Lauren Black (b.1971) is a contemporary botanical artist from Tasmania, Australia. During her residency at Rimbun Dahan her work has focused around the theme of disappearance; exploring themes such as rare and endangered species, the relationship between human culture and botanical life and, the transient beauty of plants.
Works on exhibit will be in watercolour and pencil.
Musa gracilis, 2008, Watercolour and pencil on paper, 87.2 x 66 cm, RM 6 000. Part of the Rimbun Dahan Permanent Collection.
Henckalia sp.nova, 2008, Watercolour on paper, 87.2 x 66 cm.
Licuala khoonmengii, 2008, Watercolour on paper, 87.2 x 66 cm, RM 7 200. Part of the Rimbun Dahan Permanent Collection.
Macodes petola, 2008, Watercolour on paper, 87.2 x 66 cm.
Nepenthes ramispina, 2008, Watercolour and pencil on paper, 87.2 x 66 cm.
Shorea siamensis, 2008, Watercolour and pencil on paper, 87.2 x 66 cm
Ephemera 1, 2008, Pencil on paper, 92.5 x 71 cm.
Ephemera 2, 2008, Pencil on paper, 92.5 x 71 cm.
Ephemera 3, 2009, Pencil on paper, 92.5 x 71 cm.
Forgotten flora 1- confined, 2008, Gouache and pencil on paper, 69 x 51.6 cm.
Forgotten flora 2- exodus, 2008, Gouache and pencil on paper, 69 x 51.6 cm.
Forgotten flora 3 – palmed, 2008, Gouache and pencil on paper, 69 x 51.6 cm.
Forgotten flora 4 – executed, 2008, Gouache and pencil on paper, 69 x 51.6 cm
Heaven in a wildflower 1, 2008, Gouache and pencil on paper, 92.5 x 70.5 cm.
Heaven in a wildflower 2, 2009, Gouache and pencil on paper, 92.5 x 70.5 cm.
Artist’s Profile
Lauren Black is a leading figure in contemporary Australian botanical art. Her career in this specialised field commenced in 1997 with studies at the Royal Botanic Gardens Melbourne. Currently working as a freelance artist and teacher she has been involved in many projects and commissions including collaborations with botanists, artists, universities, community and government organisations. As well as exhibiting regularly as both a solo artist and as part of group exhibitions in Australia, Lauren has also curated numerous botanical exhibitions of historical and environmental importance.
In 2004 Lauren won the inaugural Margaret Flockton Award for excellence in botanical illustration, NSW, Australia. In 2005 she was awarded an Asialink visual arts residency to develop her practice further in Sri Lanka.
Lauren’s residency at Rimbun Dahan has introduced her to the rich and diverse flora of the tropics. She hopes to continue this relationship with tropical flora; developing projects that can reveal both the extraordinary beauty and precarious nature of this region for a wide audience.
Lauren’s work is held in numerous collections including:
HRH Crown Prince and Princess of Denmark
Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery, Tasmania, Australia
Allport Library and Museum of Fine Arts, Tasmania, Australia
University of Tasmania Fine Art Collection
National Library of Australia, ACT
Royal Botanic Gardens Library, Melbourne, Vic. Australia
Justin Lim (b. 1983 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia) completed his postgraduate studies in 2006 with the Master of Art (Fine Art) programme by The Open University UK conducted at Lasalle-SIA College of the Arts, Singapore after obtaining a BA(Hons) Fine Art majoring in painting. He has exhibited widely in Malaysia and Singapore in various solo and group exhibitions. In 2007,he was the Artist-In-Residence at TAKSU, Kuala Lumpur and was awarded the 2008 Malaysia-Australia Visual Artist Residency at Rimbun Dahan, Malaysia.
His new body of works examines the connection between existence, religion, politics and its relation in our contemporary social context. Using painting as a medium, Justin’s residency exhibition entitled Gods, Heroes & Myths represents and questions the human capability to distort the truth. Inspired and conceived between the 50th Merdeka celebrations and the 12th Malaysian General Elections, Justin uses random people and fictional characters to question various events surrounding the nation and people’s perception towards them. In relation, the works also explore subjects like manipulation, power and religion.
