Carlo “Caloy” Gernale (b. 1979) is a Filipino visual artist based in Southern Tagalog, Philippines. As a contemporary social-realist artist, he attempts to articulate not only his personal views, but more importantly, the collective stand and the national democratic aspiration of the marginalized.
As an artist, Gernale is driven by the past and present events that mould Philippine history; he also has a penchant for indigenous and contemporary myths, fables, and banter, and tries to incorporate them into his works of art. Guided by his socio-political leaning, he attempts to come up with a cohesive body of works that are visually and semiotically potent.
Gernale studied Bachelor of Fine Arts in Philippine Women’s University. In 2006, he mounted his first solo exhibit “Ispup.” His most recent exhibit titled “Allegories and Allergies” was held in May 2013 at West Gallery, Philippines.
In July 2013, Ng Mei-Yin, a Malaysian choreographer based in New York, and Cathy Seago, dancer and dance scholar from the UK, conducted a version of their ongoing performance work, the BOW Project, at Rimbun Dahan. The development concluded with a showing on 12 July 2013 at Damansara Performing Arts Centre.
BOW 2013 brought together choreographers/dancers from different dance forms to workshop together to explore starting points and ways in to dance-making, according to their tradition/practice. The aim was to create a number of short works from shared starting points, and to trace the journey in a meaningful and embodied way.
This was a creative and playful opportunity for inquisitive/ imaginative choreographers to develop their art, their perception and their network. Through exposing, sharing and exploring some of the innate mysteries of dance work with other artists and with a wider community we might find a greater depth to our understanding of dance, our own work and of each other.
Lead artists: Mei-Yin Ng (USA/Malaysia) & Cathy Seago (UK)
Malaysian choreographers: Christine Chew, Maniyarasi Gowindasamy, Rithaudin Abdul Kadir
Music performers: The Music Professional Academy. Project partner: Damansara Performing Arts Center and ASWARA.
This project is supported by grants from the University of Winchester, MEI-BE WHATever, kakiSeni and JKKN (Jabatan Kebudayaan dan Kesenian Negara).
Barbara Wildenboer was born in Pretoria, South Africa in 1973. She completed a BA (Ed) with majors in English literature, Psychology and Pedagogics at the University of Pretoria in 1996. In 2003 she obtained a Bachelor of Visual Arts from UNISA followed by a Masters in Fine Art (with distinction) from the Michaelis School of Art at the University of Cape Town in 2007.
Wildenboer has been awarded several international residencies such as the Unesco-Aschberg residency (Jordan, 2006), the Al Mahatta residency (Palestine, 2009) and the Red De Residencias Artisticas Local (Colombia, 2011) and the Hotel Penaga artist residency (Penang, Malaysia, 2013). In 2011 she was nominated and subsequently selected as one of the top 20 finalists for the Sovereign African Arts Award for which she received the Public Choice Prize.
Canggai. 2014. Wood, metal, copper & charcoal. 200 cm (diameter).
Sabri Idrus was the Malaysian Artist for the Malaysia-Australia Visual Arts Residency 2013.
Artist’s biography:
Sabri Idrus, (b. 1971, Kedah, Malaysia) is an artist best defined by his compulsion to experiment with media. Oscillating between a career as an artist and a successful graphic designer, Sabri studied fine arts at UiTM from 1995-1998. Received The Malaysia Young Contemporary Art Award in the painting category in the year 2004 and A Special Mention Award for the UOB Art 2011. Sabri’s works are held in private and public collections in the United Kingdom, Poland, Singapore, America, India, Hong Kong, Indonesia and Malaysia. He has participated in residencies in Poland, Indonesia and Rimbun Dahan, Malaysia. Sabri Idrus lives and works in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Sabri is a constant researcher in the process of art making, specifically in his endless search in the production of prints, marks and traces as the notion of visual representation that operate as his medium in conveying his research and thoughts.
