Angsana: Contemporary Southeast Asian Photography Takes Flight, 2902 gallery

Angsana: Contemporary Southeast Asian Photography Takes Flight, Presented by 2902 Gallery @ OldSchool

ANGSANA: Southeast Asian Photographers Taking Flight is an exhibition that brings together the works of notable contemporary photographers from Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore and Thailand. Taking the name of a tree species that is common in Southeast Asia, the exhibition is a showcase of highly sophisticated images captured with well-honed skills and expertise. Put together, the works provide a glorious ins…ight to the burgeoning standards of photography craftsmanship and the blossoming photography industry in Southeast Asia. By intertwining different artistic talents of the region, it is also a platform of cultural exchange and understanding.

Participating artists:
Agus Heru, Indonesia
Agung Nugroho Widhi, Indonesia
Angki Purbandono, Indonesia
Ang Song Nian, Singapore
Akiq AW, Indonesia
Eiffel Chong, Malaysia
Ho Hui May, Singapore
Joel Yuen, Singapore
John Clang, Singapore
Lim Thian Leong, Malaysia
Manit Sriwanchipoom, Thailand
Mintio, Singapore
Nge Lay, Myanmar
Oh Soon Hwa, Korea/Singapore
Zhao Renhui, Singapore

ANGSANA Party is on 15th January 2010.
Time: 7pm till late
Location : 2902 Gallery
The Angsana Party is by invitation only.
Please RSVP via email to angsana@2902gallery.com or call 6339 8655.

A Fringe Event of ArtStage Singapore

billboards 2011

My new job has taken up most of my free time. I’ve lost the privilege of enjoying the flexibility with the time I used to have. As my camera remains stagnant on the shelf, a lot of my surroundings have changed. I watched it happened as an impassive observer. Change in a city is always a good thing. It means that something has advanced, moved forward. It is a sign that we’re not creature of routine, repetition and habit.  We change as our environment changes.

studies of trees

Endau Rompin trip

Last month has not been a good month for writing. I did make a trip down south to Singapore for my exhibition and another trip to Endau Rompin with PSM. For whatever reason, I have stopped deliberating too much on the decision on whether to go or not to go. Either way, you sacrifice something else in the process. I managed to survive all the leeches from all the jungle tracking, river crossing and a 430 M climb. I think I’m getting to enjoy climbing very much. Anyway, this will probably be my last trip this year, at least.

The National Park office is located in a small town called Kahang. You can basically buy all your leech socks, adidas kampung, etc. there in town. It is a good idea to buy everything you need here because the only thing you have at the visitor complex is a tiny little grocery shop in the nearby kampung with limited supply.  And the first thing that will normally run out in the shop is 100 plus. From Kahang, there is a about 2 hour bumpy ride from the office using hired 4wd vehicles to the visitor complex. The one thing that worried me alot for this trip is the leeches. I have never seen one up close and I am not very keen to get connected with one. But I heard that it is inevitable that you will get a few on to your body.  I did learn something from everyone else’s mistakes (and lots of other people’s blood). 1. Normal socks will not protect you. Leeches can bite through normal socks. 2. Never stop and rest in the middle of the trail. 3. Stop and check periodically for any leeches climbing up your cloth. No matter how well you cover yourself, they will get in. The only way is to catch them before they find an opening. 4. Mozziguard is great. All natural and both insect and leech repellent.

Although there is a regulation that National parks do not allow insecticides, the grocery shop just a few shop down from the Kahang registration office sells Bygone insecticides to tourist to get rid of leeches and insects. Is that an irony or what? And everyone was lamenting that they wish they still can get the old Bygone which was stronger. What kind of education can you learn from a trip to the national park?

Anyway, for some reasons, I was facinated by the national parks ideas of putting lamp on trees. It sort of confuse my own logic of nature a bit.Even the tree itself suddenly look artificial. Back in the cafeteria of the visitor complex, they have these concrete pillars that they also try to carve with texture that look like tree bark.

The banana trees and the power generator. When you can hear the motor of the generator churning, you know you have electricity in the complex. It normally will run the whole night. I can only assume that the banana trees are meant to be the sound barrier. The moon was rising and the foreground was flooded by the flourescent light in front of the staff quarters.

death of a photograph

I was going through a bunch of collection of old photographs, just trying to make sense of them. I’m trying to stop myself from instinctively create a story for the sitter in the picture from his clothing, posture, background, etc. Why do I want to give a story to him? Why do I want to make him relevant to me? So I moved closer until we’re face to face and there’s nothing but a blank stare between us.

When this photograph was created, it was made with a purpose. The subject, the sitter wished to be objectified, framed and immortalised into a thing. For whatever reason, he wished to at least owned a reasonably correct representation of himself, a way to prove his existence, at least to those who know him. He is a stranger to me. I cannot find anything relevance in him. I see the death of this photograph I photographed. Is this the end? I see only a blank stare. Just another face ready to be forgotten.

germination

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

more signs of the night

waiting for the next show…

common ground

I was looking for a space where there is no burden of tradition and culture, a secular space. And there it was: A children’s playground. We have such an obsession with our heritage, ancestral lineage, ethnic identity and culture. We are taught to see differences, to categories, to separate, to tolerate, and most important of all, to never become one of them. We fear homogenization. In my opinion, it is important to maintain a set of  common ideals, common political institutions, common language, and common culture that can bond everyone together. As I see it, this playground transcends ethnicity, culture and religion. At this place, there is only humanity.

opening soon

landscape #2

Not landscape but ideas of landscape.