Trần Minh Hải (b.1993) is a contemporary dance artist and choreographer based in Hanoi, Vietnam. Ny&Khun: Sreynoch Khun (b.1996) and Ny Lai (b.1997) are a contemporary duo based in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. Muhamad Erdifadilah (b.1997) is a musician from Bangka Island, Indonesia. Pebri Irawan (b.1997) a dancer-choreographer of the Indonesian Institute of the Arts in Yogyakarta, Indonesia. Briefly accompanied by Chan Kar Kah, artist and educator of Marrow Collective and Suiyi Dance Company, Malaysia.
We are Southeast Asian artists who met at Southeast Asian Choreolab 2024 in George Town, Penang. During the program, we formed a strong connection not just through training, but through deep conversations about our work, ideas, and what matters to us. We shared how we create, what inspires us, and our thoughts about art, culture, and the world. Even though we come from 3 different countries, we found many similarities in our culture, how we think and work. This connection is still new, yet we want to keep exploring it. We hope to create something special together. We believe in strong visuals and the idea of “less is more.”
On Sunday 24 July, together with invited members of local dance community, we will perform a short outdoor ritual in the garden at Rimbun Dahan. What you’re about to witness is a living painting. Over the past two months, we’ve been living, listening, moving, and creating at Rimbun Dahan. In the stillness surrounded by nature and time, we found something we now want to share with you, not to impress but to express. This is a spiritual offering and meditation in motion. We’re not here to show off yet we’re here to show up. With every step, every pause, every breath, we’re painting. Painting with the colors of silence, of calm, of curiosity. This is a time for simply being.
On Sunday 24 August, our resident artists Renz Baluyot (Philippines), Alice Sarmiento (Philippines), and MixerJ (Myanmar), as well as contemporary dance choreographers Sreynoch Khun and Ny Lai (Cambodia) and Trần Minh Hải (Vietnam) will share works they have created during their residency and insights into their artistic practice. Angela Hijjas will also give a morning tour of her 14-acre native garden.
Entry is free. Registration is required only for the garden tour. BYO picnic, plus walk about our gardens at your leisure, explore our heritage house and the underground gallery.
Register for the Garden Tour: [UPDATE: Registration for the garden tour is full. All other activities on Open Day are free for drop-in entry, from 11am to 6pm.]
9am-11am Garden Tour 11am-2pm Open Studios 2pm-3pm Lunch break — please enjoy your BYO picnic in the gardens! 3pm-6pm Open Studios 3pm-4pm Alice Sarmiento in conversation with Wendy Sia (Gerimis) 4pm-5pm Contemporary dance collaboration demonstration and group practice
Travelling Directions
Address: Rimbun Dahan, Km. 27 Jalan Kuang, Mukim Kuang, Selangor, 48050.
Landmarks: Our front gate is opposite Warung Selera Ria and also next to the start of Lorong Belimbing. Do not enter Lorong Belimbing, please enter the front gate from the main road.
Tips for Visitors
We have parking inside the compound, along the driveway. Just drive in the front gate and park as indicated along the drive.
Bring your own mosquito repellent!
We are sorry, Rimbun Dahan is not a fully wheelchair accessible venue. Wheelchair access is possible to the artists studios and some of the outdoor areas, but not to the underground gallery or the heritage houses.
Wear practical shoes if you are planning to walk around the garden.
Bring an umbrella in case of rain.
No refreshments or water provided. Feel free to bring your own picnic, and enjoy it in the gardens; please clean up all your trash.
No pets, no swimming — thank you for your cooperation.
If you have any questions, please email arts@rimbundahan.org or WhatsApp Bilqis at +6017-3103769.
