Up And Coming Stylist Sabrina Elman Tackele Notions Of Malayness

For her graduating project this year, Lasalle College of The Art's fashion media and industries graduate sabrina elman directed, wrote and produced children of the soil a stylised short film that explores notions of Malayness. Malaysian modernist painter Latiff Mohidin was a key inspiration; traditional fabrics like javanese batik and songket feature heavily; ditto audio notes sampled from local malay films from the '60s - making for a stunning and powerful display that establishes the 24-year-old as one to watch. As with some of the most groundbreaking fashion designers and image-makers to emerge in recent years (grace wales bonner, telfar clemens and Kerby Jean-Raymond of pyer moss come to mind), conversations about race, history and identity are central to her work. Here, she tells Keng Yang Shuen why she - and many others will keep talking about them.

WHY DO YOU THINK THERE'S BEEN THIS GROWING MOVEMENT OF EMBRACING ONE'S CULTURAL BACKGROUND STRONGLY AND MANIFESTING IT THROUGH FASHION AND ART IN RECENT YEARS?

Our identities are what make us special. It acts as a distinctive trait and because of the deep understanding and intimate relationship we have with it, the possibilities for exploration are limitless. We cannot be accused of appropriating our own culture - it is ours and it's up to us how we identify with it. I don't think that the works with a strong cultural narrative that are coming out these days are necessarily related to or are a response to something happening in Singapore specifically. Instead, I get the impression that we are simply discovering more about ourselves and looking into whatever we have as inspiration to create – and it's about time. We tend to look far and outwards for inspiration, but we've actually got a lot to work with right here.

WHY DO YOU THINK BROWN REPRESENTATION SPECIFICALLY IS HAVING A MAJOR MOMENT IN ART AND FASHION RIGHT NOW?

I don't like to think of whatever I create as part of a specific movement. When I created Children of the Soil (watch it on childrenofthesoil.cargo.site), I didn't start out with a movement in mind, or the desire to prove my abilities and creativity as a brown creative. I just wanted to produce a piece of work that I felt would do my culture justice, because I think the fashion world could do more than perceive Malayness from just batik cloth or a brown-colored person in their traditional costume. Maybe this has to do with how we learn culture in Singapore in our tender years – through baju kurung, kueh, traditional instruments and games. This is a superficial understanding of one's culture. There are so many layers and this applies to all cultures, of course.