Seni Kolaj Feminisme: Mengukir Realiti Baharu

A Feminist Collage Workshop held in conjunction of the KL Zine Festival 2025

There’s three parts to this article:

1. Understanding the role of collage as a feminist tool.

2. View the gallery of artworks by the workshop participants.

3. Artistic tips to make your own collage!

Adakah anda pernah merasa penat selepas bekerja sehari suntuk? Tak de energy untuk melakukan apa-apa untuk diri sendiri?

Anda tidak keseorangan.

Dalam artikel ini, kami akan menerangkan bagaimana seni kolaj bukan sekadar hobi santai, tetapi sebuah alat untuk mengambil semula narrative diri.

Ianya juga suatu alat berkuasa untuk kritikan sosial, khususnya untuk gender equality.

Sejarah dan Peranan Seni Kolaj Feminisma

Ramai yang kenali teknik ini sejak subjek seni di sekolah, dan kini ianya hobi santai yang lebih popular sebagai junk journaling. Besides being fun, it’s also a low barrier to entry for people to join without investing much for the materials. But have you ever thought every time kita cut dan paste tu, kita sebenarnya reclaiming our story?

"The historical emergence of collage in feminist art…trac[es] its roots to early 20th-century avant-garde movements and its resurgence in the 1970s feminist wave, when artists used collage to critique social constructs and promote gender equality."

– The IAFOR Research Archive, Deconstructing and Reconstructing Realities:
Collage as a Feminist Tool of Empowerment, Protest, and Expression.

Bila kita memotong imej-imej yang disumbat dengan standard kecantikan yang tidak realistik, dengan tajuk berita yang gender-biased, dan menyusunnya semula menjadi sesuatu yang baharu - ia adalah tindakan revolusis yang senyap dan tenang.

Contoh Seni Kolaj dari Penyerta Bengkel Artis Rupa Subramaniam

The session culminated in a powerful sharing circle, where each participant presented their artwork and articulated the new stories they had created from fragmented media. Mereka membawa pulang kesedaran baharu, rasa agency, dan keyakinan untuk terus deconstruct dan reconstruct dunia di sekeliling mereka.

To bring this to an end, seni kolaj bukanlah sekadar teknik cut and paste. Ia adalah sebuah movement yang tenang, sebuah terapi seni yang membantu kita membongkar agenda patriarki yang tersembunyi dalam media, dan akhirnya, mengukir masa depan yang lebih baik. Saya berharap artikel ini telah membuka mata anda terhadap potensi kolaj sebagai alat empowerment wanita.

Unpaid Labor

From Maiden, Mother to Crone. Female beings as a commodity through the lens of Media.

Founder, writer & designer of JupiterRising | non partisan rakyat voice for resistance at @jupiter333rising.

Dismantling AGEISM

Women cannot evolve beyond the narratives that the patriarchy has helped cultivate in our minds if we stay within the definitions of our own age groups. If we can swap stories across age boundaries — as friends, as equals — we’re heading towards dismantling roles and categories.

Cosmicsky is a reclusive introvert who likes having deep conversations with Art and Nature. Occasionally she’ll talk to people as well.  

FEMME

I've read way too many news stories about how a girl who used to be a tomboy won a beauty pageant. Why is it okay for a girl to cut her hair short, wear nothing but jeans and sneakers, play sports with the boys, and listen to System of a Down? But when a boy takes up ballet, wears a scarf around his neck, sits with girls at lunch, and listens to Lana Del Rey, he gets shamed for being too FEMME?

Hannef is a writer from KL city who likes to make and collect stuff in a creative, non-hoarder kinda way.

My Choice

This collage was made as a statement against the society rules of how men and women should and shouldn't dress. Cross-dressing is not a crime or a shameful act. It is a way of expressing and being true to oneself. Ultimately, it is my choice.

Mesha enjoyed making the first collage of her life with an issue that deeply troubled her personally.

The Agony of Control

This piece depicts the simple but deep anguish that comes from living with OCD, illustrating the struggle of needing to be in control juxtaposed with the inability to steer my own mind in the directions I want it to go. 

anonymous

Intention

This collage explores how people justify their actions even when they’re wrong, by clinging to a sense of sincerity. The figure reflects a kind of self-assured denial - suggesting that intention can outweigh impact in their mind.

