Australian choreographer Daniel Jaber undertook an Asialink residency at Rimbun Dahan in 2010, with Australian dancers Jessie Mckinlay and Madeline Edwards. He created two works during the residency: WG-Spiel, with Jessie and Madeline, and Poetic Structure, with Malaysian dancers Lau Beh Chin, Hii Ing Fung, Stephanie Lim and Darius Lim Chee Wei. The works were presented at Fonteyn Studio Theatre in Petaling Jaya, from 19-20 November 2010.
WG-Spiel (50 minutes)
WG Spiel delves into the lives and living habits of 3 housemates coexisting in close living quarters. Set to a vibrant and energetic electronic soundtrack, the work charges forth through images of domestic duties, working life, claustrophobia and relationships.
Performed by: Daniel Jaber, Jessie Mckinlay and Madeline Edwards.
Poetic Structure (20 minutes)
Poetic structure redefines traditional choreography in the context of a modern world. Cyberspace, chartrooms and MSN form the communicative dialogues of the performers as they engage in wickedly abstract choreography created by CSS and HTML coding formulas. Commenting on communication, technology and digital engulfment in the 21st century – Poetic Structure is a sophisticatedly structured short dance work created by Daniel Jaber and featuring four outstanding Malaysian dancers.
Performed by: Beh Chin, Hii Ing Fung, Stephanie Lim and Darius Lim Chee Wei.
This program was made possible through an Asialink – performing arts residency and funded by The Government of South Australia through Arts SA, The Australia – Malaysia Institute, Carclew Youth Arts and Rimbun Dahan.
Australian-based Japanese choreographer/performer YumiUmiumare undertook a short residency at Rimbun Dahan in 2010, working with and mentoring performer Natalie Kim Kyungmi, towards a solo work for the Melaka Art+Performance Festival. Yumi also conducted a workshop on 21 November 2010 at The Annexe Central Market.
Yumi is at the forefront of Butoh fusion in Australia, with work across genres, including ‘Butoh Cabaret’. She works internationally and performed first in Australia in the early 90’s with Tokyo Butoh company DaiRakudakan. She has had a commitment to teaching and mentoring for over a decade, initiating with Tony Yap the Beyond Butoh series of annual showings in Melbourne.
Australian visual artist Anthony Pelchen spent three months at Rimbun Dahan on an Asialink residency in 2010. During his stay he contributed works to the 2010 Art for Nature exhibition, and helped to produce the Melaka Art & Performance Festival 2010. In 2013 he presented the exhibition Kuang Road Prayer at the Horsham Regional Arts Gallery in Horsham, Australia, with works inspired and begun during his time at Rimbun Dahan.
Anthony Pelchen in his studio at Rimbun Dahan, photographing Shima, who lives and works at Rimbun Dahan.
Kuang Road Prayer
Kuang Road Prayer – work in progress, Malaysia, July 2010 C type print, 29.9 x 42cm.
In 2010 on an Asialink artist residency at Rimbun Dahan, Malaysia, Pelchen witnessed life in the balance and produced the foundation of a body of work titled Kuang Road Prayer.
Through reflection and continued artistic engagement with Malaysia, Pelchen has expanded this evocative body of work. Issues of change, vulnerability and resilience, at the core of Kuang Road Prayer, are explored in this exhibition through drawing, photography, video and sculpture.
The exhibition entitled Kuang Road Prayer was opened by Angela Hijjas at the Horsham Regional Arts Gallery on 18 August 2013 — read the opening speech here. For more about Kuang Road Prayer, see Anthony Pelchen’s website.
Biography
Born 1960 in Horsham in North West Victoria, Anthony Pelchen studied Economics at Monash University and a decade later painting at the Victorian College of the Arts.
Common to all his work is an overriding interest in the fine lines and shifts between physical and psychological states and how a dominance of one inevitably points to the absence and potential of another. This has involved work across media – painting, drawing, photography, video, sculpture and installation – all incorporating elements of repetition, austerity and subtle change within set structures.
Throughout the 1990s he lived in Melbourne and exhibited widely in artist-run, institutional and alternative spaces. He has exhibited twice in Osaka and has been represented in various surveys of painting and drawing over the past twelve years. He has had numerous residencies in Australia and Japan and has been the recipient of Arts Victoria grants for new work, presentation and international cultural exchange.
Since 1998 he has periodically collaborated with Melbourne-based performers Yumi Umiumare and Tony Yap in gallery, church, landscape and performance environments in Australia, Japan and Denmark. Between 1999 and 2007, he jointly conducted Butoh/drawing workshops at his base on the Wimmera River, west of Horsham. In 2007 he continued a biennial use of the local Natimuk Lutheran Church as an installation space, collaborating with 222 local and Japanese children.
