The Poetics and Politics of Multilingualism About the Talk and Speaker
TypoCakap with Liew Kwai Fei & Lostgens
With the emergence of identity politics in Malaysia, multilingualism has become an important symbolic manifestation of political inclusiveness. For graphic designers and type practitioners who are keeping apace with this growing phenomenon, it becomes crucial to examine the subtle ways of how different languages, scripts, and types, may coexist. Of recent decades, social movements and contemporary arts have begun to
incorporate multilingualism in their creations more vividly. These works may not be appreciated as befitting the exercise of conventional typography, but it is of TypoKaki’s view that they are of indispensable value to graphic designers and type practitioners.
In this sixth installment of TypoCakap, TypoKaki presents Liew Kwai Fei and Lostgens. Liew Kwai Fei is a contemporary artist whose recent paintings have cunningly juxtaposed different languages and scripts to elicit a potpourri of meanings; whereas Lostgens is an art collective engaged in various socio-political movements and has managed to bring together artists of different backgrounds to churn out multilingual and multitextual artworks as well as advocacy materials. Their works speak multiple tongues. The prospect of multilingual typography is encouraging. Tongue-tied? Maybe not.
The session will begin with the artists’ talks and end with a forum discussion moderated by Tan Zi Hao. The moderator will be leading the session with more incisive questions specific to the use of texts, typography, and multilingualism in the artworks. The audience can also intervene with questions or comments throughout the forum.
Date
21 June 2015
Time
2.30pm
Venue
Lostgens’ Contemporary Art Space
