Southeast Asian Arts Residency

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

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.

Tran Dan

Angela Hijjas Resident Artist, Southeast Asian Arts Residency , , ,
Tran Dan

Tran Dan studied architecture in university, but his artistic career is built on self-taught painting and sculpture. His primal medium is lacquer, which is widely represented and used in Vietnamese traditional and modern arts. Tran is keen to further develop its form and use in art: lacquer with/as mix-material paintings/sculptures or (video) installations. He has made full use of Rimbun Dahan’s gardens and surroundings for materials to make into lacquers and paints. His collaborations with foreign cultural institutions in Vietnam, such as British Council, Embassy of Denmark, L’espace French Cultural Centre, and The Japan Foundation Center for Cultural Exchange have resulted in experimental videos and performances about human consciousness, dreams, Vietnamese culture, and food. Tran has also opened an independent art space in Hanoi where he organizes and directs programs for local and international artists. His recent lacquer paintings are inspired by the relationship between humans and animals, and by the power of humans and nature. Tran’s work explores the dreamlike rhythm of life, stories that are repeated every night; this also speaks to existentialism, a theme he consistently returns to.

For more information on Tran Dan and his work, visit his blog or his Facebook page.

Yuwatee Jehko

admin Resident Artist, Southeast Asian Arts Residency ,
Yuwatee Jehko

Yuwatee Jehko - Clouds (2014)

Cloud, 2014. Acrylic on linen, 120 x 85cm

Yuwatee Jehko (b. 1984) is a Thai painter and educator based in Chiang Mai, Thailand.

She derives inspiration from process, believing that the paint palette is an integral part of each painting, because without this tool and experimental space, the work would not exist. Yuwatee finds in the paint palette purity, a struggle between the colours, the residue, choices, mistakes, and ultimately, the journey of the resulting painting hidden in a blob of paint. Her works often depict every day objects, which she hopes will evoke memories, both good and bad, within the viewer and remind them both of who they are today and who they will be tomorrow.

Yuwatee studied at the College of Fine Arts in Bangkok before getting both her Bachelors and Masters of Fine Art in Chiang Mai University. During that time, she was a part of an artist apprentice-training programme at the Fabric Workshop and Museum in Philadelphia in 2011. Yuwatee has also taught basic drawing in multimedia technology and animation in Mae Fah Luang University in Chiang Mai.

In 2009, she mounted her first solo exhibit, “Mindscape” at Galerie N in Bangkok. Her most recent exhibit titled “Paints Palette” was held in 2014 at The Meeting Room Art Café in Chiang Mai.

Find more of her work on her website.

Khairani Barokka

admin Resident Artist, Southeast Asian Arts Residency , ,
Khairani Barokka

Khairani Bairokka, photo by Annie Marrs.

Khairani Barokka (b. 1985) is a writer, poet, and interdisciplinary artist. She is also a practitioner of think/do advocacy in the arts, particularly on the ways in which new media can increase inclusion and access for and by disability cultures and feminisms (both of which she is happy to be a part of). Born in Jakarta, Okka works, teaches, and is published internationally, with art, literature, disability culture and transdisciplinary performances and workshops held across India, the US, Australia, Malaysia, the UK, Austria, Singapore, and her native Indonesia. She has a masters from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts, as a Tisch Departmental Fellow, and among her awards and honors was Emerging Writers Festival’s (AUS) Inaugural International Writer-In-Residence for 2013. Okka is the writer, performer, and producer of a (hearing-impaired accessible) solo poetry/performance art show, “Eve and Mary Are Having Coffee”, which premiered at Edinburgh Festival Fringe 2014.

Okka is delighted to be part of the Rimbun Dahan community for 6 months, where she is working on writing projects as well as using text in mixed media works.

 

www.khairanibarokka.com
twitter.com/mailbykite