Mak, don't talk like that

Oil paint and hand stitched fabric with found pearls on canvas, 2022. Curator’s notes: This panel is from a series depicting a Malaysian folktale that begins when a mother finds a fish containing precious roe in a nearby river. She commands her daughter to save her a portion of roe, but when the mother returns home her share has been eaten by her son. Feeling betrayed, the mother drowns herself. A tale meant to instruct children to obey their parents, it is reinterpreted in Sultan’s hands as sympathetic to the daughter, who does nothing wrong, yet is forced to take care of her disobedient brother after her mother’s tragic death. This panel depicts one scene in the story, in which the daughter comforts her mother after she has discovered the missing roe.