Detail from Gods, Heroes & Myths, 2008, Acrylic on canvas, 244 x 914 cm.
Hantu Air, 2008, Acrylic on canvas, 183 x 152 cm.
Hantu Tetek, 2008, Acrylic on canvas, 183 x 152 cm.
In Oil We Trust, 2009, Acrylic on canvas, 183 x 152 cm.
Orang Minyak, 2008, Acrylic on canvas, 183 x 152 cm.
Part of the Rimbun Dahan Permanent Collection.
Toyol, 2008, Acrylic & charcoal on canvas, 183 x 152 cm.
Warfare series 1, 2009, Acrylic on canvas, 122 x 152 cm.
Warfare series 2, 2009, Acrylic on canvas, 122 x 152 cm.
Warfare series 3, 2009, Acrylic on canvas, 122 x 152 cm.
We Want You!, 2008, Acrylic on canvas, 61 x 54 cm (set of 9).
Secret Identities, 2008, Acrylic on canvas, 122 x 244 cm.
Animal Farm, 2008, Acrylic on canvas, 122 x 244 cm.
Part of the Rimbun Dahan Permanent Collection.
The Last Supper was contributed by Justin Lim to ‘Shifting Boundaries’, the 2008 Art for Nature Exhibition. It is currently in the collection of Ng Sek San. 2008, acrylic on canvas, 102 x 102 cm.
Gods, Heroes & Myths, 2008, Acrylic on canvas, 244 x 914 cm
About the Work: Some Thoughts on Gods, Heroes and Myths
For Justin Lim’s third and latest solo exhibition, figures have literally come to the fore. In fact, they loom large on the canvasses. The interest in figuration is not a recent or sudden one. His formal training in figuration could be traced to when he was studying visual and digital arts in Malaysia from 2001 to 2003.1 This was later overshadowed by his interest in abstraction when he pursued his fine arts degree in Singapore from 2006 to 2006.
However, when Lim returned to Malaysia in 2007, he was caught up by what was happening around him, especially the political and social events of the time such as murder scandals2, the 50th Merdeka Celebrations3, the HINDRAF controversy4and the 12th Malaysian General Elections. The latter proved to be particularly momentous as popular dissatisfaction led to the loss of the ruling party’s two-thirds parliamentary majority as well as five states to the opposition. Lim recalled the almost ‘festive’ air during the election period when his neighbourhood was festooned with posters and banners, and the gripping political drama was the topic of constant conversation. This was also a period when Lim was questioning the reality of the ‘festivity’. Issues such as the role of religion, the influence of social structures and conditioning, and the relationship between power and truth were pondered upon. How much autonomy do we really have in life? And how do we relate to and perceive the people around us? This then led Lim to reflect on the political and social changes occurring in his midst. What is the relationship between power and politics, race and religion? How does the mass media influence public perception? How much should we believe of what we read? Can we really trust what we see? And how does one make sense of this paradoxical, topsy-turvey world that we live in?
Questions like these are explored through the use of figuration in Lim’s new works. In the case of the largest painting Gods, Heroes and Myths, the figures press upon the viewer, popping to life from a pristine flat background. Using the parade of characters, Justin highlights a number of ambivalences and paradoxes. Sumo and American wrestlers are a source of entertainment but are also treated as heroes by many in their home countries. So, how seriously should they be taken by us? Two other figures strike dance-like poses with eyes half-closed. Are they dancing or going into some sort of trance – one is never quite sure. There is a man sporting a Mohawk haircut and punk clothing. As an icon of anti-establishment counterculture, he takes silent aim at the central figure in the picture. A butcher, with knife in hand, who stands amidst hanging carcasses, looks at the viewer quizzically. He wears a white rounded cap, usually associated with the taqiyah worn by Muslim men. How do we regard this enigmatic character? In an age when terrorism-driven fears have exacerbated irrational exaggerations and stereotyping, where is the place for truth and tolerance? In the work Animal Farm, Lim takes inspiration from the book by George Orwell, a cautionary tale about power and corruption. Featuring a line-up of animal carcasses stripped of all marks of identity, the painting seems to be reminding us that regardless of our desires, convictions and achievements, this is the ultimate destiny for everyone – to become mere remnants of anonymous flesh, nothing more, nothing less.
