Natalie Labriola is a multidisciplinary artist based out of Los Angeles who will be joining us in May as our Open Residency Artist. An MFA Bard Graduate from Milton Avery Graduate School of the Arts, Natalie’s work is rooted in sculpture but includes drawing, painting, video and clothing.
My work is a material investigation into the nexus between science and magic, between medicine and art. The limits of the physical body and the universal desire for its transcendence — both in mundane and esoteric ways — serve as inspiration for my varied works. The sense of alienation produced by living in a capitalist society gives rise to my desire to imagine new modes of claiming subjectivity, and at the same time, a desire to imagine a deeper sense of collectivity.
From the psychic, vibrational frequencies in the environment to the contemplation of what it means to be healthy not just individually, but as a societal collective, Natalie’s work explore these little bridges between our body, our mind and how we affect and care about one another.
(detail) Heat-pressed drawings on custom made cotton garments, stainless steel garment rack, dimensions variable.
L-R:
Uniforms for Psychic Protection, heat-pressed drawings on custom made fabric garments, stainless steel garment rack, dimensions variable.
Pharmakon I, Juniper berries and paint rag cast in paraffin wax, aluminum cleanroom hardware, 26.5” x 14” x 2”
Juniper berries and paint rags cast in paraffin wax, silicone caulk, aluminum cleanroom hardware, 26.5” x 14” x 2”
Modified, used ISO-8 Level cleanroom, heat-pressed powder coated steel beams, fluorescent lights, vents, plexiglas drop ceiling, heat-pressed silver foil on vinyl curtains, anti-microbial interlocking foam mats cast with juniper berries and crystals in wax, silicone caulk on acrylic panels, velcro, shoe covers, acrylic shoe cover dispenser.
Charis Loke (b.1991) is a Malaysian illustrator and educator from Penang that will be joining us for April and May. Drawing upon literature and visual culture, she makes pictures that evoke wonder and curiosity, depicting fictional worlds and current issues with a deft combination of traditional and digital media. She is interested in the relationships between word and image as well as how images communicate, enhance, and subvert narratives.
As an illustrator working in imaginative realism, I have long been aware of the lack of Southeast Asian representation in mainstream science fiction and fantasy, despite the richness of the region’s history and myth. And yet: given that so much imagery in SF&F is based on Western symbols and iconography, how can one make genre art without relying on those tropes? How might we use influences from other cultures in an engaged, respectful manner? How does one deal with the danger of falling into an Orientalist mode of seeing, of exoticising foreign, unfamiliar things?
Beginning from October 2018, Charis has grappled with those questions in the form of a project named Kejora: sketches, stories, and characters from where the stars meet the sea and wandering roots run deep. It is fantasy inspired by the confluence of cultures in contemporary Southeast Asia and informed by current issues. Exploring themes like the resonance and dissonance of characters with their communities and what it means to feel at home, Charis will continue to further develop some of those sketches and vignettes into fully realised paintings during her two-month stay here in Rimbun Dahan.
You can find more of her work on her website here.
Dipika Mukherjee (Malaysia) is an author and sociolinguist. Her work, focusing on the politics of modern Asian societies and diaspora, is internationally renown. In the past years, she has given a keynote at the Asia Pacific Writers and Translators Conference (Bali, 2017), juried at the Neustadt International Literary Festival (USA, 2018), spoken at the Hearth Festival (Wales, 2018) and the Singapore Writers Festival (Singapore, 2017); she has also given public talks at the University of Stockholm (Sweden, 2018) and the International Institute of Asian Studies (Netherlands, 2017).
I have a very personal stake in telling Malaysian stories, especially those that promote social justice. I believe that the growing intolerance of our world today (in Malaysia, India, and the US) requires voices to advocate for tolerance with stories that span our imperfect, violent world and not merely shine a light on a particular region or nation or race.
Ode to Broken Things, Dipika’s Man Asia Literary Prize-longlisted debut novel, is set against the religious and ethnic conflicts simmering in politics and explores notions of nationalism and citizenship in Malaysia.
During her residency here at Rimbun Dahan, Dipika will be conducting a workshop called A Picture; A Thousand Words. Reviewing ekphrasis (the art of writing about images), this workshop will look at how art has inspired writers in the past by focusing on writing inspired by paintings and imagery. Then participants will review a number of Malaysian visual art on display at the Rimbun Dahan gallery to write poems and short prose. All writing levels welcome.
