After the Pineapple

Artist: Chong Simin
Curator: Clara Che Wei Peh

"After the Pineapple" is the first solo exhibition by rising Malaysian artist Chong Simin, showcasing a new body of work developed through years of exploration and experimentation with the pineapple—examining it as a fruit, a material, and a vessel of memory.

Chong Simin’s artistic practice questions the relationship between nature and humanity through the medium of fiber weaving, creating sculptures and installations rooted in nature and history. She views weaving as a communicative tool that bridges the past and the present.

Her latest works delve into archival research and oral histories, focusing on the colonial-era agricultural history of Malaysia. This includes the economic costs and burdens of pineapple production and exportation from the Malay Peninsula to the British Empire.

Her research began with personal narratives—Simin’s mother and grandmother were pineapple farmers, and she grew up amid the sprawling plantations of Johor, Malaysia. The repeated imagery of pineapples throughout her childhood fueled her curiosity to trace the roots and meanings of this fruit in her homeland. Simin retraced these stories through botanical records, colonial archives, historical photographs, and family anecdotes, peeling back the layers of history embedded in the land. She interweaves the form of the pineapple and its byproducts with both preserved and fading histories of Malaysia and Southeast Asia.

Clara Che Wei Peh, the exhibition’s curator, has collaborated closely with Simin to create a dialogue on overlooked histories through personal storytelling and material research. Their partnership began in 2023, facilitated by The Institutum, a non-profit art organization in Singapore. This exhibition extends their conversation into Thailand—one of the world’s leading pineapple producers, with its own complex historical ties to the fruit. Visitors are invited to explore the intricate relationships between land, labor, and the global economy through the lens of the pineapple—from its fruit and leaves to the remnants it leaves behind in the soil.

Exhibition Opening

Wednesday, April 2, 2025 | ⏰ 5:00 PM – 8:00 PM

Venue

📍 Warin Lab Contemporary, Soi Charoenkrung 36, O.P. Garden

Exhibition Period

🗓 April 2 – May 31, 2025
⏰ 10:30 AM – 7:30 PM (Closed on Sundays and Mondays)

🎟 Free Admission