About the Resident Artists
Renz Baluyot, visual artist from the Philippines, was in residence at Rimbun Dahan for two months in 2025, experimenting with dyeing fabrics with rust using a resist technique, and working with copper and aluminium as grounds for paintings. Born 1989, Saudi Arabia, Renz focuses his art practice on the relevance of the past to the present. His work centers on urban decay (rust, tarpaulins, and objects) and artifacts, alongside traditional still life and landscapes, investigating how these marks of the past have influenced the present under oppressive political and economic systems. Primarily a painter, Renz Baluyot has worked on sculpture, textiles, and installations. He received his BFA from the University of the Philippines, Diliman, and has completed a number of artist residencies in the USA, Japan and the Philippines. In 2019, he was one of the artists presented at the exhibition Living Earth: Contemporary Philippine Art, curated by Luca Beatrice and Patrick Flores in Milan, Italy.
MixerJ, a visual artist of Karen descent from Myanmar, has spent two months in residence at Rimbun Dahan, creating character drawings in his signature intricate abstract style, and transforming them into portable cutouts. Originally based in Yangon until 2024, MixerJ has since continued his art practice by spending most of his time in Bangkok, Thailand, and traveling between neighboring countries. MixerJ studied graphic design for commercial purposes, and since 2017, he has been actively participating in the Myanmar art scene as a visual artist. He has previously exhibited his work in both Yangon, Myanmar, and Bangkok, Thailand. In 2024, MixerJ took part in the “Artistic Response to Burma to Myanmar” exhibition organized by the British Council Yangon in collaboration with the British Museum. His artwork, “The Weaving Dream: A Peaceful Home with Beautiful Bedrooms,” was acquired by the British Museum for its permanent collection.
Educator, freelance writer and independent curator Alice Sarmiento (PHIL) will be in conversation with Wen Di Sia artist, writer, and advocate from Gerimis Art, a group that documents and supports the arts, culture, and local economy of the Orang Asli. Alice will also be sharing printed drafts of the Malaysia sections of ‘Once A Vibrant Tradition’, a text that negotiates the tensions of craft and community caught in the crosshairs of capitalism. Alice’s writing and curatorial work centers feminist, relational, and community-engaged practices, while her work as a critic casts a feminist lens across Filipino cultural production, ranging from contemporary art to Pinoy showbiz. As a curator, Alice has worked on the curatorial teams of the inaugural (and so far, only) Manila Biennial in 2018 as well as the Visayas Visual Art Exhibition and Conference (VIVA ExCon) in 2023. Before returning to Rimbun Dahan for the second month of her residency in August 2025, she founded Spare Bedroom, a space for restaging installative and relational works, in order to extend their public programs and reactivate engagement with their community.
Contemporary dance choreographers Sreynoch Khun and Ny Lai (Cambodia) and Trần Minh Hải (Vietnam) are in residence at Rimbun Dahan in August 2025, and will give a short showing of their meditative walking ritual on Open Day including a few members of the local community. The choreographers met at the Southeast Asian Choreolab at George Town Festival last year, and they are continuing to explore their cultural links during their 2-month residency. Even though they come from three different countries, they have found many similarities in their cultures, how they think and work. Collectively, they believe in strong visuals and the idea of “less is more.” They have devised a simple walking ritual inspired by honouring the dead across different traditions, incorporating heritage textiles. If you would like to be part of this offering performance, please WhatsApp 017-310 3769. More info about their collective residency.
About Rimbun Dahan
Rimbun Dahan is the home of Malaysian architect Hijjas Kasturi and his wife Angela. Set on fourteen acres outside Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, the compound of Rimbun Dahan is a centre for developing traditional and contemporary art forms. It features buildings designed by Hijjas Kasturi, as well as two early 20th century traditional Malay houses from Perak and Penang, in an indigenous Southeast Asian garden environment which has recently been awarded arboretum status. Rimbun Dahan is private property, and is only open to the public on Open Days.
On Sunday 27 July, our resident artists Fauzan Fuad (MSIA), Isabella Ong (SIN), Rommel Joson (PHIL) and Low Pey Sien (MSIA) will be sharing the fruits of their residencies in their open studios.
Angela Hijjas will also give a morning tour of her 14-acre native garden. Works by recent resident artist Gigi Giovanelli(USA) will also be on show in the Underground Gallery.
