Malaysian visual artist Suhaimi Fadzir continued his practice of ‘archipainting’ during a two-month residency at Rimbun Dahan in July and August 2023, creating wall-mounted assemblages from found materials from here and elsewhere.

About the Artist

Suhaimi Fadzir is an interdisciplinary artist whose practice is motivated by his non-traditional research based practice driven by observing our history, culture, nature, context, and the intersections between science, art and architecture.

He studied art and architecture at Washington University, St. Louis, USA. He has won many art and architecture awards and grants, and has exhibited internationally in numerous biennials, solo and group shows, among them, the prestigious 12th, 13th and 14th Venice Biennale (Architecture), Venice, Italy in 2010, 2012 & 2014, Meiji University Museum, Tokyo, Japan in 2011, the Dublin Biennial, Dublin, Ireland alongside Yoko Ono, where he won the Dublin Biennial Award of Excellence in 2012, a two-man show with late renowned photographer Ansel Adams’ works at Schmidt Art Center, Belleville, Illinois, USA in 2010, Art Basel Miami Week, Miami, Florida, USA and a solo show organized by Saatchi Gallery London and M&C Saatchi, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia in 2013. 

His art practice has displayed a consistent sculptural quality, and his hybrid term “Archipainting” has been used in reference to his artworks, a concept that he developed in the 1980s which, blends fine art with structural intricacies and special deconstruction of architecture. History, collective memory, personal experience and environment are elements woven together by him into a non-linear story where distinctions between present, past, fiction, imagination, and reality are nullified. His mixed media works, as well as installation and sculpture pieces have included canvases daubed with found objects and covered in unusual textures and materials, or is inspired by, found objects, which he collects extensively while on the fields both locally and abroad. These overlapping points of reference run throughout all his works and his paintings resist easy interpretation, but rather suggest alternative possibilities of seeing. The interaction with the landscape around him is also reflected in his work, which comments astutely on the nature of contemporary society.

More info: http://instagram.com/suhaimifadzir

About the Residency

“What I’m working on at my residency with Rimbun Dahan is a continuation of what I started in Langkawi in 2018; it is artwork based on the examination of nature, context, surrounding events, and observances of human behavior and their relationships with others.

“By observing and studying intangible elements such as neighbor and family relationships, feelings, smells, listening to sounds of nature, flipping through site debris, taking photographs, checking minerals, insects, local culture, food, artisans, etc., together with incorporating materials found in the neighborhood, I produce the possibility of art in the form of calligraphy, painting, sculpture, assemblage and installation.

“Editing, questioning and experiencing the art process is a part of my practice, my way of marking my stay. It is like a recording of my presence at Rimbun Dahan.”

Thai visual artist Charuwan Noprumpha undertook a 2-month residency at Rimbun Dahan in July and August 2023, combining a daily practice of sketches from what she saw with a personal project exploring drawing and watercolour, depicting the seen and the unseen.

About the Artist

Charuwan Noprumpha lives and works in Bangkok, Thailand. A graduate with a master’s degree from France (École européenne supérieure d’art de Bretagne-site de Quimper) and the Erasmus Exchange Program at Academy of Fine Arts, Karlsruhe, Germany (Staatliche Akademie der Bildenden Künste Karlsruhe), Charuwan received an award from French Cultural Center, Freiburg, Germany from participating in the festival of La Biennale of Young Contemporary Creation, Mulhouse, France. She was selected to participate in the artist residency at Les ateliers du Plessix-Madeuc, Dinan, France. Charuwan has participated by invitation in exhibitions in many countries such as Belgium, France, Germany and Thailand.

About the Residency

“Upon arriving at Rimbun Dahan, I found the gardens, trees and surroundings here very interesting and worth exploring. I decided to challenge myself by setting a condition to draw every day from what I see and discover from Rimbun Dahan. This is the origin of the project “What an everyday gives”. I also use this task to bring form, colors, shape etc to further develop into works.

