Creative-i Issue 4: The Singapore Issue

A MAGAZINE BY CREATIVE COWBOY. APRIL 2013

A CREATIVE i ON A CREATIVE WORLD

The Singapore Issue

Women who lead

Arahmaiani in Tibet

Sandra Hill

Stolen Generations

Aminah Hussien

The Little Arts Academy

Eun-Ah Kim Wooson gallery

Technopia Tours

architectURE

Yann Follain Designing art

PREVIOUS ISSUES A MAGAZINE BY CREATIVE COWBOY. JANUARY 2012

New documentaries from Africa, Australia, Europe and the USA Cairn’s launch - Ken Thaiday: The sea, the feather and the dance machine

A CREATIVE i ON A CREATIVE WORLD

This issue’s theme:

The earth is precious and it needs our guardianship...

Maasai Francis Nkodidio recipient of the Creative cowboy tertiary scholarship Art collecting can be dangerous: In search of Tongan Tapa

A MAGAZINE BY CREATIVE COWBOY. JANUARY 2012

A CREATIVE i ON A CREATIVE WORLD

This issue’s theme:

Around the world

Angelina Pwerle Bush plum

Alick Tipoti

Zugub, the mask, the spirits and the stars

Christopher Green

at the British Library

Korean

International art fiar

A MAGAZINE BY CREATIVE COWBOY. JANUARY 2012

A CREATIVE i ON A CREATIVE WORLD

The

Survival Issue

The Singapore issue

The road to

Pormpuraaw In Durrell’s footsteps

Shanghai moon city states No room

for me

Creative-i is published by Creative Cowboy Pty Ltd, as an e-magazine, and printed on demand. Editorial by Peter and Andrea Hylands. Photography by Arahmaiani and Andrea and Peter Hylands. Design by Kai Brethouwer. Cover photo: Arahmaiani by Andrea Hylands ISSN 839-9983

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creative-i, a Creative cowboy films publication. creative-i provides news about Creative cowboy film projects around the world. creative-i includes images of the places, of the people and of the art, so important to making our projects a success.

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In this issue we visit Singapore’s where Art Stage (Singapore’s International Art Fair) becomes centre stage as we trace the art and convictions of some of the artists exhibiting at the fair. The rise and rise of contemporary art in Indonesia is reflected by the Indonesian Pavilion at Art Stage where the work is compelling and a demonstration of how contemporary art can be a powerful reflection of society and meaning.

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It is here we catch up with Arahmaiani (Indonesia’s representative at the 50th Venice Biennale) whose work stands as a bridge, connecting cultures, connecting communities and connecting ideas. In her article Arahmaiani takes us on journey to Tibet and we meet the 15th Lab Kyab Gon Rinpoche who tells us about the conservation project that the monks and the artist are creating in the Lab community.

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We go on an Art Stage journey with Technopia Tours

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In the education section of the magazine we visit Singapore’s The Little Arts Academy as some of the students tell us about their work and hopes for the future In the education section Maasai creative cowboy scholar Francis Nkodidio gives us an update on his progress from Nairobi.

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We look at ‘designing art’ with Singapore based architect Yann Follain as we uncover the architects work in the art spaces and places of Singapore.

Back at Art Stage we catch up with Eun-Ah, Kim, director of Korea’s Wooson gallery from Daegu.

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Andrea and I particularly want to thank Sandra Hill for her generosity in taking us through her life journey, in which art has become a critical expression of culture, of meaning and survival, as she tells her story, the story of too many Aboriginal people in Australia.

That is the story of the stolen generations, in this case of her people, the Nyoongar people of South West Western Australia and again we thank Sandra for sharing her story in art with us all.

Singapore’s The Little Arts Academy Aminah Hussien

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Andrea and Peter Hylands

National Art Gallery, Singapore: night and day construction

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art stage centre stage

Tisna Sanjaya: I Like Kapital – Kapital Like Me

art stage Singapore Here we all are and together at Art Stage Singapore, Singapore’s International Art Fair. It is from Art Stage Singapore that we trace the stories of five of the artists exhibiting there, Arahmaiani, Sandra Hill, Technopia Tours’ Kim Donaldson and Sue Dodd and Tisna Sanjaya. We also contemplate the work of Singapore based architect Yann Follain as we discuss the idea of designing for art and we visit Korea’s WOOSON gallery exhibit and speak with director Eun-Ah, Kim.

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At Art Stage Singapore 2013 there are 131 galleries from the Asia Pacific and beyond (75 per cent of exhibiting galleries are from the Asia Pacific) and this year powerful contributions from Indonesia’s contemporary artists at the Indonesian Pavilion.

Malaysia, Thailand and the Philippines are in the spotlight in 2013 with a marked increase in the number of galleries from these nations exhibiting at the event.

Art Stage Singapore is rapidly becoming the window to the world for South East Asian galleries and their artists.

The design quality of Art Stage Singapore is high, with its taller gallery walls and sophisticated visual language and typography and cool spaces and places to hang out when you need a drink.

So let’s go and meet the artists.

The Singapore issue

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A moment in time the way we are

When I was born near London on 20 May 1952 the human population of the earth was around 2.65 billion and in that year the earth’s population increased by around 45 million.

As I write this in early 2013 the earth’s population is 7.10 billion and the population is likely to increase by another 75 million this year. An increasing number of people are concentrating in urban centres and more than half of humanity now lives in cities.