In 2008/9 he participated in Drought – Cross Cultural Collaborations. Curated by Lella Cariddi, it resulted in new solo and collaborative work being presented in 2008 in Melbourne at the National Gallery of Victoria, Australian Centre for the Moving Image and Federation Square. In 2009, installation work was commissioned for the Murray Darling Palimpsest #7, Mildura, and the Gold Mining Exchange Building in Ballarat.
His work is represented in collections including the National Gallery of Victoria, John McBride Collection, Australian Print Workshop and Artbank.
Since 2000, he has lived back on land on the Wimmera River in NW Victoria.
Liew Kwai Fei, “one of the most exciting new generation of abstract painters in Malaysia”, undertook a 3-month residency at Rimbun Dahan from July to September 2010.
Kwai Fei majored in Ink Painting at the Malaysia Art Institute. Since graduation, he has participated in a number of group exhibitions such as ‘3 Instalasi + 3@RAP’ A Preview of Installation Art and Drawings at Rumah Air Panas, Kuala Lumpur (2003), YOUQING – A Showcase of Ink Painting and Drawing at Rumah Air Panas, Kuala Lumpur (2004), and Al-kesah/Once Upon A Time in Malaysia at Map Art Space (2010). In 2003, Kwai Fei held his first solo exhibition titled ‘Fei’ at Rumah Air Panas, Kuala Lumpur which travelled to Le Bois Creation, Melaka. He also participated in the VASL International Artist Residency in Karachi, Pakistan in 2003.
From 22 to 24 April 2010, the Dance Programme at Rimbun Dahan presented Bodies across Boundaries: two dance works by Malaysian choreographers & performed by Australian dancers, plus two dance works by Australian choreographers & performed by Malaysian dancers.
In the studio and on stage, we reached across the seas, building bridges with our bodies, and showing that differences of language, background, and home are no barrier to moving together.
‘Bodies Across Boundaries’ presented two new contemporary dance works by acclaimed Malaysian choreographers Amy Len and Suhaili Ahmad Kamil, performed by a group of powerful young Australian dancers. The show also included two contemporary dance works performed by talented Malaysian dancers including Hii Ing Fung, Stephanie Lim, An Nur Azhar, and Bilqis Hijjas, and created by Australian artists who have been in residence at Rimbun Dahan.
8.30pm Friday 22 April, Saturday 23 April 2010
3pm Sunday 24 April 2010
The Actors Studio, Rooftop at Lot 10 Shopping Centre, Jalan Sultan Ismail
Presented by the Dance Programme at Rimbun Dahan
Supported by the Australia Malaysia Institute and the Australian High Commission
Works in the Program
STRINGS is a multidisciplinary work involving Australian visual artist Rochelle Haley, who will be making live drawings in response to the movements of dancers on stage. The dancers themselves will respond to the projection of the drawings as they develop, creating an intricate web of causal connections between the two dimensions of the paper and the three dimensions of the bodies on stage.
SHUTTLING is a dance work choreographed by award-winning Malaysian choreographer Amy Len and performed by the three Australian dancers currently resident at Rimbun Dahan, as well as three of Amy’s dancers from Kwang Tung Dance Company. The work is about the unconscious memories that are aroused when people from different backgrounds meet.
DAZZLE was created by Australian choreographer Angela Goh for three Malaysian dancers — Hii Ing Fung, Stephanie Lim and Jojo Wong, two of whom she worked with when she was first in residence at Rimbun Dahan in 2009. The work explores the idea of camouflage and deception, being seen and not seen, and how hiding the face makes someone inhuman.
WONDERWHATTALAND has been created by hit Malaysian choreographer Suhaili Micheline with the three Malaysian dancers. A crazy trip inspired by Alice in Wonderland, it includes rap songs made of the names of Malaysian food: gulp, slurp, chomp! Pulling out the bizarre in the most everyday things, Wonderwhattaland will be a work that sends the audience out giggling but thinking.
Burmese artist Zaw Win Pe undertook a short residency at Rimbun Dahan from April to June 2010.
“I am inspired by landscape themes, not with the thought of painting particular places, but of expressing elemental moods and emotions. But the paintings never lack the geographical and environmental characteristics of the places I paint. Colour is the key element for me. I believe colour can tell everything about human’s feelings and thoughts.”
