Artist Lesley-Anne Cao Explores the Unplanned and Extemporal in her Debut International Solo Exhibition: Measure by hand, sight or song.

In a quaint retail space located in Sentul, often nicknamed the ‘heartbeat’ of Kuala Lumpur, lies the contemporary art gallery, A+ Works of Art (open 12pm-7pm, Tuesday to Saturday), where artist Lesley-Anne Cao brings to life her first international solo art exhibition: ‘Measure by hand, sight or song’. Serving as her first curated collection, this exhibition is presided over by Carlos Quijon, Jr., an art historian and critic based in the Philippines, where they bring together Cao’s work, old and new, to tell a story of improvisation.

At the heart of this international debut is the idea of change: beckoning visitors to sit in its uncertainty and to witness it in new perspectives. Foregoing the idea of static art, Cao and Quijon draw inspiration from the ancient philosophical question, if a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?, playing with the concept of installations that can’t be controlled, and outcomes that feel incomplete.

Amphibian Palm (2024-ongoing)

This notion of incompleteness and unconstraint is personified in Amphibian Palm (2024–ongoing), where various ‘books’, made from waterproof paper, textiles, plastic, and fruit packaging netting, are submerged in tanks of water. A re-exploration of a previous installation of the same name, the experiment involves a wave maker connected to each body of water, set up with specific parameters that allow its pages to flip through without human intervention. Yet, due to the unpredictable nature of the materials in water, the experiment evolves as the exhibition goes on. “After setting those parameters, there is this understanding that they will, in a way, have an agency, or have a life on their own,” Cao explains. “So, sometimes, these objects, in a way, behave as folks. Sometimes, they misbehave.’

As observers, we are left to experience something beyond our control—we cannot plunge our hands into the water and flip through the pages ourselves. Instead, we watch as pages slowly turn, sometimes moving backwards, oftentimes never flipping through in its entirety. Through this, ‘Measure by hand, sight or song’ begs the question: what is a complete experience of an artwork? “We see books; we see reading as living through books. So, what if the waves can [live] through books, too?” Quijon asks. “If no human is present, and the book was flipped, did someone read the book?“

Similarly, in a debut installation made for this exhibition, sheets of handmade paper are periodically dampened on a landscape of rocks, recording its changing shape as it clings to its uneven surroundings, dries, and moistens again in a repeating cycle. With contraptions set up to produce mist once every hour, you’d assume an unvarying behaviour. Yet, with the constant sporadic downpours and the humid air that permeates Kuala Lumpur, its outcome is never certain, never guaranteed, and always adapting.

Three and a half billion years (2024-ongoing)

Cao further challenges our fixed perspectives of Earth—something that is seemingly constant and unwavering— through Three and a half billion years (2024–ongoing), a series of magnetic constellations. A poetic reinterpretation of traditional landscape paintings, the Philippines-based Fine Arts graduate reimagines Earth as a magnet, present in small, everyday metallic found objects that we can hold, manipulate, and scatter.

Perhaps the most emblematic of Cao’s message lay in the two pieces of galvanised steel perched up in a corner of the exhibition hall. Originally made to display some of her newer artworks, the steel plates appear simple and almost accidental at first glance, but soon reveal themselves to be artworks in their own right as you move across the space. “There was this moment of recognising that, visually, they’re also quite interesting in the way that they change as you move around the space and look at them from different vantage points,” Quijon says. “So, it was an improvisatory kind of work or decision to have the support as works in themselves.”

Sheets of handmade paper are laid out on a landscape of rocks, moistened by mist coming from a contraption.

Through a collection of improvisations and evolving perspectives, Quijon compiles Cao’s work in a way that has transformed a static space into one that evolves depending on where you stand. Cao’s art enquires into the impulsivity of life—setting parameters around her art while still allowing nature to take its course, influencing her work in ways out of her control; embracing change, and questioning the way our perspectives shape us.

Graphite on paper artworks. The image changes shape depending on your angle of view.

Measure by hand, sight or song is currently being exhibited at A+ Works of Art until August 29, 2026.