11th Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art

Re-imagining the workplace 2024 is a public event developed by Ana Estrada, Nasrikah and Okui Lala, drawing on overlapping concerns within their independent and collaborative practices. Okui Lala is an artist and cultural worker whose snappy, engaging videos are complemented by her work as an educator and workshop facilitator for NGOs and social groups. Raised in a Malaysian Chinese family in multilingual Penang, Okui is proficient in English, Malay, Mandarin and several Chinese dialects, and much of her work focuses on linguistic and generational differences as markers for the complex matrices of ethnic, religious and gender identity that comprise Malaysian society. Okui’s work is typically collaborative and participatory, engaging family and members of the broader community. Her most self-contained work, My language proficiency 2017, is arguably her most unusual, in that it features four versions of the artist attempting to hold a conversation with herself in Malay, Mandarin, English and Hokkien. More often, Okui works with other individuals, showcasing high levels of professional expertise otherwise obscured by marginal social status — as in the case of a Bengali carpenter she befriended in Penang; or with groups, to provide compressed snapshots of social realities, such as the multigenerational and multilingual perspectives on the Malaysian public school system showcased in the 2019 video National language class: Our language proficiency . Since 2018, Okui has been collaborating with poet, writer and community facilitator, Nasrikah, an Indonesian domestic worker based in Malaysia since the late 1990s. Nasrikah is a founding member of the the Indonesian Migrant Domestic Workers Association (PERTIMIG) in Malaysia, an independent organisation advocating for the rights of migrant domestic workers. Their ongoing conversations resulted in the creation of the 2022 documentary Rasa dan Asa (Flavours, Feelings and Hopes) about the experiences of Indonesian domestic workers unable to leave Malaysia during the COVID-19 lockdown. The film was edited from footage shot on smartphones by the workers themselves, combined with recordings of online meeting services that become vital forums for sharing experiences during isolation. Okui and Nasrikah have also collaborated on a series of events, including Eating Together dinners in which domestic workers dine and converse with the businesswomen who typically employ them, as well as public workshops and performance lectures that have become platforms for facilitating dialogue and advocacy for diasporic female labour. For the Asia Pacific Triennial, Okui and Nasrikah have expanded their collaboration to include Ana Estrada, an artist with extensive experience working with women in the aged care industry of south-east Queensland — a sector currently facing significant challenges. Estrada’s research intersects socially engaged art and medical humanities, emphasising the importance of listening and storytelling to create safe spaces for dialogue within the aged care community. She works closely with caregivers, residents and family members, navigating complex issues, such as stress, overwork and isolation. These experiences correspond to those identified by PERTIMIG in domestic workers, whose role increasingly includes care for older people. Developed collaboratively by Estrada, Nasrikah and Okui, Re-imagining the workplace is a public event that will gather caregivers to share perspectives on their complex occupation, and to collectively rethink its possibilities. The caregivers include three Indonesian migrant domestic workers based in Malaysia, and seven aged care workers based in Brisbane. Combining scripted and participatory elements developed in the course of Estrada, Nasrikah and Okui’s work with connections and trust forged in the course of their practices, Re-imagining the workplace is designed to platform the expertise of highly dedicated caregivers in the context of transnational challenges in their industry. REUBENKEEHAN ANAESTRADA, NASRIKAH, OKUI LALA ANAESTRADA BORN 1984, MEXICO CITY, MEXICO LIVES +WORKS INMEANJIN/BRISBANE, AUSTRALIA NASRIKAH BORN 1979, TULUNGAGUN, INDONESIA LIVES +WORKS IN KUALA LUMPUR, MALAYSIA OKUI LALA BORN 1991, GEORGE TOWN, MALAYSIA LIVES +WORKS IN KUALA LUMPUR Domestic Resistance: Nohdong/ 노동 Nongkrong (12th Seoul Mediacity Biennale, ‘THIS TOO, IS A MAP’, Project Gallery of the Seoul Museum of Art) 24 September 2023 / Images courtesy: Seoul Museum of Art / Photographs: GLIMWORKERS ARTISTS+PROJECTS ASIAPACIFICTRIENNIAL 84 — 85