All this means that in my lifetime the world’s population has almost tripled.

There is a moment in time in the history of all human societies when a change occurs. Suddenly things are no longer as they had always been. Perhaps there are a number of changes occurring at one time. The changes might be the clearing of a forest or the first use of fertilisers on local agricultural land or the introduction of goods and food items imported from outside a region.

These and other changes mean that a number of fundamental things are different: - The community is no longer sustaining itself

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- The region relies increasingly on imported goods and foodstuffs - Traditional skills decline - There is more reliance on trade - Suddenly there is a lot of packaging and other waste from discarded products to dispose of - Pollution is likely to become more problematic because of increased use of chemicals and industrial processes - There is an increase in prosperity and technology diffusion, but not for everyone - Our disconnection to the natural world grows - There is an ever growing tendency to destroy the natural world that sustains us All a familiar story of course, and not all of the human development story is a bad one, however the consequences of the changes that I describe always seem to be the same. It means a loss of wildlife, of trees, of flowers, of clean air and clean water and these things too often signal a decline in the quality of life for many individuals in the community and do so both at work and at home.

Does the process of change… always need to be accompanied by the destruction of our environment?

Creating a better educated and connected world and improving the lives of the world’s poorest people should be the central purpose of humanity, as is caring for the natural world, and these things should be among the good part of this story.

Does the process of change I describe always need to be accompanied by the destruction of our environment?

I ask this question because we cannot keep destroying the environment and do so in more and more places.

If we continue on this path, we will only end up destroying ourselves and in doing so create a great deal of misery for countless numbers of people as well as the countless living things with which we share the earth.

So let’s act to change the way things are done.

PETER HYLANDS

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art stage centre stage

ARAHMAIANI “Because basically what I want to do is just to do good things for all beings on this planet you know” And it is in this place of environment and collective creativity where we find Indonesian and international artist Arahmaiani (50th Venice Biennale). Something very special is happening in Indonesia and that is the rise and rise of Indonesian contemporary art and the work of Arahmaiani internationally is central to that journey.

ARAHMAIANI’s work explores social themes and her art is a social commentary that engages with society and community, not only working in Indonesia, but as a global artist engaged in activism in many fields internationally.

“I implement an open art system in which art is defined as broadly as possible, to break through rigid discourses and established values, engaging in democratic dialogue, but also taking a critical approach when this is needed. During this process, outcomes, artworks and

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other forms (such as performance) are produced collectively, collaboratively or individually”. And it is in this place where ARAHMAIANI stands, as a bridge connecting cultures, connecting communities and connecting ideas.

Later in this article ARAHMAIANI describes one such project in Tibet, where the artist is working with the monks and the Tibetan and the Chinese communities in an effort to bring people together and in doing so to reverse the environmental degradation of their region of Lab.

“During this process, outcomes, artworks and other forms (such as performance) are produced collectively, collaboratively or individually”.

art stage Singapore

ARAHMAIANI: I have different kinds of projects coming up apart from my work with Tibetan Monks in Tibet which is ongoing and now it is somehow bigger because the local government are now happy, after three years they see the result and approve somehow.

PETER HYLANDS: And so the work at Art Stage is The memory of Nature?

(The memory of Nature is a reflection on the artist’s work in Tibet. ARAHMAIANI also performed at the Indonesian Pavilion, Art Stage as part of this work).

ARAHMAIANI and PETER HYLANDS are at Art Stage, the Singapore international art fair, as they discuss the work that ARAHMAIANI is showing at the Indonesian Pavilion at the fair and some of the other projects the artist is developing.

The memory of nature: Wukir Suryadi provides the sound for Arahmaiani’s performance

The memory of nature

ARAHMAIANI: Right, right and I am also now working with young Indonesian artists to deal with the environmental problems in Indonesia and we are going to have also collaboration with artists from Germany, young artists as well. So they will do something together and we will have a show in October and I am going to do curatorial work for this project.

For the Singapore Biennale I am going to work with artists from Singapore, Philippines and Japan as well as an artist from South Korea and dealing with

About Wukir Suryadi

the issue of ring of fire and of course environmental issues will be the main theme there.

PETER HYLANDS: How long have you worked on environmental type issues?

ARAHMAIANI: Well actually I started in 2006 when my district was hit by an earthquake, where in my district there were more than 4,000 people who died.

Less than one minute earthquake, so this opened my eyes really widely. This is the thing we have to deal with now.

PETER HYLANDS: Where were you at the time of the earthquake?

ARAHMAIANI: When it first hit I was actually in Bangkok and so panicked and then everything cuts off, I cannot call anybody, friends, anyone you know. And anyway after a couple of days I went back then it was like big shock, yeah.

The sounds of Wukir Suryadi are contemporary, a unique fusion of ancient Javanese tradition with an ‘onslaught’ of contemporary noise.

His original instrument, shaped like a bamboo spear utilizes both percussive strings carved from the bamboo’s skin, and melodic steel strings, bringing together elements of traditional Indonesian instruments with garage guitar distortion.

Schooled in the theatre, Wukir Suryadi brings theatrical ruckus to the classical stage, plucking, strumming and bowing his way from peaceful meditations to rhythmical frenzies.

The evolution of his music is never complete as Wukir utilizes the agility of his instrument to collaborate with musicians and performance artists from around the world, fluently bridging musical styles and inventing new instruments as he goes.

