A new era of the Malaysian creative forces you are about to see everywhere. Get to know them now before they take over.

Ilham Alshahab thrives in the in-between, where curiosity meets craft. The Malaysian interdisciplinary artist approaches each new medium like play, chasing possibilities before distilling them into intentional, emotionally charged narratives. For her, spontaneity and structure are not opposites but partners, shaping work that is as experimental as it is deliberate. Your past projects span album covers, gig posters, GIPHY animations, and more. Could you share a turning point or memorable project that made you realise the power of interdisciplinary design across different visual formats? My latest solo show changed everything. I&rsquo;d mostly lived in the digital world, but suddenly found myself working with engraved wood, tactile interactive pieces, and projection-mapped shadows. Seeing people engage in new ways showed me the medium adds its own meaning, shaping how the audience feels, moves, and connects with the work. Your art is often centred on absence, solitude and peaceful ambiguity, inviting viewers to finish the story themselves. How do you decide which emotions or themes to leave unsaid, and how much do you hope the viewer projects their own experiences onto your work? The trick is knowing when to step back. I give just enough of myself, a trace of memory, a flicker of emotion, to ground the work in something you can feel. But I never fill the whole space. I want the piece to be half mine, half yours, leaving room for the audience to pour in their own stories. For me, success is when someone doesn&rsquo;t just look at my work, they see themselves in it.

You&rsquo;ve mentioned that engaging people beyond just panels, through new media, opens &ldquo;a lot of doors.&rdquo; What opportunities and challenges have you encountered while shifting from static illustrations to interactive, multisensory experiences? It&rsquo;s so satisfying to see how one idea could live many lives. Seeing how the same story is told through stillness, in motion and interaction all at once. The challenge is balancing these layers while keeping the core idea intact. I often have to step back and ask myself: Is this necessary? Does this help tell the story? Does it say too much? My goal is to guide the viewer through the work without overwhelming them, while still leaving space for them to fill in the blanks. You&rsquo;ve cited influences like Max Ernst, Maria Medem, and Herg&eacute;, artists whose work &ldquo;speaks quietly.&rdquo; Could you share a particular piece from them that deeply resonated, and how that moment shaped your approach to subtle storytelling? I recently picked up Maria Medem&rsquo;s Land of Mirrors, and it hit me hard. She zooms in on the quiet things, tiny gestures, subtle shifts, the air itself. Time bends in her world &mdash; starting, stopping, rewinding &mdash; urging you to slow down. It&rsquo;s drenched in colour, sound and texture, pulling you all the way in. Reading it reminded me of the power of subtle storytelling, how restraint and layering can set the pace, leaving space for the audience to fill in their own meaning.

"For me, success is when someone doesn&rsquo;t just look at my work, they see themselves in it." - Ilham

You mentioned purposefully delaying reference-checking early in the ideation process to let ideas &ldquo; brew.&rdquo; Can you share a project where this method led to a surprising or unexpected outcome? What was the breakthrough moment like? My recent solo show was proof of what happens when you let ideas brew. It was my first time building a larger body of work around one theme, and instead of drowning in references, I turned outward to the world around me. I wanted the world-building to unfold naturally, letting ideas surface through play. The turning point came when...

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Photography Floyd Grey Creative Direction, Styling &amp; Words Syazil Abd Rahim Hair &amp; Makeup Joey Yap Photography Assistant Sze Yang Styling Assistant Fekar Khairul

Malaysia Day Special: Ilham is here to inspire

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