iNYALA 2022 celebrates sustainability

The Ground Floor Atrium of Fahrenheit88 will transform into a luminous space of cubes, squares and pixelscape from now until 25 December 2022 for the iNYALA 2022 immersive art exhibition. Centered on the theme of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the latest iNYALA art exhibition showcases a total of 17 multidisciplinary digital artworks which invite audiences to contemplate Malaysia’s progress in achieving balanced human, social, economic and environmental sustainability through a combination of data, visual, sound, space and light. 

As the progressive platform dedicated to art, technology and sustainability, the iNYALA 2022 is brought together by an interdisciplinary group of industry professionals, including new media artists, music composers, architects as well as audio-visual, communications and creative specialists, in collaboration with the local students from Universiti Malaya, DASEIN Academy of Art, Multimedia University and Han Chiang University College of Communication.

In addition to the entries submitted by the students, the exhibition will feature works from both international and local artists such as Kaoru Tanaka, FabU and Jun Ong. A one-minute unique multimedia show curated by Kaoru Tanaka, FabU and LIE, involving all 17 art installations accompanied by sensuous sound, will be staged at the start of every hour to present an audio-visual experience which conveys the message of unlocking a world of beautiful possibilities when all interlinked SDGs are met.

“This year’s theme serves as the holding space for our audiences to pause and reflect on the development and progress our country undertook, particularly on SDGs, as we emerge from the pandemic. I hope the whole new format of iNYALA which dives into generative art will inspire dialogue and enable Malaysians to imagine different ways of thinking and doing to transform the world we live in,” Helios Loo, founder of iNYALA said. 

ENTER • EXPLORE • EXPERIENCE THE WORLD OF CUBES

Spanning over 3,392 square feet, the iNYALA 2022 new media art exhibition brings to life the idea of an immersive world made of technicolour cubes, symmetrical shapes and boundless digital artworks. The show consists of 17 cube installations with live media art mapped onto the digital canvases, creating a vivid field of visual spectacle overlapped with imaginative soundtracks curated by award-winning music production company – Inner Voices Productions, allowing the patrons to fully immerse themselves with real-life data which reveals the past and present of pressing topics in Malaysia. 

• “GLOWING PLANTS” by Kaoru Tanaka: Beautiful and delicate plants always heal and light us up. Just as plants are generated by the sun, carbon dioxide, and water, so are the things that humans produce. This digital artwork seeks to reflect and reimagine how human production in the face of impending climate change can transform through methods such as sustainable manufacturing which utilises natural materials as part of the possible solution.

• “AMORPHOUS” by Tan Sher Lynn, FabU: Fascinated by the grotesque yet strangely beautiful aesthetics of the microbes, the installation is an attempt at recreating these natural phenomena digitally. Perhaps we humans can learn from the behaviours of these minute organisms that resemble biological computers and how they influence each other, forming efficient networks similar to that of mathematically generated patterns. By making the invisible visible, we could engage in a deeper understanding of our relationship with microbes and the communities around us. 

• “VIVID DREAMS” by LIE: Goals without action are just dreams. More than just a statement, SDG is a continuous effort to achieve a better and sustainable future. We bring the statement to life by recreating the icons of the Sustainable Development Goals in the form of abstract motions. The rhythmic movements of the lights represent an ongoing journey to keep moving toward the goals; and continuity of the dream that everyone can achieve in solidarity for a sustainable future.

• “TILL THE GREENS ARE GONE” by Si Ying: This artwork is created to address the 15th SDG – Life on Land. It showcases a visual passage of colours and shapes from the outskirts to the city centre. Along the passage, there will be a gradual transition of scenery from the lively organic greens to the grey hard dead tones of the high-rises. The colour data are collected from pictures of deforestation and construction work taken in Kuala Lumpur & Selangor.

• “PIXELS” by Jun Ong: Jun designed the artwork installation and spatial experience of iNYALA 2022. The installation is itself an object and also a dynamic framework. Using a modular system, the framework made from organic cardboard together with the digital art installations are reimagined into a meandering pixelscape that allows storytelling and data to be visualized through different scales and dimensions. From afar, the glowing installation can resemble a geological terrain while up-close reminds one of the dynamic façades of cities. The entire spine anchors itself on the ground through a large, spatialized pixel that allows visitors to experience the insides of a pixel.

Staying true to its mission to make sustainability core to artmaking practices, iNYALA 2022 has adopted innovative approaches to prioritise environmentally-friendly exhibition design and construction with 75% of the materials used for the show being organic, refurbished and recycle-able in a bid to avoid single-use disposables, reduce wastage and overall carbon footprint.

The art exhibition is being created out of two main components – LED panels and cardboard where the largest cube installation is made with more than 300 used LED modules collected across the city while the latter is a humble, non-chemically treated material made from paper pulp.

The iNYALA 2022 is spearheaded by Helio Media, in collaboration with Filamen. It is supported by Tourism Malaysia and Yayasan Sime Darby. The latest art exhibition is made possible by Fahrenheit88, Co-labs Coworking, NovaStar, Nextrend, De Carton, LIE Design, Inner Voices Productions, Jun Ong and RUBIX. 

Admission to iNYALA 2022 is free, commencing from 10:00 AM until 10:00 PM. For the latest updates please visit https://inyala.my/ or follow @iNYALA.my on Facebook and Instagram.