Zilberman Gallery - Sculpture

Ah Ma: On family memory and trauma

Sim Chi Yin and Tash Aw in conversation
Saturday, December 7, 2024, at 5 p.m.

How can one speak about silences that have sat quietly in the family for decades? Who gets to speak, for whom? Are some erasures best left untouched or tenaciously unearthed? Singaporean artist Sim Chi Yin and Malaysian novelist Tash Aw have both made and published family memoirs, but may differ somewhat in methods. In this conversation centred on their books She Never Rode That Trishaw Again and Strangers On A Pier respectively, they speak to each other about how they have worked and why, what multiple forms of translation they have had to do of their family histories and inter-generational traumas. They will discuss why and how micro-narratives matter, and what remains.

The talk will be held in English.