georgetown festival 2021

I applied for a residency in the George town festival 2021. I don't know how many people applied, but surprisingly i got selected for the program. So happy. Never got in a residency program before, this is my first time being in something like this. Due to the covid situation. The residency is online. And not physical. Well, it better in any ways possible for me. 8 artists were selected. And i might be the only one from sabah. I think. 

As per today the organizing team is wonderful. A young energetic group of art workers. I need to learn so many things from them. I am sure i might be too old for this group of people, but I'm not gonna let that interfere with my goals, that is to have at least 3 group show this year.

Karya Pilihan Tahunan Negeri Sabah 2014

I joined the competition again this year with this piece of installation titled " Sabah bah ni." Its an essemblage . I gathered sand from the controversied beach of Tanjung Aru put it in a bowl. And the sands from the Simpang Mengayau beach at the tip of Borneo. Some more sand in a glass..

I broke one of the bowls to symbolize the broken people of Sabah, with no power over their own land, the land being squandered by people in places of authority. sabah has no good leaders leading the people..all of them are silent.

Both beaches are in deep shit. Tanjung aru beach and also simpang mengayau beach. I had a visit there once, went camping, and when we paid our camp site rent to our landlord, we started chit chatting.. i found out he does not own the land anymore, he is renting it from this man who is on of Sabah's politician. Plannings of building resorts were undergoing.

This artwork is about that. We will soon buy tickets to see our beaches, our sunsets. 

New studio

1. Wife is pregnant with our 2nd baby.

2. So, we have to let go of our rented terrace house. Moving back the inlaws.

3. Found a rentable space for my studio.

4. Cool space in a commercial area.

5. Now it feels...legit...hehe

Getting into blogging

So i am back... Will write more stuff very soon...see you guys around ya..

Abingkoi

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4uN3ofL4bgQ

click at the link above to see what I've discover in Korolok, on my way to Abingkoi, Guided in the forest by to little girls.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zhiLVMEsHqc

check out how kids in Abingkoi create their own toys out off thrown away things

three types of artist in the Sabah Art Scene

I have learned something very new today, and i curse myself for not learning it before this. And after understanding this issue, I have regain my respect for those whom I thought has gone astray from the true essence of the pure meaning of the arts.

When I started doing contemporary art, my intentions were just to be relevant in the movement of the arts, to have a voice that every artisan would listen to. Well, to an extent, I am what I would consider "relevent" well at least to my peers  and some of my family members. Some of the insights that comes out from me i would consider useful, others are just a broken verbal pipeline. as I moved on with this notion of relevance in my head, I became a "head level" artist. a thinker, politics, sosialism, marxism in the arts were my fundamentals.

I started to consider those artists who were talented but "stuck" selling touristic art in the sunday market are just doing it for the money, and some as I further thought were just creatively blocked, having no other paintings except those which represent nature, landscapes , animals... things that i thought were boring beyond belief. but today, I learned something..something very important.

as I was walking in Deasoka, just beside Gaya street, there was a bazaar of crafts and art done by local artists. i listened as a senior painter who was teaching a junior painter on how thing are in the strokes of his brush. he was telling him that when his "jiwa" is in the painting then he would feel his strokes and he will find himself in the painting. at first it didn't mean anything to me, but as  thought about it, it gave me this revelation that painting for this "touristic" painter, is actually something that gives them motivation to do it again again and again and again, it was more than just a motivational nudge, it was spiritual. with every brush stroke, it brings them closer and closer to that something that they long to be with, be it nature, a passed wife or husband...or maybe even God.

Whatever that thing is, it has a very powerful connection with Sabahan artists, a people who are very much "heart level" and almost in tuned with culture 24/7 365. I assume this experience would also give them some amount of pleasure, so for people who complain that the Sabah art scene in Stagnant, think again, they are doing it because they are getting something great out of it, something that money cannot buy, something that a lay man could not explain, something that we cannot touch or see. one thing for me to do now is to find out for myself what the hell this "thing" is...