The notorious murder of a Mongolian woman with its lurid headlines of a gruesome murder using explosives, allegations over a shady purchase of submarines, and the involvement of the police and prominent political individuals, had transfixed the public for much of late 2006 and 2007.5 In addition, the turmoil on the international front, ranging from Gulf War to the oil crisis, provided much food for thought. The use of ghosts as a metaphor by Lim is an interesting one. Ghosts are said to haunt the living, just as the excesses of Malaysian politics continue to make their presence felt throughout the past 50 years.6 Ghosts are also sometimes regarded as the repositories of our irrational fears and suspicions. One characteristic of Malaysian politics has been the periodic resurrection of the so-called ‘bogeyman’. Referring to a terrifying spectre used as a threat to misbehaving children, politicians often resort to racial issues to incite popular unease or unrest within a particular ethnic community, thereby manipulating them to behave in ways which have not been helpful in fostering greater trust and understanding within a plural society like Malaysia.7 Lim has, though his canvases, created a disturbing world where ghosts such as the Toyol (slave ghost used for stealing money), Hantu Air (water ghost), Hantu Tetek (breast ghost) and Orang Minyak (oil man) collide with the submarines, warplanes, suited businessmen, petroleum kiosks and hand grenades from our world. The atmosphere evoked in these works is certainly nightmarish and unreal, but is it any worse than the times which we live in?
Lim is an artist who has always been curious to question and investigate the world around him. As his personal circumstances changed, so did his field of exploration, and the means of his investigation also varied accordingly. The forms may be different but his investigative and creative spirit remains the same.
Low Sze Wee (Assistant Director – Curation & Collection) Singapore Art Museum
1 Interviews with artist on 6 June and 27 December 2008.
2 This refers to the trial of a political analyst over the murder of Mongolian woman in October 2006. The case became a political scandal because the defendant had close ties to the governing party as well as Malaysian Deputy Prime Minister Najib Razak.
3 This refers to a series of private and public activities which celebrated Malaysia’s 50th Independence Day in 2007.
4 HINDRAF refers to the ‘Hindu Rights Action Force’ – a coalition of non-governmental Hindu organisations – which had initiated protests and rallies to preserve their community rights in late 2007. These later led to several arrests and detentions without trial by the government.
5 This refers to the same scandal mentioned in footnote 2.
Joey Chua (Singapore) and Mcebisi Bhayi (South Africa) were resident choreographers at Rimbun Dahan in 2008. Mcebisi and Joey’s collaboration was the first recorded instance ever of a female Asian choreographer working with a male African choreographer to produce a single work.
Tracing: Dance Dialogues in Singapore and South Africa
Mcebisi, a South African Xhosa man who swears by his customs, and Joey, a Singaporean woman who can barely speak her Chinese dialect Hakka, decided to start a dialogue. After months of letter writing and intimate sharing of childhood memories, their exchange shifts to the present as they come face-to-face, finding both common ground and contrasts in each other’s dance background, personality and physicality. In tracing the minds and bodies of one another, they hope a new dance vocabulary emerges on their creative journey together.
The dance collaboration between Joey Chua and Mcebisi Bhayi continues to evolve as a work-in-progress showing in KL followed with appearances in Hong Kong and at Singapore Esplanade’s dan:s festival. The finished work will premiere at the FNB Dance Umbrella 2009, a major dance festival in South Africa. Chua, one of Singapore’s rising young dancer-choreographers, has been involved in many collaborative projects that have taken her to festivals around the world. Bhayi is a dancer, choreographer and educator who has been nominated as Most Promising Male Dancer in Contemporary Style at the FNB Dance Umbrella 2001.
Tracing was performed at the Fonteyn Studio Theatre, FAB, Section 14, Petaling Jaya on 1-2 August 2008.
Gabrielle Bates exhibited work she had made during her residency at Rimbun Dahan in 2007 in an exhibition at Trocadero Art Space in Footscray, Melbourne. Angela Hijjas was invited to give the opening speech.