Entry is free. Registration is required only for the garden tour. BYO picnic, plus walk about our gardens at your leisure, explore our heritage house and the underground gallery.
Register for the Garden Tour: https://forms.gle/C1e1d9jrzyPi57jX6 [Other activities on Open Day do not require registration; just walk in to join!]
9am-11am Garden Tour 11am-6pm Open Studios
Travelling Directions
Address: Rimbun Dahan, Km. 27 Jalan Kuang, Mukim Kuang, Selangor, 48050.
Landmarks: Our front gate is opposite Warung Selera Ria and also next to the start of Lorong Belimbing. Do not enter Lorong Belimbing, please enter the front gate from the main road.
Tips for Visitors
We have parking inside the compound, along the driveway. Just drive in the front gate and park as indicated along the drive.
Bring your own mosquito repellent!
We are sorry, Rimbun Dahan is not a fully wheelchair accessible venue. Wheelchair access is possible to the artists studios and some of the outdoor areas, but not to the underground gallery or the heritage houses.
Wear practical shoes if you are planning to walk around the garden.
Bring an umbrella in case of rain.
No refreshments or water provided. Feel free to bring your own picnic, and enjoy it in the gardens; please clean up all your trash.
No pets, no swimming — thank you for your cooperation.
If you have any questions, please email arts@rimbundahan.org or WhatsApp Bilqis at +6017-3103769.
About the Resident Artists
Born in 1987 in Kuala Lumpur, Fauzan Fuad is a painter and photographer whose artistic vocabulary draws heavily from the worlds of punk, vandalism, skateboarding, and raw urban visuals, blending them with influences from the western Abstract Expressionist movement of the 1950s. His solo exhibitions have appeared at China House in Penang, Zon Tiga in Kuala Lumpur, and Rissim Contemporary in Kuala Lumpur. His work has also been featured in international exhibitions including Gwangju International Art Fair and Espace Commines in Paris, and locally at the Malaysian Art Expo, FINDARS Art Space, White Box at Publika and HOM Art Trans Gallery.
Filipino painter and book illustrator Rommel Joson is currently teaching drawing, illustration, and print production design at the University of the Philippines College of Fine Arts where he is also taking his post-graduate studies, Rommel’s roles roles deal with the intersection and interaction of text and image. His art practice draws from artifacts such as reading primers, children’s books, encyclopedias, illuminated manuscripts, information graphics, comics, and even print ads. Part of his process involves creating unreadable glyphs and ciphers that mimic the texture and structure of recognizable books and texts.
Isabella Ong (b. 1992) is a Singapore-based artist whose work explores the relationship between data, form and environment. Working across installation, code and text, she examines how ecological, cultural and technical systems are structured and represented. She received her MArch in Design for Performance & Interaction from The Bartlett, UCL, and a BA (Hons) in Architecture from the National University of Singapore. Her practice is shaped by ongoing collaborations across disciplines and communities, engaging with material processes alongside physical computation and generative methods, translating natural phenomena into spatial and visual languages.
Low Pey Sien (b. 1991) is a Malaysian cultural worker from Kuantan, Pahang. With a background in architecture, she mainly works in photography, film, and graphic media, lately actively exploring themes on body, shame and identity. Her recent video works include video art “Wani-Onna” (2024), dance documentary ”Movement: We Are Bodies” (2022), dance film “La La Li Ta Tang Pong” (2020), video art “Keroncong Kuala Lumpur II” (2017), and video art ”Invisible Old Klang Road” (2016). When she is not creating, she freelances as curator, producer, and graphic designer, mainly working with her friends, to bring their creative works into this world.
Gigi Giovanelli is a sculptor based in New York City. She studied Fine Arts at the University of North Carolina School of the Arts and is currently pursuing a BFA in Fine Arts at Parsons School of Design. Her practice centers on sculpture as a form of storytelling, grounded in material sensitivity and emotional resonance. Rooted in her upbringing in North Carolina, Gigi’s work reflects a lifelong physical and emotional closeness to nature. Gigi was in residence at Rimbun Dahan in June 2025; her works will be displayed in the Underground Gallery at Rimbun Dahan on Open Day.