Born in 1960 in Le Gaing, Mague Division, Central Myanmar
1981 – 1984 State School of Fine Art
Myanmar exhibitions:
1994 Wintry Winter Group Exhibition, Judson Hall, Yangon
1996 Five Fingers Art Exhibition, New Treasure Gallery, Yangon
1998 Page 98 Group Exhibition, Lokanat Gallery, Yangon
1998 Libra Art Exhibition, Lokanat Gallery, Yangon
1998 All Myanmar Art and Sculpture Exhibition, Yangon
1999 Aesthetic Journey Art Exhibition, Yangon
2000 Nudes by Contemporary Myanmar Artists, Yangon
2000 Artistic Touch Exhibition, Lokanat Gallery, Yangon
2000 “Zaw Win Pe’s Palette Knife Paintings”, Yangon
2001 Stroke in Tempo Exhibition, Yangon
2002 5th Annual Group Show, Myanmar Gallery of Contemporary Art, Yangon
2002 “Exotic Eye” – Solo, Myanmar Gallery of Contemporary Art, Yangon
2003 Page 2003 Exhibition, Lokanat Gallery, Yangon
2004 4th Artistic Touch Group Exhibition, Lokanat Gallery, Yangon
2004 Myanmar Contemporary Art Awards Exhibition of Finalists, Yangon
2008 Myanmar Contemporary Art Awards Exhibition of Finalists, Yangon
Overseas exhibitions:
2004 Myanmar Contemporary Art Award Exhibition of finalists, HK
2004 Two man exhibition with Ba Khine, Singapore
2005 “Searching the Colour with Knife Strokes”, Solo exhibition, Chiang Mai, Thailand
2005 Three man exhibition “Burma Stars”, Hong Kong
2006 “Quiet Wind” Exhibition of five Myanmar artists, San Francisco
2007 “Burma Phoenix” Group show of Myanmar artists, New York
2007 Contemporary Art from Myanmar. Group show of Myanmar artists, Washington, USA
2007 Art from Myanmar. Group show of Myanmar artists, Princeton and New York
2008 “Serenity” Solo Exhibition, Ernst & Young Solution LLp, Singapore
2010 “Christies-30 Artfriends Exhibition, Christies International Art Auction House
Awards and collections
2004 Winner of the Myanmar Contemporary Art Awards
2008 Second prize winner in the Myanmar Contemporary Art Awards 2008
2008 Painting acquired by the Singapore National Art Museum
As the first artist project at Hotel Penaga in Penang, four mosaic artists from around the world spent almost a month in Penang creating a stunning work entitled ‘The Shyness of the Trees’ for the new boutique hotel.
Helen Bodycomb of Castlemaine, Australia, had had a residency at Rimbun Dahan in 2006 and organized this collaborative exercise with two other Australian mosaic artists, Dominic Johns and Glenn Romanis, and George Fishman from Miami Beach, USA. They stayed in the Lebuh Clarke houses for almost a month to create a piece for the verandah at the back of the four terraces on Jalan Transfer.
The fifteen shophouses of Hotel Penaga, in the buffer zone of the Georgetown heritage district, were developed as a luxury boutique hotel which will help to support ongoing activities at Rimbun Dahan. The images below show the development and final work of ‘The Shyness of Trees’, on the back verandah of the four terrace houses on Jalan Transfer.
Norwegian choreographer Kristine Nilsen Oma was in residence at Rimbun Dahan in 2010.
She developed a solo work, Marilyn Monroe’s last 20 minutes before committing suicide, which was performed at Dancing in Place, a weekend of site-specific work at Rimbun Dahan, 7-8 August 2010.
About the Work
Western neuroses meets the Third World. The work is an experiential exploration of the Buddhist concept that earthly desires can lead to enlightenment.
The work is a response to meeting a whole new environment and culture, and a personal quest to understand both my own desires and how to make them come from a higher perspective. In the context of the Third World certain neuroses becomes ridiculous. Yet they were created as a response to the Western world I have lived in all my life. How do I cope in the Third World? How will my neuroses behave? Is there a control in this experiment?
Marilyn Monroe, goddess of the Western world, a legend still worshiped, becomes the symbol and character of what the Western world promotes as success. Yet I suspect her life was not a happy one. I have my own spin on it. I relate to it.
Judy Garland is singing somewhere over the rainbow. Marilyn is nowhere to be seen, only a hijab lying by the side of the pool, and the record playing and playing again and again…
In 2010, Brussels-based choreographer Arco Renz and dancers from Amrita Performing Arts, Cambodia, spent an intensive residency at Rimbun Dahan developing the new work Crack, commissioned by the Singapore Arts Festival 2011.
The development concluded with a work-in-progress showing, “Cracking in Progress” at The Actors Studio Theatre @ Lot 10 Rooftop, on 27 March 2010. During the showing, Arco will presented and explaiedn the movement material created so far and the dance tasks he has set for the Cambodian dancers. Arco and the Amrita dancers also discussed and took questions on their work.
Crack is a performance about the developing individuality of a new generation of Cambodians after their civil war – their conflicts, hopes, dreams, and desires. Physically exploring the themes of emergence from isolation towards integration in the complexities of the contemporary world, this performance promises to ascribe and describe through contemporary dance, music and performance the zeitgeist of a new country.
