beyond our city: lights and myths exhibition 4 Feb 2010

It is finally confirmed.

Opening: Thursday 4 February 2010 8:00pm

Exhibition will run through 20 February 2010
Sun to Thu: 11am to 8pm
Fri & Sat: 11am to 9:30pm

Venue: The Annexe Gallery, 2nd Floor, Central Market Annexe (behind Central market)

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“Lights and Myths” is a photography exhibition featuring experiemental works from 13 emerging photographers in the city.

[The lights] Lights are essentially the heart of a photographic image. Photography has come a long way since its inception more than 170 years ago. The ontological discourse has moved from the debate for photography’s status as art to the critical examination of the transformation to digital imaging and beyond. Within these transformations, photography has always been about light and its journey into physical being. If you were to see through the night photograph of earth taken by the United States Defence Meteorological Satellite Program, the combination of over 400 over satellite images showed only the lights illuminating the human inhabited spaces at night. Our cities are essentially made of light. Amidst that luminous landscape is where all our life stories are staged, and acted out, each unique in its own way.
[The city ] How do we even start to understand our city? Is it architecture? Is it the people? In the tradition of the great philosopher of the city, Henri Lefebvre emphasizes the importance of our everyday actions – in the way we live our lives, our work, the way we commute, our emotions, desires, beliefs, even our bodies and the architecture. He values both the grand narrative of the city as well as the individual expression, the megastructure and also the forgotten and unseen spaces. In short, we make our own spaces in the city and the spaces make us. In Roland Barthes’ words, we ‘speak’ our city “by simply living in it and by wandering through it”. We invent our own language of the city. It is easy to forget that we only occupy and experience a mere tiny fraction of the city space in our lives. It is that experience that forms our own conception of our individual city. And this very personal experience becomes the epitome of our own city experience.
[The myths] Myths are fictitious creation, stories with arbitrary meaning.  They are often associated with legends, gods and the supernatural. Even though the stories are non-factual, yet the content possesses some timeless universal appeals to everyone that keep them alive through the ages. Linguists and philosophers have different concepts of myth. In the book Mythologies, Roland Barthes investigates the secondary signification of encoded meanings in images such as the characteristics of photographic images in our society. “Myth is a type of speech”, Barthes claimed. Photographs, to Barthes, can be conceived as a form of visual language because of the inevitable meaning embedded in them. Myths do not hide their meanings. Instead, it distorts, displaces and appropriates factual meanings. Photographs, like myth have the inclination to do just that. Thus, the meanings embedded in photographs often contain perhaps something more sinister, ambiguous or even paradoxical  in nature beneath the surface.  In order to better understand our city, we need to heighten our senses in our daily encounter with urban spaces. We need more sensibility in terms of how we view and feel our cities; not only for the architecture, but also what is in between, the spaces less visible to our attention. This exhibition, we  hope will have the capacity to do just that. This project is about a journey of discovery for the photographers.  We hope this will inspire more to see beyond the surface, to further question the meaning of our urban environment and to bring about changes for the better.

my poladroid cats

I found this tiny little program that let you convert your normal photo into a polaroid.

new year hash

I started the first day of 2010 joining the mother hash new year celebration run no.3443 as a guest near kajang shooting range. A hash run is a form of cross country, non-competative, social running event at a course setup by a ‘hare’. The run will always ends with alot of beer-drinking and singing songs full of profanity. As I learnt as first timer that the other gender is the ‘unmentionable’ during the meet and I was punished to full glass of beer standing on overturned beer crates. The mother hash is the original Hash House Harrier founded in 1938 in Kuala Lumpur. Hash running is now an international movements. There are plenty of different chapters all over Kuala Lumpur and PJ areas. As my mother hash friend told me that they are still the most organised of them all.

The mother hash runs every monday evening at about 6pm. It normally lasts around 1.5 to 2 hours. That time, I’m afraid is the marathon runners’ pace. The appointed ‘hare’ will need to go early during the day to set the course for the run together with other co-hares. The hare will leave a trail of paper along the course for the runners to follow. The trail will stop at a checkpoint where runners will have to split up to find the connecting trail. The runner who finds the next paper trail will alert the rest of the runners to follow. And that will go on for the next few check points until the trail leads back to the starting point. The course at Kajang was around 7 or 8 km long. I’ll have to admit that I was doing more walking than running. Though, most part of the course were pretty difficult to ‘run’. Luckily I was near the end when I suffered calf cramps on both legs. I’m glad to have a friend accompanying me to complete the last part in the dark. I arrived at the starting point all wet and muddy all over at about 8:30pm. We all took a simple bath with the water we brought and changed. By then, everyone was already gathered around the On-sec Barry Dowe doing some sort of a post-run meeting. Barry then introduced all the guests to the group. After the meeting, everyone retreated to a restaurant somewhere in Kajang for dinner.