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Monks outside the main temple

…we really have to build this new way and new awareness of a sustainable way of living, right?

And then since that time on I have been working with the community in the area of earthquake recovery until today.

Community based project might be dealing with environmental issues.

like to categorise; you are there; you are there, no, but I am somewhere in between. And I said there will be more people in between and you have to have a place for people like this.

PETER HYLANDS: In a way there is still quite a gap between what Australian’s know about Indonesia, I don’t know if it applies the other way around, but it probably does?

In this case I realized it is just not like helping when the disaster is there you know, but we really have to build this new way and new awareness of a sustainable way of living, right?

PETER HYLANDS: And being in between, what does that make happen if you like. Do you see yourself as a bridge?

ARAHMAIANI: Yes definitely.

I have been working on this kind of concept for years but dealing with community empowerment, especially on art, education and economics. So then this community based kind of work is becoming my speciality because of this and because of this reason.

PETER HYLANDS: And that covers environment, it covers gender issues, socio political kind of issues?

ARAHMAIANI: Of course, yes.

PETER HYLANDS: Is it correct to say you are bridging cultures, placing yourself in between things?

ARAHMAIANI: That’s right, that’s right, that’s very true. Sometimes, maybe for some people it is a little bit difficult where to place me because people

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ARAHMAIANI: Yes right, as a bridge.

For example with this project in Tibet, why I can go there. Everybody is asking how can you make it. Everybody knows that foreigner cannot go there let alone doing something with monks, Tibetan monks.

And I said I was very lucky and maybe it was the right timing and that they see me as someone who can bridge these two groups because they cannot really communicate with each other, because of the situation and the belief system, Tibetans accept me as Tibetan and Chinese accept me as Chinese.

So then I can go in between. Yes this is one example. But this is also my role in Indonesia itself, I am always in between Indonesian and Chinese, between Indonesians and foreigners.

PETER HYLANDS: It’s quite interesting how that has persisted over a long period of time.

ARAHMAIANI: Yes, that is right. But I think now it is changing again and getting a little bit closer now.

PETER HYLANDS: Well it should be close.

ARAHMAIANI: Yes, there is no excuse not to be close and since I used to spend a lot of time and I used to live in Sydney, in Perth also so actually I have a lot of good friends in Australia and being doing some, recently, projects in Sydney on the Sydney Festival for three years. Then it is also becoming alive again.

I am also thinking of doing other projects for the future especially now dealing with this environmental concern.

We know what happened, Australia is now really hot and has all these forests

Arahmaiani in Sydney – Make-Up or Break-Up (Artspace, curator Blair French, August 2007)

burning and all that. And we have been affected by all that you know. I was in Jogja (Yogyakarta) last week and we also experienced the heat coming from the south.

Working together, Arahmaiani and Sonamrinchen

PETER HYLANDS: Yes, because you have this trough of incredibly hot air sitting over Australia. We all share the world and we need to think about each other.

ARAHMAIANI: Right, exactly PETER HYLANDS: And in a way what is happening on the Tibetan Plateau has got very little to do with Tibetan people themselves because all their (environmental) problems are being imported from somewhere else whether it is China (India) or Europe or the United States.

ARAHMAIANI: And that’s right, then I said to my monk friends look you know you now really deal with things around you. You don’t have to go into this too abstract. Ideas are coming from everywhere but now it is about dealing with the real thing, the issues around you. Then you will help yourself. If you feel miserable because of the situation now is time to help yourself. Well if I can help you I will try to do my best.

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Preparing a garden in the Monastery yard

But so far what I can do like giving ideas you know, in a way teaching science basically, science of nature, science of environment . Slowly, slowly I got support from friends but of course working in China I have to be very careful in connecting these things to western world and on the other hand you know on the western side there are many different groups with different interests, I have to find also the right people to deal with this kind of thing.

Because basically what I want to do is just to do good things for all beings on this planet you know. So politics sometimes can be a bit tricky.

PETER HYLANDS: How do you see the 21st century? Is it more depressing than the past or is it getting a little bit better? Do you have hope, I suppose, is what I am asking?

ARAHMAIANI: Yes what I have seen so far because I travel almost right around the world, on the one hand there are some really depressing situations, natural resources wise everything is almost falling apart, people are like busy, busy, busy with themselves and they do not care about their neighbours.

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But on the other hand there is this new kind of awareness, like a flower starting to bloom. I see that, I feel that and that is why I am going up there with some optimism because we can do something you know.

Maybe some parts of the world will be destroyed, some people, some nature will be destroyed but we can also start something new. I am quite optimistic about that.

Restoration

…on 27 May more than 5,700 people died in less than one minute PETER HYLANDS: And tell me the story of the Tibetan Plateau.

(Here we are joined by the head of the Monastery the 15th Lab Kyab Gon Rinpoche).

ARAHMAIANI: I am going to start by telling you a little bit of the story of how I got to Tibet around three years ago.

My journey to Tibet started with a project at the Museum of Contemporary Art Shanghai. We had a group show there of Indonesian artists and then I asked the curators to allow me to work with the community because my art is community based kind of art and then usually I am working with community leaders in earthquake disaster regions.

So the curators say to me well okay there is an earthquake in Yushu (Qinghai province 2010 – 2698 deaths) Tibet which is a very isolated and remote place and at a very high altitude.