About Rimbun Dahan
Rimbun Dahan is the home of Malaysian architect Hijjas Kasturi and his wife Angela. Set on fourteen acres outside Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, the compound of Rimbun Dahan is a centre for developing traditional and contemporary art forms. It features buildings designed by Hijjas Kasturi, as well as two early 20th century traditional Malay houses from Perak and Penang, in an indigenous Southeast Asian garden environment which has recently been awarded arboretum status. Rimbun Dahan is private property, and is only open to the public on Open Days.
To be eligible for this residency, applicants must be BOTH citizens of AND residents of a Southeast Asian country. For the purposes of this application, the Southeast Asian countries are: Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam, and including Timor Leste.
In case of doubt, please review the following examples.
Person A is a citizen of Thailand (a Southeast Asian country) and lives in Thailand. => Person A is eligible to apply.
Person B is a citizen of Thailand (a Southeast Asian country), but has been living for 15 years in the Philippines (another Southeast Asian country). => Person B is eligible to apply.
Person C is a citizen of Thailand, but has been living for 4 years in Australia (not a Southeast Asian country). => Person C is NOT eligible to apply.
Person D is a citizen of the USA (not a Southeast Asian country) and has been living for 7 years in Singapore (a Southeast Asian country). => Person D is NOT eligible to apply.
Person E is a citizen and resident of Taiwan/Bangladesh/Sri Lanka/Bhutan/Papua New Guinea (not Southeast Asian countries). => Person E is NOT eligible to apply.
Person F is a citizen of Malaysia and splits her time living between London and Malaysia. => A borderline case. Please contact us to discuss.
If you have questions or concerns about your eligibility, please contact arts@rimbundahan.org before you apply.
The reason that our residency eligibility is only for Southeast Asian citizens who also live in Southeast Asia is because we would like to reserve these opportunities for artists who are committed to being members of arts communities in our region, and artists in our region generally have far fewer opportunities than other artists who live in more developed countries.
We realize that this restriction may unfairly discriminate against some worthy applicants, and it is not intended to be a judgment on the quality of your art or your contribution to Southeast Asian arts communities. However, given that we are a family-run and family-funded organization with limited capacity, we have put in place this eligibility restriction to allow for the practical management of our application process.
Sunday 19 May, 7:30pm The Dance Studio at Rimbun Dahan The work-in-progress performance will last about 30 minutes, followed by Q&A and discussion. Free entry, no registration required.
Présenté par Groupe A – Coopérative Culturelle [FBIG] Artistic direction : Pascal Marquilly [FBIG] Sound composition : Rodolphe Collange [FB] Video creation : Nicolas Tourte [FBIG]
Performances of wayang kulit in Kota Bharu, Kelantan Shadow puppets and discordant sounds A mythological tale and childlike smiles
A border in the far North A few soldiers and congested roads A makeshift vehicle
The moucharabiehs at Jahar Palace Set against a backdrop of lace, the play of light glides across the floor Spaces preserved from the furnace
White-hot beaches and sparkling waves Insects sizzle in the sunshine A few temples here and there, the voice of the Muezzin
All around, the forest, impenetrable and imperious A misty green mass, teeming yet fragile A few coloured sparkles
Gaping holes, exploitations Palm groves as far as the eye can see Ribbons of tar smoke
A city bristling with grey towers An amorphous underground panorama Upside down
Humid, dense air Threatening low clouds Electrically charged skies and sudden storms
In Selangor, a haven of peace A few barks and fleeting ghosts A botanical garden and facetious monkeys
The haughty words confine conversations The night defies the darkness Dark silhouettes outline the azure sky
This heat…
————
We carried out an initial creative residency in April 2023 at Rimbun Dahan. We have sketched out a mechanical shadow theatre that aims to question our representations of nature. After a month’s work, we’re adding to it with new research and trial and error. In the night, we no longer seek the light, but rather the darkness.