Disruptive Nature
Disrupting materials and surfaces are the main interests for the development of this series, simply entitled Disruptive Nature. Further developing his interest in mark making – a preoccupation with surfaces, spatial stacking, temporality and organic fluid forms (The Search of the Uncertainties, 1999), Sabri Idrus continues his semiotic-reference in art making by tracing down patterns of nature. Leaves, trunks and twigs were scanned and studied in order to understand the basic properties of these elements of nature. From his earlier experimentation with industrial materials, that had the objective of venturing into alternative media such as painted surfaces, this series of works marks a comeback for Sabri and his object making exercise. These processes of experimentation are a statement that echoes his search for creating new marks on new surfaces. How to create a desired effect on a particular material with its own specific characteristics, to be able to re-produce similar effects on different materials has been explored by Sabri in his long process in art making, and is further demonstrated this interpretation of ‘shadows’ as themed for the Rimbun Dahan showcase.
Taking advantage of his discoveries with industrial materials, Sabri, again, marks a change from his normal material play, venturing into the more subtle realm of natural patterns, forms and characteristics. The natural patterns he has discovered and mimicked on his choice of surfaces reveal their latent qualities in a two-dimensional manner. Sabri’s series of studies were then reconstructed using a very similar method to his deconstruction in order to transform them into three-dimensional sculptures. Only this time, the traces of patterns and surfaces were extruded to create solid forms coupled with the real natural patterns that originated from the material itself. These processes are not an escapism from his earlier ‘difficult’ process in producing his works, but rather should be seen as a new adventure of developing a more advanced understanding of the manifestation of moments that reconcile nature with the unnatural.
Researching within the natural context of Rimbun Dahan, coupled with his seminal research on natural and man-made elements from his residency period in Poland, and through in-depth studies of the architectural works of Anthony Viscardi, Sabri’s latest works examine the qualities shared between art and architecture through explorations of solid and void, presence and absence, static and dynamic, and material and ephemeral continuums. His daily observation of the site-specific elements of his work place at Rimbun Dahan has allowed him to capture measurable details in nature’s natural moment, where tactility and space-time relation of the natural evolution are always visible. The nature of observation places one’s visual sense in an almost circular perspective (looking at the surrounding in 360 degrees) and has been recorded, photographed, memorized and sometime distorted into the physical being of the artwork itself. Sabri’s observations have been replicated in the form of circles, reflecting the way he looks at things around him. The conflicting elements of the natural and unnatural characteristics of these objects were further elaborated through detailing and specific material usage, hoping the artwork would be able to present itself as a signifier of the context that they represent.
What Sabri is interested in is that the work should not represent itself as an object to be confronted, making the viewers merely face the subject, but rather to create a feeling of being wrapped in it, as though it were our shadow.
Shadow and light is a dual reality, the hypertrophy of a double sensation: there can be cavernous, dark, soft, humid, sensorial, crystalized, cold, luminous, and all this can be used like an individual zapping of perception. Return to text…
Tiga Tiga, video and sculptural installation, Blue Mountains, Australia.
Dr Lisa Anderson works across a broad range of media creating images, films and prints that explore issues of weather and its consequences including the movement of peoples and animals, the shifts in legends and mythology specific to locations, and the effects of climate change in our global environment.
Recent exhibitions include Huldefolke, a photographic series in Skargarstrond, Iceland, working with the mythology and religious beliefs in the unseen or hidden folk, Beneath the Architecture of Beauty which comprised neon and photographs in London, and a sculptural intallation in Beijing, Clouds in the Beijing Breeze, which references childish joy with gifts and the abundance of stories with clouds of gold. Further sculptural work includes a temporary installation work Precious that uses 4,000 wine glasses to use a fairytale ambience to capture water and light in a forest beside the sea in Arhus in Denmark, andTiga Tiga, a video and sculptural installation at Scenic World in the Australian Blue Mountains and in Contested Landscape for Ten Days on the Island, Tasmania. Tiga Tiga will also form a part of the Lorne Sculpture Biennale in 2014.
