Month: February 2024

Lucy Zola

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Lucy Zola

Multi-disciplinary Australian artist Lucy Zola is undertaking a 1-month Open Residency for International Artists at Rimbun Dahan in February 2024. During Open Day on 25 February 2024, Lucy will be sharing her multi-disciplinary works exploring the tranquility and unease evoked by the night.

About the Artist

Lucy Zola is a multi-disciplinary artist and musician from Adelaide, South Australia, who works in sonic art, installation, sculpture, interactive digital art, and photography. Rooted in the discourse of walking, Zola’s creations reflect on the human condition and our interconnection with the environment.

Lucy has been studying and undertaking language training, internships and artist residencies abroad on a New Colombo Plan Scholarship for the past year, her journey taking her to South Korea, Malaysia and soon Nepal.

In her artistic practice, Lucy strives to spotlight the overlooked beauty and richness inherent in ordinary sights and sounds. Through her work, she seeks to evoke the emotions and atmospheres of the landscapes she traverses, inviting viewers to immerse themselves in these settings and cultivate a deeper appreciation for their surroundings. Amidst an age marked by technology-induced detachment, her goal is to reveal both the allure and disquiet of the auditory and visual realms that surround us.

www.lucyzola.com

About the Residency

During her residency at Rimbun Dahan, Lucy’s explorations have also extended into the nocturnal domain, where she uncovers the delicate interplay between beauty and terror interwoven into the visual and auditory tapestry of the night. Her objective is to convey the coexistence of tranquillity and unease within these nocturnal landscapes, drawing from personal encounters with fear, fascination, and anxiety.

Lucy will be presenting her ongoing works, including an interactive digital graphic notation, sculpture, photographs accompanied by soundscapes, and an experimental film.

For more information about Open Day on Sunday 25 February, see https://rimbundahan.org/open-day-february-2024/

Studio 1914

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Studio 1914

Singapore-based filmmakers and visual artists Studio 1914 are in residence at Rimbun Dahan in February 2024.

About the Artists

Studio 1914, a Singapore-based art practice led by filmmakers and visual artists Adzlynn & Hong Hu, explores the intersections of Southeast Asian folktales, ecology, Generative Artificial Intelligence (GAI) art and experiential exhibitions.

They produced a video ‘Gambut’ which reflected on the futility of resolving the decades-long haze issue in Sumatra. It has been screened at the NTU Centre for Contemporary Art Singapore, VT Artsalon Taipei and George Town Festival. More recently, they created an AI-based animation piece ‘Madu’ featuring a Southeast Asian folktale for the National Museum of Singapore.

They were invited to curate a trilogy of experiential exhibitions as part of Rainbow Families SG, a queer art collective. The exhibitions took the form of temporary spatial interventions of defunct spaces at The Projector, a local independent cinema.

With moving images as their primary medium, they hope their works contribute to and encourage progressive conversations around navigating identities as Southeast Asians.

Website: studio-1914.com
Instagram: @studio1914

About the Residency

Since completing ‘Madu’, our AI-based animation featuring folktale ‘Hitam Manis and the Tualang Tree’, it sparked even more introspective conversations about biodiversity mentioned in Southeast Asian stories and how we relate to nature. 

In our Hitam Manis animation, the term ‘Taman Larangan Diraja’ (Forbidden Garden) was a key visual space we had to design. These taman (gardens) are architectural spaces mentioned in the Sejarah Melayu and across other folktales from Southeast Asia. We wondered about the function and aesthetics of such gardens. In designing a fictional forbidden garden, do we make comparisons to actual historical royal gardens in Southeast Asia? What kind of biodiversity would the royal palaces have encouraged? Did any parts of their designs endure through to our modern times, if at all?

In our research, we noticed parallels between the layouts of forbidden gardens and Rimbun Dahan. We turn again to our palace gardener, Hitam Manis, for inspiration. What would it be like, if we were to imagine and design the scene of the ‘Forbidden Garden’ inspired by Rimbun Dahan?

Hardiwan Prayogo

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Hardiwan Prayogo

Indonesia film enthusiast and archivist Hardiwan Prayogo is a resident artist at Rimbun Dahan in February 2024.

