Dollah Jawa

This installation sits at the intersection of two histories: macro and micro. The artist’s grandfather was one of many Javanese forcefully expatriated to Brunei during World War II by the Imperial Japanese Army. He stayed after the occupation ended, and ended up marrying a local woman and raising a family. The work engages with the history of the Japanese occupation of Brunei during World War II, as well as the artist’s personal family history. Two series of images are cast as projections on either side of a fabric screen. On one side of the screen are old photographs of Faizal’s grandfather, some featuring fragments of scribbled notes on the back. On the other side are archival images from the Japanese occupation in Brunei (1941–1945), showing scenes such as the arrival of Japanese troops in the sultanate, then Sultan Ahmad Tajuddin with the occupying forces and an example of the wartime ‘banana’ currency.