Sabah Tanah Air-Ku is a two-panel woodblock print by Sabahan collective, Pangrok Sulap. The prints present two contrasting visions of contemporary life in Sabah. The first is, in the words of the collective, “an image of the land of Sabah with people living in harmony and tolerance towards ethnicity, religion and way of life”. The other, according to them, “shows the reality behind these scenes of happiness and harmony. It is an artistic expression of the collective’s experiences – what they see, hear and feel.” The first panel, as such, boasts an almost touristic vision of the urban and rural terrain in the state, as well as harmonious, ideal inter-ethnic co-existence, with the second panel presenting the harsher reality of contemporary life in Sabah. Pangrok Sulap is a collective of artists, musicians and social activists based in Kota Kinabalu, Sabah. The name of the collective is a reference to both the spirit of cultural rebellion expressed in punk rock music (hence the colloquial term ‘pangrok’) and to traditional native cultural forms in Borneo (a sulap is a hut, or a resting place usually used by farmers). Formed in 2010, the collective was previously based in Ranau, and began life doing charity work at orphanages, homes for the disabled, and schools in the interior districts. In 2012, Pangrok Sulap turned to woodcut printing techniques, produced as banners and posters, to foreground issues prevalent in their native Sabah: environmental degradation, political corruption, traditional native lifeworlds etc. The collective was founded by Rizo Leong, Jerome Manjat and McFeddy Simon.
