What if Spirits Dined?

By Anne Das

Bowls without names. Chopsticks without hands. Ghost money, toll tokens, and silence. At first glance, Ghosts of Feast looks like a table waiting for something. Or someone.

But this is no ordinary setup. It is an invitation to imagine.

Ipoh’s own Lee Kok Wan returns with a new art installation opening July 4 at 22 Hale Street, and it is unlike anything you will casually walk past. This marks his third solo show since coming home after 36 years abroad — and it is deeply personal.

“I imagine ghosts do eat too,” Lee says quietly. “So, I created a scene. My own mythology.”

The installation is stripped-down and open to interpretation. A monochrome palette sets the tone….  grey, white, shadowy. There is no fixed layout, no instruction card on what it all means. Just elements placed with instinct and memory. Objects we’ve seen in ancestral rituals, reassembled through the lens of someone who has lived far from home and is now reconnecting.

Lee left Malaysia in 1986 after years working in KL’s top hotel kitchens. He spent the next three decades in Bermuda, cooking in renowned restaurants like Four Ways Inn and The Reefs Resort, before taking on a leadership role at the island’s luxury food store, Miles Market.

“I knew I wanted art for my retirement,” he shares. “So, I started preparing early. I painted in the mornings. I took classes. I found a way to balance both things I loved.”

It wasn’t a sudden change. It was a layering; a quiet merging of passions that eventually brought him to the world of visual storytelling.

Lee’s art was soon recognised. He was accepted into the prestigious Bermuda Biennial, and his work earned him the Masterworks Literary Award in 2020 and a Judges’ Certificate of Excellence in the 2022 Sergeant Cup Marine Art Prize.

“I paint how I feel, not what I see,” he says. “And I love to experiment, just like in the kitchen. The more you try, the more you learn.”

Now fully based in Ipoh, Lee is focused on sharing his work with the local community. His earlier shows at 22 Hale Street — Astwood Park 2 and Intensity — introduced audiences here to his thoughtful, layered style. But Ghosts of Feast brings something different.

It’s not loud. It doesn’t demand understanding. It invites you to sit with the mystery.

“You don’t have to understand it,” he says. “You just need to feel something.”

So, come. Come to meet the man who cooked for decades before choosing to set a table for spirits. Come to feel something you didn’t expect to.

Ghosts of Feast Art Installation

📌 Venue: 22 Hale Street Museum & Gallery, Ipoh
🗓 Exhibition Dates: 4 July – 29 July 2025⏳ Duration: 4 weeks
⏰ Opening Hours: Wednesday to Sunday, 10 am – 6 pm (closed Mondays and Tuesdays)
🎟 Admission: Free