About Arco Renz
A protegee of famed Belgian minimalist dance artist Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker, Arco Renz’s productions reveal an intense physicality and explore the emotional force of abstraction. In his creations he consistently broadens the principles of Abstract Dramaturgy to light, sound and multimedia interfaces. Kobalt Works is the production organization founded by Arco Renz. Since the establishment of Kobalt Works in 2000, Arco Renz has developed a successful artistic track, creating and touring several performances as well as developing transcultural and multidisciplinary research and exchange programs. He presented ‘heroine’, a solo work by Taiwanese dancer Wen-Chi Su, at the Singapore Arts Festival 2010.
About Amrita Performing Arts
Amrita Performing Arts is an international NGO based in Phnom Penh whose mission is to preserve the spectrum of Cambodia’s traditional performing arts, while nurturing contemporary artistic expression. In 2011 they presented ‘Khmeropedies I & II’ at the Esplanade, Singapore, created by former Baryshnikov dancer Emmanuèle Phuon.
Alice comes from Texas, but lives in Portugal. Sometimes her English is perfect, and sometimes it isn’t. She won a million dollars in a lottery and every day she paints her fingernails red. She might be someone you know, or perhaps you have never heard of her. So does she really exist?
Singaporean choreographer Joavien Ng and Spanish choreographer Paloma Calle are currently undertaking a one-month residency at Rimbun Dahan supported by the Asia-Europe Foundation. During their residency, Joavien and Paloma are collaborating to create a new performance work entitled ‘The Diary of Alice’, intertwining the concepts of fiction and identity.
A 3-hour performance laboratory exploring creative processes associated with the body, objects, space, image and sound will take place on Sunday 14 March, from 12pm to 3pm, at The Annexe Gallery, Central Market Annexe. Artists in all genres are invited to participate, while Paloma and Joavien facilitate a development process involving their new work, ‘The Diary of Alice’.
Each participant should bring a digital camera (a mobile phone with camera is suitable), and an object with special meaning to the participant, either positive or negative. Participants are requested to wear loose comfortable clothes, as some movement will be involved.
A lecture presentation of the artists’ previous works will take place at The Annexe Central Market on Monday 15 March, from 8pm to 10pm, followed by a discussion and Q&A session.
About the Artists
Photo of Joavien Ng by Matthew G. Johnson.
Joavien Ng began her choreographing and performing career in 1997, after graduating from La Salle School of Performing Arts in Singapore. Her works have since been presented by various Singapore and international arts organisations such as Esplanade Theatre (Singapore), Singapore Arts Festival, Kampnagel (Hamburg), Contemporary Dance of Fort Worth (USA), Little Asia Dance Exchange Network (Asia), Alkantara (Portugal), and Singapore Art Museum.
Joavien’s most recent work, Body Swap, in which she collaborated with Germany-based American choreographer Dani Brown, was presented at Kampnagel and Esplanade Theatre in 2009. Other works include LAB at the Esplanade Theatre in 2008 and Body Inquireat Singapore Arts Festival 2008.
Paloma Calle was born in Madrid in 1975. After training and working for more than 10 years as a performer in experimental dance and theatre companies in Spain, Germany and Italy, she began to develop her own projects in performance art, staged performances and video in 2004. Her work is usually based on autobiographical material that she explores and reconstructs from an ironic and artifactual perspective. There is a constant questioning and experimenting with the conventional use of space, resulting in works in different formats conceived for diverse spaces ranging from a theatre to a walk with the audience through the periphery of a city, or a performance in a private house. Paloma also regularly questions the role of the audience in her work, encouraging the audience to enter a state of alertness and activity.
Paloma’s work, presented in a number of centres and festivals in Europe and in Spain, include des-trozos, lovely epi-ladies, parlez moi d’amour, ZOO, simple present, SECRET, territorio: sad y k, DE MANO, 1, 2, 3, 4 partes, EVEREST/príncipes, 100 cosas que hacer la noche en blanco mejor que ver la noche en blanco, concierto y subasta, and hello myself.
This residency is supported by the Asia-Europe Foundation as a follow-up to ASEF’s Point to Pointe dance forum in Portugal last year.
Australian choreographer Daniel Jaber undertook an Asialink residency at Rimbun Dahan in 2010, with Australian dancers Jessie Mckinlay and Madeline Edwards. He created two works during the residency: WG-Spiel, with Jessie and Madeline, and Poetic Structure, with Malaysian dancers Lau Beh Chin, Hii Ing Fung, Stephanie Lim and Darius Lim Chee Wei. The works were presented at Fonteyn Studio Theatre in Petaling Jaya, from 19-20 November 2010.
Poetic Structure (20 minutes)
