Photographer Cheryl Hoffmann had a short stay at Rimbun Dahan in April 2025.
Cheryl Hoffmann is a friend to and of Malaysia. Originally from Canada, she landed in Kuala Lumpur in 2005 and stayed for 15 years. Always a historical geographer at heart, Cheryl photographed traditional performing arts, religious festivals and rituals with a focus on exploring the interwoven belief systems of Southeast Asia. Her work has been shown widely in Malaysia and in Canada, contributing to the awareness and documentation of Malaysia’s rich culture milieu.
Recently, Cheryl returned to Canada to be closer to family, but visits Malaysia often, continuing her involvement in Malaysia’s photography scene. Cheryl’s ongoing project The Liquid Land, with photographer Mark Morris, explores the immensity of tin mining in Malaysia. Iterations of this work have been shown in Kuala Lumpur as part of KL2020 and in Toronto at the Contact Photography Festival. To compliment Mark’s introspective images of the present-day mining landscape, Cheryl has focused on tiny animal money made from tin. For her, these talismans are the storytellers and each has a connection to Malaysia’s path to the present day.
With this project in mind, Cheryl has come to spend a week at Rimbun Dahan. In the peace and tranquility of the garden, Cheryl can contemplate a history of natural resource extraction that is evident in nearby industrial parks and housing developments sitting on former tin mines. She has spent her time exploring different ways of printing images of the tin talismans, using alternative photography processes, that include cyanotypes, anthotypes and transfers.
Cheryl says her role as the artist is to bring things together and see what happens. Sometimes it’s magical! She has brought together her camera, the tin talismans, the sun, the inspiration of shadows, the colours of the plants, different kinds of papers and mingled them into this place and time. The results are themselves a whole new set of stories, as we reflect on these remnants of the past in the present moment.
On Open Day on Sunday 27 April 2025, Cheryl will be set up in the heritage Rumah Uda Manap to show you her work in progress from this week. She will have some materials for you to use if you would like to make your own cyanotype art work.