Wild Dot

Wild Dot

Shirin Rafie and Liz Liu from Wild Dot (Singapore) undertook two months of residency at Rimbun Dahan in 2023 (in May and November) investigating the colour palette of plants and unwanted materials in the space.

About the Artists

Wild Dot is a natural art studio from Singapore started by Shirin Rafie and Liz Liu, who hold backgrounds in illustration and ecology respectively. Through their combined interests, they specialize in artmaking with found pigments and fibers abundant in the spaces they work with, and also sharing their findings through designing playful experiences for other people. Their shared intention is to observe how (art)making can be an accessible way for more people to learn about the plants growing around them, and also deconstructing the material of the everyday object, ultimately working towards reducing their own reliance on mass-commercialized making tools and materials.

Prior to Wild Dot, Shirin is a digital illustrator and designer, having worked with clients in Singapore and the U.S. on designing educational board games. Liz is a nature educator, having worked at forest schools and also in the urban farming scene. She is currently a MA Research student at NTU, looking at how traditional craft practices can inform the present.

They have received the Good Design Research grant by National Design Council Singapore for their work exploring upcycled tree pigments, and are currently working on bringing natural colours into a preschool environment with the support of the SG Eco Fund.

Website: wildd.sg
Instagram: wildd.sg

About the Residency

What are the colours and stories that lie within Rimbun Dahan, and how would a natural art studio take shape within the given environment and space? In their two-month residency, Wild Dot seek to investigate the colour palette and making possibilities of the space, following their own curiosities about the plants and the unwanted objects available, and to distill their experience into a compilation of artworks and stories.

Wong Ming Hao

Wong Ming Hao

Malaysian artist Wong Ming Hao is undertaking a 3-month residency at Rimbun Dahan at the end of 2023, experimenting with the possibilities of his paint-skin collages with inspiration from human relationships with nature.

About the Artist

Wong Ming Hao, born in 1988 in Malaysia, is a talented artist whose passion for art led him to pursue a Diploma in Fine Art from Dasein Academy of Art in 2010. His international presence includes participating in renowned art fairs like “Art For All: Art Gala by Art Expo Malaysia” and “Art Moments Jakarta Online” with G13 Gallery. Wong Ming Hao has also showcased his exceptional skills in solo exhibitions such as “Unreal Reality” at HOM Art Trans in 2020. His artworks have been featured in various group exhibitions, including “Between Spaces” and “S.O.P.” at G13 Gallery and “Pure Painting 2” at Maybank.

His diverse talents have been recognized and awarded multiple times, including the Gold Award at the UOB Painting of the Year 2020 and Jury Choice at Bakat Muda Sezaman 2019. Wong Ming Hao also had the honor of being selected for the A-RES residency program at HOM Art Trans in 2018, further solidifying his position as a rising star in the art world. With an impressive portfolio of achievements and experiences, Wong Ming Hao continues to leave an indelible mark on the contemporary art scene. 

https://minghao6323.wixsite.com/wongminghao
https://www.instagram.com/minghao_wong/

About the Residency

Ming Hao is currently extending figurative painting to human relationships with nature. Inspired by colours, textures, insects, and other elements of his surroundings at Rimbun Dahan, he continues to explore the possibilities of the acrylic paint-skin collage. He’s experimenting with form and outcome by overlapping, cutting, weaving, compressing, scrapping, collaging. By constructing and deconstructing, there will be lots of unpredictable results in these works. Some of the works will be exhibited in a coming group exhibition this year. Others are planned to be showcased in a 2024 exhibition, the second solo of his artistic career.

Sigrid Marianne Gayangos

Sigrid Marianne Gayangos

Author Sigrid Marianne Gayangos from the Philippines is spending her 2-month residency at Rimbun Dahan in late 2023 translating her short stories from Chavacano, and drafting a collection of personal essays.