Ruth Marbun (b.1985) is a visual artist based in Jakarta that works much with the depiction of deconstructed figures as a form of her profound interest towards human behavior in connection to the inner self and society as paralleled issue. She embraces details and subtleness from the patterns in life such as imperfection, contradiction, resistance, and honor it as part of growth and process.
Her mini-solo exhibition with Clear Gallery Japan at Art Jakarta in 2018 questioned how family is portrait as sacred value with picture perfect quality in the heritage of her Indonesian root and the contradictory that it causes, creating a void and distance with the natural being of human and relationships that truthfully come with flaws and mistakes.
“One is A Million” is a mixed media installation that she presented at #Perempuan exhibition in Melbourne on December 2018 as part of a group exhibition featuring emerging contemporary artists from Indonesia. The work is an open proposal to add perspective in the construction of value towards women in modern society, to give credits not only to the quantified achievements but also in the daily act and resistance that are more inclusive for women, who are dealing with different circumstances in life.
Ruth has also been exhibiting in Kyoto, Jogjakarta, Osaka, and recently Sydney at Darren Knight Gallery with Indo Artlink and John Cruthers featuring her recent works in textile medium, where she has been extending possibilities from the limitation as a familiar medium off her fashion background to a new approach and narration in the current art practice.
During her residency at Rimbun Dahan, Ruth will be focusing in documenting her experience of working and living closely with nature, something in contrast to her upbringing as a city inhabitant. She will be recording the process through visual journal and also creative writings, which embodies intuitive observation and attentive interaction towards the environment during the one-month period stay, engaging in a reversed rhythm from her regular practice that relies on momentum and practicality. The course of adaptation is often taken for granted for being wired automatically into the operational system as human, despite its importance as an essential survival virtue that advances us from other species. Ruth considers the state of newness and to look elsewhere is a far-reaching of understanding the element of absence inwards, that will create new possibilities off the mundanity as a result from updating to an extensive context.
Ruth will be our Southeast Asian Arts Residency artist for a month in February. You can check out her Instagram here.
(Guil)Tea Party, 185 x 155 cm, Acrylic on canvas, 2018
“Product of Contradiction” series, Approx. 60×80 cm (size might varied), Watercolor and ink on paper with textile and embroidery, 2018
“Product of Contradiction” series, Approx. 60×80 cm (size might varied), Watercolor and ink on paper with textile and embroidery, 2018
One is A Million, Installation of watercolor, ink, acrylic on paper, textile, embroidery, and dacron, 2018
One is A Million (Partly detailed pieces), Installation of watercolor, ink, acrylic on paper, textile, embroidery, and dacron, 2018
A Soldier Nonetheless, 289 x 178 cm, Acrylic, ink, watercolor, hand-embroidery, textile, and dacron, 2019
By The End of The Day, It’s always a Beginning, 201.5 x 139 cm, Acrylic, ink, watercolor, hand-embroidery, textile, and dacron, 2019
Hati-hati, Kemarin Sudah Mati., 136 x 100cm, Watercolor on cotton paper, 2019
Syarifah Nadhirah (b.1993) is a Malaysian based artist, who is constantly unearthing means to present her work in ways that people can relate to. Her interest in Art has spurred since childhood and her background in Architecture only inspired her to delve even more into the comfort of painting and the quest to explore herself as a visual storyteller. Oftentimes she finds herself going against the grain whenever seduced by the world of practice as she was always tinkering with creative projects such as holding workshops at Urbanscapes 2017, Yayasan Sime Darby Arts Festival 2018 and Bank Negara’s Women in the Arts Bazaar while drafting floor plans. There is always a challenge to break free from the structural disposition and manufactured schemes that she was used to, hence dabbling with experimental ideations only made sense when she practiced Architecture, which also gave birth to her co-founded creative company called Paperweight Studio.
