For Sultan, this story has been about the responsibilities placed on girls and young women, and she strives to take a more critical approach to the narrative. These tropes serve to cement women into their social places. Fairy and folk tales often present mothers and daughters as reflections of each other or as rivals. Sultan’s reframing of this story in six intricate patterned oil paintings with hand stitched fabric elements reimagines the events from the perspective of the daughter. The story offers a warning to children to keep their promises and be sensitive to the hardships of their parents. Her daughter pleads for forgiveness, but her children’s perceived selfishness causes her to flee to a nearby hill where she throws herself against the side of a rock that consumes her leaving her two children without parents. When she returns to find that her son has eaten her fish and roe, and that her daughter has failed to stop him, she is distraught.

Her young son, however, is unable to resist temptation and eats his mother’s portion. She asks her daughter to cook the fish and save some roe for her. One morning the mother catches a Tembakul (mudskipper) fish full of delicious roe. She is interested in craft and women in the context of de-colonisation and contemporary art.īatu Belah, Batu Bertangkup tells the story of a widowed mother who lives with her daughter and son. Sultan’s work navigates ideas of domesticity and prescribed roles of mother and daughter within families and marriage. Batu Belah, Batu Bertangkup: The Devouring Rock, explores and re-interprets the Malaysian folktale by the same name.

Trotter&Sholer is excited to open our 2022 program with Azzah Sultan’s second solo exhibition.

Batu belah batu bertangkup lesson plan