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.
Above: title: ‘Samson’, acrylic and charcoal on paper, 152x183cm, 2007. Collection: Dr. Steve Wong.
As an artist, Ahmad Fuad Osman (b. 1969) is not limited by the restrictions of medium or mode of expressions which is evident in his drawings, paintings, digital prints, video, multimedia installations and performances. He graduated with a Bachelor in Fine Arts from the School of Fine Arts, Institut Teknologi MARA Shah Alam, Selangor, Malaysia in 1991. He has had five solo exhibitions and participated in numerous group shows locally and internationally and recipient of numerous awards and grants. He lives and works in Kuala Lumpur and Melaka.
Ahmad Fuad Osman’s new body of works of paintings and slide projection for residency exhibition titled ‘Recollections of Long Lost Memories’ is initially inspired by the 50th Merdeka celebration. Large oil on canvas paintings deal with the lack of historical awareness especially with the younger generation in their discounted version of Malaysia’s history, current and topical issues, as they all are too caught up with latest gadget or trend. By selecting certain important occasions or moments in the nation’s history and using old archival photos related to the event as reference, Ahmad Fuad painted them larger than life in black & white and inserted an anonymous but contemporary person into the composition, juxtaposing the past with the present, creating a dialogue.
Fuad presented his new body of work at the 13th Rimbun Dahan Residency Exhibition, alongside the work of Australian resident artist Gabrielle Bates, 13 to 27 January 2008, at the Rimbun Dahan gallery.
Above: A still from ‘Dreaming of Being a Somebody, Afraid of Being a Nobody (Malaysian Version)’, single channel video, 16 mins 37 sec, colour sound, 2007. This work was created for the Art for Nature 2007 exhibition at Rimbun Dahan.
BY CARMEN NGE
The occasion of our nation’s 50th Merdeka this year has been a convenient excuse to excavate the past. To celebrate our coming of age, art galleries respectfully mount exhibitions that reference the historic occasion or that unearth artifacts from a (not so) distant past. It was at such an exhibition that the idea for his “Recollections of the Long Lost Memories” series came to Ahmad Fuad Osman.
As he gazed upon an old picture of Tunku Abdul Rahman crossing a river, Fuad kept seeing another person standing in front of the Tunku. In his mind’s eye, this someone was distinctly from the present and as Fuad pored over other pictures, more figures from the present began to people the blank spaces in the photographs.
“History is false memory,” Fuad muses as we chat in his residency studio. “We don’t get to influence history thus we don’t care about it that much.” Certainly, most young Malaysians’ marginal contact with history occurs in the classroom in the form of dry textbooks and uninspired teaching.
History is false memory because history is selective; the saying that history is written by the victors is certainly true in our own nation. Why do we remember Tunku’s “Merdeka” cry but not the bombing of the Tugu Negara in 1975? What deal did the ruling elites strike with the British to gain independence? Those of us who lived through the events of 1957 remember it very differently from those of us yet to be born. But discrepancies exist, even among those who experienced similar events. Humans are adroit at forgetting details they’d rather not remember. Who preserves our nation’s memories and to what end? And do younger Malaysians really care?
Fuad’s paintings and slides for “Recollections of the Long Lost Memories” are, in part, a response to our nostalgia-steeped 50th anniversary celebrations. His huge canvases juxtapose past and present by constructing a collision between the older and younger generations, who are clearly differentiated by the former’s sepia, monochromatic tones and the latter’s brighter colours. Fuad’s portraits of Tunku are confidently rendered in strong brushstrokes—Malaysia’s most revered Prime Minister is, unsurprisingly, clearly remembered and his aura, intense and palpable.
The ‘intruders’ from the present, however, add a layer to Fuad’s work never before seen. They inject themselves into archived history and Tunku’s time-space with irreverent gusto and youthful exuberance; the hippie-like character in Fuad’s slide projections makes us smile. Here is an updated, post-reality TV and retro cool version of John Lennon’s doppelgänger—complete with round sunglasses and a peacenik vibe but who is also an ardent Manchester United fan. Is this the overseas-educated, postmodern Melayu Baru in search of his roots or is he merely soaking in the historical sights to feed his cam-whoring?
For the first time in the artist’s oeuvre, humour surfaces. From his salad days at UiTM and subsequent first few exhibitions as part of the Matahati art group in the early 90s, Fuad has always expressed a penchant for the philosophical and the serious. From early abstract pieces to later figurative ones, as well as occasional installation and performance art, Fuad is best described as a heady artist. He has experimented with irony and visual satire but never humour and whimsy.
Perhaps his year long residency in Korea and a previous shorter stint in Vermont, USA has allowed Fuad new vistas of expression. It is a risk to be sure for audiences rarely expect to see humour in art. Yet it is a fitting tool with which to interrogate our nation’s history because as we look back on the last 50 years and consider the antics of our politicians, the deplorable state of our leaky infrastructure, the shenanigans of our police force and the lackadaisical attitude of the populace, how can we not laugh at ourselves?
More than 10 butterflies were enjoying the nectar from a Hoya carnosa, which was flowering for the first time, in the Taman Sari on Tuesday. At least four species of butterfly were feeding on the plant, each butterfly staking out its own umbrel of the pink and white flowers.
The butterflies pictured are possibly Parantica aglea, also known as Ideopsis vulgaris, the Blue Glassy Tiger.
BY ANGELA HIJJAS
