Product Description
One of the most beautiful and inspiring [hybrid-comics/illustration non-fiction] books I had the chance to acquire:《生鏽市集。Pasar Karat》by Malaysian artist NOvia Shin, from Taiwanese publisher 慢工出版 Slowork Publishing with editor/designer 蘇維. The hardcover book, with some 20 cut-out pages, reveals Novia's slow progression in a "pasar karat", literaly "a rust market". One of my favorite sequences shows a jump through time; Novia holds a dulang [a crate to pan tin ore] on the market and -on the next page- she is transported on the bank of the river, as if suddenly panning tin ore with her grandmother. Then present time resumes, and more objects -and the memories they hold- are explored. The market exploration -through the cut-outs- generates a multi-layered oral/visual recent history of Malaysia, and a "real-and-imagined place" where the three main ethnic groups converge and mingle. The hardcover book starts with a few (polyptych) comics pages and ends with extra pages of illustrations providing more details about some objects bought on the market. One of my favorites is the "Tua Pek Kong", an almanac used by gamblers since the 1950s, and where "all things in daily life [from objects to actions] have a number suggestion". An English translation is available on an insert leaflet. The book is limited to 350 signed copies. I also got the beautiful "Novia, 24 Hours in KL 5-12AM, Monsoon Vol.1, Vol.2", an A4 envelope containing 8 double-sided comics pages and providing additional mini-reports on daily life in the streets of Kuala Lumpur (and more info on the "Tua Pek Kong"). A wonderful book!
** English translation paper at the back cover