With all the challenges I heard from people I finally decided to go there. I was accompanied by a young artist from Shanghai. We went there and there was nobody to see so my intuition told me to go and see the monks, the Lamas.

Yushu is a town of 300,000 people and it was almost completely destroyed, when we arrived it was about two months after the earthquake. I have worked with victims of earthquakes back home in Indonesia in Jogja since 2006 where the region in which I live was hit by an earthquake on 27 May and more than 5,700 people died in less than one minute (36,000 people were injured and 1.5 million people were left homeless). The most tragically impacted area was Bantul. That was something very dramatic and opening up my eyes and since that time on I am somehow working on this and environmental issues in Indonesia and Tibet and I guess globally because I move around places.

After visiting Yushu we went to visit Lab Monastery which is about two and a half hours away in a much more remote region On the journey we travelled along the Yangtze River, the longest river in Asia at some 6,500 kilometres on its journey from its headwaters from the glaciers of the Tibetan Plateau on to Shanghai and the East China Sea. PETER HYLANDS: The Tibetan Plateau or Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau as it is also known is the highest and largest plateau on earth. It is a place of critical importance to Asia as it is the great well spring of the entire region, delivering water to some two billion people in the subcontinent and China and elsewhere through the great river systems that are born on the plateau. For very obvious reasons the environmental health of the plateau is a critical matter.

The great glaciers (the third pole) that grind slowly through their rocky landscape are the source of the great river systems of this part of the world.

This is the third largest ice depository on earth and the cooling and warming of the plateau as the seasons change from winter to summer has a major impact on monsoon activity and hence precipitation further to the south.

Environmental concerns about the Tibetan Plateau include the rapid increase in average temperatures on the Plateau which is speeding up the glacial melt. The great river systems of the region including, the Yangtze, the Indus, the Ganges and the Mekong owe much to the stability of these glaciers over centuries past.

Everything about the Plateau is impressive, its extremes, in parts it is one of the least inhabited places on earth, the beauty of its mountainous terrain and escarpments, its rivers, wetlands and grasslands, its weather and its scale at nearly a million square miles.

To the North-East of the Tibetan Plateau are the critically important Zoige Wetlands, that feed both the Yangtze and Yellow Rivers and nurture the surrounding region, the largest alpine peat wetlands on earth, are increasingly in trouble, as are the associated grass-

lands, both for a set of complex reasons which I won’t go into here. Tracking at 30,000 feet on a flight to the north of the Plateau and then down in to China it is not difficult to see the inversion layer of pollution gathering here from a host of places and one of the many reasons for the environmental problems going on below.

ARAHMAIANI: In Lab I am working with the monks on an environmental project.

From here comes my work Memory of nature, an installation now at the Indonesian Pavilion at Art Stage which is composed of a mandala made from natural materials, soil, plants and water and a series of photos of the monks that I have worked with.

In Lab the environmental project with the monks including cleaning up the garbage dumped in various places including near rivers. The monks cleaned up the garbage themselves so a place that was not that clean is now pretty good.

As part of the environmental project the monks have now planted an extra 70,000 trees including Poplar trees and Pine trees and medicinal and herbal trees. The area has improved a lot and the people from the village and neighbouring villages are also joining in on these kinds of activities and there is an increased awareness about these matters.

Another segment of the community are the elders, the old people, they have their own group. There is also the artist group in the village as art is important particularly as the temple has many sculptures and paintings and people are once more producing traditional clothing. These are all activities supported by the Lamas.

The surrounding area of the village is now very clean and flowers are blooming.

Our plans for the future are to get further support from the locals as well as the international community so we can continue to improve the environment to help protect the ‘third pole’ and Asia’s ‘water tower’ and its rivers, this is a really crucial point of the project. If it all goes wrong up on the Plateau then there will be serious problems in many other places.

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The 15th Lab Kyab Gon Rinpoche

The 15th Lab Kyab Gon Rinpoche describes to us what has happened to the environment around Lab over the last century.

LAB RINPOCHE: The degradation of the environment occurred over the last 100 years and the problem is that the environment and all sentient beings interdependently survive so during the time our environment was degraded we needed to think about how we could reverse the situation. As part of this project we started a regenerative project in Lab. So you understand the situation I want to tell you about the past, the present and the future.

The livelihood of people in the Lab region in the past and up to the middle of the last century was mostly traditional farming and herding cattle. For hundreds of years the way of living as farmers and nomads has contributed immensely to preserving the natural environment and the flora and fauna in the region of Lab. There were herds of yak, horses and sheep grazing the hills around our region and these good natured and domesticated animals enjoyed the lush green grasses and their natural fertilization of the land contributed to the natural history of the region and made it

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possible for natural growth of beautiful flowers, herbs and medicinal plants to flourish around Lab on the mountains and in the valleys. Also the water used by farmers and nomads was from natural rivers and streams that flowed down from snow covered mountains and from lush green forests and valleys. These places were very clean and pristine.

This natural water was also full of minerals and far superior than any modern bottled water, for example in summer when people got sick they would resort Tree planting

to drinking lots of water. The mountains and valleys also had many medicinal plants over which the water would run, passing their medicinal qualities to the water itself.

By 1914 the 13th Lab Rinpoche had developed a great concern about the Tibetan environment and started a large tree planting programme of many trees.

