A self initiated project creating a unity campaign for culture's and languages of Malaysia. The symbolism behind the sarong is represented by the local phrase ‘Same same, but different’ or ‘Sama sama, tetapi berbeza’ in Malay. Through the current political divide between races and cultures, I created an object of solidarity and tradition to celebrate the unique diversity that we share as a nation. The designs for the sarong were created from a workshop I conducted that included 6 Malaysian UAL students from different backgrounds. Deconstructing the characters, scripts and languages of the primary line to construct them back up in unique forms to reinforce how language reinforces this truth.

The workshop I conducted allowed us to recreate designs from laser wood cuts of the different languages all saying 'Same same, but different' in English, Malay, Tamil and Cantonese. In itself, the reconstruction with newfound patterns show the same meaning but in a new way: Same same but different in itself. With dye sublimation, I took the new patterns to create a final design and print to mimic a modern Sarong, a traditional item of Malaysian clothing. 

(1.9m x 0.6m)