Printing Thoughts From A Regional Context

by Mohd Bakir Baharom, Mohd Faizal Suhif, Aizat Amir Ahmad Sanusi, Mohd Safwan Ahmad, Rusydi Hanis Mohd Ramali

Preface

Between the layers of ink and paper fibers lies a voice that does not speak with words but articulates the soul through etched lines, layered textures, and spatially engaging objects. This is the spirit flowing through GO Block Serantau, a cross-border printmaking exhibition that transcends geography and traditions.

More than just an exhibition space, it is a meeting point for dialogue where culture and heritage are not displayed as lifeless artefacts, but are revived in living prints. Here, aesthetics intersects with ethics. Art no longer stands apart, but roots itself in history, branches into identity, and bears fruit in collective consciousness.

GO Block Serantau elevates print art as an alternative, reflective, and creative language. Founded as an initiative to strengthen regional networks in contemporary printmaking, the exhibition gathers artists from Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand, and Malaysia. They explore their roots and express identities grounded in tradition yet open to new frontiers.

Introducing GO Block

Established as a printmaking collective in Malaysia, GO Block comprises six core artists: Juhari Said, Shahrul Jamili, Samsudin Wahab, Faizal Suhif, Fadli Mokhtar, and Haafiz Shaimi. They are not only practitioners of tradition but also agents of transformation. Through disciplined approaches that transcend traditional boundaries and embrace contemporary experimentation, GO Block becomes a visual forum for identity, thought, and philosophical inquiry.

This exhibition elevates collective expression to a regional level, featuring guest artists such as Awang Damit Ahmad, Agnes Lau, and Bibi Chew from Malaysia, alongside three major figures from Southeast Asia: Tisna Sanjaya (Indonesia), Ambie Abano (Philippines), and Kitikong Tilokwattanotai

(Thailand).

Innovation in Techniques and Visual Experimentation

The term GO Block reflects a spirit of exploring conventional boundaries in printmaking, aiming to expand understanding of both concept and method. It not only introduces alternative printing techniques, but also provides space for discussion and reflection on art’s role in society. It challenges traditional

perceptions of print art, inviting viewers to see art from a broader and more inclusive perspective. The participating artists emphasize ideas of space, light, and shadow, using natural materials such as clay, sand, charcoal powder, and everyday objects as block and materials. Print media is no longer restricted to ink, but stretches from two-dimensional works to three-dimensional prints, interactive pieces, and installations. A hybrid of manual and digital processes adapts to current technological advances. The works are modular, interactive, and site-specific.

Use of new printing blocks and surfaces, hybrid techniques, monoprints, interactive methods, and mixed media define the main styles of visualization. The outcome is unique reducing dependence on repetitive print stamping and moving beyond mere image replication.

Interpreting Regional Artists: Prints as Cultural Mirrors

Tisna Sanjaya arrives with a spirit of artistic activism evident in his performance art. His body becomes a living block more than a performance, it is a print of an uprising soul against political and spiritual injustices. Using turmeric powder, curry, charcoal, and earth as interacting media, his work kneels freely upon canvas. Each bodily movement resembles a repeated prayer, compelling viewers to reflect on the value of humanity in a time adrift.

Tisna Sanjaya

Potret Diri sebagai Kaum Munafik

240 cm x 170 cm

Mixed media on canvas

2017

Ambie Abano from the Philippines brings the human body as a field of experience. From fluctuating expressions to wandering spirits, are these works questioning anger? Or the elemental discourse of faith and responsibility? In his pieces, the body becomes text, and the print serves as personal archaeology loaded with societal, generational, and identity narratives.

Ambie Abano,

Multiplicity,

Carved Wood Blocks,

12 x 10 x 10 inches (in 8 pcs., each measuring 6 x 5 x 5 inches)

30.48 x 25.40 x 25.40 centimeters (in 8 pcs., each measuring 15.24 x12.7 x 12.7 centimeters, 2019

Kitikong Tilokwattanotai from Thailand offers visually subtle, almost meditative work. ‘Trace of Believe’ is a deep, silent layering reminiscent of lingering loss. Acid-etched large-scale engravings entwined with dark and bright colors produce abstract yet intimate narratives poetry without words that provoke contemplation about silence, inner space, and freedom.

Kitikong Tilokwattanotai

“Trace of Believe”

Etching on paper

155 cm x 99 cm

2025

Within the exhibition, Malaysian voices do not fade but form a solid background of local wisdom. Juhari Said does more than lift wood; he carves emotion in the language of the soul. Each groove and grain he touches hides a silent zikr an expression of deeply rooted experience. His work is not just imagery, but an emblem of inner declaration. This spiritual space weaves rituals bearing witness to temporal change. In a world increasingly detached from its roots, ‘Pucuk Rebung’ stands as a beckoning sign, inviting reflection on where we sprouted and where we aspire to grow.