This first project involved discovering which trees would be best suited to our high altitude places and the soils of the region. So the 13th Lab Rinpoche travelled to similar regions and found that Poplar trees grew the best. He then undertook the enormous task of transporting back to Lab 440 shoots of Poplar.

He travelled back through wetlands and river banks to ensure there was water, the shoots were carried in bundles of 15 and watered during the night.

The journey took the team up to 70 days of travelling through treacherous and difficult country. Even with all the care taken to transport the young shoots many Poplars perished on the

Li Mu (Chinese assistant), Sonamdawa (the translator), Sonamrinchen (working partner), Lobsangnima ( a little Lama) with Arahmaiani

to the climate including a lack of rain.

Vast areas of farm land are now being left empty as farmers are not interested in farming anymore.

long journey. By the time they reached Lab only 13 shoots had survived and these were planted with great care. Further such trips were made over a period of six years and eventually many Poplar trees were planted and grew successful around the Lab Monastery and surrounding areas.

During the last century and particularly during the 1980s people moved to larger towns and cities from rural areas and their livelihood began to change to trading and other business activities.

Meanwhile the livelihood of farmers began to shift away from working with natural resources to working with modern technology that involves a lot of use of chemicals and so forth.

Wild nature, the animals and birds in the surrounding mountains are declining year by year and many of the natural resources and water systems, rivers and lakes, have become polluted by people throwing garbage into them which has made the water unfit for human consumption. Areas are also drying out and the number of trees that are dying is increasing year by year, all indicating the grave dangers our environment is facing.

I would like to propose some ideas about how to prevent the future decline and destruction of our environment. It is clear if the future of humanity is going to be able to survive well, we, as human

beings must be responsible for protecting our environment.

In Lab we will initiate a care campaign for our environment involving everyone.

There will be a cleanup day every week where the monks and locals will come together and clean up the lakes and river banks and other places by picking up the rubbish. I am also proposing to plant trees along the river banks.

It is my hope that by implementing these initiatives Lab can clean up its environment and water so the water will, once more, be safe to drink. I also intend to encourage the local farmers and nomads to go back to the old ways of making their livelihoods which will benefit both themselves and the environment. I hope these proposals will go some way to restoring the natural flora and fauna of the region and we want to establish a long term plan to plant trees by involving local communities.

The procession

The result of all these things was that the natural soils and environment began to rapidly degrade and Lab and its region has suffered this fate. Because of these changes many people in Lab over the last 30 years have resorted to harvesting many rare and precious medicinal plants beyond their needs as a means to getting quick money.

In this drive to get more money people did not consider the impact on the environment and nomads have also been selling their herds of cattle and sheep as they do not want to do this work any longer. As a result many precious herds of Yak have declined and some species are on the verge of becoming extinct.

Yangtze River

Some rare and precious plants have already become extinct and many more have become endangered. Furthermore the growth rate of trees has declined and there have been irregular changes

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Collecting rubbish

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“It is clear if the future of humanity is going to be able to survive well, we, as human beings must be responsible for protecting our environment�

The 15th Lab Kyab Gon Rinpoche

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The memory of nature at Art Stage

We will need advice about farming and what kinds of crops and fruit trees can be planted under present conditions and how to prevent species from dying out and our trees from dying in the current climatic conditions. We will implement a fund raising scheme to help us protect and beautify our environment.

Through these things we will make the region an enjoyable and pleasant place for local people to live and for people to visit.

I would also like to thank ARAHMAIANI for contributing to this project by visiting us, organising cleanup projects and planting new trees and bringing awareness to the local people, I would like to acknowledge her efforts and take this opportunity to extend my sincere thanks.

Artists getting involved in protecting the environment is special, it is through art and performance that the message is sent to the public, it can be a very effective and innovative way of telling people about environmental problems and how they will impact on them.

Beneath our feet

Tectonics do matter ARAHMAIANI’s plans to explore the ring of fire with the regions artists are extremely interesting.

The question being asked by the artist is what impact does the morphology of the earth, the shaping of its surface by volcanoes and plate systems and earthquakes, have on human populations.

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Does the warming of the earth, the melting of the polar ice sheets, particularly in the arctic, impact on the stability of the earth’s tectonic plate system? Are the ice sheets themselves giving greater stability to these plates and if so what will be the consequences for Pacific Rim nations if the ice cover continues to vanish?

While much of what happens to shape the surface of the earth can be measured in millions of years the impact of tectonic processes on the landscape can occur in minutes and on a vast scale as they did because of the recent earthquakes in Indonesia and Japan.

Earthquakes can submerge, by lowering the land surface, large areas of land, creating new areas of wetland while volcanoes can build new islands or totally destroy them. Volcanic eruptions can profoundly impact the earth’s atmosphere as did Indonesia’s Krakatoa eruptions in 1883, the largest and loudest explosions ever recorded, causing fearsome tsunamis, blasting away and pulverising the major part

ARAHMAIANI: There will be new works from me out of this experience and I look forward to returning to the region to continue this work.

“There is this new kind of awareness, like a flower starting to bloom. I see that, I feel that and that is why I am going up there with some optimism because we can do something you know.”

of Krakatoa Island and killing tens of thousands of people as huge tsunamis rolled and churned their way across the region.

Krakatoa was a global event, impacting weather systems all around the world, in England and the United States the red sunsets caused by particles from the explosion in the atmosphere lasted for many months. In Northern Australia the boom from the explosions resonated across the landscape.