Puisqu’on regarde les étoiles c’est qu’elles sont à quelqu’un nécessaires…
Direction artistique : Pascal Marquilly [FBIG] Composition sonore : Rodolphe Collange [FB] Création vidéographique : Nicolas Tourte [FBIG]
————
Des représentations de Wayang Kulit à Kota Bharu, dans le Kelantan Des marionnettes d’ombres et des sonorités discordantes Un récit mythologique et des sourires enfantins
Une frontière à l’extrême Nord Quelques militaires et des routes encombrées Un véhicule de fortune
Les moucharabiehs du Jahar Palace Dans un écrin de dentelles des jeux de lumière glissent sur le plancher Des espaces préservés de la fournaise
Des plages chauffées à blanc et les vagues scintillent Des insectes grésillent sous le soleil Quelques temples ci et là, la voix du Muezzin
Tout autour la forêt, impénétrable et impérieuse Une masse verte brumeuse foisonnante pourtant fragile Quelques éclats colorés scintillent
Des trous béants, des exploitations Des palmeraies à pertes de vues Les rubans de goudrons fument
Une ville hérissé de tours grises Un panorama clandestin amorphe Sens dessus dessous
L’air humide et dense Des nuages bas menaçant Un ciel chargé électrique et des orages soudain
Dans le Selangor, un havre de paix Quelques aboiements et des fantômes fugaces Un jardin botanique et des singes facétieux
Les paroles altières confinent les conversations La nuit défie les ténèbres Des silhouettes sombres dessinent l’azur
Cette chaleur…
————
Nous avons effectué une première résidence de création en avril 2023 au centre d’art Rimbun Dahan. Nous avons esquissé un théâtre d’ombre mécanique, qui a pour ambition de questionner nos représentations de la nature. Nous augmentons celui-ci, après un mois de travail, de nos nouvelles recherches et tâtonnements. Dans la nuit, nous ne cherchons plus la lumière, mais bien à rejoindre l’obscurité.
————
All monochrome works pictured on this page: scalpel cut on 250gr Bristol paper
On Sunday 23 July 2023, current resident artists Rosemainy Buang (Singapore) and Joel Donato Ching Jacob (Philippines) will participate in an Open Day at Rimbun Dahan. See schedule and further info below.
The Rimbun Dahan Underground Gallery will also be open from 9am to 6pm, showing ‘Menagerie’, a selection of works from our Permanent Collection, as well as ekphrastic poetry works by recent resident poet Yee Heng Yeh.
There will be a morning guided tour of our 14-acre site, including a general introduction to the contemporary architecture and our Southeast Asian indigenous garden and arboretum at Rimbun Dahan, as well as the Rumah Uda Manap heritage house.
Free entry, no registration required.
Schedule
9am-11am: Guided tour of Rimbun Dahan, meet in the central plaza. 11am-4:30pm: Rosemainy’s studio open 1.30-2.30pm: Lunch, studios closed, visitors can picnic and walk around gardens 3-4:30pm: Workshop by Joel Donato Ching Jacob in the Underground Gallery 5-6pm: Rosemainy’s closing ritual performance in the Dance Studio
About the Workshop
Joel Donato Ching Jacob, author of the popular young adult novels Wing of the Locust and Orphan Price (published by Scholastic Asia), will explore AI tools that support a writer’s process, from grammar checking to sentence rephrasing, and more.
Joel will also share a work-in-progress amendment to contracts that protects publishers and authors from having their manuscripts fed to an AI Language Model in order to recreate, emulate, or mimic a copyrighted text. This could also be used to protect other forms of art like visual arts, choreography and composition, and even other creations like code.
The workshop is for writers and the general public interested in the application of AI in creative practice. Entry is free.