She mainly uses watercolor and ink in her creations, particularly influenced by elements of water and human relationship with nature. Though, in a residency setting at Rimbun Dahan, she looks forward to an extended time alone to immerse herself in focusing on exploring another old form of art which is lino cut printmaking, a manifestation of labour of love and executing a purposeful thought process rather than the final product. Having perpetually lured by the lush green surrounding her neighbourhood, it is not uncommon for her to reflect that in most of her work. But, the need to recount these green forests became more prevalent to her as the ever-changing urban planning takes over vast lands throughout the years. She is mostly, or rather entirely interested in the current ripples of the perilous state that the Orang Asli (Indigenous People) here in Malaysia has to adhere to, of whom are susceptible to deceit and neglect, even from those who run the country. She hopes to engage in a series of dialogues with them and form a reiteration of appreciation for their unwithered spirit and love for their land.
Syarifah Nadhirah will be with us as a Southeast Asian Arts Residency artist for three months starting from February 2019. You can check out her Instagram here and her Behance profile here.
I would If I Could, 2014, Watercolor on 300gsm Watercolor Paper, 280mm x 250mm
In Calamity, One Finds Clarity, 2014, Watercolor on 300gsm Watercolor Paper, 297mm x 420mm
Kobis, 2015, Watercolor on 300gsm Watercolor Paper, 148mm x 210mm
Bawang, 2015, Watercolor on 300gsm Watercolor Paper, 148mm x 210mm
Peranakan Pattern Study, 2018, Watercolor on 300gsm Watercolor Paper, 420mm x 594mm
Kantan, 2018, Watercolor on 300gsm Watercolor Paper, 420mm x 297mm
Johanne Lykke is a Danish visual artist living and working in Copenhagen, Denmark. Johanne is with us in February as an Open Residency artist.
“I work with a feminist approach towards abstract painting exploring the idea of the feminine, its materiality and the meeting between feminine and masculine art traditions. Through monumental spray paintings and watercolours I investigate a soft, transparent materiality in painting on paper. With a minimalist use of the spray paint, I challenge its wellknown grafitti aesthetics. In watercolours, I work with immediate, fluidity which, through its scale, aim to question the medium’s associations to its amateur, lower status in the art world as well as a “ladies’ medium”.
As an artist-in-residence at Rimbun Dahan, I wish to expand my western perspective by exploring the Malaysian color traditions and batik techniques. I will be researching connections to the idea of the feminine in South-East Asian visual cultures and hope to find new inspiration during my stay as well as creating a dialogue between eastern and westerns perspective on femininity in art.”
Dương Mạnh Hùng (b.1991) is a self-taught translator, writer, and independent visual culture researcher based in Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon), Vietnam. Dương has always been fascinated by the discourse of modernities and nationalism in Southeast Asia and how it influences modern arts and literature stemming from the region. His current interests include, but are not limited to: comparative dialogue between Southeast Asian modern arts and literature; translation as a mode of existing and understanding for visual production; Hispanic & Iberian linguistics; and historical and sociopolitical networks between Vietnam and the regions of Southeast Asia and Latin America. Dương is also one of the co-founders of Cultural Community Discourse (CCD), an initiative based in Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon) that aims to connect local and regional researchers to the Vietnamese public via talks, workshops, and other educational platforms.
During his one-month residency at Rimbun Dahan, Dương wants to explore the concept of ‘landscape’ as depicted in 19th-20th century Malaysian literature and painting and how ‘nationalistic’ natural landscape becomes a mixing space for different forms of modernity in the peninsular.
The Queer & Sexuality Lexicon, collaboration with artists Nhung Dinh and Luu An.
The Farming of Bones by Edwdige Danticat, collaboration with visual artist, Luu An.
Clara Chow (Singapore) is the author of two short-story collections: Dream Storeys (2016) and Modern Myths (2018). The former was born out of interviews with Singapore architects about their imaginary buildings, while the latter reworks Greek myths in Singaporean settings.
Her work has also been published in the likes of Columbia Journal, Asia Literary Review, Cha, Litro and Quarterly Literary Review Singapore (QLRS). In 2018, she was awarded Prairie Schooner‘s Jane Geske Award for her story “Siren (Redux) by Haley Tien-Warrior – 25th Anniversary Oral History/DJ Cliffhanger Remix – MUST LISTEN! THE FEELS…Awesome…”.
A former journalist and arts correspondent, she has taught creative writing at Nanyang Technological University and English literature at the Singapore University of Social Studies. She co-founded the online literary and art journal WeAreAWebsite.com in 2015.