This is a critical example of how complex the connections between the earth’s systems are, that is, its biodiversity, its weather patterns, its atmospheric composition and its geomorphology.

Indonesia of course has another fascinating story to tell in relation to the early understanding of the earth’s geomorphology and that is the story of the Wallace Line. We will consider the Wallace Line in the next issue of creative-i magazine as we speak with John Wolseley about art and nature and his work in this evolving landscape.

“I am trying to give form to my fascination with the way every living species is part of the huge dynamic movement of the earth and its evolution. If one looks at the frond of a fern say, in its design and structure, there lies the history of the Earth.�

John Wolseley.

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art stage Singapore

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WOOSON gallery Our principal mission is to show the great artists of our epoch and to ensure their museological and public integration into the collections of Korea

Three months or so had passed since our visit to Seoul and the Korean International Art Fair so it was particularly good to catch up with the team from WOOSON gallery and their exhibit at Art Stage Singapore. And it was at the WOOSON gallery exhibit at Art Stage Singapore that we spoke to Director Eun-Ah, Kim. In South Korea’s high tech and fashioned focused city Daegu, the nation’s fourth largest city, there is a special place for collectors of contemporary art, and that place is of course WOOSON gallery.

The Korean idea that, if you do something you need to do it well, is expressed in the development of WOOSON gallery, both in its art and in its architecture.

In the spring of 2012, the first exhibition in WOOSON gallery’s new space was an exhibition of work by the sculptor Tony Cragg, the exhibition was the artist’s first solo exhibition in Korea.

Eun-Ah, Kim (detail Sean Scully painting)

WOOSON gallery also represents and promotes other important international artists in Korea, and often for the first time, including Sean Scully, Jannis Kounellis, Marina Abramovic, Hubert Scheibl, Andrei Molodkin, Miguel Angel Rios, Barthélémy Toguo, Sandra Vásquez de la Horra, Kei Takemura and Bea Camacho.

WOOSON gallery represents international and Korean masters and mid-career artists as well as presenting emerging Korean artists to an international audience for the first time.

The new WOOSON gallery building is located on Bongsan Culture and Art Street in Daegu. This cultural precinct attracts visitors from around the world during the Bongsan Fine Art Festival held in the middle of October each year.

The new WOOSON gallery building was awarded the best architect award for the district in the summer 2012.

WOOSON gallery

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art stage Singapore

Sandra Hill

Sandra Hill exhibited at Art Stage and works included paintings from her series Home-Maker. Sandra is represented by Mossenson Galleries (Perth and Melbourne, Australia). It was at the Mossenson Galleries exhibit at Art Stage that we caught up with Sandra.

Art Stage provided an opportunity for Sandra to exhibit her work to an international audience, to visit major institutions in Singapore and to engage with the works of other artists, particularly the art of South East Asia. All these things were an inspiration.

Acquisitions of Sandra Hill’s work for the collections of major institutions include purchases by: Art Gallery of Western Australia; Berndt Museum of Anthropology Aboriginal Art Collection, WA; City of Bunbury Collection; City of Perth Art Collection, Perth, WA; Edith Cowan University Collection, WA; Holmes à Court Collection; Queens University Collection of Indigenous Art, Kingston, Ontario, Canada; Royal Archives, The Netherlands; University of Western Australia, Perth, WA;

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Western Australia Museum Collection, WA; Kidman / Cruise Collection, Sydney, NSW; Murdoch University Collection; Parliament House of Western Australia; National Gallery of Victoria and National Gallery of Australia.

Sandra says “My recent work refers to the Government’s attempts to superimpose ‘white’ domestic values over South-West Nyoongar culture and onto Aboriginal women in the late 1950s and 60s.

The women, in particular, were expected to disregard 50,000 years of Indigenous ‘learning’ and take on the white ways as they relate to domestic situations. These paintings individually refer to the difficult

task Aboriginal women had when faced with alien domestic tools and machinery that were almost taken for granted in most white households during that era.

The work represents the sense of alienation, unacceptance and acute disapproval that Aboriginal people experienced because culturally, they had little to no appreciation for the materialistic trappings of ‘white’ domesticity. The objects are transparent over an Indigenous background, but even though they ‘mask’ our presence to some degree they fail to hide or eradicate our identity and our cultural heritage.”

Sandra Hill Homemaker #8-The Flip-side

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Sandra Hill

Stolen generations Sandra Hill and Peter Hylands are at Art Stage Singapore. In the bustling atmosphere of the art fair the discussion turns to the stolen generations of Aboriginal children in Australia.

Sandra was stolen when she was only seven years old.

PETER HYLANDS: So Sandra, when we think about stolen generations of Aboriginal people in Australia can you just describe some of that history?

SANDRA HILL: Well, on my father’s side I am Wadandi from the West coast of the South-West corner of Western Australia and on my mother’s side I am Wilman, she is more into (what is now) the wheatbelt area. Both my parents were Nyoongars and on my mother’s side there were four generations of stolen family members.

My grandfather was Frank Kelgarrett, he was given the name Francis by the New Norcia monks and he was surrendered as a child, so called surrendered, he was taken by the monks, they had no option and then my grandfather was born with a traditional name out in the Victoria Plains and he was given the name Lewis or Loui by the New Norcia monks. He was given up as a child because really the Aboriginal people had no choice.