The image above is the paper trail I picked up during the run. Even though I came out last, I still get a mother hash t-shirt. A bit embarrassing but hopefully I’ll get better next time.

3 great movies – camera, bombs, and dance

These are 3 movies I enjoyed very much recently. All 3 of them have very different personalities.

1. Maria Larrssons Everlasting Moments. This is a true story about a woman photographer, Maria Larrssons in Sweden. Photography is but only a small part of the movie. That little contessa camera that changed Maria’s life. It is the time of war and poverty and how family tried to cope with the predicament. There are no bad guys and good guys. Only ordinary people trying to live out their lives. And how we all can be touched by the miracle of photography.

“It’s a miracle.” Maria said. Mr. Pedersen, the photographer showed Maria how the image of the moth are captured on the palm of her hand.

2. The Hurt Locker (US). This is a very realistic look at the US bomb squad operating in Iraq. Realistic? I’m not sure because most of us have never been there. The only images we have are from news reel and movies. The writer is Mark Boal, the journalist who embeded himself into the real bomb squad unit in Iraq and came back to tell this story. Although it is not a documentary, it is as real as it can get. It is so powerful and intense that I just cannot see anything pretentious about the movie. I think the best way to look at war is always to go so close to it that you can no longer hear the wrangling political debate. There is only the sound of soldiers trying to survive and to complete their tasks. I like it because there is no political message here.

3. Cherry Blossom (Kirschbluten Hanami) German. A very sad movie about how one deals with death. A cross cultural experience from a germany small town to japan. The director is very careful about getting the visual of the places through to the audience. Watch carefully and enjoy the scenery. and also experience how art, such as dance in this case help us to channel our thoughts and emotion. Art is universal. It is always waiting for someone to open their mind to embrace it.

germination

the future messenger. the prophet of our desire and temptation.

kitty and gatti

I just realise that I haven’t been posting my cats’ pictures recently. The old is getting older and the fat is getting fatter.

my hero dr.khoo kay kim?

I really miss this great controversy that got every chinese malaysians all emotionally charged in the last two weeks. I didn’t see the news until today.  I like to watch all these fascinating reactions from everywhere. There are people cursing him, asking him to apologise, redicule his lack of understanding for chinese culture, etc. All sorts of things.  I also like join in to offer a few opinions of mine regarding this.

Firstly, I really do agree that chinese education is “copycat”. But I don’t really like the translation that much. We don’t copy, but we ‘memorise’. I think we forget the fact that chinese education even during confusious time was all about memorising. Even today, I’m sure students from china still can dictate the whole content of the sishuwujing，(the famous 4 books and 5 scriptures) word by word. I’m not sure about the chinese educated students here though. Anyway, the ability to memorise is a great thing that chinese education has invented(well not sure on that). Chinese education used to force young students to memorise every literary text available. Why? because that is the best time (as we believe ) for memorising information. It is from this memorised knowledge that students can utilise to be creative. Being creative is not just about playing around and see who can talk the loudest. Creativity is based on knowledge and experience we already know. Try and go visit malacca without knowing the history. what can you get from it? And just consider how much information you need to remember to become a medical doctor for example. Memorising is good. it is the foundation to be creative. We should be proud of it. The chinese community should thank dr.khoo for pointing it out. whether this system will limit the student’s creativity, well, that we can’t really tell.

I think many people who criticise dr.khoo have never read any of his published papers. He is still a great historian even if everyone else disagree with his opinion. I think we lack people like him in Malaysia. somebody who is willing to face criticism to say something unpopular. that’s of course the downside of our own culture. we avoid confrontation. where as creative people always prefer confrontation. because that is the best time to voice their own opinions. unless we don’t have one. I must admit that I’m afraid to criticise sensitive issue as well. people are just too emotional and defensive when being critisised. see how chinese people always run back to the 2000 year-old confucious for reference everytime we are being attacked? when will we ever have an opinion of our own?

more signs of the night

waiting for the next show…

studnitzky trio at german ambassador’s house

(photos courtesy of Dr.Tee Tuan Poy) The Studnitzky trio were on their way to Penang for the jazz festival. I’m so glad that Dr.Wolf from Goethe managed to catch them for a short performance at Dr.Gruber’s residence. From the left is Sebastian Studnitzky(trumpet, piano), Paul Kleber(double bass), Sebastian Merk (percussion) and Dr.Gruber. Studnitzky is also supposed to play his synthesiser but not this time.  Just google STUDNITZKY TRIO live @ Jazzfest Berlin 2009, some of the music they played are on youtube.