About the Artist

Hi everyone, I’m Hardiwan Prayogo; you can call me Yoga. I am a film enthusiast from Yogyakarta and a member of the Cinemartani film community. From 2014 to 2018, I served as one of the programmers for Bioskop FKY (Yogyakarta Arts Festival). I also worked as a programmer for the Festival Film Dokumenter (FFD) in 2019 and 2022. In 2019, I became one of the grantees of the Asia-Europe Foundation (ASEF) to visit Manila, Philippines, for research titled “Re-definition from the Bottom.” From 2018 to 2021, I worked as an archivist at the Indonesian Visual Art Archive (IVAA). At the end of 2023, I was selected as one of the participants for the 17th Crack International Art Camp in Kushtia, Bangladesh.

https://www.instagram.com/yogaprayogo27/
Email: hardiwanprayogo@gmail.com

About the Residency

My project at Rimbun Dahan is titled Ceritakan Kisah Tentang Taman Seperti Tak Ada Hari Esok – Tell Me the Tale of Gardens Like There’s No Tomorrow.

The tale about gardens in Southeast Asia is not a recent phenomenon, it has roots that go back before the waves of European colonial expansion. Traces of this narrative can be found in ancient texts, ranging from legends and poetry to reliefs on temples. In some ancient texts, we can find meanings attributed to gardens, primarily their role as resistance against graves (Setra). Graves are often associated with death and destruction, while gardens symbolize rebirth and renewal. Secondly, gardens often represent mountains (Ardi, Arga) and seas (Tasik, Segara), symbolizing land and water as the essence of life. Thirdly, gardens are seen as heavenly oases, places of retreat, meditation, asceticism, and taboo. In addition, Southeast Asian cultural scholar Dennys Lombard also touches on gardens as spaces of aesthetic and symbolic appreciation in post-colonial societies. There is an attempt to harmonize the syncretic life of the East with the European style.

During one month of residency at Rimbun Dahan, I sought a closer context on how gardens and neighboring lives are constructed in Selangor, particularly in Kampung Cempedak, Kuang. Here, I found many houses with spacious gardens. However, on the other side, some residents I met felt burdened by the upkeep of large gardens. One of the biggest challenges is to protect the gardens from wild animals such as monkeys and wild boars. This, of course, became the consequence that the cost of garden maintenance will be quite high. The larger the garden, the higher the price. This presents a dilemma in itself. We can see this as one form of the lifestyle change of contemporary society today. When gardens and fields are no longer seen as economic commodities, let alone the concept of sustainable farming, then the affordable solution for them is only two things: to clear the garden for building or to sell it.

Therefore, this project is titled Tell Me the Tale of Gardens Like There’s No Tomorrow. I want to invite people to collaboratively narrate their stories about gardens through the archives of texts and photographic works that I show. So, if someday these gardens are no longer in our sight today, at least the stories about them remain in the corners of our memory.


Open Day February 2024

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Open Day February 2024

UPDATE: GARDEN TOUR IS CANCELLED, OPEN DAY CONTINUES

We have just had a freak storm at Rimbun Dahan and lost a significant number of trees. The driveway is blocked in several places, and access is challenging.

The Garden Tour tomorrow morning is CANCELLED.

All other Open Day activities will continue on a slightly smaller and hopefully more intimate scale.

If you would like to join us, please drive up Lorong Belimbing and enter through the side gate. From there, you can walk to the heritage houses at the back of the property. Parking along the driveway inside will be limited, however, so Grab or carpooling is encouraged!

A day of art and artists, in the 14-acre tropical greenery of Rimbun Dahan, 45 minutes from Kuala Lumpur.

On Sunday 25 February 2024, Rimbun Dahan will be open to the public to view works in progress by our current resident artists Gardika Gigih (Indonesia), Lucy Zola (Australia), Studio 1914 (Singapore), Hardiwan Prayogo (Indonesia) and Yap Chee Keng (Malaysia).

Free entry. Registration required for garden tour only (see below).

Schedule

9:00am-11:00am: [FULL: REGISTRATION CLOSED] Guided garden tour of our 14-acre native Southeast Asian arboretum and garden at Rimbun Dahan by Angela Hijjas. Meet at the front gate. Slots are limited, and registrations are required for the garden tour. Please register here: https://forms.gle/dQuNBHd7gNeXJffL9 — [Registration for the garden tour is now closed. All other Open Day activities are drop-in and do not require registration. During your visit you may walk about the garden at your leisure.]