Then mother was taken in 1933 and she was sent to Moore River Native Settlement and later was the first of seven children sent to Sister Kate’s (Home) when it opened in Buckland Hill.

Then in 1958 myself and my two sisters and brother were taken while dad was in the army doing his armed

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services training. We were living in Point Samson, Dad had a job in Wittenoom and mum had a job. They took us from there while dad was away. We did not see mum and dad for 27 years after that.

PH: And how did that removal occur, did some people just turn up in a car and take you off?

SH: The policeman came in his 4WD and handed mum papers, mum started crying (Sandra crying).

PH: And I guess the process was that people hid or if they had time did they try and hide the children?

SH: Well mum had a job so we did not think they would come, well from what I can garner and after many many years she would talk to me about it. She did not expect them to turn up because dad was in the army so she thought they would leave us alone, because they both had jobs.

Anyway the policeman came from Port Headland, from Roebourne and piled us in to the car and said would you like to go for a ride, and of course what kid wouldn’t, so we were driving around and we got up the road and us kids were saying okay, we want to go back to mum now.

PH: So you had nothing with you at all, no possessions of any kind?

SH: No, well, we did not know what was going on, they just took us. We were taken to Roebourne Hospital and I do not know why but we were sedated with ether. Then we were put into the Old Roebourne Jail in a cell together and the door was left open.

So we did a ‘runner’ and were caught

“We were stripped and scrubbed with kerosene, all we could hear was the children crying”

down the road by the policeman. He knew we were going home to mum.

Then they locked us in a cell, we just had mattresses on the floor in the Roebourne Jail.

“we were sedated with ether” PH: And of course this is a two sided story because it is not only the grief of the children but also the grief of the parents and the larger family of that loss so it is almost too horrible to contemplate the whole thing.

SH: (Crying) Well it was everything, it was identity and it took a very very long time to catch up and find out who I was and where I got my personality from, where I got my hair, my colour, my memories, everything was annihilated.

PH: How old were you when you were taken?

SH: I was seven, at seven you have a history, you have a history with your family. You are a thinking human being, you have memories, childhood memories. You have experiences, you have love, you have brothers and sisters. You play, you talk, you share and we did all that, we had all that. My older sister was eight and a half, my little sister was six and my brother was only four and it was devastating for the little ones because they just wanted to go home (crying) and we could not get them back.

PH: That process of removal (of children), for people around the world who don’t know about it, was a systematic process that occurred in taking children away from Aboriginal parents, is that how it worked?

Sandra Hill Intervention #1

Sandra Hill Home-Maker #5 : The Bedroom

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Sandra Hill

Stolen generations SH: It happened all over Australia. It was extremely intense in Western Australia where the 1905 Aborigines Act, was genocidal.

“1905 Aborigines Act, section 42: Marriage of a female Aboriginal. No marriage of a female Aboriginal with any person other than an Aboriginal shall be celebrated without the permission, in writing, of the Chief Protector” And they knew there was no atavism in Aboriginal genetics (that was the theory at that time) so of each generation of Aboriginals (women) marrying whites, the children marrying whites it would breed out the colour. I have a document that actually states that and so what they knew was that there was no throw backs in Aboriginal genetics and the black would generally dissipate and Mr Neville (Chief Protector of Aborigines) knew that. And it is documented. The idea was to breed out the Aboriginal and that is basically what he tried to do. He failed pretty dismally, thank god.

PH: And people, if they think about this at all, they think about the act of removal but perhaps what they don’t consider is the torment of the days and years that followed, you know the sort of processes that people were put through and that really comes back to your own art practice of describing the sort of changes to their own culture that people were supposedly to undertake to make this new journey.

SH: Well my art is the vehicle for educating because without education people won’t know what happened to us and it happened to eight out of ten families in the state, especially in the South West in Western Australia.

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“My art is the only tool I have to tell my story” My stories, my art is the only tool I have to tell my story. You just cannot keep talking about it because it is just too emotionally draining, but with my art I have a way to get it out there into the wider mainstream community. People may ask and they will look at my art and say, tell me what that is about. I have the stories for each of them and through the stories and through the art, word is starting to filter out in to the mainstream community and people are buying my work. That is a real bonus for me, for people to know the story and still buy it because it shows that there is some hope for reconciliation.

“It was the first time in my life that I felt that I was an Australian” It has been a long time, we got the apology from Kevin Rudd and that made a huge difference to me personally. It took away a lot of the baggage (crying) and with the apology it was the first time in my life that I felt that I was an Australian. The first time and I could stand tall and say I am an Australian because finally there was recognition and acknowledgement that this thing had happened and it caused havoc in our families and in our communities, to the point where we are broken and we are trying so hard to fix it.

But we can’t do it alone, we need out white brothers and sisters to do it, to help us to mend what has happened in the past. And art is a great way to do it as it does not alienate people, it makes people ask questions and want to make changes.

It is a big thing to be able to have people come to me and say, how can I help? What can I do? I just say share the story, share the story because that is what us Indigenous artists are doing, we are sharing our experiences, we are not painting from our heads, we are painting from our hearts. I don’t know an Indigenous artist who does not do that.

I have no right to speak on behalf of other Indigenous artists and I can certainly say that our goal is to be gracious and to share stories because the only way we can move forward is to share our stories and have people approach us and say okay we are here with you, we are moving forward with you.

PH: How did you find your family again, were you separated from your brother and sisters?