About the Closing Ritual Performance
Rosemainy Buang, a gamelan musician, educator, composer, and sound artist from Singapore, will weave together a short performance of sound samples she has collected from the gamelan at Rimbun Dahan, around our 14-acre site, as well as in the city of Kuala Lumpur. The performance will take place in the Dance Studio from 5pm, and may be followed by an informal short discussion. Entry is free.
Travelling Directions
Use Waze to drive to Rimbun Dahan: https://waze.com/ul/hw284q6meb Use Google Maps to drive t Rimbun Dahan: https://maps.app.goo.gl/ft5fV9YpGsvciCtU8 Landmarks: Our front gate is opposite Warung Selera Ria and also next to the start of Lorong Belimbing. Do not enter Lorong Belimbing, please enter the front gate from the main road.
Tips for Visitors
We have parking inside the compound, along the driveway. Just drive in the front gate and park as indicated along the drive.
Bring your own mosquito repellent!
We are sorry, Rimbun Dahan is not a wheelchair accessible venue.
Wear practical shoes if you are planning to walk around the garden. Bring an umbrella in case of rain.
Bring your picnic, and enjoy it in the gardens; please clean up all your trash.
No pets, no swimming — thank you for your cooperation.
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.
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 the Philippines, in Bay, Laguna, with more dogs than he can manage, plus a cat.
About Rimbun Dahan
Rimbun Dahan is the home of Malaysian architect Hijjas Kasturi and his wife Angela. Set on fourteen acres outside Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, the compound of Rimbun Dahan is a centre for developing traditional and contemporary art forms. It features buildings designed by Hijjas Kasturi, as well as two early 20th century traditional Malay houses from Perak and Penang, in an indigenous Southeast Asian garden environment which has recently been awarded arboretum status. Rimbun Dahan is private property, and is only open to the public on Open Days.
Donna Miranda, performing “I have nothing to dance and I am dancing it” as part of Work It! at White Box Gallery, PUBLIKA, Kuala Lumpur in 2012.
20 June 2022
Rimbun Dahan is a private arts centre outside Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, which focuses on developing traditional and contemporary art forms. We also aim to support Southeast Asian artists to strengthen their regional professional artistic networks. Since 1994, we have hosted over hundreds of artists in various disciplines, as well as community-building meetings, conferences and events. For more information about Rimbun Dahan, please see http://www.rimbundahan.org.
Filipina choreographer Donna Miranda was our first resident choreographer at Rimbun Dahan in 2007. At the time, we were delighted to have attracted such an intelligent, accomplished and brave artist, who jumped with both feet into this unknown challenge. During her time with us, Donna made incredible and lasting connections with the local arts community, including musicians and visual artists as well as other dancers. By far one of the most creative and hard working of our choreographic residents, she produced a full-length dance work Extended Period of Waiting, with 7 performers, as well as a performance work in connection with our fundraising exhibition Art for Nature, and also taught a workshop for dancers during her stay.
We retained our connection with Donna, and she subsequently visited Rimbun Dahan again with her partner, poet Angelo Suarez, in 2010 to take part in the one of our first editions of Dancing in Place, our regular program of site-specific dance works. She presented “Anything less is less than a reckless act” which asked the audience to choose whether to watch a video of a dancing duet in one room, or to listen to Donna talking about the dance work in another room. For us, it was a bracing introduction to Donna’s constant questioning of the capacity of art to engage its audience democratically – it both allowed audience participation as well as exposed its futility.
We invited Donna once again to Rimbun Dahan in 2012 to participate in Work It!, a project supported by Asia-Europe Foundation bringing together female performing artists from Asia and Europe whose work revolved around the gendered depiction of the body on stage. As one of only twelve participating artists, Donna was selected on the basis of her portfolio of work, keen intellectual engagement, and understanding of the artistic and socio-political relations between Asia and Europe. She was one of the most active and engaged participants in this project, fearless about calling out the more privileged and about exposing her own vulnerabilities as an artist, as a working mother, and as a citizen engaged with wider concerns of democracy and equity.