11:00am-2:00pm: Visual artists’ studios open to the public. Please visit the studios and have a chat with the artists.

2:00-3:00pm: Lunch break; studios closed. You are welcome to bring your own picnic to enjoy in the garden; please take your rubbish with you.

3:00-6:00pm: Visual artists’ studios open to the public.

4:00pm-5:00pm: Book sharing session: Discussion of Syair Jaran Tamasa, published by Buku Fixi for a Jawi-to-Rumi transcription project produced by Dr Mulaika Hijjas. Copies of the book will be available for purchase.

5:00pm-5:45pm: Workshop by resident composer Gardika Gigih, introducing his method of sound recording and composition in his studio, followed by an outdoor session of crowd-sourced sound making improvisation, in response to the natural soundscape at Rimbun Dahan. Just drop in, no need to register. Bring your own instrument, if you like! Meet at the Dance Studio.

Travelling Directions

Use Waze to drive to Rimbun Dahan: https://waze.com/ul/hw284q6meb

Use Google Maps to drive to Rimbun Dahan: https://maps.app.goo.gl/ft5fV9YpGsvciCtU8

Landmarks: Our front gate is opposite Warung Selera Ria and also next to the start of Lorong Belimbing. Do not enter Lorong Belimbing, please enter the front gate from the main road.

Tips for Visitors

  • We have parking inside the compound, along the driveway. Just drive in the front gate and park as indicated along the drive.
  • Bring your own mosquito repellent!
  • We are sorry, Rimbun Dahan is not a wheelchair accessible venue.
  • Wear practical shoes if you are planning to walk around the garden.
  • Bring an umbrella in case of rain.
  • No refreshments or water provided. Feel free to bring your own picnic, and enjoy it in the gardens; please clean up all your trash.
  • No pets, no swimming — thank you for your cooperation.

If you have any questions, please email arts@rimbundahan.org or WhatsApp Bilqis at +6017-3103769.

About the Artists

Gardika Gigih Pradipta is an Indonesian composer, pianist, and soundscape researcher. After studying composition at the Indonesian Institute of Arts, Gardika’s interest in the intersection of music, society, and culture led him to pursue a Masters Degree in Cultural Anthropology. His works span numerous genres, from concerts to contemporary improvisation, film scoring, and sound ethnography. His debut album Nyala (2017) received widespread acclaim and was named a top album of the year by The Jakarta Post. In 2019 he conducted soundscape research as a fellow of The Japan Foundation Asia Center, and in 2023 he lived in New York for 6 months as an Asian Cultural Council Fellow. Gardika is continuing to develop new compositions and electroacoustic works inspired by his global research.

Hardiwan Prayogo is a film enthusiast from Yogyakarta and a member of the Cinemartani film community. One of the programmers for Bioskop FKY (Yogyakarta Arts Festival), he also worked as a programmer for the Festival Film Dokumenter (FFD), visited Manila as a grantee of the Asia-Europe Foundation and worked as an archivist at the Indonesian Visual Art Archive (IVAA). He was recently selected as one of the participants for the 17th Crack International Art Camp in Kushtia, Bangladesh. His project at Rimbun Dahan invite people to collaboratively narrate their stories about gardens through the archives of texts and photographic works, as an investigation into lifestyle change in contemporary society.

Studio 1914, a Singapore-based art practice led by filmmakers and visual artists, Adzlynn & Hong Hu, explores the intersections of Southeast Asian folktales, ecology, Generative Artificial Intelligence (GAI) art and experiential exhibitions. With moving images as their primary medium, they hope their works contribute to and encourage progressive conversations around navigating identities as Southeast Asians. During their residency at Rimbun Dahan, they noticed parallels between the layouts of forbidden gardens (which were key to their previous work ‘Madu’) and Rimbun Dahan, and wondered what it would be like if they were to imagine and design the scene of the ‘Forbidden Garden’ inspired by Rimbun Dahan.

Lucy Zola is a multi-disciplinary artist and musician from Adelaide, South Australia, who works in sonic art, installation, sculpture, interactive digital art, and photography. Rooted in the discourse of walking, Zola’s creations reflect on the human condition and our interconnection with the environment. Lucy has been studying and undertaking language training, internships and artist residencies abroad on a New Colombo Plan Scholarship for the past year, her journey taking her to South Korea, Malaysia and soon Nepal. This Sunday during Open Day, Lucy will be sharing her multi-disciplinary works exploring the tranquility and unease evoked by the night.