Opening Speech by Angela Hijjas
I am delighted to be here at Trocadero Art Space, Footscray, Melbourne for Gabrielle Bates’ opening, and honoured to have the chance to say a few words about her practice in Malaysia and the immense pleasure we had in hosting her.
Gabrielle was Rimbun Dahan’s Australian resident artist for 2007, and she created this body of work in our Malaysian compound. She is an honours graduate from the University of Sydney and has been exhibiting since ’93. Early in her career, she experimented with conceptual video and mass media work, but she re-discovered that an important medium for her is painting, to which she returned when she had a residency at Hill End in 2000. From then on, she started developing her own style of layering, colour and form, highlighted by an echoing effect that reinforces the themes of her paintings, but at the same time seems to place her subjects in a different dimension.
Gabrielle’s experience at our residency in Malaysia has, I hope, had a similarly seminal effect on her art practice as did Hill End, certainly when she first arrived in Kuala Lumpur there was much to experience in S E Asia that was new to her, not least our political and cultural climate. She started out with a series of three small works for an annual charity show that we do each year for WWF Malaysia. The show was entitled ‘Superstar!’, and was about the cult of celebrities and how it now shapes so much in popular culture. Gabrielle was thinking about how we make gods of celebrities, so she decided to create some celebrities out of gods… She took religious figures from Hinduism, Christianity and Buddhism, and transposed them into tabloid front page bad boys, and girls… Gabrielle herself has said that such an approach would not have raised an eyebrow in Australia, but she hadn’t counted on Malaysian “sensitivities”! Portraying a god as a rock star, giving the finger to the paparazzi, was shocking – people in India might have rioted over less, I was told – so the curator decided to pull the work from the show.
This could have been a very disturbing introduction to a residency in a new country, but Gabrielle turned it to her positive advantage as she thought about boundaries and freedom of expression, and she recognized that the issues of censorship, in particular self censorship, are everywhere, even entwined in her own life pattern. Despite these concerns, Gabrielle isn’t delivering any judgements about our cultural paraphernalia, and yet she still manages to create works with a mesmerising impact that is due entirely to their rhythm and sheer beauty.
The audience at the Trocadero.
Gabrielle Bates and Angela Hijjas at the opening of ‘Mouth of Flowers’ at Trocadero.
A reunion of participants from the residency at Rimbun Dahan. L-R: Tim Craker, David Jolly, Martin Paten (all 2006) and Gabrielle Bates.
Pattern making had already become an important element of her work, and she began to investigate Malaysia’s symbolism, its fabrics, wood carvings and plants. These cultural symbols, woven into patterns that embellish her figures, emphasise how a particular culture can consume us and be a sole reflection of who we are if we allow that to happen, rather than enabling us to express ourselves individually.
As well, Gabrielle used new materials in her Malaysian work: Chinese ink, water colour, even pond water, and finally piercing her works with needle and thread, superimposing yet another layer of meaning onto her subjects. She attached bells to some of these embellishments, influenced I think by a more Malaysian aesthetic, and symbolically enlivening the work and calling the figures back to life and action.
Gabrielle’s subjects were people she met over her year in Malaysia, many of them other resident artists or performers who stayed at Rimbun Dahan. Donna Miranda is a choreographer with whom she had a close daily relationship, and Donna appears in many of these works, with the slackness and tension of her dancer’s body patterned, echoed and stitched, to bring out the dynamic and multi-faceted nature of her life, distorting the familiar and transforming it to the curious.
In addition to the works here today, there were several more of Gabrielle’s works that I’m pleased have stayed in Malaysia. We have kept two of her pieces, one of my daughter Bilqis, who co-ordinates the choreography residency that we host, and another of Donna Miranda. Amongst others, the piece that is featured on the cover of her catalogue was acquired for an important Malaysian collection. And there is yet another work that she has made for the next Art for Nature exhibition that came out of her year with us at Rimbun Dahan. It is an extension of her embroidery that evolved into a community project, in which she recruited all her Malaysian friends to work on a grid she devised… this work will be assembled for our next exhibition in May, and I’m sure this time that it won’t be pulled from the show!