Jazz music is very unique in the sense that it has the element of improvisation and play incorporated in the music. That’s why this music is really meant to be played live. I like the informal setting of a jazz performance in contrast to the concert with composer strict score to follow, and where total silence is required. Jazz works even with noisy ambient. The music embraces the surrounding rather than rejecting it. The interesting thing about ‘play’ and improvisation in music is that this form of play is only achievable with experience and expertise. It is not the kind of ‘play’ as what children do. I don’t think there is a formal training course that can prepare you to be a jazz musician much like a classical piano player. It is a combination of work and play that makes it happen. I suddenly realise what it is all about! Watching the musicians passing glances among themselves, this is a case of making musical instruments talking to each other. It is a form of conversation. May be that’s what makes it so exciting. It is honest and natural.

I’m far from being a good judge of jazz music. Still, what’s important is that I enjoyed it very much. Considering jazz music has its origin in America in the early 20th century and that Germany probably only started the tradition post world war 2, and today, I see german musicians performing jazz music as proudly as it would have been their own music. Of course, where is the origin has nothing to do with it. It is all about being good at it. It is the music that counts. Still, coming back to malaysia, can the arts ever become universal? Every form of arts are labeled: western, eastern, chinese, malay, indian, etc. What’s the point? To me, I just want to enjoy it as it is.

STUDNITZKY TRIO live @ Jazzfest Berlin 2009

360 gallery robotic show

So, what’s in our young artists’ minds today? Visiting a few art exhibitions around town by the younger generation certainly gave me some ideas. This is an opening show for a new 360 gallery at desa waterpark some time ago. It is so far from my place that this will probably be the last time I go there unless they have some amazing show in the future.  This is supposed to be an “art development studio” which I’m not quite sure what it means. But a new artspace for new artists is always a good thing. As with all Chandan gallery catalogues, there are no giveaways. So, I can’t really remember any of these artists.

Global warming?? A pathetic excuse for an artwork. It is a nice little piece but better off without a title.

Futuristic sci-fi movies, tv-series, games, saturday morning cartoons, japanese anime. That’s our next generation. And shouldn’t we be a little bit concerns about our education system? I’m all for new media and arts that really represent what’s in our young minds today. They should be confident about their own upbringing and their perception of the environment. There’s no reason to be pretentious about not having a cultural roots or being critical about our social condition. Art is supposed to be honest. Whether this is a good direction, only time can tell.

It is when I see these kind of works that really get me thinking about the relevance of art to reality. These are ideas for robots. Not robots. A fully functional robot has a purpose. Real robots manufacture almost everything we use today. Even the parts used in putting these sad-excuse-for-a-robot robots together. This is obviously a form of entertainment. A form of play. Playing doesn’t need understanding. Because they are just simulation of the real thing. The understanding has to do only with the visual elements. I’m finding a hard time trying to put these works in perspective. What can we see from it? Is it to show how much we don’t understand about robots? Is it a toy? Every single pieces used in those sculptures are the results of some form of great discovery, great inventions, scientific research, technological development and engineering knowhow.  I hope audiences can see more than just some handiwork that put these scraps together. I hope audiences can see in these works the accomplishments of science and its contribution to our world today.

Lets compare this with a recent competition called robogamez held at UNITEN. It was still a lame competition but it does have a purpose. It aimed to promote understanding of robotic technologies through some form of association with popular culture. So, now, how should I relate this exhibition to the real world? Would those engineering students enjoy this show? Or are they just going to laugh their heads off? Hmmm…

extra update:

I just found the invite card. This exhibition is called “outerinter X”.

“`OuterinterX’ is the combination of Outer, Inter and X where `outer’ means a determination in creating an artwork that go beyond the cycle of contemporary visual art conventional in Malaysia. While `inter’ means an attempt to get a place or an interaction within visual art context. Whereas `X’ means a probability to Xplorasi, ,Xpresi, Xperimen, X-factor and all the possibility that begins with `X’ in positive way. This exhibition is lead by 5 young artists which actively involved in Malaysian art scene since 2008. They are Fadly Sabran, Syafiq Ali’am, Abdul Latiff, Al-Khuzairie and Haris Abadi, graduate from University Technology Mara (UiTM).”

Well, it doesn’t make much sense but still not a bad show. The works are so conventional that to say that they are “beyond contemporary” is just an overstatement. I don’t think they have even reached the contemporary yet.  We have better robot from dadaist artist like Raoul Hausmann’s mechanical head like 90 years ago. I might have thought that we are moving backwards instead of forward.