GEORGE TOWN, May 2 — For centuries, the environment has served as a source of inspiration for stories, dances, crafts and cultural traditions.

As ecosystems change and species disappear, Malaysia’s cultural traditions too risk fading alongside them.

Artists Christine Das and Bright Ong highlighted this fragile link between the environment with Malaysia’s cultural identity through Project Riwayat: Katha 1: Voices of the Vanishing.

“The exhibition centres on the idea of a ‘singular tragedy’ - the point where ecological degradation becomes cultural disappearance,” they said in their artists’ statement on the exhibition.

“As species vanish, the stories, dances, crafts, and traditions inspired by them risk fading as well,” they said.

Project Riwayat is made up of two separate components, embroidery work by Christine titled “Hanging by a thread” and puppetry performances by Ong.

In “Hanging by a thread” consists of five hand-embroidered pieces featuring endangered species ; sunda pangolin,

Malayan tapir, Raffles banded langur, Bornean banteng and Malaya tiger.

Christine said the black threads used symbolised chaos, bleakness and a broken ecosystem.

The embroidery was done in a chaotic manner with emptiness in some spots to represent the species’ silent slide into extinction.

Each piece also featured gold threads, inspired by those used in sarees, and these gold embroidery were sewn in neat motifs to symbolise a perfect ecosystem.

Christine will be conducting live embroidery on the Malayan tapir piece during the weekends throughout the exhibition period until May 17.

Meanwhile, Ong’s puppetry performances in the greens at Hin Bus Depot feature the Irrawaddy dolphin and helmeted hornbill.

The performances tell the stories of the dolphins and hornbills while also involving nearby audiences to draw them into the dance and musical storytelling.

The puppets are then placed on display in the exhibition space during normal days.

Project Riwayat opens today with a puppetry performance of the Irrawaddy dolphins followed by a talk on ‘The Fins Among Us - Why Co-Existence With Marine Mammals Matters’ by Louisa Ponnampalam from MareCet.

A talk on ‘Rebuilding our connection to nature and why it matters’ by The Habitat Foundation will be held at 3pm on May 3.

Another talk titled ‘Monkey business’ by Peter Ong will be held during the final weekend of the exhibition.

The exhibition is held at Coex in Hin Bus Depot from 10am to 6pm daily (except Wednesdays).

The puppetry performances will be held three times a day between 10am and 5pm only on weekends.

The project is supported by Yayasan Hasanah, ArtsFAS, Penang Art District, AAYU Homes, Hin Bus Depot, and COEX.