In the years that I have known Donna, she has shown the highest standards of integrity in the creation of own art and her engagement with communities in land justice and social empowerment. She is not a terrorist or a vigilante; she is a serious artist with an international presence who is deeply concerned about the future of her country. Rimbun Dahan stands by her and echoes the call to drop all charges against the Tinang 83.
In June 2022, 83 farmers, agrarian reform activists, journalists and artists were arrested at a cultivation exercise in Hacienda Tinang, Tarlac Province, Philippines. The land they were on had been awarded to the farmers in 1995 by the Department for Agrarian Reform. The previous occupier of the land, currently the local mayor, disputes the ownership. The 83 were released on bail, but now face charges of malicious mischief and illegal assembly, as well as disobedience, obstruction of justice, and usurpation of real rights. In addition, Donna Miranda and some others have been charged with child exploitation and trafficking, for bringing their children to participate in the activity.
Above: Shorea hemsleyana flowering magnificently at Rimbun Dahan.
Over the MCO, we have cleared some of the trees at the front of the garden in Rimbun Dahan where we had too many duplicate species, to provide more space and light for planting new species that we have acquired from a nursery in Johor that carries many Malaysian indigenous trees. We now have over 100 species of forest Dipterocarps, the slow-growing hardwood forest giants that make up the bulk of tree species in Malaysia’s tropical rainforests.
Below is our list as of the end of the MCO (2021). Please visit our Plant List page to view the most updated collection.
Rimbun Dahan is committed to investing in emerging/developing artistic talents in the region and furthering artistic exchange with our neighbours. We invite visual artists, writers, arts managers, and researchers/curators from Southeast Asian countries to submit applications for residencies in 2020. Rimbun Dahan residencies provide a quiet, green and peaceful space for artists and arts workers to commit themselves deeply to their own artistic practice, within a warm and supportive community.
Residencies can be minimum 1 month and maximum 3 months. Places are limited. Priority will be given to artists who are applying for longer residencies of 3 months duration, but please read details on immigration below.
All applications must be received by Monday, 30 September 2019.
Eligibility criteria
Artists must be nationals of these listed countries only: Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam
Former Rimbun Dahan and Hotel Penaga resident artists are not eligible to apply
Expectations of the residency
Resident artists must stay and work on-site full time in the accommodation and workspace provided
Friendly engagement with the other resident artists is encouraged
Resident artists should make themselves available (to the best of their ability) for occasional student group visits, general visitors, and other outreach events (artist talks, showcases, etc) organized by Rimbun Dahan throughout the year
For visual artists: at the end of a residency, one item of visual art work is provided for the Rimbun Dahan Permanent Collection. The selection is made by Rimbun Dahan with guidance from the artist.
For non-visual artists: acknowledgement of Rimbun Dahan’s support in the final product (publication, presentation, etc) is appreciated.
What’s provided by the residency
Individual accommodation and workspace, including utilities
Monthly allowance of RM1000
Access to washing machine, exercise equipment, swimming pool, and our library and artist lounge (WiFi equipped)
Weekly transportation for grocery shopping
Basic administrative support
Please note that the following is not provided: visa and immigration compliance, travel funds (including money for airfare), travel insurance, airport pickup and dropoff, meals, or materials.
About residency duration & immigration
We are aware that it is challenging for ASEAN nationals to be able to stay in Malaysia for 3 months in one trip, as Rimbun Dahan does not provide a special visa for your residency, and ASEAN nationals are usually given only 30 days’ stay per visit (as an automatic short term social visit pass, not a visa) when they arrive in Malaysia.
If you wish to apply for a residency more than 30 days long, you will need to exit the country and return later. We are happy to facilitate multiple visits to Rimbun Dahan during the calendar year of 2020 (for example, a residency of 90 days, with 3 visits x 30 days per visit, and at least 1 week between visits).
The 30 days of the automatic social visit pass does not always equal one month, so be mindful of days and dates when booking flights. In our experience, Malaysian immigration prefers that ASEAN nationals have at least one week between their most recent departure date from Malaysia and their next re-entry date.
