On the 22nd of December 2024, just as the year was about the end, we, Ali Alasri and I, presented Making Mamak in conversation with folks in COEX, Penang. We decided to do it a month before the event, but the plan only came together a week, and then a day before the talk. Ali trudged through the traffic from south to the north island of Penang, before trudging back with a pit stop in Butterworth. Traffic plagued both journeys, people moving through the same routes to the capital of Malaysia, a return back to the nationalistic realities of the financial / cultural / governmental centre of West Malaysia. Penang sits in a haze of a dream. Singing Jacky Cheung, Jay Chou, Elephant Gym, Deca Joins and (insert soft-rock Malay bands), he lost his voice on the way back. I landed in my childhood home, rolling in the heat of the Butterworth night air, of the rising heat from the concrete, cement in the dim mosque light.

Just before losing his voice, Ali and I did the talk at COEX. It was structured like so:

Introduce the talk

• Introduce the talk - Shared how the talk came about after telling KJ that I was coming back to Penang for the holidays. Then I asked whether Ali would be up for coming up to Penang for the talk
• Ali and I did a self introduction
• I did a curatorial walkthrough of Making Mamak, Blueprint, the physical version
• Ali asked the audience to ask questions through a Tikam-tikam process. Tikam-tikam is a game of chance to get something we all want, a small present.

  • How do the collectives generate resources and sustain themselves in long term?

    We talked about what are resources? Space is never as problem in Malaysia, but rather where the space is adjacent to. If it is financial capital that needs to be generated, then to toe the line between independent and to be dependent. Collectives embrace the different financial models,

  • What are their long term plans as a whole?

    typically it is just to survive, so planning comes later.

  • How’s the insights generated from making mamak workshops lifting the environment of local neighbourhoods?

    I think we discussed about how the lack of engagement with the surrounding environment and that actually the idea of neighbourhood and ‘community’ is the dedication from like-minded folks or international mutual aid and organising between other arts collectives

  • Why people choose Georgetown to do artist work, why not in mainland? Because of the multicultural environment?

    Mei has a theory about cities that have the population of 700,000 - 1 mil are conducive for a healthy and productive environment for art and cultural work.

  • What are the main differences of a ‘shared’ space? Compared to a ‘free’ space?

    Shared space is not free, and free space doesn’t exist.

  • What is commonly observed of the DNA of different spaces and what is most significant to the success of the organisation?

    Collectives of collectives is a model that is shared by two organisations, but what is fascinating is the idea of continuity, to pass down knowledge, to archive what has happened in books, websites and shared platforms. This doesn’t happen often, but the opportunity to give younger artists and curators space

  • Why Mamak?

• Ali discussed concluding comments regarding UNESCO, ASEAN and large systems of global influence to attend to the everyday practice of arts collectives, and we thank everyone.

As I annotate the list of questions above with my thoughts, Cecilia, my supervisors shared that the influence of cultural policy ↔️ larger systems of international governance relationship can have impact on space.

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I keep looking back at the photos, to remind me of the excitement that bubbled in my body, my back cooled by the ratten chair in the semi-airconditioned setting of ALM Architect’s offices during my talk. I keep longing for the conversation to continue, for the connection with others to be there as I come back as a ghost, to see how lively COEX and Hin Bus Depot is during the weekends and the spirits linger on with momentum throughout the week.

I’m reminded that this is human, we need others beside us, to see our work and come alive in the flesh of the moment of the performance. A dream, a moment of adrenaline and sensory overload to remind us that we’re in between the figure of being alive and out-of-body, of believing in every moment to elaborate, build, share, discuss more. To recognise how feelings-affect navigate for me is also a new sensation, and doing a talk with one of your most trusted friends allowed for my research to land gracefully on the ground.

These sensations include the sweat around my shoulders when processing data quickly - nervousness, excitement, when there is too much to say. The bubbling of laughter when realising, ‘oh, we’re doing this again,’ the trust in passing conversation to another, or to interject. The supporting knowledge that seamlessly pass between colleagues-best-of-friends that lay just under my bones, pumping through my veins because it is so second nature. It was a spiritual liberation of the work we have been doing.

We know what we are tapping into is a truth we need to: