When Gavin Yap got his first limited-edition poster, he said he knew it was a matter of time before he would do something with pop culture-based art. It might have taken the playwright, director and thespian a few years, but Yap is adding “curator” to his list of accomplishments with his first art exhibition, “Are We Lost: A Search for Malaysian Pop Culture”, slated for Aug 22 and 23 at Studio 267, Kuala Lumpur.

“It’s a search for Malaysian pop culture. We are not trying to answer any questions of what it is, but the topic was just something that fascinated me,” says Yap. To paint a picture of what to expect, the promotional poster sees Darth Vader clad in a suit with a batik tie, his armour adorned with the Malaysia flag. 

Artworks that reference pop culture is something that Yap has been interested in for a while, “I’ve been a collector and a consumer for a few years now.” He adds that the limited-edition poster-collecting market — a hobby of his — has grown significantly in the US and Europe, and “is picking up in Asia, but not in the same way yet”. 

Yap took time out from doing theatre to put up this exhibition. Are We Lost sees him take on a different directorial role, if you will, where he took a back seat and allowed the eight artists including Sandra Khoo, Kenji Chai, Lefty (Julian Kam), Michael Chuah, Zamzami M Zaid and Katun — free rein in creating the 48 artworks that will be exhibited. 

“These artists rarely get to draw their own stuff … It’s an interesting moment when they ponder over what to do,” he says. “Once they’re up and running, the work is pretty phenomenal. I just tried to help them understand the idea in such a way that it makes more sense for them visually.”

Each artist will present six artworks, ranging from acrylic on canvas by Katun and Zamzami, to ink on paper by graffiti artist Chai and comic artist Lefty, who explores Malaysian life using pop-culture science fiction. Fellow comic artist Chuah will be presenting a series on “hantus” (ghosts) from Malaysian folklore, while Khoo, a graphic artist, is focusing on characters with a Disney-esque twist. 

Citing his plan to continue curating exhibitions that explore more specific areas of pop-culture art, and perhaps eventually even starting up an online art gallery, Yap says he’s been fortunate to be slowly included into the fold of these artists, whose unique interactions fascinate him. “I do feel we have amazing talent here, and if people are not aware, I want them to be aware of them. It’s a give-and-take situation … I want people to have the same feeling that I had when I first took that poster out and went, ‘My god, feel this!’ — that excitement,” Yap smiles. 

The playwright and director admits that he’s been quiet on the Kuala Lumpur theatre scene in the last few years, appearing only in “Speed the Plow” with Douglas Lim earlier this year. “I never left the industry; I just changed directions, I suppose,” explains Yap. “I wanted to take a step back and think about what it was that I really wanted to do.” He has also shifted his focus to film-making — his debut film, Take Me To Dinner, was released last year — and voice-directing animation work in Malaysia. 

Having also been performing regularly in Singapore’s theatre scene over the past two years, Yap says that while it wasn’t planned, “Once it started happening, I made a conscious decision to let people know that I really wanted to work”. 

He adds, “After this [exhibition] I head straight back to Singapore for a very brief rehearsal before we head to the Brisbane Arts Festival. We are performing ‘The Importance of Being Earnest’.” This will be the third time he performs the Oscar Wilde play with contemporary theatre company Wild Rice, after the highly successful first run in 2009. 

He says that curating an art show is not that different from producing a play or a film, “You got to make sure everything is in order, and that you keep to your deadlines. The unattractive aspects of the business side of things and the stress of producing are also there. You just have to focus on the work itself.” 

Catch “Are We Lost: A Search for Malaysian Pop Culture” at Studio 267, 267 Jalan Damansara, Bukit Damansara, KL, for two days only on Aug 22 and 23, from noon to 6pm. Besides the original artworks, posters of a majority of the pieces will also be sold. 

This article first appeared in digitaledge Daily, on August 17, 2015.