The singapore biennale was cool.
A lot of culture. A lot of new and brave ideas.
At first it got me worried as an artist. Worried because we needed to push ourselves much further in the future to create this healthy competitive atmosphere. I was, at a point, creating images in my head, creating a culture as reference for me. My own culture, a new one.
Then I stopped, and looked back to a reference point in sabah art. The existing culture that we already have for hundreds of years perhaps thousands. And I realized that perhaps in a place where culture is not remembered as references anymore: you tend to recreate a new one, out of every day imagery, and probably it might be influenced by Western civilization...mtv..Hollywood...these entities are pumping their culture into our minds every single day non stop.
And we believe that is the new culture.
It is not the fault of outsiders if your stand is brittle.
All these while, I might have been looking at the wrong direction.
Medium, execution, presentation yes: use all influences from outside no matter how pop culture or how bizarre there are....but subject matter, let it alway, always, always , always be from the inside of you: your country, your community, your body, let it always come from your heart.
Subject matter will always sound cliché in a sence that it might be repeated over and over again, but thats the idea of promoting your culture and beliefs to the world, hollywood has been making remakes after remakes of movies, novels, comics over and over again and it always seems fresh! I know We can do it too ...
I dont know if my rambling is making any sense , but I hope u get something good from reading this post. Thank you for reading.
