Spotlight on Indian Malaysian Artists
By Ooi Kok Chuen
August 2021 PENANG PALETTE
WHY ARE THERE so few artists of Indian (including Singhalese) descent in Malaysia?Some possible factors one finds bandied about are: Economic status, parental / social disapprobation, opportunity, (lack of) role models, patronage, minority syndrome (proportionately smaller population, of only 6.2%), “estranged” Indian-ish themes, and discrimination.Indian creatives, however, are heavily concentrated in the performing arts – in dance, theatre and music (mostly classical traditional). You can’t find Indians in art groups like Thursday Art Group and Utara, while there is “token”...
To read the rest of the article and to access our e-Archive, subscribe to us for RM150 a year.
Ooi Kok Chuen
is an art-writer and journalist, and the author of MAHSURI: A Legend Reborn (Ooi Peeps Publishing), an adult contemporary fantasy “movel” (a novel conceived as a mock movie) spun from a local legend.
