In this painting of a photo, the camera’s eye peers out onto the lush rainforest of Niah National Park, from inside the mouth of the Niah caves, Sarawak. The Niah caves are currently in the process of being nominated as a Unesco World Heritage site, on the basis of the traces and remnants of prehistoric human life found there by archaeologists.

The photo, likely taken from the Internet, captures a site of Malaysia's natural and cultural heritage, and the artist uses his fine technical abilities to recreate the realism of a photo. We struggle, however, to make out the details of the picture because our view is obscured by tears and fademarks, painted to age the photograph.
As Kho writes, “Many things are to be experienced on site and you get the greatest benefits when experiencing them in real life. Photographs are a way of recording and recalling memories, but it would be ridiculous if our heritage were only available for future generations to see in photographs. Besides, photos will fade and be damaged with the passage of time, which is not the best way to preserve them. Although technology has made it easy for us to search and retrieve these photos, there is less of an aftertaste and a sense of recall.”
Judge Bibi Chew was drawn by the painting “because this is something that talks about our environmental issues. For me, heritage is not only about objects, it should also be about places. Intangible things, more than forms that you can see clearly.”