Resident Artist

Kanakan Balintagos

Angela Hijjas Resident Artist, Southeast Asian Arts Residency , , , ,
Kanakan Balintagos

Kanakan Balintagos (meaning ‘hunter of truth’), formerly known as Auraeus Solito, is an internationally acclaimed and award-winning Palawán-Filipino filmmaker and playwright. He comes from a lineage of Shaman-Kings from the Palawán tribe of South Palawan. He grew up in the city of Manila and after graduating from the Philippine Science High school studied Theatre at the University of the Philippines, where he received a degree in Theater Arts. One of the leading independent filmmakers in the Philippines, he was recently chosen in Take 100, The Future of Film which presents an emerging generation of the most talented filmmakers around the world. This book, published by Phaidon Press, New York, is a survey featuring 100 exceptional emerging film directors from around the world who have been selected by 10 internationally prominent film festival directors.

His first feature film Ang Pagdadalaga ni Maximo Oliveros (The Blossoming of Maximo Oliveros) won 15 international awards including 3 awards at the Berlinale (The Teddy award, International Jury Prize at the Kinderfest and Special Mention from the Children’s Jury of the Kinderfest). It is also the first Philippine film nominated for Best Foreign film at the Independents’ Spirit Awards in the US and has been shown in more than 50 film festivals around the world.

Tuli (Circumcision), his second feature film won Best Picture and Best Director at the Digital Competition at the 2005 CineManila Film Festival; won the NETPAC Jury Prize at the Berlinale, International Forum for New Cinema and the Best International feature Film at Outfest in Los Angeles. Solito is the first Filipino to make it to the premiere independent film festival in the world, the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah, USA, two years in a row (with The Blossoming of Maximo Oliveros and Tuli). His films have been screened in major festivals around the world including Berlin, Sundance, Montreal, Pusan, Toronto and Rotterdam.

Solito completed a screenplay development program at the Binger Film Lab in Amsterdam.

His film Busong (Palawan Fate) was selected at the prestigious Cannes Directors’ Fortnight in 2011, and it was awarded Best Director, Best Sound Design, and Best Original Music Score at Cinemalaya 2011. His film Busong was also shown at the 2012 National Geographic All Roads Film Festival in Washington, D.C.,where it was awarded Grand Prize, the Merata Mita “Best of Stories” Award.

In 2013 he adopted his tribal-spirit name Kanakan Balintagos after his uncle, who is a shaman in Palawan, dreamt about him. He said in an interview, “In his dream, he saw me in the middle of a sandbar holding a camera that turned into a blowgun. I became a kanakan … a hunter. Suddenly, great waves appeared from both sides of the sandbar, but I remained unharmed, untouched.”

In 2014 his film Esprit de Corps, based on the play he wrote when he was seventeen, won three awards at the Cinema One Originals Film Festival, including Best Director.

In 2015 he was awarded 1st Prize in the prestigious Palanca Awards, Filipino Division, Dulang Ganap Ang Haba (Full Length Play in Filipino), for his literary work “Mga Buhay na Apoy” and in 2016 won the Gawad Buhay ( Philippines’ Stage Awards) for Best Original Script for the same play.

For more information on Kanakan and his work, visit his website.

 

Golda Mowe

Angela Hijjas Resident Artist, Southeast Asian Arts Residency , ,
Golda Mowe

Golda Mowe is a fiction writer from Sarawak, author of Iban Dream, a book about Bujang, a young boy orphaned in the rainforest and brought up by a family of orangutans, but whose adult future has already been decided for him by Sengalang Burong, the Iban warpath god. On reaching adulthood, Bujang must leave his ape family and serve the warpath god as a warrior and a headhunter. The follow up to Iban Dream is titled Iban Journey.

I have loved folklore, myths and spooky stories since I was a child growing up in Sarawak and, the funny thing is, instead of dampening my interest, the more I immersed myself into the ‘practical’ world, the more stories I began to think up. In addition to that, living on Borneo allows me to explore the beliefs and superstitions of multiple cultures, because apart from our own Asian ones we are also exposed to western beliefs from our colonial heritage.

— Golda Mowe

Golda is now working on the manuscript for her third book, set in the ancient trading port of Santubong in the 7th Century, during the rise of Srivijaya in Sumatra and before the fall of Tarumanagara in Jawa. She is hoping the lush surroundings in Rimbun Dahan will give her the distraction free environment she needs to write the story to completion. To find out more about her work, please visit her website.

