Portraits of a Diverse City by Allie Hill & Amin KamranI

HAVE
A SEAT.
HAVE
A READ.

Exhibition and talk at Kuala Lumpur Architecture Festival 2022

Following the creation of our e-zine, Portraits of a Diverse City, (see project here) we were given an opportunity to showcase our work and deliver a presentation about it at the 2022 Kuala Lumpur Architecture Festival.

When we take time to sit and listen to someone’s story, we connect at the heart level, and we see each other’s humanity – and vulnerability.

When I saw that the exhibition space had beautiful antique chairs and benches, it felt like they were calling out to me! So we decided to place the exhibition boards on the chairs instead of hanging them on the walls. We invited visitors to pick up the boards, settle comfortably into the chairs and read about the featured person's story. In this way, the visitor could 'sit down' with the person and spend a few moments discovering their story.

When we started this project, our hope was that it would help to spark more conversations about our identity, KL's diversity and why xenophobia is never acceptable.

Thank you, Kuala Lumpur Architecture Festival for your invitation to bring this conversation into the architectural realm. Within brick walls and tiled courtyards, streetscapes and steel towers live communities with interwoven histories and stories, and beating hearts.

The idea of getting the viewer to sit down on the chairs to read each person’s story was such a nice idea. Sitting on these antique chairs that have also stood witness to so many stories, I felt more drawn into each person’s story, and they resonated even more.

Amal S