We have been running our programme since ’94, and have hosted about 60 artists, sculptors, writers, dancers, choreographers and performance artists, some of whom are here this afternoon, and I must express my appreciation to Gabrielle and all the others, who have enlivened our programme with their energy and imagination, as they have developed their practices. It is never an easy option, being an artist, and I hope that our small effort helps to encourage greater creativity and awareness of each other in our respective communities in Australia and Malaysia.
As I see it, Gabrielle has coped with the initial strangeness of it all, adapted to it, and taken elements of her Malaysian experience and utilized them for her own expression. She has given us all we could wish for in her year at Rimbun Dahan, and I know she will most likely be developing these ideas in her next residency, in Penang at Malihom later this year, so I look forward to welcoming her back to Malaysia, and congratulate her on combining her Australian and Malaysian experiences in such a significant manner.
I would also like to thank the organizers here at Trocadero, for giving her the opportunity to show this body of Malaysian works, and hope that you will all enjoy the exhibition as much as I have enjoyed seeing these works evolve over the past year. Thank you.
Over the last few weeks, four new bird species have been spotted in the garden at Rimbun Dahan.
The first, and the one with the closest encounter, is the Rufous Woodpecker (Celeus brachyurus), pictured below. This specimen was found dead on the driveway and covered with ants — an appropriate end for a bird that apparently excavates its nest cavities in the nests of tree ants, according to Jeyarajasingham and Pearson’s field guide to Malaysian birds. It is surprisingly difficult to correctly identify a dead bird. Although its plumage can be examined in detail, it lacks the posture, behaviour, and context so vital for identifying a bird in the wild. This particular species also has a very weak bill for a woodpecker, but its identity was at last given away by its zygodactylous feet (two toes to the front and two to the back, to allow it to grip vertically on tree bark) and its stiff stubby tail which it uses as a prop.
The Rufous Woodpecker in death. Note stiff stubby tail.
Detail of the Rufous Woodpecker’s feet, showing zygodactylous nature.
Rufous Woodpecker head, showing diagnostic red patch under the eye.
The Rufous Woodpecker is a resident at low elevations in the Indian subcontinent and southern China through South-East Asia to the Greater Sundas. It frequents forests, the forest edge, scrub, plantations and gardens, and is reportedly generally unobtrustive but very vocal.
The second new bird is Hodgson’s Hawk-Cuckoo (Cuculus fugax fugax). A single individual flew past my mother’s balcony and roosted quietly in the Congea creeper by the reflective pond. It was identified by the vertical stripes on its breast and the pale patch at the back of its head. According to J & P, this species is a resident from low elevations up to 300m, and may well be a winter migrant to the area.
The third new bird on our list is the Stripe-throated Bulbul (Pycnonotus finlaysoni), a pair of which was seen sitting in a kenanga tree on 3 Dec. It is a common resident, inhabiting principally hilly country, moving around in small parties.
The last new bird, and the most impressive, is the Purple Heron (Ardea purpurea), almost a meter tall. On walks in the garden accompanied by the dogs, my mother flushed this bird twice from the thick vegetation surrounding the upper pond, from which it went to roost in a nearby tree, extending and retracting its long neck. According to J & P, this is the only large heron occurring inland, and at low elevations it may be a resident or winter visitor. It is usually solitary, stalking its prey in shallow water.
The flush of new bird sightings at Rimbun Dahan may be caused by the seasonal arrival of winter migrants as well as several trees on site which have been fruiting vigorously. Last week the salang trees by the back driveway (Syzygium sp.) were producing copious amounts of small red fruit, snapped up by a large flock of presumably Philippine Glossy Starlings — see images below, (no larger image available). As the garden matures and more plant species are introduced, it also provides more cover and habitat for shyer species.
We are working on a list of resident and visiting birds at Rimbun Dahan to post on our website, so keep watch!