Golda Mowe Photo
Caption from author’s website: The tall four-post baskets are called lanji and are used for carrying the rice harvest back to the longhouse. The smaller basketsare sintong and are used to collect rice panicles during harvesting. These baskets are heirlooms from the family of Penghulu James Semilan anak Gaong, Bawang Assan.

Martha Soemantri

Angela Hijjas Resident Artist, Southeast Asian Arts Residency , ,
Martha Soemantri

Martha Soemantri (b.1984, Berlin) is a trained art & cultural manager, researcher and writer. She has worked in managerial & curatorial capacity in art & cultural projects for years with invested interest in mutual heritage, material objects (cultural artefacts, textiles in particular), women artists and art & cultural education for young audiences. Her past projects span several cities such as Singapore, Shanghai, Jakarta, Yogyakarta, Bali, Bandung, Utrecht, and Arnhem.

Her focus of research at Rimbun Dahan during her one month residency is on women artists’ practices in the Southeast Asian Region. Her journal and writings can be found on her blog.

Martha Soemantri

Bridie Gillman

admin Hotel Penaga, Resident Artist , ,
left: Souvenir: Tropical Fruits of Malaysia 2015, oil on canvas. right: In Thailand I got a girl in every club 2015, oil on canvas board.

Bridie Gillman’s practice is grounded in her experiences of living in Indonesia when she was younger and further experience of being ‘in-between’ places and cultures since. Her work explores ways in which experiences of awkwardness and the ‘unknown’ can be translated through found materials, installation and photography.

Gillman is an emerging artist based in Brisbane, Australia and completed her Bachelor of Fine Art with Honours at Queensland College of Art in 2013. Since graduating she has conducted a residency in Indonesia and exhibited nationally and internationally.

She was in residency at Hotel Penaga from August to October 2015, where she researched the transient space of hotels, tourism and souvenirs in our increasingly globalised and transnational world. Her residency culminated in an exhibition titled Round Island Tour, held at Run Amok Gallery in Georgetown. For more information on her work, visit her website.

left: Souvenir: Tropical Fruits of Malaysia 2015, oil on canvas. right: In Thailand I got a girl in every club 2015, oil on canvas board.
left: Souvenir: Tropical Fruits of Malaysia 2015, oil on canvas. right: In Thailand I got a girl in every club 2015, oil on canvas board.
Left: Sprite at night 2015, Batik painting. Right: Local Lingo 2015, Set of 6 digitally printed postcards, edition of 100
Left: Sprite at night 2015, Batik painting. Right: Local Lingo 2015, Set of 6 digitally printed postcards, edition of 100.

Anne Austin Pearce

Angela Hijjas Open Residencies, Resident Artist ,
Anne Austin Pearce

Anne Austin Pearce was born in Lawrence, Kansas and studied art at the Kansas City Art Institute, Brighton Polytechnic and the University of Kansas. In 1993, Pearce received a full scholarship to James Madison University, where she received her MFA in drawing and painting. Her work has been recently acquired by the MDC Museum of Art and Design, Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art and the Spencer Museum. Exhibitions include Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art, Overland Park, KS; Corcoran School of Art and Design, Washington D.C.; and the Drawing Center, New York City. Anne’s first museum show will be at MDC’s Museum of Art + Design in Miami, 2013.

Currently, Anne is a Professor at Rockhurst University and Director of Greenlease Gallery. Her work is supported by the Lighton International Artists Exchange Program and the Rockhurst University Presidential Grant.

She will be at Rimbun Dahan from middle of July to middle of August 2015, working on art for an upcoming exhibition. You can find more of her work on her website.

Al-khuzairie Ali

Angela Hijjas Resident Artist, Southeast Asian Arts Residency , ,
Al-khuzairie Ali

Al-khuzairie Ali (b. 1984) hails from the Malaysian state of Pahang and works with ceramics. He will be at Rimbun Dahan as a resident artist from July to December 2015. You can view some of his past works on his blog.

Artist Statement

I look at the hideous side of the human character which has an impact on other beings in the ecosystem. My work is inspired by the life of the animal. We know that some animals are threatened with extinction. The modern world and the importance of money simply make people lose their judgment and ignore the nature of life. Will future generations be able to see the wildlife species that exist now?

Kedsuda Loogthong

Angela Hijjas Resident Artist, Southeast Asian Arts Residency , ,
Kedsuda Loogthong

Kedsuda Loogthong (b. 1983, Songkhla, Thailand) graduated from the Faculty of Fine and Applied Arts at Bangkok University, Thailand in 2006. Loogthong’s early works examine the urbanization of her rural landscape and society and how consumerism has affected the lives of simple country folks. Her recent works explore the visual potential and associated symbolism of a number of mundane objects such as books and ribbons. She has participated in many group exhibitions in Thailand, Singapore, the Philippines, South Korea, Malaysia and Finland. Her works are in the permanent collection of Singapore Art Museum, Singapore.