Anderson exhibits regularly in Sydney, London and Beijing and is included in major private and public collections. Her residencies include Arctic adventures as artist on a Russian icebreaker, as well as exploring UNESCO sites in the Bay of Biscay and, more recently, the Antarctic aboard the MV Fram, travel in remote Australia, Central java, the UK and other sites with weather-specific stories as the stepping point for the works Dr Anderson creates with her company The Shiny Shiny World.
Anderson spent three months at Rimbun Dahan in 2013, creating 3D video pieces for installation in various locations using the unique gardens, water features and dancers of the area in the final work.
Born in the UK and a graduate of the Royal College of Art, London, Laurence has been working as an artist, curator and visiting academic in Hong Kong. Prior to that he was a Dean at the University for the Creative Arts in the UK. Primarily a painter he also has many years of experience of leading and working with creative teams involved in broader fields of art, architecture, design and music. His work has been exhibited internationally and is included in the collections of the National Trust Foundation for Art UK, HSBC HQ London, and His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales.
Julie Ryder is a textile designer and artist who lives and works in Canberra. Initially trained in science, Ryder graduated from the Melbourne College of Textiles in 1990, and completed a Master of Arts (Visual Arts) degree at ANU, School of Art in 2004. In 2005, Julie was awarded the inaugural ANAT Synapse New Media Artist in Residence at the Australian National Botanic Gardens in Canberra. She has been the recipient of many awards and grants, most notably the Gold Medal at the 1997 International Textile Design Competition in Taegu, Korea, the 2004 CAPO Singapore Airlines Award, a 2006 Australia Council VAB New Work Grant, and several grants from artsACT. She has undertaken several artist residencies, including Hill End, Iceland and Bundanon and is a 2013 Asialink Visual Arts Resident at Rimbun Dahan.
During her 3-month stay at Rimbun Dahan Julie will be completing work for an upcoming solo exhibition later this year, and will be starting new work using the plants growing here as dye sources for both paper and textiles. She will also explore traditional textile and fibre techniques to inform future work.
She has exhibited in many solo and group exhibitions, both nationally and internationally, and is represented in the collections of the NGA; NGV; Powerhouse Museum; AGSA; BRAG; Textile Museum, Tilberg, Netherlands; Tamworth City Gallery, CSIRO, and many other public and private collections worldwide.
See Julie’s blog of experiences at Rimbun Dahan on her website: www.julieryder.com.au
Me, Here and You, There, detail, 2011
Rose petals, wooden forks, rose thorns, hemp, embroidery
Josiah, detail, 2008 hand cut leaf dots collage on tapa cloth, pricking
American choreographer spent a month in residency at Rimbun Dahan in 2013, developing a new contemporary dance duet with French dancers Aimee Lagrange and Martin Harriague.
The work-in-progress of the duet, ‘one day without harming you’, was performed at ASWARA on 30 March 2013.
Stephen Shropshire (b. 26 December 1972) is a graduate of the Juilliard School in New York City. As a choreographer he has created works for o.a. Scapino Ballet Rotterdam, Norrdans,The National Dance Company of Wales, The Holland Dance Festival, and the Iceland Dance Company. In 2003, his work ‘The Piper’s Progress’ was awarded the Grand Prize and the Public’s Prize at the 8th international choreographic competition ‘Tandances’ in Luxembourg. His work ‘sugarwater’ was named one of the top ten dance triumphs of 2008 by the London Telegraph. From 2009 to 2012, Shropshire was the artistic director of Noord Nederlandse Dans.
‘one day without harming you’ is a short study for an evening length work to premiere in 2014 as part of the Holland Dance Festival. The work is an intimate portrayal of love and loss that explores narrative dance structure through contemporary abstract form. Darting between the present and the past, the work struggles to reconstruct fragmented memories in an attempt to come to terms with what it is to love and be loved in return.
Agustian Supriatna (b. 1981 in Lampung, Sumatra, Indonesia) , an abstract painter with unique compositions. A combination of soft and bright colors, wild lines and brush strokes that create harmony, gives the audience an opportunity to freely explore his paintings. He also creates sculptures out of found metal objects.