Amirul Arif is a Diploma student in Landscape Horticulture currently undertaking an internship in Rimbun Dahan. He aspires to be a naturalist specialising on the biogeography of maritime Southeast Asia. Devoting most of his time to studying and exploring upriver, coasts, mountains and jungles of Malay Peninsula, he has planted a plot of land in rural Kelantan with indigenous trees and amassed a collection of anthropological trinkets and scientific specimens to share with the general public. On Open Day, Amirul will be exhibiting butterfly specimens collected in the Malay Peninsula to illustrate the luxuriance of butterfly diversity in this region, their role in the environment and the implications that carries with their dwindling presence.

Dr Mulaika Hijjas is Senior Lecturer in South East Asian Studies at SOAS University of London, where she teaches Malay and Indonesian literature and culture. She is principle investigator of the Leverhulme Trust-funded project ‘Mapping Sumatra’s Manuscript Cultures’ (www.naskahsumatra.org). Syair Jaran Tamasa is a Malay narrative poem telling the story of Jaran Tamasa’s quest to win his beloved, Ken Lamlam Arsa, who is destined to be the concubine of the Majapahit king. Jaran Tamasa kidnaps her using magical powers, but her brother vows revenge. The poem survives in only two manuscripts, both held by the British Library. Unread for over 200 years, it was transcribed from Jawi by volunteers in Malaysia and Singapore, and is now published for the first time. Copies of the book will be available for purchase on Open Day for RM28, or RM60 for 3 (promotional price).

About Rimbun Dahan

Rimbun Dahan is the home of Malaysian architect Hijjas Kasturi and his wife Angela. Set on fourteen acres outside Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, the compound of Rimbun Dahan is a centre for developing traditional and contemporary art forms. It features buildings designed by Hijjas Kasturi, as well as two early 20th century traditional Malay houses from Perak and Penang, in an indigenous Southeast Asian garden environment which has recently been awarded arboretum status. Rimbun Dahan is private property, and is only open to the public on Open Days.

Gardika Gigih

admin Southeast Asian Arts Residency ,
Gardika Gigih

Indonesian composer Gardika Gigih is at Rimbun Dahan for a two-month residency in 2024.

About the Artist

Gardika Gigih Pradipta is an Indonesian composer, pianist, and soundscape researcher. After studying composition at the Indonesian Institute of Arts, Gardika’s interest in the intersection of music, society, and culture led him to pursue a Masters Degree in Cultural Anthropology. His works span numerous genres, from concerts to contemporary improvisation, film scoring, and sound ethnography. His debut album Nyala (2017), released by Indonesian independent label Sorge Records, received widespread acclaim and was named a top album of the year by The Jakarta Post.

In 2019, Gardika received a fellowship from The Japan Foundation Asia Center to conduct soundscape research as cultural narratives in Southeast Asia and Japan. Published in www.lostinsound.art
From January to June 2023, he lived in New York as an Asian Cultural Council Fellow, to study cultural diversity and multicultural collaboration in the New York music scene. Last May at the British Library, his composition “Mimpi Owa: A Duet with Javanese Gibbons” won the “Sound of the Year Awards” for the Composed with Sound category, initiated by the BBC Radiophonic Institute and the Museum of Sounds.

Gardika is continuing to develop new compositions and electroacoustic works inspired by his global research.

https://www.instagram.com/gardikagigih/
https://open.spotify.com/artist/0o6rbDGIxDEw5vzGKyxdcK

About the Residency

Every day at Rimbun Dahan, from the very morning until late at night, I listen to so many sounds from the tropical nature surrounding us. It’s a wonderful experience to feel so many creatures living together in this place, and it makes me listen deeper to the various birds, insects, dogs, winds, etc. to know that they have their own characteristics, timbral, rhythm, texture, and even daily hours. For example, some insects only create sounds between 7pm and 8pm, and some birds mostly sing in the early morning during sunrise. It’s nurturing my ear sensibility.

From this pure listening experience, I want to create “Mikrokosmos 2: Saripati Kehidupan”, a series of compositions with this magical natural soundscape recording, and combine it with music instruments from various cultures, including gambus, guzheng, cello, Balinese gamelan, and piano. This work is a reflection on our current environmental crisis. What can we still do for our shared Earth?