You can apply for an additional 30 day extension to your visa while in Malaysia, before your initial visa ends, by visiting an immigration office. Approval of extension is not always guaranteed. Processing can take anywhere from 2 days to a week, and it may require you to change the date of your original return ticket. So if you are planning to extend your stay, do be ready and make arrangements during your residency to go to the immigration office and go through the necessary processes OR to book multiple flights to renew your visa every 30 days during your residency.
How to apply
Please submit an application containing:
Biodata/CV
A selection of images/samples of recent work (Please provide a curated selection and context for the works where applicable/necessary)
A statement of why a stay at Rimbun Dahan would benefit your art practice and/or a project proposal for your time in residency
Dates for which you are seeking accommodation and the proposed duration of your residency. Please provide multiple options, if possible
Please send in COMPLETE applications only. You can choose to send either an electronic application OR a hard copy application, please do not send both. All applications are due by Monday, 30 September 2019.
Ruth Marbun (b.1985) is a visual artist based in Jakarta that works much with the depiction of deconstructed figures as a form of her profound interest towards human behavior in connection to the inner self and society as paralleled issue. She embraces details and subtleness from the patterns in life such as imperfection, contradiction, resistance, and honor it as part of growth and process.
Her mini-solo exhibition with Clear Gallery Japan at Art Jakarta in 2018 questioned how family is portrait as sacred value with picture perfect quality in the heritage of her Indonesian root and the contradictory that it causes, creating a void and distance with the natural being of human and relationships that truthfully come with flaws and mistakes.
“One is A Million” is a mixed media installation that she presented at #Perempuan exhibition in Melbourne on December 2018 as part of a group exhibition featuring emerging contemporary artists from Indonesia. The work is an open proposal to add perspective in the construction of value towards women in modern society, to give credits not only to the quantified achievements but also in the daily act and resistance that are more inclusive for women, who are dealing with different circumstances in life.
Ruth has also been exhibiting in Kyoto, Jogjakarta, Osaka, and recently Sydney at Darren Knight Gallery with Indo Artlink and John Cruthers featuring her recent works in textile medium, where she has been extending possibilities from the limitation as a familiar medium off her fashion background to a new approach and narration in the current art practice.
During her residency at Rimbun Dahan, Ruth will be focusing in documenting her experience of working and living closely with nature, something in contrast to her upbringing as a city inhabitant. She will be recording the process through visual journal and also creative writings, which embodies intuitive observation and attentive interaction towards the environment during the one-month period stay, engaging in a reversed rhythm from her regular practice that relies on momentum and practicality. The course of adaptation is often taken for granted for being wired automatically into the operational system as human, despite its importance as an essential survival virtue that advances us from other species. Ruth considers the state of newness and to look elsewhere is a far-reaching of understanding the element of absence inwards, that will create new possibilities off the mundanity as a result from updating to an extensive context.
Ruth will be our Southeast Asian Arts Residency artist for a month in February. You can check out her Instagram here.
(Guil)Tea Party, 185 x 155 cm, Acrylic on canvas, 2018
“Product of Contradiction” series, Approx. 60×80 cm (size might varied), Watercolor and ink on paper with textile and embroidery, 2018
“Product of Contradiction” series, Approx. 60×80 cm (size might varied), Watercolor and ink on paper with textile and embroidery, 2018
One is A Million, Installation of watercolor, ink, acrylic on paper, textile, embroidery, and dacron, 2018
One is A Million (Partly detailed pieces), Installation of watercolor, ink, acrylic on paper, textile, embroidery, and dacron, 2018
A Soldier Nonetheless, 289 x 178 cm, Acrylic, ink, watercolor, hand-embroidery, textile, and dacron, 2019
By The End of The Day, It’s always a Beginning, 201.5 x 139 cm, Acrylic, ink, watercolor, hand-embroidery, textile, and dacron, 2019
Hati-hati, Kemarin Sudah Mati., 136 x 100cm, Watercolor on cotton paper, 2019
