Congratulations!

Sometimes you think of a big project, and then when you jump on it you realize how tough it's going to be. Most people jump off, or think smaller. Some freaky, very special sort of people grit their teeth and see it through and you get something like LAMU - Let Arts Move You! An art project with real movement and a seriously different audience.

Let Arts Move You (LAMU) art project brings together the artists, the public transport and the commuters on a visual art event taking place in Kuala Lumpur. It aims at presenting the dynamic and creative situation of urban life in KL, drawing the connections between the rapid city development and the artistic interventions.

http://www.blog.letartsmoveyou.com/

Visit the blog. Support support support!

Update on Sensors

Have just posted images to the site. It is now declared complete. Swim in and have a look. Better still, see the show before it comes down on 7 Oct!

http://bannedbooksandothermonsters.blogspot.com

Plugging "If Only"

Allow me to sing the praises of If Only - hopefully the first of many books by my comrade and colleague Pelukis Melukis, in whose blog I happily wander day in day out.

He did me the honour of having the book for sale at my exhibition opening last Friday. I'm happy to say I got a complimentary copy! But in typical P.M. humility he neglected to sign the inside.

What can I say? It's a beautiful book that feels like it's been crafted with some serious love and integrity. It is printed on recycled paper, which, besides being environmentally friendly, also makes the pages very organic with their off-white color and faded specks of past print. It's a book that's also an object.

In all, the collection of poems, prose and illustrations are quaint, melancholy, delicate and intimate. What I really admire is the range - the material doesn't repeat itself and nothing feels like 'filler'.

Everyone knows that I'm crazy about P.M.'s mad skillz in the drawing dept. He's adept at several styles, but personally I loosely categorize them into ones that are tightly controlled and those that are lighter and more expressive in gesture. The latter is what I'm in love with - they are gentle and fragile, most of them colored with soft washes of color and seem to have come out of my nicest dreams.

Me to someone at opening: you should meet P.M., he's the author of this here wonderful book.
Someone at opening: Oh, what's your book about?
Me and P.M. (after looking at each other for a few moments): It's about love.

Do look out for the book and get your copy! I believe MPH will be hosting some readings soon, so keep updated either here, or at P.M.'s blog.

I've got many personal favorites in the book, but pg24 and 25 are pretty special. From the drawing of his palm, I can see that me and P.M. have quite similar lines, especially the fact that both our Head lines hover above the Life line, not touching it - mark of a impetuous, sensitive nature. I leave you with the poem accompanying this drawing:

Palmistry

On my palm lies my fortune,
Etched along some
Furrowed lines,

The Heart, The Head
The Life, my Fate,
Would meet upon a single thread.

My reason for being is yet unknown,
Though temptations abound
And have pulled me to the farthest reaches.

There is only so much
That I can take with me on these narrow tracks
Before the sun sets,

And there is stillness once more.

Sensors

Come for the opening, dear readers, and see how I applied those colour pencils!

FRIDAY, 21 Sept 2007, 8pm
The Annexe at Central Market, Kuala Lumpur

(I have to come off as serene and confident elsewhere, but here I'll admit that I am ripping my hair out. So much to do, will I ever manage to pull it off before the curtain comes down?)

A blog about the show will hopefully be up in the next week.

Review of Selamat Datang ke Malaysia

Gina Fairley has written a review of Selamat Datang ke Malaysia (Welcome To Malaysia) for Universes in Universes. She says some thoughtful and generous things about the show and my work. I'm so pleased and am filled with a silly sort of happiness. As I wasn't sure what the response to this particular work would be, it is a relief to have a positive response.

Please read the review here.

