Munkao on the art-heavy, shoes-lite play of Kala Mandala

In one of the key pieces of art from the Malaysian artist Munkao’s Kala Mandala Playbook, there’s a group of adventurers: a bearcat or binturong, a monkey, and two humans, alongside a buffalo laden with baskets. The monkey is rocking just a shirt, no pants — full Winnie the Pooh. And nobody is wearing shoes. This tiny detail is at the heart of what makes Munkao’s work special. Because the shoelessness of everyone in Kala Mandala isn’t an accident. It’s a statement.

Like many fans of fantasy, Munkao actually started out most comfortable imagining and drawing D&D-style fantasy but that irked him. He’s spent more than a decade immersing himself in historical imagery from all across Southeast Asia and beyond, trying to develop his own vocabulary. This meant everything from colonial-era travelogues to contemporary work done by other regional artists. Apart from paying attention to the records of clothing, headdress, accessories, tools, food, and architecture, it also means noticing what isn’t there — like shoes. Despite the fact that medieval Southeast Asia didn’t have a lot of footwear going on, modern day recreations of traditional costumes often pretend they wore boots or shoes — because it’s kind of embarrassing to not. It doesn’t fit with the nationalist project of these countries. Munkao prefers to stick to the historical record in this instance and he’s bravely willing to pay the price: “Having to draw feet, that's really hard”, he said. “I'm still struggling to this day, man.”