Visual artist Brisa Amir from the Philippines has been in residence at Rimbun Dahan for two months in 2026, working with the flora and handmade ink as her primary material to explore the displacement of nature in urban settings. She will be sharing the results of her residency on Open Day on Sunday 26 July.
About the Artist
Brisa Amir paints across layers and draws through texture, working from her studio and its peripheries. Her practice embraces unfinished spaces — cracks in walls, rainwater stains, and the imprints of everyday movement — creating tactile, collage-based paintings rooted in paper’s fragility and resistance. Her walks become acts of noticing and collecting, stitching urban traces into visual, botanical rhythms.
A BFA Painting graduate from the University of the Philippines, Diliman, she held her first solo exhibition at Artinformal in 2018, This was followed by a solo presentation at the inaugural S.E.A. Focus in Singapore in (2019), a feature in Artforum, and a cover feature in Vogue Philippines in (2023).
She received the Ateneo Art Awards Embassy of Italy Purchase Prize in 2021. Her work continues to be seen in local and regional exhibitions, including UP Vargas Museum and a cultural collaboration with the Embassy Of Spain through Instituto Cervantes.
https://brisaamirstudio.carrd.co
About the Residency
I. A Leaf Reaching Out is a Leaf Reaching in 𓂃
A leaf represents my first connection with nature. The sprouting of a leaf holds deep meaning for me as a human being who grew up on ancestral land that has been paved over with concrete. I grew up seeing corners of gray walls and a mere square of blue sky, reached only by plants thriving amidst the concrete-layered, congested informal houses as they stretched toward the sunlight. The plants I have observed cresting among the urban grid and on gated, abandoned lands mirror my relationship with –and understanding of– the messages of ancestors living on disputed territories. These ancestors fought and continue to fight back, reclaiming and protecting Mother Nature.
II. Organically Unfolding ੈ
Like a seed constantly in motion, flying through the air, hitching a ride on birds, and waiting to burst open to scatter itself 𓇢𓆸 — I spent the first month of my artist residency gallivanting through the forest and swimming. I expanded my introspection by browsing the library and examining the inventory of pressed leaves, observing the diverse flora turning empty ground into life, identifying themselves as either native or invasive. I traced some leaves, preserved them through the guidance of Rimbun Dahan’s intern Kah Wei, and adopted them as my primary material.
A leaf that fascinated me among the other leaves that I encountered possesses two distinct colors: shades of green on the front and a deep magenta on the back. I used the dual characteristics of this leaf as a visual guide to build my paintings into collages. Through this process, I explore the concepts close to my heart, such as the displacement of urban birds whenever decades-old trees are cut down to gentrify the land. In the second month of my residency, I collaborated with Haya Ibrahim of Waste to Weft to create my own ink using bamboo charcoal and mangosteen combined with store-bought ink, translating these environmental friction points into illustrations.
At the open day, I plan to present all these bundles of thoughts into installation pieces, with the hope of creating an interactive experience using the handmade ink.