Don't miss this show when it opens at Valentine Willie Fine Art on 22 August! It is the perfect opportunity to decide for yourselves if local contemporary artists really do translate the things that are important to us now in Malaysia, or if they remain inscrutable. Also I'm going to leak out that there is a really fun and beautiful catalogue accompanying the exhibition - it includes postcards of each work! If you're lucky and come early, you could bag one! ^_-

Malaysian Videoworks Screening @ VWFA Project Room

My video Making Night will be one of the works. Pop in if you've got some time to spare during the week. Although, with the massive Not That Balai festival right now and heaps of exhibitions hoping to cash in 50 Tahun Merdeka madness, you're in for art overload all the way until the end of August and September even! Here's descriptions of what will be screened (mine is right at the bottom):

NAZIM ESA
It’s Ok What’s Happening Right Now
2005
Running Time: 6 mins 13 secs
Tales from the inner workings of Damansara Jaya, when the tape counter reruns night after night.

NAZIM ESA
KAMI
2007
Running Time: 9 mins 58 secs
Kami: A type of Japanese origami paper. Kami means 'God' in Japanese. Kami also means 'we' in Malay. Japanese and Malay high flying feelings folded into courting gestures of try hard relationships in conservative Kuala Lumpur.

VINCENT LEONG
(TITLE)
2003
Running Time: 7 mins 14 secs
(TITLE) is a personal documentation of my life, as a student in London, as well as a generic home video. Trying to break down activities into process. Attempting to blur the boundaries between fiction and reality. Emptying the 'self' and disregarding individuality. I am minimalising/catogerising conversations.

ROSLISHAM ISMAIL AKA ISE
3m x 3m x 3m = 27m3
2004
2 channel video
Running Time:
Video 1: 5 mins 7 secs
Video 2: 9 mins
This video is a response to the rules and regulations of Malaysian Young Contemporary Art Awards organized by National Art Gallery, which states that an artwork entry cannot exceed 3m x 3m x 3m. We see the artist measuring the volume 3m x 3m x 3m the equivalent of 27cubic meters and see how far he can stretch 27 cubic meters.

EMIL GOH
"between" (Seoul)
Running time: 7 mins 16 secs
As one of his works investigating film-making conventions (Remake Ring, 2004 & Trailer, 2006) Goh delves into the concept of the continuous pan. Stationed on windowsills & doorways, the camera makes 360-degree shots, revealing domestic spaces & their exetrior views.

SHARON CHIN
Making Night
2006
Running time: 17 mins
Making Night was commissioned for Performativity (2006), a touring 'performance for video' showcase by artists from Southeast Asia, first screening at Gallery VER, Bangkok. It is based on the constellations of stars that are visible above the skies of 3 cities - Kuala Lumpur, Bangkok and Jerusalem - at 10pm on the first night of Ramadan month in 2006. The video was made by a mobile phone videocam placed in a shoebox with the lid shut. By punching holes in the cardboard, light was admitted into the box which registered as points of light (or 'stars') by the camera; hence 'making night'. The simplicity of the action is juxtaposed against the suggestion of an infinitely wide and complex, yet ultimately unifying, cosmos.

Mutual pluggage

UPDATE: I also made a mention on Pelukis Melukis! I feel the love, y'all. Betta's Fanbase/PR team: 2! Will we ever reach double digits? It doesn't matter.


I made a mention on Attack of the Pansies!!

Go theeerre noooooow. Be immersed in the glowing petri-dish ecology of young KL corporate life. This person is my pimp/Ah Long, operating under misguided belief that some day my art will become 'valuable'. Interest rate 0% over 10 years. Whose yore daddy?

Plug

Sending some love to the author of this here awesome little blog. My friend and colleague, N. We have known each other in Melbourne since the year one. His art really deserves to be better known. Such a talent. But I like that he is biding his time, going his own way and doing it exactly how he wants. That's how to do it right (but not necessarily easily) in KL - just be yourself. He's coming out with an illustrated book soon; self-published, glory-be! Drop by his blog and help him pick out which cover he should go with...

http://pelukismelukis.blogspot.com/



Personally my pick is A, only with the palest, most delicate ballerina pink background. A script font would be nice too. Oh, and rounded corners. Nothing more attractive than a book with rounded corners. But what do you think?