Bethany Balan

Bethany Luhong Balan is a multidisciplinary artist and poet from Sarawak, Borneo. Her most recent projects include participating in “Dan Lain Lain,” an art exhibition initiated by Brunei’s Minority Agenda exploring what it means to be “the other,” as well as providing illustrations for “Aram Bekelala,” a Community Engagement Guide commissioned by the British Council that offers approaches to working with Indigenous and marginalised communities in Malaysia. Her work is often informed by and expressed through the lens of her Kayan heritage. She is fascinated by juxtapositions, and most of her pieces—be it a poem or embroidered textile art—explores the tension between rediscovering her culture and reconciling with the challenges of being a modern Dayak person in the modern world.

Titel : Ingen

Medium : Mix Media 

Size : 85x182cm

Year : 2024

As a Kayan person, I believe the natural world is inseparable from culture. As we lose Indigenous knowledge, we are also losing recipes for environmental stewardship. Each of the elements used in this piece reflect the anxiety I have about the future: the empty, upended ingen the Kayan word for a big basket used to carry produce back from the farm with brittle bones and crude imitations of bounty spilling out of it; the embroidery thread dyed with onion skin, roselle flowers, and coffee, which will eventually fade; the little jars of dirt anchoring the tapestry on the left and right: Santubong to the West, Sungai Asap to the East; unglazed beads from Lawas, raw and incomplete; and the rough representations of durian, engkabang, and black pepper, almost as if the artist was depicting them based on second hand accounts instead of real life. But nothing is truly dead until we stop talking about it or recreating it. So maybe this is me trying to create a future I would like to see. A future where Indigenous knowledge and values are part of the conversation: honoured, vital, and alive.