Indonesia’s famous abstract painter Affandi the Maestro inspired him to be an artist. He studied with Indonesian elder painters, one of them being Roedyat Martadirejda who gave him the task of sketching every day for the rest of his life.
Agustian currently resides in Bali, having moved there in 1999. His paintings and sculptures have been exhibited internationally and his recent solo exhibition at Art Expo Malaysia 2012 was sold out. He is represented in the following countries all over the world; America, Australia, Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Holland, Hong Kong, Malaysia, New Zealand, Singapore, and Thailand. He undertook a three-month residency in 2013 at Hotel Penaga.
Solo Exhibitions
2012 “Unlimited Beauty” G13 Gallery@ Art Expo Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur
2011 “I love you“ Café Des Artistes Restaurant & Gallery, Ubud, Bali
2007 “Dedicated to my Mum Ratu Permai“ Lidya Gallery, Ubud, Bali
2007 “I’m Scooterist not Terrorist“ Sketch journey on my Vespa from Bali to Lampung, Sumatra
2003-2007 “Studio 3 Owner“ Studio 3 Art Gallery & Studio, Ubud, Bali
2006 “Anna I Love You“ Kwezien Restaurant, Lovina, Bali
2005 “I’m Agustian!“ Momentous Art Gallery, Singapor
Le Thua Tien has a diverse art practice that includes paintings, installation, experimentation with sculpture and community based art projects. The direction of Tien’s paintings changed from figurative to abstract when he arrived at the Rijks Academy in Amsterdam in 1995. Some of his most recent works are mixed media and lacquer and can be considered symbolic of his subjects. He is one of Vietnam’s few artists who address the American War in his works. His work also tends to be more conceptual than many other Vietnamese artists. His work has been displayed in the United States, Thailand, the Netherlands, France, Germany, Venezuela, Japan, and Australia. Le Thua Tien lectured at the Fine Arts University in Hue, Vietnam, from 1989 to 2008. He now lives and works in Hue.
About the Residency
The Haiku Path Project in Rimbun Dahan is a sculpture / installation project. It contains a series of selected haiku poems, engraved onto granite slabs, arranged along the walking paths of Rimbun Dahan’s garden. The granite used in this project is recycled material. By laying it back to the ground; with time, the slabs will embed themselves into the forest.
Create a walking path through Rimbun Dahan’s compound, where visitors can approach the sculpture/poem works in different locations.
The first stage of the project, created in February 2013, features 5 haiku poems written by Matsuo Basho (1644-1694) [with English translation by R. H. Blyth] and two poems by Mike Ladd (b.1959), a former Rimbun Dahan artist in residence. Tien considers The Haiku Path Project an ongoing project and plans to add more poems to the compound.
Poem by Mike Ladd (1959- ). Material: Recycled granite slabs/ sandblasted engraved text (Al Himmah Global, Batu Caves, Selangor). Size: approximately 60 x 40 x 20 cm each; seven pieces.
Poem by Matsuo Basho (1644- 1694) . Material: Recycled granite slabs/ sandblasted engraved text (Al Himmah Global, Batu Caves, Selangor). Size: approximately 60 x 40 x 20 cm each; seven pieces.
The location of the first Basho haiku installation, along the driveway at Rimbun Dahan.
Le Thua Tien with Laila from the Al Himmah Global Batu Caves Engraving Process.
Le Thua Tien working with stickers to design the engravings
Haiku (Hi-koo) is a traditional Japanese verse form, notable for its compression and suggestiveness. In the three lines totalling seventeen syllables measuring 5-7-5, a great haiku presents, through imaginary drawn from intensely careful observation, a web of associated ideas (renso) requiring an active mind on the part of the listener. The form emerged during the 16th century and was developed by the poet Matsuo Basho (1644-1694) into the refined medium of Buddhist and Taoist symbolism.
Carlo “Caloy” Gernale (b. 1979) is a Filipino visual artist based in Southern Tagalog, Philippines. As a contemporary social-realist artist, he attempts to articulate not only his personal views, but more importantly, the collective stand and the national democratic aspiration of the marginalized.
