My new dress

I'm afraid I may have opened the floodgates with my very first online purchase. The transaction was completed in less than 2minutes. Barely enough time to register just what I was doing.

But look! It's vintage! It's got pleats! And sleeves! And stardust! In black and white! And it's got goddamn snow leopards all over it. I shall say no more, only that I can't wait to wear it out, drink cheap alcohol all night long and feel extremely pleased with myself. Dress and its picture from http://the-shoplifters.blogspot.com/.

Weather II

1. Weather is a system.
2. The system circulates.
3. Nothing lost, nothing gained.

Also, what are weathermaps but maps of change?

Pockets II

This is about circulation.

Start
1. Residency - get/give money
2. Money - put in pocket
3. Pocket - get object
4. Object - transform into something
5. Something - show to people
6. People - buy something, get/give money
Start again

Pockets

The first task: Buying
On the first day, I am going to give you RM0.50 to put in your pocket. You are to go out and buy something with it. It can be anything, you are only limited to two conditions: it doesn't cost you more than RM0.50 to get it, and it must fit in your pocket.

On the second day, I am going to give you RM5.00 to put in your pocket. You are to do the same as the first day. The third day, RM50.00, and the fourth day, RM500.00.

The second task: Keeping
Keep what you have bought in your pocket for the entire day. You can write about it if you want, take it out and look at it or think about it. Or you can just keep it there. Don't show it to anyone at this point. At the end of the day, try to take a picture of your pocket with what you have bought still inside it. If you don't have a camera with you, try to draw a picture of your pocket. If you feel that you're not good at drawing, you might try describing what your pocket looks like. You can write down your description, or just remember it.

The third task: Showing
Now you are going to transform what you have bought in your pocket into something you can take out and show your friends. You may want to build a little box for it, turn it into something else, paint it different colours, burn it to ashes, or anything you like. Because you had to do these tasks 4 separate times with different allowance of money, you will have four things you can take out of your pocket to show to and talk about with your friends, families or even strangers.

Expanded world

I only ever associated Ilya and Emilia Kabakov with that 'mausoleum' installation at Serpentine Gallery, London, and I never wanted to look at their work. But I chanced upon an image from Singapore Biennale 2008 of their installation and it looked wondrous. A little digging turned up their site, which is a little heavy on the flash-bells-n-whistles, but shows a whole range of beautiful, poetic and, why not say it, rather wacky projects.

Even the short descriptions of each work opens up whole new worlds. Here are some of my favorites, which I don't doubt you will love as well! Yes, it's very 'me'...

The Antenna
Whenever we look up at the sky, we involuntarily have a 'presentiment': unconsciously we anticipate some sort of communication from there; it seems that 'something' will be addressed directly to me...

Ten Characters
The inhabitants of these rooms are stricken by the dream of abandoning this depressing and interminable world. Each invents his own special means of escape or at least a way for ignoring the surroundings. This becomes a maniacal idea for each of them...

The Palace of Projects
A unique museum of dreams, hypotheses, and projects, even if unrealizable, the Palace of Projects stimulates the viewers' own fantasies, prompting him toward the resolution of his own tasks, awakening his imagination, providing the impulse for his own creative activity

The Ship of Siwa
The theme 'Ships and Boats of Ancient Egypt' is to be introduced into the curriculum of Siwah schools for the spring of 2005. The teachers will show slides depicting ancient vessels, they will explain their construction and purposes, and will assign the task of drawing them, either by copying these depictions or by improvising on this same theme.

The Life of Flies
Recently, a group of scientists has been proposing a hypothesis as to the direct and unmediated influence of fly associations on finance

The Bridge
There is no single description of what happened - the reports maintain the most adamant discrepancies. However, one inexplicable circumstance was obvious to all: after all of the commotion had subsided, the entire floor in the center of the hall was littered with groups of little white people, constantly exchanging places...

Here's a picture of The Palace of Projects:

My unhealthy state of mind means I'm not capable of very big thoughts these days, but maybe a little later on in the game I'd like to make work like this again. For now, I'm trying to do everything on a much more modest scale, a scale within my reach.

Kisses from Penang.

Some things never change

This made me cry:

"Kok berkata semasa pertemuan itu, beliau memberikan kepada anaknya ubat herba Cina dan pati ayam."

From here.

Sitting for SPM? Brands essence of chicken!

Pregnant? Brands essence of chicken!

Ditahan ISA? Brands essence of chicken + ginseng kau kau!

Some things never change, and those things are gonna bring us through.

Listen, Betta, Listen

... to the wisdom of Master Wu Gui!

"Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery. Today? Today is a gift. That's why we call it the present." (OMG, so true. And without Master Yoda's idiosyncratic syntax!)

"There are no accidents." (Say this three times or keep repeating until unwilling ears receive)

"One often meets her destiny on the road she takes to avoid it." (Goddammit!)

"Let go of the illusion of control" (I'm trying...)

Thoughts on the weather

As I was saying to G., it's like the weather is the 3rd artist in residence up here at Balik Pulau. Storms, floods, mini landslides, blackouts, rising damp, puddles, showers, gentle rains, winds, sun, high humidity, a million stars in the cloudless night sky - we have seen it all with the promise of more to come. And right now? It's a wondrous day. Laundry day. Sit back day. Sex in the afternoon day. It will bring on an evening that aches on into night, because the day doesn't want to say goodbye.

I have no notions of my purpose up here, still floating from one day to the next, sitting and waiting. The only thing I am sure of is the experiencing of uncertainty. Uncertainty is not to be confused with timidity or sloth...

My thought petered out there, just as I was dwelling on the irony of wanting to speak resolutely of uncertainty. Who knows what it is. It is not a thing (an attribute) but a state (a condition). No knowledge or determination of will has helped me to overcome uncertainty. Believe me when I say this has proved profoundly frustrating.

The only way that helps me think about it is the weather. I wake up every morning trying to read myself like I read the clouds in the sky - will it be rain? Will it storm? The weather is making me realize what to do: arm yourself with knowledge and an inkling, be prepared for anything, have the right tools, keep watch... and just... submit.

Reformasi

UPDATE: Here is a satellite screenshot of Kamunting Detention Center, the maximum security prison where ISA detainees are kept.


Below is the mapped version, in which, as you cannot fail to notice, the prison does not exist.


Here also is a list of known detainees as of 2001. From Aliran's ISA Watch.
http://www.aliran.com/oldsite/monthly/2001/3e.htm

---

Let's see how long this list of people detained under ISA gets:

1. Raja Petra Kamaruddin
2. Tan Hoon Cheng
3. MP Teresa Kok

Don't lose your heads, people. Malaysians are not barbaric and FASCIST, UMNO is. Don't lose hope, don't pack your bags, don't dig out those Australian PR forms. We will all be needed when the change comes, and it's coming.

Are you reading Jose Saramago's 'SEEING' yet? Now's the time.