About the Artist

Sigrid Marianne Gayangos was born and raised in Zamboanga City, Philippines. She is the author of Laut: Stories (UP Press), a National Book Award finalist, and Lola Maria’s Candles (Aklat Alamid), a forthcoming bilingual children’s book. In 2021, she was the recipient of the NCCA’s Writers Prize for Fiction, which enabled her to complete a second collection of short stories in Chavacano. She is currently working on self-translating her Chavacano collection, El Vida Encantao (The Enchanted Life), to English. In 2023, she was awarded first prize in the Gawad Bienvenido Lumbera National Literary Contest for her poetry collection in Chavacano, Descarga. She teaches at the Department of Humanities in the University of the Philippines Mindanao.

Buy Laut: Stories by Sigrid Marianne Gayangos from UP Press

About the Residency

“I alternate between translating my second short story collection (from Chavacano to English) and drafting sections from what is shaping up to be my third book, which is a collection of personal essays. Inspired by “The House on Mango Street” by Sandra Cisneros, I aim to tell a story that is simultaneously very specific—as a Filipino with at least 7 cultural and linguistic influences growing up, and having had to move from one home to another in Zamboanga as dictated by personal circumstances and political upheavals in the city—and universal, for at its core the project is about a child going through difficult transformations as she maneuvers her way into the broader world.”

Open Day Activity

On Sunday 26 November 2023, as part of Rimbun Dahan Open Day, Sigrid will give a short talk on her background as a writer. Coming from a long line of fisherfolks who traveled from one island to another in search of better fishing grounds and having lived through several instances of uprooting herself, the idea of home is central to her work. Sigrid will be reading an excerpt from her work-in-progress while in residency, the prelude to her collection of essays entitled “All The Places We Called Home”.

In the following writing workshop, participants will be given a ‘Where I Come From’ template for a poetry prompt. This activity is meant to help participants reflect on the elements that have influenced and defined their identity. Participants are encouraged to use this template as a starting point but are free to adapt and modify it to best express their own experiences and stories. Volunteer readers can then share and read their works. Please bring your own preferred writing materials; basic writing materials will also be provided at the session.

Total duration: 1 hour

Annabell Ng

Annabell Ng

Annabell Ng undertook a three-month residency at Rimbun Dahan in 2023, continuing to explore her practice focused on mark-making reminiscent of minute fragments, as well as developing her concepts of mycelium cultivation.

About the Artist

Annabell Ng, a Malaysian-born artist, developed a strong bond with her father over their shared interest in plants, sparking her fascination with edible plants from a young age. Despite her passion for creative arts and music, she fell in love with the piano at 5 and dedicated herself to mastering it, earning a bachelor’s degree in classical music. However, her journey took an unexpected turn when she enrolled in the Fine Arts course at the Malaysia Institute of Art. There, she found inspiration leading her to develop a unique symbolic language in her art using natural materials. With an undergraduate degree in Fine Arts from the University of Wales Institute Cardiff, Annabell now focuses her art on addressing pressing environmental issues, raising awareness worldwide about the environment’s preservation.

Website : www.annabellng.com
IG : @a_n_n_a_b_e_l_l_n_g

About the Residency

Throughout the residency, my primary objective is to relocate my ongoing artwork to this new studio, allowing me to advance and refine it through fresh encounters with perspectives and reflections in this novel environment. The mark-making methods I’ll employ will encompass a diverse array of forms, reminiscent of minute fragments extracted from various information systems. My approach involves a methodical re-exploration of these fragments, strategically layering them to establish a harmonious rhythm, which will eventually find integration into my paintings, sculptures. Beyond this, I intend to embark on an experimentation journey, further evolving my ongoing mycelium concepts focused on mycofiltration.

Suhaimi Fadzir

Suhaimi Fadzir

Malaysian visual artist Suhaimi Fadzir continued his practice of ‘archipainting’ during a two-month residency at Rimbun Dahan in July and August 2023, creating wall-mounted assemblages from found materials from here and elsewhere.