Kedsuda will be at Rimbun Dahan as a resident artist for the month of July 2015, via a collaboration with Richard Koh Fine Art.

Yeoh Choo Kuan

Angela Hijjas Resident Artist, Southeast Asian Arts Residency , ,
Yeoh Choo Kuan

Yeoh Choo Kuan  (b.  1988,  Malaysia)  is  a  young  artist  working  in  the  veins  of  Abstract  Expressionism though he installs narratives and hints of figuration to the formal language of  his  paintings.  He  graduated  from  Dasein  Academy  of  Art,  Kuala  Lumpur  with  a  Diploma  in  Fine  Arts  in  2010.  Solo  exhibitions  include:  50/50,  Taksu,  Kuala  Lumpur,  Malaysia;  and  Private+ Sentiment,  House  of  Matahati,  Kuala  Lumpur,  Malaysia.  Recent  group  exhibitions  include:  Configuration,  G13  Gallery,  Kuala  Lumpur,  Malaysia;  Connection,  Orange  Gallery,  Philippines;  and  No+ Random+ Nonsense,  Boston  Gallery,  Bacolod  City,  Philippines.  He  lives  and works in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

Yeoh Choo Kuan will be at Rimbun Dahan as a resident artist for the month of June 2015, via a collaboration with Richard Koh Fine Art.

Hasanul Isyraf Idris

Angela Hijjas Resident Artist, Southeast Asian Arts Residency , , ,
Hasanul Isyraf Idris

Hasanul Isyraf Idris (b. 1978, Malaysia) was trained at Mara University of Technology, UiTM, in Perak. He has received a number of awards, including the Young Contemporary Arts Award in 2007 at the National Visual Arts Gallery, Kuala Lumpur, the Incentive Award at the  Open Show held at the Shah Alam Gallery and the Consolation Prize for the Young Talent Art  Exhibition at the Penang Art Gallery. A highly elusive artist, Hasanul shuns attending openings and attempts to work anonymously in the art scene. He produces works in a variety of media, from paintings and meticulously crafted drawings to painted oven-baked clay sculptures. Mining inspiration from within, he articulates his personal struggles as an artist by personifying them as strange characters  that inhabit his invented universes. Influenced by the graphics of underground comic books,  1960s science fiction, fast food, and street art and fashion, he juggles pop-culture references  with a personal viewpoint. Recurring topics in his practice are the meaning of life and death, memories and fantasies and sin and reward.

Hasanul will be at Rimbun Dahan as a resident artist for the month of June 2015, via a collaboration with Richard Koh Fine Art.

Omar Musa

admin Hotel Penaga, Resident Artist , , ,
Omar Musa

Omar bin Musa (b. 1984) is an award-winning author, poet and rapper from Queanbeyan, New South Wales, Australia. He won the Australian Poetry Slam in 2008 and the Indian Ocean Poetry Slam in 2009. He has released two solo hip hop records (The Massive EP and World Goes to Pieces), two self-published books (The Clocks and Parang) and a self-titled album with international hip hop group MoneyKat. His debut novel Here Come The Dogs was published in 2014. Here Come the Dogs received praise from novelists Irvine Welsh and Christos Tsiolkas, was long-listed for the Miles Franklin Award and Musa was named one of the Sydney Morning Herald’s Young Novelists of the Year in 2015.

Omar is the son of Australian arts journalist Helen Musa and Malaysian poet Musa bin Masran. He studied at the Australian National University and the University of California, Santa Cruz.

Omar has combined hip hop music and poetry throughout his career. He was runner up in the 2008 Australian Poetry Slam, before winning in 2009 at the Sydney Opera House. He went on to win the Indian Ocean Poetry Slam in 2010. In 2010 he also did support for Gil Scott-Heron in Munich, Germany. In 2011 he was a guest panellist on ABC’s Q&A. In 2013 he received a standing ovation at TEDxSydney at the Sydney Opera House.

He has been a guest at numerous international writers festivals, including Jaipur Literary Festival in India and the Ubud Readers and Writers Festival in Indonesia, as well as touring extensively in Asia, Europe and Australia. He has collaborated with numerous musicians and hip hop artists, including Akala, Soweto Kinch, Impossible Odds, The Last Kinection, Hau Latukefu from Koolism, Candice Monique, The Tongue, Lotek, Koolta and Geoff Stanfield.

He did a split residency in Hotel Penaga and Rimbun Dahan from June to August 2015.