Clara is a writer in our Southeast Asian Arts Residency program of 2018. At Rimbun Dahan, she is working on a joss-paper novel, meant to be burnt after reading. The work will explore taboos associated with book-burning, funeral rituals and Asian superstition.
Lily Yulianti Farid is a media, communication and gender & development specialist, researcher, trainer and translator with more than 15 years of experience in Indonesia, Japan and Australia.
Lily has worked as a communication specialist, writer, radio journalist, producer, presenter, translator and interpreter. She holds a PhD in Gender Studies from the University of Melbourne through an Australian Leadership Award scholarship. She is the founder/director of Makassar International Writers Festival in Indonesia and the co-founder of Indonesia’s first citizen journalism website. Lily has led media and communications training and capacity-building workshops for Members of Parliament, government officials, Indonesian journalists, and community organisations, and has extensive experience designing media campaigns and engagement strategies for Indonesian women’s organisations.
Lily is a professional translator and interpreter (Indonesian/English). In 2013 she translated Body Shop founder Anita Roddick’s book Business as Unusual from English to Indonesian. Lily also produced monologues/plays for women and the Singing Your Poetry Program for youth in Indonesia.
Since 2011, Lily has been the founder and director of Makassar International Writers Festival, co-founder and executive director of Rumata’ Artspace Indonesia, executive producer of Makassar South East Asian Film Academy, and the producer for INDONATION (2011) Charity Concert in Melbourne in association with Indonesian Students Association, Deakin University.
Lily participated in Ubud Writers and Readers Festival (2008-2013), Singapore Writers Festival (2009), Word Storm Writers Festival Darwin (2010), Byron Bay Writers Festival Australia (2012), Melbourne Writers Festival (2013 and 2017), British Council Edinbrugh Festival (2016), Frankfurt Book Fair (2015), Europhalia Arts Festival (2017), George Town Literary Festival (2014), Indonesian International Book Fair Festival (2017), Winternachten Festival (2009) and Pasar Malam Paris (2008).
Lily will be at Rimbun Dahan for one month under our Southeast Asian Arts Residency program. She is working to document and examine narratives and creative works in Malaysia and to interview Malaysian writers, publishers and literary communities during her residency.
Faizal Yunus (b.1989, Malaysia) is a Malaysian based artist who works mainly in printmaking, painting and installation. He graduated in Bachelor of Fine Arts from Mara University of Technology (UiTM) in 2012 majoring in printmaking. Faizal has been drawn towards nature as he grew up in such a surrounding that has helped him nurture his imagination and interpretation of the greenery around him. Autonomy has driven him to believe that an egalitarian society is vital which is where he adapts to the banal practices of everyday life into his abstract print paintings. He draws inspiration from nature, a familiar landscape of lush greenery from where all his imagination had began. He explores alternative print language outside the limitation of printmaking studio by expanding his ideations and limitations through various printmaking techniques and processes.
In his first solo exhibition Matrix, circa 2016 he started looking into his daily life essentials and gathering objects surrounding him for ideas and inspiration as he found limitations in available facilities and easily gathered materials. He felt that by using the objects that so much so associates with a layman’s daily routine, he could create artworks with a heightened sense of desolation in his own narrative. That is how he preempts life to be based on the things that are happening around him. The process of reiterating his thoughts and reflections into his artwork depicts his personality as well as his conviction on the way life looks around him. His solo exhibition – Vortex 2018, revolved around a journey of finding different perspectives and causes of the actions he chooses to make. He believes it is a journey where he unravels the truth where he challenges his capabilities to explore within his reach. Vortex is his poetic statement on the current state of pollution and our role in undoing the beauty of our landscape.
Joining Rimbun Dahan would help me immerse myself in nature. When I’m one with nature, I believe I can uproot my thoughts into my abstract print paintings.
Faizal will be at Rimbun Dahan as a resident artist from mid Oct to end of Nov 2018, via a collaboration with Richard Koh Fine Art. You can check out more of his works at his website.
Twain, 2016, Oil based ink on canvas, 124 x 204cm
The Great Barrier Reef II, 2018, Oil, lacquer, net and Polyurethane foam on canvas, 94 x 145cm
Pacific Vortex X, 2018, Oil,lacquer, net and Polyurethane Foam on canvas, 75 cm diameter x 5cm
