​楊子扬     Yeo Tze Yang

Memory's Landscape

Works from the Steve Wong Art Collection

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Group exhibition, collector's showcase

GDP Campus

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

16 May - 2 August 2026

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Staged at the GDP Campus, Memory's Landscape was conceived as an immersive, sensory environment. The spatial layout and curation by R+ worked in tandem with a subtle infusion of scents by Aēsop, activating the room to transform the gallery into a landscape of its own. Rather than offering a passive viewing experience, the space functioned as a site of reflection, one where the collective memories of the artists gently triggered the personal recollections of the viewer. The exhibition stands as a thoughtful documentation of how geography and time intertwine, capturing the familiar yet forgotten corners of shared and individual histories.

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Map of Pandan Jaya (2024)

Watercolour, acrylic and putty on paper, 98.5 x 185cm
Private Collection of Dr Steve Wong

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From the series Observations Under the Flyover  (2025)

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With this "map", I wanted to give viewers a physical anchor, a sense of where they actually were, since the entire series centers on Pandan Jaya. It is a largely neglected, unremarkable neighborhood. True enough, when the show opened, most viewers only recognized the spots in my paintings as places they drive past, never places to stop and spend time in.

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But this isn't a typical map. It is entirely cartographically inaccurate, built instead on a loose collage of Google Maps, personal memories, and gut feelings. As I drew, the map literally expanded; I kept adding more and more sheets of paper to the work, allowing it to sprawl outward like a Malaysian suburb itself. The streets, walk-up flats, and shopfronts are vaguely sketched in monochrome, using black, burnt umber, silver, and white to mirror the grimy concrete and asphalt that dominate the neighborhood.

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Crucially, I wanted to emphasize how Pandan Jaya is trapped, hemmed in by massive highways and flyovers. To capture my general impression of Kuala Lumpur as a city utterly dominated by cars, I drew hundreds of tiny vehicles, cut them out, and meticulously stuck them onto the drawn roads. These veins of heavy traffic completely envelope the neighborhood. Yet, look closer beneath the infrastructure, and you can see the actual life happening on the ground: people walking, playing football, and navigating the edges of highways.

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At the bottom of the piece, I wrote a small reflection as I brought it to a close. Stepping away from my usual root in optical realism, this piece forced me into a bird’s-eye view; floating, looking down from above. It was completely outside my comfort zone, and truly a challenge to make.