About the Artist

Suhaimi Fadzir is an interdisciplinary artist whose practice is motivated by his non-traditional research based practice driven by observing our history, culture, nature, context, and the intersections between science, art and architecture.

He studied art and architecture at Washington University, St. Louis, USA. He has won many art and architecture awards and grants, and has exhibited internationally in numerous biennials, solo and group shows, among them, the prestigious 12th, 13th and 14th Venice Biennale (Architecture), Venice, Italy in 2010, 2012 & 2014, Meiji University Museum, Tokyo, Japan in 2011, the Dublin Biennial, Dublin, Ireland alongside Yoko Ono, where he won the Dublin Biennial Award of Excellence in 2012, a two-man show with late renowned photographer Ansel Adams’ works at Schmidt Art Center, Belleville, Illinois, USA in 2010, Art Basel Miami Week, Miami, Florida, USA and a solo show organized by Saatchi Gallery London and M&C Saatchi, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia in 2013. 

His art practice has displayed a consistent sculptural quality, and his hybrid term “Archipainting” has been used in reference to his artworks, a concept that he developed in the 1980s which, blends fine art with structural intricacies and special deconstruction of architecture. History, collective memory, personal experience and environment are elements woven together by him into a non-linear story where distinctions between present, past, fiction, imagination, and reality are nullified. His mixed media works, as well as installation and sculpture pieces have included canvases daubed with found objects and covered in unusual textures and materials, or is inspired by, found objects, which he collects extensively while on the fields both locally and abroad. These overlapping points of reference run throughout all his works and his paintings resist easy interpretation, but rather suggest alternative possibilities of seeing. The interaction with the landscape around him is also reflected in his work, which comments astutely on the nature of contemporary society.

More info: http://instagram.com/suhaimifadzir

About the Residency

“What I’m working on at my residency with Rimbun Dahan is a continuation of what I started in Langkawi in 2018; it is artwork based on the examination of nature, context, surrounding events, and observances of human behavior and their relationships with others.

“By observing and studying intangible elements such as neighbor and family relationships, feelings, smells, listening to sounds of nature, flipping through site debris, taking photographs, checking minerals, insects, local culture, food, artisans, etc., together with incorporating materials found in the neighborhood, I produce the possibility of art in the form of calligraphy, painting, sculpture, assemblage and installation.

“Editing, questioning and experiencing the art process is a part of my practice, my way of marking my stay. It is like a recording of my presence at Rimbun Dahan.”

Charuwan Noprumpha

Charuwan Noprumpha

Thai visual artist Charuwan Noprumpha undertook a 2-month residency at Rimbun Dahan in July and August 2023, combining a daily practice of sketches from what she saw with a personal project exploring drawing and watercolour, depicting the seen and the unseen.

About the Artist

Charuwan Noprumpha lives and works in Bangkok, Thailand. A graduate with a master’s degree from France (École européenne supérieure d’art de Bretagne-site de Quimper) and the Erasmus Exchange Program at Academy of Fine Arts, Karlsruhe, Germany (Staatliche Akademie der Bildenden Künste Karlsruhe), Charuwan received an award from French Cultural Center, Freiburg, Germany from participating in the festival of La Biennale of Young Contemporary Creation, Mulhouse, France. She was selected to participate in the artist residency at Les ateliers du Plessix-Madeuc, Dinan, France. Charuwan has participated by invitation in exhibitions in many countries such as Belgium, France, Germany and Thailand.

About the Residency

“Upon arriving at Rimbun Dahan, I found the gardens, trees and surroundings here very interesting and worth exploring. I decided to challenge myself by setting a condition to draw every day from what I see and discover from Rimbun Dahan. This is the origin of the project “What an everyday gives”. I also use this task to bring form, colors, shape etc to further develop into works.

“At the same time, I am continuing to develop my personal project which is interested in the perspective of observing people, their behavior – walking, standing, sitting, lying, talking – and clothing. I find these works evoke a feeling of lack, emptiness, void, imperfection and disappearance. From pencil drawings that represent what can be seen, I combine it with watercolors that represent the way I think about what I see. Because sometimes when we look, there will be parts that we see and don’t see at the same time.

