to think about where and how we locate meaning. His works can be seen as subtle and often darkly humorous acts of sabotage, challenging our experience of popular, iconic or everyday material. 

The works in the exhibition refer to familiar forms of expressing national identity and agenda – landscape paintings, school murals, a national monument, the newspaper, and a patriotic song – but fail to articulate any clear messages. How do we read a stack of broadsheets that bear no text? What does it feel like to look at a national monument from behind? Would young Malaysians and Singaporeans today recognize, or sing along to, the words of “Divided Land” as performed by rock-n-roll band The Pinholes? 

The exhibition title is borrowed from an educational television and radio programme, Hari Ini Dalam Sejarah, aired on a daily basis on Malaysian national television and radio since 1980, which creates a bridge between the trials and achievements of a nation’s past to a present day. The exhibition itself as a whole poses questions about nationalism and patriotism, news and propaganda, history and progress. It asks, how will we see this day in history, tomorrow?

About the artist. Vincent Leong (b. 1979, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia) graduated from Goldsmith’s College, London in 2004. He has shown in numerous shows at Valentine Willie Fine Art (Kuala Lumpur), Sculpture Square (Singapore), Gertrude Contemporary Art Space (Melbourne), Institute of Contemporary Arts (Singapore) and the Guggenheim UBS-MAP show, No Country: Contemporary Art for South and Southeast Asia (New York, Hong Kong and Singapore).