Artist-in-residence at Rimbun Dahan from March to June 2007, Donna created new performance piece bringing together local Malaysian dancers, video and sound artists to explore the idea of waiting, passing time, momentum and interruption in Extended Periods of Waiting, which was performed on June 8 2007 at The Annexe Central Market. The work featured live sound by SiCKL, video projection by Saiful Razman and Au Sow Yee, lighting by Roman Cruz and performance by Donna Miranda, Bilqis Hijjas, Yuka Tanaka, Louise Yow Sing-Hwa, Low Shee Hoe, Shaifuddin Mamat and Chan Seau Huvi.
The trio section from Extended Periods of Waiting was performed again as part of the Tari! 07 festival at ASWARA in July 2007.
During her stay, Donna also created I Will Think About It, a contribution to the 2007 Art for Nature exhibition in collaboration with visual artist Saiful Razman, and featuring Poodien. She also conducted a workshop in contemporary dance, creative process and free movement improvisation at the Annexe Central Market in June 2007.
Donna and Poodien creating I Will Think About It.
Donna received dance training as national government scholar of the Philippine High School for the Arts, pursuing professional practice and further training with Ballet Philippines, Philippine Ballet Theater, Myra Beltran’s Dance Forum and specialized training in contemporary dance at the 2005 DanceWEB Europe Scholarship Programme, in Vienna, Austria. She has since been actively involved in multimedia projects that explore new possibilities through works that combine contemporary dance, new media, fashion, physical theater, spoken word and sound. In 2000, she co-founded Green Papaya Art Projects, building a research platform for contemporary dance in Manila through its Anatomy Projects (AP+). Her solo ‘Beneath Polka-dotted Skies’ recently received 2007 Jury Prize Award in the Yokohama Solo X Duo Competition in Japan.
I Will Think About It, choreographed by Donna Miranda.
Low Shee Hoe and Donna Miranda in a duet from Extended Periods of Waiting.
A scene from Extended Periods of Waiting at the Annexe Central Market.
Within the last week, we have had a number of sightings of a Blue-winged Pitta, Pitta moluccensis, in the Taman Sari area next to the main house. We witnessed the pitta at midday and in the evening industriously hunting for worms which it found plentiful in the exposed earth of the vegetable beds in the Taman Sari. Quite large and beautifully coloured with iridescent blue wings, the pitta was wary, but not skittish. Several times it hopped confidently across the open paths in search of food. When alarmed, it flew up into the nutmeg trees and waited for the commotion to die down before returning to the hunt.
The pitta takes flight with a beakful of worms.
When alarmed, the pitta flew into a nutmeg tree, showing its brilliant red underbelly.
the pitta photographed without flash, accurately showing the blue colour of the wings.
Another beakful of worms.
Worms found…
…and lost
According to Allen Jeyarajasingam’s field guide, Blue-winged Pittas are winter migrants from the northern hemisphere, resident only on Langkawi and in Kedah in Peninsula Malaysia. However, members of the Malaysian Nature Society’s Bird Group hypothesise that the pitta may be increasing its breeding range further south on the Peninsula due to climate change. They also advised us that if the pitta is seen with a beak full of worms, it may be one of a breeding pair feeding its young in a nest nearby. We’ll keep a lookout!
Addendum: On 26 August, a pair of pittas was spotted in the back area of Rimbun Dahan. They were behaving excitedly, perched on high branches and uttering a single call one after the other — even with a beak full of worms — accompanied by spasmodic wing flaps. Were they trying to lure us away from their nest?
The four-person dance collective EU & ME (European Union & a little MISTAKE and an EXCUSE) consisting of
Joey CHUA Poh Yi (Singapore, Hong Kong)
Marie CHABERT (France, UK)
Csilla NAGY (Hungary)
Rhys TURNER (Australia)
performed their work FIND.MOVE.PLAY, an interactive physical theatre performance with digital art, for the opening night of the Art for Nature Exhibition at Rimbun Dahan on Saturday 24 July 2010. [Photos below by Anthony Pelchen.]
The Collective began in 2008 in New York, in the frame of the Dance Collective programme organised by OMI international Arts Centre. Then the artists collaborated in the Czech Republic as resident artists of CESTA Festival. After four successful presentations in Hong Kong and Singapore this performance at Rimbun Dahan is the closing show of a one-month tour.
