As I enter the minimalist, contemporary white interior of Suma Orientalis in Petaling Jaya, Selangor, the whirring of servo motors reverberate in the hallway. Heads, bobbing, shifting, rotating and nodding repeatedly.
Set in the background of the fringes of a growing capital – the densest, populated urban area of Malaysia – the mass emerges from all edges of the canvas. As we jump in and out from various governmental controlled public and private areas, our bodies are enclosed in spaces of the density of an imagined community1 .
Juxtaposing the figurative heads, Low reconvenes the conversation of conformity in the mixed media work titled, “Somewhere in This World These are Those Affected by What You Have Done”. The title is written as a longer musing and in a conversational tone, but also charged with choice vocabulary such as “Affected” or “Done”. The piece is placed in stark contrast from the black painted background. The test tubes, hung in 3 rows of 10 and containing blank, miniature heads, are corked and affixed to the wall. The heads are marked with a demarcated nose and eye sockets and a mouth in a pale ceramic finish, lifeless and part of a larger mass. Each test tube seems to denote an on-going experiment from larger forms of power toying with eerily similar looking masses. I was immediately reminded of our current reality, troubled by the similarities offered by the layers of spatial tabulation and the controlled city during the pandemic. The “You” may be the state exercising order and control. The “You” can also be oneself, attempting to navigate these times.