“At the same time, I am continuing to develop my personal project which is interested in the perspective of observing people, their behavior – walking, standing, sitting, lying, talking – and clothing. I find these works evoke a feeling of lack, emptiness, void, imperfection and disappearance. From pencil drawings that represent what can be seen, I combine it with watercolors that represent the way I think about what I see. Because sometimes when we look, there will be parts that we see and don’t see at the same time.

“My work begins with impressions of nature and the observation of everyday life and translates them in an abstract way through form, line and color. At the same time, I express myself in a very realistic way. I use several mediums to build and reconstruct sensations. The observations accumulated day after day have influenced my identity and my work – thinking and speaking in a sincere language to share what I see, observe and feel.”

Indonesian multidisciplinary artist Yosep Arizal undertook a 1-month residency at Rimbun Dahan in August-September 2023, exploring the similarities and differences between Malaysia and Indonesia.

About the Artist

Yosep Arizal graduated from Indonesian Institute of The Art in 2016. His practice mostly discusses
genders, history, and their friction with religion, tradition, and cultural identities. Yosep concretizes
his aesthetic ideas in various media, such as drawing, painting, installation, video, and performance. His
work has been shown in both local and international venues, such as PBSR Swaranusa in Museum and Cultural
Centre Jayapura Papua (2014), Jogja Biennale in Jogja National Museum (2019), UOB Painting of The
Year in National Museum Jakarta (2019), “Clothing As A State of Power” in Cemeti Institute of The Arts and
Society Yogyakarta (2020), Babad Lembana #2 in Sumenep Madura (2022), “Queer-Muslim In
Conversation” at the University of Melbourne (2022), ArtJog Motif Lamaran in Jogja National Museum
(2023).

In 2021 Yosep was selected as one of grantees of the Arts Innovation & Professional Development
Program for Performing Arts Residency, Padepokan Seni Bagong Kussudiardja, Yogyakarta. In 2022,
he was awarded a Seed Award by the Prince Clause Fund, Amsterdam, and was one of the three best
young artists who received ArtJog 2023 Young Artist Awards.

About the Residency

“The project I am working on in Rimbun Dahan is about my position as an Indonesian, tourist, and artist
who is having a chance to work for about four weeks in Malaysia. As an Indonesian, I found there are so
many Indonesia-related things here that make me feel “comfortable” while seeing them, and assure
myself that I am not far away from home. As a tourist, I realize that even though there are some similarities
between Malaysia and Indonesia but we still have a lot of differences that make me feel alienated,
surprised, amazed, and even intrigued by so many things in Malaysia. My position as an artist might
trick me to a “stealer” state, who can collect particular things I find here as creative and artistic
inspiration for my art practice ,and take them away to Indonesia. Then I came up with the idea of
exchanging: before I take some things away I should give and leave something to this place that I
brought from Indonesia.”

All photos on this page by Charuwan Noprumpha.

Author Joel Donato Ching Jacob from the Philippines is a resident author at Rimbun Dahan in July 2023.

Joel Donato Ching Jacob is the novelist who wrote the Scholastic Asian Book Award and Madrigal Gonzalez Best First Book Award winning novel Wing of the Locust and its sequel Orphan Price. He was awarded Ani ng Dangal (Harvest of Honors) in 2021. In the same year, he was a cohort for the Clarion West Summer Writers Workshop. He lives in Bay, Laguna with more dogs than he can manage, plus a cat.

During his residency, Joel is working on the outline for the third and final book in the series.

About the Artist

Rosemainy Buang is a gamelan musician, educator, composer, and sound artist from Singapore. With a decade of training in gamelan, she is dedicated to expanding her creative horizons through collaborative projects with other artists from diverse disciplines.

Approaching art-making with a multidisciplinary and experimental attitude, she attempts to question, build upon and expand the limits of traditional soundscapes, philosophies and aesthetics.