“My work begins with impressions of nature and the observation of everyday life and translates them in an abstract way through form, line and color. At the same time, I express myself in a very realistic way. I use several mediums to build and reconstruct sensations. The observations accumulated day after day have influenced my identity and my work – thinking and speaking in a sincere language to share what I see, observe and feel.”

Yosep Arizal

Yosep Arizal

Indonesian multidisciplinary artist Yosep Arizal undertook a 1-month residency at Rimbun Dahan in August-September 2023, exploring the similarities and differences between Malaysia and Indonesia.

About the Artist

Yosep Arizal graduated from Indonesian Institute of The Art in 2016. His practice mostly discusses
genders, history, and their friction with religion, tradition, and cultural identities. Yosep concretizes
his aesthetic ideas in various media, such as drawing, painting, installation, video, and performance. His
work has been shown in both local and international venues, such as PBSR Swaranusa in Museum and Cultural
Centre Jayapura Papua (2014), Jogja Biennale in Jogja National Museum (2019), UOB Painting of The
Year in National Museum Jakarta (2019), “Clothing As A State of Power” in Cemeti Institute of The Arts and
Society Yogyakarta (2020), Babad Lembana #2 in Sumenep Madura (2022), “Queer-Muslim In
Conversation” at the University of Melbourne (2022), ArtJog Motif Lamaran in Jogja National Museum
(2023).

In 2021 Yosep was selected as one of grantees of the Arts Innovation & Professional Development
Program for Performing Arts Residency, Padepokan Seni Bagong Kussudiardja, Yogyakarta. In 2022,
he was awarded a Seed Award by the Prince Clause Fund, Amsterdam, and was one of the three best
young artists who received ArtJog 2023 Young Artist Awards.

About the Residency

“The project I am working on in Rimbun Dahan is about my position as an Indonesian, tourist, and artist
who is having a chance to work for about four weeks in Malaysia. As an Indonesian, I found there are so
many Indonesia-related things here that make me feel “comfortable” while seeing them, and assure
myself that I am not far away from home. As a tourist, I realize that even though there are some similarities
between Malaysia and Indonesia but we still have a lot of differences that make me feel alienated,
surprised, amazed, and even intrigued by so many things in Malaysia. My position as an artist might
trick me to a “stealer” state, who can collect particular things I find here as creative and artistic
inspiration for my art practice ,and take them away to Indonesia. Then I came up with the idea of
exchanging: before I take some things away I should give and leave something to this place that I
brought from Indonesia.”

All photos on this page by Charuwan Noprumpha.

Joel Donato Ching Jacob

Joel Donato Ching Jacob

Author Joel Donato Ching Jacob from the Philippines is a resident author at Rimbun Dahan in July 2023.

Joel Donato Ching Jacob is the novelist who wrote the Scholastic Asian Book Award and Madrigal Gonzalez Best First Book Award winning novel Wing of the Locust and its sequel Orphan Price. He was awarded Ani ng Dangal (Harvest of Honors) in 2021. In the same year, he was a cohort for the Clarion West Summer Writers Workshop. He lives in Bay, Laguna with more dogs than he can manage, plus a cat.

During his residency, Joel is working on the outline for the third and final book in the series.

Rosemainy Buang

Rosemainy Buang
Rosemainy Buang with her sound recording equipment and gamelan, in the dance studio at Rimbun Dahan.

About the Artist

Rosemainy Buang is a gamelan musician, educator, composer, and sound artist from Singapore. With a decade of training in gamelan, she is dedicated to expanding her creative horizons through collaborative projects with other artists from diverse disciplines.

Approaching art-making with a multidisciplinary and experimental attitude, she attempts to question, build upon and expand the limits of traditional soundscapes, philosophies and aesthetics.

