Noor Mahnun (Anum)’s Baju Kurung (2025) will be on view at the Merdeka Textile Museum in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, when the museum opens to the public on 1 October 2026.
Located within Look At 118, the Merdeka Textile Museum is a museum and cultural centre dedicated to preserving and celebrating the rich textile heritage of the Malay world through the Azah Aziz Collection. Gallery 8, curated by Cult Gallery, presents contemporary works by prominent Malaysian artists, including Anum’s Baju Kurung.
The painting, developed through several iterations including earlier 2022 sketches, explores themes of confinement and identity through the lens of the traditional Malay garment, the kurung. While the title suggests enclosure, it also evokes deeper notions of restriction. Rooted in the artist Anum’s personal history—learning to sew with her grandmother and continuing to alter her clothes—the work reflects her domestic life, with the room modeled on her current home and wallpaper reinforcing the theme of enclosure. A view of the garden, inspired by RinjirÅ Hasegawa’s Garden of Basho (1947), introduces a contemplative, intertextual dimension.
Baju Kurung is a deeply personal yet universally resonant reflection on domesticity, femininity, and the quiet labor that shapes daily life. The central figure’s outstretched arms suggest both vulnerability and quiet resistance, while household elements like the iron, sewing mannequin, and patterned floor tiles evoke the emotional and cultural weight of routine. Through the contrast between the garment’s fluidity and the restrictive connotations of “kurung,” the painting explores tensions between freedom and confinement, tradition and agency. It becomes a visual narrative that honors women’s domestic labor while subtly questioning its limits.
Merdeka Textile Museum (MTM)
Merdeka 118 Precinct,
50118, Kuala Lumpur,
Malaysia