EU & ME arrived at Rimbun Dahan on Saturday 17 July, and within the space of a week created a 45-minute work tailored to the specific spaces of Rimbun Dahan as well as inspired by the artists’ own experiences of being on a residency in Southeast Asia and discovering life in Malaysia.
FIND.MOVE.PLAY was performed at 10pm on 24 July as the final event on the opening night of Art for Nature. Information about the performance was provided through an announcement during the opening ceremonies, and by flyers distributed on the dinner tables.
The performers used a number of different sites around the property, including the central space of the underground gallery, the reflective lotus pond, outdoor sculptures and herb garden. The performers invited the audience of 100-200 people to follow them from site to site, linking the vignettes with a narrative about Orpheus and searching for love.
The performance incorporated digital art, with a dance film taking a comic look at residencies at Rimbun Dahan, and an interactive soundscape in which selected audience members wearing headphones heard the accompanying music change as they moved around the space. The audience was also invited to participate in the work, manipulating the dancers, helping them with specific tasks, answering questions and holding flashlights.
FIND.MOVE.PLAY alternated impressionistic romantic moments – Joey Chua wearing a traditional Chinese cheongsam and singing a Chinese love song while paddling herself about among waterlilies, or Marie Chabert flinging herself about among towered sculptures of lit glass – with moments of slapstick comedy, as when Marie slapped Rhys Turner on the face in retaliation for his bad pickup lines, and moments of unforgettable eeriness, such as Csilla Nagy’s mysterious inhuman emergence from the darkened pool followed by her literally stalking a quivering audience member. The tone of the work transitioned easily, tracing the natural atmospheres of the various different performance sites.
In addition to being a fun, funny and thought-provoking work in its own right, FIND.MOVE.PLAY also functioned perfectly as a teaser for Dancing in Place, a weekend of site-specific contemporary dance performances that will take place at Rimbun Dahan during the final week of the Art for Nature exhibition. By using multiple venues in very different ways, the audience was able to appreciate the potential for site-specific work at Rimbun Dahan. For many members of the audience more used to visual art, it served as an accessible introduction to contemporary dance and audience participation.
This performance was supported by and National Arts Council (Singapore).
Women’s Aid Organisation (WAO) was established in 1982 when it opened its Refuge, Malaysia’s first shelter for battered women and their children. Currently, the Refuge shelters an average of 100 women and 140 children per year. WAO has also expanded to include two additional operational centres: a Child Care Centre for the children of its former residents and the WAO Centre, which functions as an advocacy and service centre for the public. In addition, WAO continues to play a leading role in advocacy, public education as well as law and policy reform to bring about gender equality.
This year, WAO celebrates its 25th year of service to women and children.
Among the events lined up to commemorate this important milestone is an art fundraiser entitled Half of Malaysia. Besides WAO being half the age of Malaysia, the title of the fundraiser also recognises that women constitute half the population of this country.
The artworks will be on display at the Underground Gallery until 30 July 2007. Gallery opening hours will be between 10am to 6pm on Sunday, 29 July 2007 and Monday, 30 July 2007.
For further inquiries, please contact Gabrielle Low at 012-2182771 or Adrian Kisai at 012-9429959.
Proceeds from the sale of artworks will go towards WAO’s Refuge and Child Care Centre.
Angela Hijjas will conduct a tour of Rimbun Dahan on Sunday 29th July, including the garden, Rumah Uda Manap, the herb garden Taman Sari, the gallery and artists studios. Meet at the front gate of Rimbun Dahan at 9am. See map.
For participants of the tour, a donation of RM20 per person, children RM10, will go to support the work of WAO. Refreshments will be provided at the end of the visit that should take about three hours. Please wear long sleeves and trousers, and bring along mosquito repellent.
