A Journey Continues: CARRY ON Arrives at FabCafe Kuala Lumpur

This May, FabCafe Kuala Lumpur launched its first-ever Artist-in-Residence program, welcoming Indonesian artist Alam Taslim and his travelling companion, IGOR, to bring the CARRY ON project to Malaysia. The gallery became a living, evolving studio, and a new chapter in a journey that has been unfolding across Asia since 2016.

IGOR is an instant noodle mutation with an egg-shaped eye, and the unlikely star of CARRY ON, a project built around movement, journeys, and the stories that everyday objects carry. The series first appeared in 2025 in Manila, and this residency marked its arrival in a new country, and its first collaboration with the FabCafe network.

IGOR’s signature paper bag art work

For this second chapter in Kuala Lumpur, Alam Taslim used paper bags collected from both Indonesia and Malaysia as his canvases. These new works were then combined with the artworks created in Manila, resulting in a stop-motion animation of IGOR walking across two countries. The project continues to explore movement, journeys, and the stories carried by everyday objects.

A stop-motion animation of IGOR walking across two countries

A gallery that never stopped changing

During the residency, the gallery in FabCafe KL was transformed into an open studio that served many roles at once. It was the artist’s working space and an exhibition venue, a place for conversations with visitors and for workshops, and a setting for art jamming with fellow artists. After hours, it even became a temporary home for the artist himself.

Scenes from the exhibition

Left: Artist Alam Taslim shows his hand-drawn work. Center:Instant noodles—the design inspiration for IGOR. Right:The IGOR pop-up store at FabCafe KL during the exhibition.

Alam Taslim shaped the gallery into a warm, intimate, and active environment where visitors could witness the creative process as it happened. Throughout the residency, the exhibition remained in constant development. Existing artworks continued to evolve and new works were added over time, so the exhibition kept changing until the residency concluded.

Alam Taslim creates live art in the gallery while visitors explore the exhibition

This approach reflects Alam Taslim’s nomadic way of life and artistic philosophy. For him, home is a temporary space that is always changing, and his artworks follow the same principle.

Built on collaboration

Collaboration sits at the heart of both Alam Taslim’s practice and the CARRY ON project. The residency in Kuala Lumpur brought together creative practitioners and organizations from across Indonesia and Malaysia:

• Support from n0lkecil Creative Space (Surabaya, Indonesia)
• A photography collaboration with Impossible Film Lab (Surabaya, Indonesia) and Saujana Film Lab (Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia)
• A workshop with Kunang Jewelry (Bali, Indonesia) exploring egg-shaped beads made from recycled glass bottle waste
• Upcycled leather merchandise collaborations with Vitarlenology (Yogyakarta, Indonesia) and Etalase Ubud (Bali, Indonesia)

The residency also saw Alam Taslim team up with the FabCafe Kuala Lumpur crew to experiment with digital fabrication technologies, exploring the embroidery machine through IGOR Face commissions and the laser cutter through DIY kits for IGOR mirrors and wall clocks.

The Artist-in-Residence program has now concluded, but the CARRY ON exhibition remains open at FabCafe Kuala Lumpur until June 30, 2026.

Group photo from Build your IGOR mirror workshop