About the Residency

A space is attached with a unique soundscape and Rose has been absorbing not only sounds in Rimbun Dahan but also in the bandar where she visits different spaces accompanied with music and the community. Having conversations with people around allows her to understand the cultural aspects that come with a space. 

Apart from gathering conversations and allowing herself to reflect upon them, Rose has been collecting sound samples not only from the beautiful gamelan here in Rimbun Dahan, but also from around the 14-acre site. 

With all these elements gathered and other available mediums that she brings and has access to, Rose aims to create and put together a narration of sounds for her Open Day — a Closing Ritual before she ends her residency, in the hopes her sounds and her stories with everyone.

Artist Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/rosemainy/
Company Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/skala.sg/

About the Artist

Ms. Choulay MECH (b. 1992, Kandal Province) lives and works in Phnom Penh. She is an artist, documentary filmmaker, and freelance journalist. Her passion for the job, particularly on environmental and animal rights issues, and she has a sensitivity toward human-interest storytelling.

She trained in journalism with the Cambodian Center for Independent Media. Her reporting has been published in Southeast Asia Globe, Voice of Democracy and CamboJA News. She also contributed reporting to a 2020 article about Cambodian mental health facilities for the Washington Post. She did a nice feature about the changing lives of fishing communities living on floating villages around the country’s biggest lake and river system, Tonle Sap.

She has a strong background in photography and video production as well; she’s had photo exhibitions and completed one-year extensive training in documentary film production at Bophana Audiovisual Resources Center, directing a short film “My Home” about elephant conservation in Mondulkiri, Cambodia. In 2020, she received an award from Creative Generation 4 Awards. The following year, she got four grants: one from Angkor Photo Festival, the second from Citizen Engaged in Environmental Justice for all (CEEJA), the third from SUMERNET for media – research partnership for environment reporting, and the last one it from the Mekong Data-Journalism Fellowship. In 2023, she was selected as an Angkor Photo Festival fellow.

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/chouly.mech
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mechchouly/
Website: https://ccva.art/artists/mech-choulay/

About the Residency

I see dead leaves drop from the trees every morning at Rimbun Dahan. These dead leaves really attracted my eyes because of their unique and original form, colours and textures. I started to wonder, what can I do to transform this dead leaf into a work of art that could speak about the forest and water?

In the day time, I hear the sound of birds chirping, I see the monkeys eating bananas and sharing food with their babies. Squirrels jump around freely and peacefully because no one would harm them. At night, some non-human friends visit me — butterflies, grasshoppers, bats.

Yet, such an oasis is a rare occurrence in the urban world!

Only when the last tree has died and the last river has been poisoned and the last fish been caught will we realize we can’t eat money – Alanis Obomsawin.

Cambodia used to be covered by lush green forests but now it is overwhelmed by unhealthy development that is impacting the vulnerable people, animals and nature. When we have air we can’t breathe in, fruits we can’t eat, rain that we can’t play in, and water that is undrinkable, sooner and later we will all die. When we lack understanding and knowledge of forest life, it is very hard for us to love and care for the forest. As the Khmer proverb goes “រក្សាទុកព្រៃឈើ អ្នកនឹងមិនខ្វះអុសដុត”, translated as “save the forest and you will not run out of wood fire” — forest is part of the ecosystems that we can’t live without them, but they can live without us. From the beginning to the end, forests are completely useful even when they are dead, they are still useful as nourishment to the earth. 

To understand more about human relationship with nature in urbanity, I went to visit the Mah Meri indigenous community to learn about their history and cultural practices. The warm and hospitable Mah Meri indigenous people shared with me generously and brought me to the sea, river and its surrounding mangrove forests which holds great significance to their culture and ritualistic practices. They gifted me with their traditional handicrafts such as crowns, birds and flowers made from wild palm trees unique to their local forest. Along the way from Mah Meri Village to Rimbun Dahan, there are beautiful mountains and green forests alongside tall buildings. Such landscape made me become wishful for Cambodia’s future development, I hope we will be able to develop in a healthy and sustainable way.