Juhari Said

“Pucuk Rebung II”

Mixed media

122 cm x 81 cm

2025

Shahrul Jamili, with ‘Darjah Kebesaran Kehalalan’ and ‘Darjah Menang Kehalalan’ offers cultural satire on societies obsessed with titles, recognition, and status even when cloaked in religious symbols. Using the Halal logo as a metaphor, his installation exposes how sacred statuses can be mechanically manipulated for ego and power, ultimately leading to superficial compliance: “it’s halal.” His mock honours poke fun at the craze for “sacred recognition” a satirical reflection worth pondering.

Shahrul Jamili

Festival Halal,

30.48 cm x 121.92 cm x 121.92 cm

Mixed media (Installation)

2025

On the quiet vellum, Samsudin Wahab raises a fragile imperial banner not just a symbol but unhealed wounds of history. The sand becomes seeds of prayers and hopes. Earth once trodden by power, betrayed by wind and time, now rests as dust upon distressed vellum. ‘Panji Empayar Rapuh’ stands as a delicate monument to failed values, questioning who raises the flag and who bears its collapse?

Samsudin Wahab

“Panji Empayar Rapuh”

Acrylic, Offset ink on canvas, stainless steel rod, metal, kinetic sand

Variable Dimension

2025

Faizal Suhif does not print appearances. In ‘Tunas Cahaya’ he contemplates wisdom. Printmaking becomes ritual not mere repetition for remembrance, but a deep understanding of life. Some observers remark he has strayed from commercial printmaking into misleading abstractions: where is the print? Only the spirit knows.

Faizal Suhif

Tunas Cahaya

Installation Art

Variable Dimension

2025

Fadli Mokhtar with his installation piece ‘Tiang Falasi’ a monument to the self-revealing wounds and fine cracks within human reasoning. His biting satire like barbed wire drags viewers into the realm of heavy art, where victory is not enlightenment but the willingness to strip away long held falsehoods. The symbolism is intellectual: ‘pillar’ as the foundation of belief, ‘fallacy’ as flawed reasoning. It’s a challenge: humans cling to rhetorical relics to salvage ego, not truth. Fadli gives no fixed answers. Instead, he digs, drawing viewers into a consciousness fissure where darkness isn’t defeat but an opportunity to see through the heart’s eyes.

Fadli Mokhtar

Tiang Falasi: Kemenangan dalam Kegelapan,

Installation Art

Variable Dimension

2025

In ‘Hujan Panas’ Haafiz Shahimi shares a visual thought that ignites the mind and emotion not with flame of anger, but embers of contemplation. Using heated iron plates as a sentient medium, his work reflects continuity between tradition and innovation. It invites viewers to ponder how fire can imprint imagination, as soot and scorching marks decorate the canvas a reflection of healing that requires a shared spark of spirit.

Haafiz Shahimi

“Hujan Panas”

Pyrography print, rusted chemical wash, direct petrol burn, automotive paint on jute

182.88 cm x 182.88 cm

2025

Awang Damit Ahmad, a guest artist, carries a strong influence in the local expressionist scene. His work is more than object collaged on paper it resonates with soul across visual boundaries, lifting symbols and signals that form a “Malay emotional archive.” His art prints with emotion. Every line and texture seems born from his era’s pulse. His statement, “In Form there is Soul; in Soul there is Form; Form and Soul are ONE,” is not just philosophy it’s the spirit that animates his art. Form is body, Soul is breath, and when they unite, they create a spiritual space that touches deep awareness.

Awang Damit

Peralihan Monsoon “Kedalaman ” 76cm x 91cm,

Paper Mache / Mixed Media/ Smell, 2025

With sewn threads and folded sheets, Agnes Lau restores the paper’s dignity from mere print mediu to a second skin of the soul. Her artist books whisper from every page turned. Each fold becomes a space for active silence inviting the reader to feel before reading and touch before understanding. Should a book be read, or can it also be felt? Here, text and texture merge in a quiet yet articulate dialogue, questioning the boundary between art object and tactile experience.

Agnes Lau

The Book of Natural Dances

2025

Ink on handmade bind 150gsm Fabriano paper

Closed size: 2.3 x 2.3 x 1.8cm

Opened size: about 2.3 x 80cm

Bibi Chew presents ‘It Takes Two’ a visual meditation on connection, tension, and balance between two often seen as divided sides. For her, duality is not opposition but a reflecting pair. Opposition is not rejection it is embraced as part of both regional and personal existence. Her works doesn’t just capture forms or patterns it is an act of printing relationships between space and memory, between nations and citizens, between formative histories and the yet unformed future.

Bibi Chew

It takes two …, Carved wood block panel & acrylic paint, 22cm x 8.9cm x 1.9cm

(each artwork without frame), Total 10 panels – double sided artworks, 2025

Conclusion

GO Block Serantau is more than an exhibition it is a manifesto of printed thought. It extends the meaning of printing, crossing the small and the vast, from thin coarse paper to spiritual and real realms. Printing becomes not simple visuals, but a declaration of hope: though rooted in different soils, their growth emerges from intertwined roots nourished by shared thought.

*taken from the exhibition catalogue - GO BLOCK Serantau, exhibition runs from 26 May -15 June 2025, at The National Academy of Arts Culture & Heritage (ASWARA) , Kuala Lumpur