Selected Artworks From the Half of Malaysia Fundraiser
Bayu Utomo Radjikin Tuboh 5 100 x 70 cm Charcoal on paper 2003
Ahmad Fuad Osman Kenangan Abadi 51 x 51 cm Oil on canvas 2007
Yee I-Lann Shell 61 x 61 cm Digital print on Kodak Endura paper 2005
Yee I-Lann Sarong 61 x 61 cm Digital print on Kodak Endura paper 2005
Wong Hoy Cheong Study for Chronicles of Crime: Asphyxiation 30 x 24 cm Charcoal on paper 2006
Tara Sosrowardoyo Kaliammal Sinnasamy, collage/composite, Rawang, October 2006, Artist’s Proof 56 x 100 cm Digital print on Kodak Endura paper October 2006
Tara Sosrowardoyo Kaliammal Sinnasamy, Rawang, October 2006, Artist’s Proof 56 x 100 cm Digital print on Kodak Endura paper October 2006
Tan Kien Eng It’s OK 93 x 68 cm Acrylic on canvas 2004
Sivarajah Natarajan Garden of Earthly Desires I 70 x 50 cm Mixed media on canvas 2000
Siow Yin Yoong Blooming 25 x 25 cm Mixed media on handmade paper 1997
Simon Ong Seong Huah Saree V 122 x 91 cm Acrylic on canvas 2000
Sharifah Zuriah Aljeffri Lotus for Peace 46 x 59 cm Watercolour 1998
Sharaad Kuttan Untitled 25 x 18 cm Mixed media 2006
Reena Clare Peerless 41 x 30 cm Dye and ink on canvas 2007
Reena Clare Abstruse Energy 61 x 46 cm Dye on canvas 2007
Ramli Ibrahim Study of Main Petri II 26 x 35 cm Charcoal on paper 1998
Norhayati Kaprawi Indahnya Malam 107 x 107 cm Acrylic on canvas 2007
Nirmala Dutt Shanmughalingam Tsunami LIII 50 x 50 cm Acrylic on canvas 2004 – 2005
Negotiated Settlements I Am Responsible for the War 10 x 23 cm Printed card c. 1990–1993
Negotiated Settlements Disinformocracy 10 x 23 cm Printed card c. 1990–1993
Nazim Esa Selendang Series 2 39 x 30cm B & W Print 2005
Jasmine Raj The Endon Series III 57.5 x 200 cm Acrylic on canvas 2005
Jacqueline Ann Surin Orgy 55 x 37 cm Charcoal on paper 2007
Jacqueline Ann Surin Chase 56 x 40 cm Mixed media 2004
Gan Siong King I Love Malevich aka L.A.S.E.R. 36 x 43 cm Oil on canvas 2006
Gan Siong King Everything is Forgotten Nothing is Rectified 32 x 48 cm Oil on canvas 2006
Farish Noor Kraton Jogjakarta 45 x 30 cm Colour print May 2007
Farish Noor Jogja Bins, Jalan Parangtritis, Jogjakarta 30 x 45 cm Colour print May 2007
Farish Noor Ibu Jogja, Jogjakarta 30 x 45 cm Colour print on Kodak Photo Paper May 2007
Farish Noor Candi Ceto, Central Java 45 x 30 cm Colour print on Kodak Photo Paper May 2007
Farish Noor Candi Ceto 2, Central Java 45 x 30 cm Colour print May 2007
Farish Noor Candi Ceto 4, Central Java 30 x 45 cm Colour print May 2007
Choh Kok Kheong Home Sweet Home 38 x 56 cm Watercolour 2001
Chin Kon Yit Every Day is a Good Day 30 x 46 cm Watercolour 2004
On 23 June, a Black-Crowned Night-Heron, Nycticorax nycticorax, was seen roosting over the pond at Rimbun Dahan.
According to A Field Guide to the Birds of West Malaysia and Singapore (Oxford), by Allen Jeyarajasingam and Alan Pearson, the night-heron inhabits mangroves, rice fields, inland freshwater swamps. It is largely nocturnal but also active by day. It roosts and breeds colonially in mangroves but feeds at night mostly in freshwater habitats and also on mudflats at low tide. At dusk, night herons circle their roost in noisy flocks and flies in V-formations to feeding grounds, returning at dawn. During the breeding season, these birds are very active during day, collecting nest material and indulging in a variety of aerial displays.
BY ANGELA HIJJAS