About the Residency

A space is attached with a unique soundscape and Rose has been absorbing not only sounds in Rimbun Dahan but also in the bandar where she visits different spaces accompanied with music and the community. Having conversations with people around allows her to understand the cultural aspects that come with a space. 

Apart from gathering conversations and allowing herself to reflect upon them, Rose has been collecting sound samples not only from the beautiful gamelan here in Rimbun Dahan, but also from around the 14-acre site. 

With all these elements gathered and other available mediums that she brings and has access to, Rose aims to create and put together a narration of sounds for her Open Day — a Closing Ritual before she ends her residency, in the hopes her sounds and her stories with everyone.

Artist Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/rosemainy/
Company Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/skala.sg/

Choulay Mech

Choulay Mech

About the Artist

Ms. Choulay MECH (b. 1992, Kandal Province) lives and works in Phnom Penh. She is an artist, documentary filmmaker, and freelance journalist. Her passion for the job, particularly on environmental and animal rights issues, and she has a sensitivity toward human-interest storytelling.

She trained in journalism with the Cambodian Center for Independent Media. Her reporting has been published in Southeast Asia Globe, Voice of Democracy and CamboJA News. She also contributed reporting to a 2020 article about Cambodian mental health facilities for the Washington Post. She did a nice feature about the changing lives of fishing communities living on floating villages around the country’s biggest lake and river system, Tonle Sap.

She has a strong background in photography and video production as well; she’s had photo exhibitions and completed one-year extensive training in documentary film production at Bophana Audiovisual Resources Center, directing a short film “My Home” about elephant conservation in Mondulkiri, Cambodia. In 2020, she received an award from Creative Generation 4 Awards. The following year, she got four grants: one from Angkor Photo Festival, the second from Citizen Engaged in Environmental Justice for all (CEEJA), the third from SUMERNET for media – research partnership for environment reporting, and the last one it from the Mekong Data-Journalism Fellowship. In 2023, she was selected as an Angkor Photo Festival fellow.

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/chouly.mech
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mechchouly/
Website: https://ccva.art/artists/mech-choulay/

About the Residency

I see dead leaves drop from the trees every morning at Rimbun Dahan. These dead leaves really attracted my eyes because of their unique and original form, colours and textures. I started to wonder, what can I do to transform this dead leaf into a work of art that could speak about the forest and water?

In the day time, I hear the sound of birds chirping, I see the monkeys eating bananas and sharing food with their babies. Squirrels jump around freely and peacefully because no one would harm them. At night, some non-human friends visit me — butterflies, grasshoppers, bats.

Yet, such an oasis is a rare occurrence in the urban world!

Only when the last tree has died and the last river has been poisoned and the last fish been caught will we realize we can’t eat money – Alanis Obomsawin.

Cambodia used to be covered by lush green forests but now it is overwhelmed by unhealthy development that is impacting the vulnerable people, animals and nature. When we have air we can’t breathe in, fruits we can’t eat, rain that we can’t play in, and water that is undrinkable, sooner and later we will all die. When we lack understanding and knowledge of forest life, it is very hard for us to love and care for the forest. As the Khmer proverb goes “រក្សាទុកព្រៃឈើ អ្នកនឹងមិនខ្វះអុសដុត”, translated as “save the forest and you will not run out of wood fire” — forest is part of the ecosystems that we can’t live without them, but they can live without us. From the beginning to the end, forests are completely useful even when they are dead, they are still useful as nourishment to the earth. 

To understand more about human relationship with nature in urbanity, I went to visit the Mah Meri indigenous community to learn about their history and cultural practices. The warm and hospitable Mah Meri indigenous people shared with me generously and brought me to the sea, river and its surrounding mangrove forests which holds great significance to their culture and ritualistic practices. They gifted me with their traditional handicrafts such as crowns, birds and flowers made from wild palm trees unique to their local forest. Along the way from Mah Meri Village to Rimbun Dahan, there are beautiful mountains and green forests alongside tall buildings. Such landscape made me become wishful for Cambodia’s future development, I hope we will be able to develop in a healthy and sustainable way.