Originally from Myanmar, Roe Htet is a refugee who writes to make sense of the world—and to change it.

This collage was made by a personal experience as how we are now stuck in the system. This symbolize what i need at the moment, as i feel burn out working 9-5 and i feel that i have no freedom as i contributed most of my time for work, til it effected my mental health. Yes, we need money but what i realize now is that freedom is much more valuable than money (which is actually just a tool, not the ultimate goal in life). I believe that every beautiful soul, need to feel alive by having a freedom = happiness cause in the end, we deserve a peace of mind. I hope more people prioritized this because life is much more than that. Go out and explore. And meet people, travel and learn about other culture, visit the nature and breathe and embrace every moment in life. Its okay to pause for awhile and have fun

ig : @ainaamirrah

Journalist such as Tehmina Kaoosji, a gender equity activist constantly stands up against media bias so follow her for more frequent updates on this matter. She puts effort into collating her thoughts precisely so more folks acquire the language and nuance of gender bias - so they can spot it for themselves.

Collage as A Tool For Protest And Social Change

Seni adalah ruang yang membebaskan dan alat advokasi yang merakyatkan idea kreatif di dalam minda kita - ia membuka satu wadah selamat untuk kita menyuarakan pengalaman kita sebagai seorang perempuan dan membina solidariti feminisme untuk mencabar norma patriarki dalam komuniti.

Bengkel seperti ini penting kerana ia menguatkan suara feminis sambil membuka ruang dialog dan perubahan, serta menukar kreativiti menjadi tindakan bersama di komuniti tempatan.

As a visual artist, I find collaging a liberating experience. I’m free from the stress of accurately drawing and painting a subject. Here are some practical tips to keep in mind while using arts to fight for a social justice cause:

Composition:
The ability to create a strong focal point is a science that can be self-learnt. The basics to know are the Rule of Thirds and the Golden Triangle. If you enjoy photography, this is where you have an advantage. With my participants, I work with them closely to find the bridge between their narrative and how that translates to their visual composition.

Layering:
It always good to start with more cuttings than less, and work on reducing the material as the composition and narrative becomes clearer. My best tip is to work on having a strong background and making sure the foreground is contrasting, especially in its colour. Of course, the mid ground is to help ease the eye to blend both those worlds.

Juxtaposition:
Surely the best part of working with collage that comes as natural advantage. There’s a power of placing two seemingly unrelated images. The weirder it gets, is almost always better!

Working with Text:
I’m pretty lazy with this, so I usually cut these up as chunks of words and play with them to give a new, "unexpected" meaning. Some do cut up alphabets to make up words, but I find this requiring plenty of patience I don’t have – do what’s natural to you with the resources you have.

Another tip is to take photographs of the layout, seeing it through the phone screen. Often you’ll be able to catch parts of the image that isn’t balanced and then gluing it as the final step.

Adakah Misi Anda Seiring Dengan Pemberdayaan Wanita Melalui Kreativiti?

Slowly, saya ingin membina galeri seni kolaj dengan agenda feminisma yang mengungkitkan masalah hak persamaan wanita di Malaysia sambil mengukirkan masa depan yang lebih adil untuk semua.

Visi kami adalah untuk menginspirasi wanita di Malaysia untuk membentuk takdir dan kesejahteraan diri melalui karya kreatif. Jika visi kami beresonansi dengan Pusat Pengajian Tinggi, dasar Diversity, Equity & Inclusion (DEI) yang mementingkan female-led wellness atau team-building yang lebih bermakna kepada pekerja wanita anda, kami menjemput anda untuk berbincang bagaimana kita boleh bekerjasama untuk mencipta impak yang lebih besar.

Hubungi kami di [skinandsoul.art@gmail.com] untuk menjalin kerjasama. Jom kita bersembang dan wujudkan sesuatu yang istimewa bersama.

This workshop was originally presented on August 2, 2025 in KL Zine Etc Festival in the Kuala Lumpur Selangor Chinese Assembly Hall. Photos from a previous collage workshop with IWRAW Asia Pacific titled 'Draw Your Way Home: Reflecting on Intersectional Lives and Movements' in December 2024 is also featured here.

Special thanks:

• Low Choon Chyuan for invitation and festival coordination

• Vanajah Srinivasan, for the photos and documentation

• Aina Amirrah, for assisting me

• The KL Zine Etc 2025 organizing team and volunteers