Leon Leong on 'Making Room' and the Architecture of Memory | Episode 54

Malaysian artist and author Leon Leong joins us to talk about 'Making Room', his solo exhibition featuring three pivotal bodies of work, The Floating World of Kampung Baru, Cracks in the Wall (Razak Mansion), and AISYALAM: The Tree Nation.

Leon’s practice explores the relationship between people and the built environment, weaving together social critique, creative storytelling, and a mix of fact, fiction, documentation and memory. His Stilt Houses – The Floating World of Kampung Baru (2022) was shown at Ilham Gallery’s Triennial Ilham Art Show 2022 and later at the IX Tashkent International Biennale of Contemporary Art, where it received a special jury prize. His mixed-media installation series Cracks in the Wall (2018) was featured at the inaugural Kuala Lumpur Biennale and the UNESCO Asia-Pacific Heritage 20/20 Forum.

Leon is also the author of the novel Beautiful Things (2006), published by Crown Publishing Taiwan and serialized in Sin Chew Daily, which was a top five finalist for the Crown World Fiction Prize. His short stories have been recognised internationally and included in an anthology of Malaysian fiction. He holds a Bachelor of Science in Communication from the University of Texas at Austin.