SH: My little sister went to live in another foster home and I was given to a white foster family and my older sister, about a year later, came to live with the same foster family. I was very fortunate.

My little brother went into many many foster homes and eventually he just went off the rails and it was very difficult for him. He was only four and he had no memories of mum and dad or us girls.

PH: So his life was destroyed in that way?

1905 Aborigines Act, section 42:

Marriage of a female Aboriginal. No marriage of a female Aboriginal with any person other than an Aboriginal shall be celebrated without the permission, in writing, of the Chief Protector.

Sandra Hill Home-Maker #6 : Surf’s Up

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“I think the leading light had been art, I really do believe that”

Sandra Hill

Stolen generations SH: Oh totally destroyed, he has found his way now but he still can’t get on with people.

PH: It’s a long journey SH: He still feels very alienated from the mainstream community PH: And you met your mother again?

SH: (Smiling) I spent a year with my mother, I moved to Geraldton in 1994 just so I could spend time with her and get to know her and find out what happened. She told me, and I will always remember, one day we were sitting down having a cup of tea and she said: “I remember Sandra, when I was taken away in (19)33 the only thing I had to hang on to from my mother was this” And she started singing this lullaby in Nyoongar language (crying) and she said “this is all I have left from my mum and my dad”. She never went back to her mum and dad.

I was fortunate because I found mum and dad after 27 years, we found them and reunited with them, and that was a whole other journey on its own. With her (mum) she never saw her parents again and I showed her for the first time letters from her mother begging the welfare, native welfare, to let them see her before she went blind. And she is begging to see her.

She had eight children I believe and every one of them, between 1933 and 1958, was taken by the welfare. Every single child. I don’t know how she survived, I am in awe of Aboriginal mothers who survived that, as I don’t know that I could have if my children had been taken. So they are amazing and I am telling their story, their strength and their survival. They are just awesome.

Aboriginal women are just awesome because we are still here and we are still cultural in our hearts and we are still fighting.

PH: And coming on to all the things that were broken or have been broken in this horrible story, set of stories, is the culture coming back together again, the overall Nyoongar culture coming back together again?

SH: Oh yes, with a vengeance, with a vengeance. There are new artists emerging all the time who are telling their experiences and their varied experiences. They may have gone in to missions and ended up going back with their families, others were adopted and never got back to their families until later on in life and then there are others who stayed with their families. They were fortunate and they are telling their stories, so there are writers and there are poets and artists and scholars.

My daughter is an assistant professor at the University of Western Australia and teaches indigenous history and culture. Both of my sons are fine artists, Christopher Pease and Ben Pushman, they are flying the flag and they are fighting the fight in their way.

Our languages are coming back, our traditions are starting to re-emerge. It’s a renaissance, a black renaissance in a lot of ways. I think the leading light had been art, I really do believe that. We have a unique form of art in South West Western Australia because we did not, as a traditional people, did not decorate our tools, did not have tapping sticks, we used our kileys (curved returning stick or boomerang) to make sounds.

We didn’t have didgeridoos, we had songs and music and dance and body paintings and markings on the land.

We are starting to go back to that and starting to use that iconography in our work and people are learning from that so we have quite a unique place in Aboriginal Australia as a people. I believe we also have the largest population of an Indigenous tribe in Australia. The largest tribal nation.

PH: And some of that population would be urban based in Perth?

SH: It was forced on us, because the South West of Western Australia was so rich and so diverse and such a fantastic country for white survival it was taken from us. We were put into missions and reserves.

PH: So the process was to take the land, take the children and take the culture?

SH: Really just to get rid of us and they failed, and they failed dismally. We are repopulating (laughing). Its hopeful and we are working very hard to teach our young people to continue the fight. To have our culture be revived as much as possible, much of it was lost with the elders (passing), the old traditional people who were the keepers of the knowledge. A lot has been kept though and it is being passed down to the younger people.

“Aboriginal women are just awesome” 38

PH: Finding knowledge again must be a complicated pathway and coming back to those elders who carried so much with them, you know before that sequence of stealing of younger generations happened, that must have

Sandra Hill “Re-Dress”

been a really difficult cultural process to go through, the disruption, the loss of knowledge if you like?

SH: Well it’s a strange thing, being removed is such a strange thing because you take on everything, you become like a chameleon because you have nothing to build that foundation of identity on.

I think it all came screaming back to me in one five minute moment with my mother, up until then I had no idea who I was or how I fit. I was married very young to an Englishman, I married an Englishman. I have had problems with relationships because of the abandonment and betrayal issues and all this you know.

But there is one galvanising moment in a supermarket with my mother really brought me back from everything, back to the beginning of finding out who I really was. We were walking, we were shopping in the supermarket and mum was pushing the trolley and there were these old ladies in front of her and she said:

“get along little doggie, get along little doggie”

and it just stopped me dead in my tracks because me and my sisters all said that all our lives. When somebody was slow we would say “get along little doggie, get along little doggie”. We had no idea where we got it from but we just said it. It was just something that had always been in our lives and it was at that moment (crying) and I said to her “what did you just say?” and she said “get along little doggie, get along little doggie”.

And I said “we say that” and she said “yes I know, you have always said that, you copied me when you were little”.

And it was at that moment that I realised that was my life, not all this white made up, fake, superficial pretend life that I was trying to fit in to, you know.

Never could, never could. And that is the point, the critical point in time when I said that is it, I am this person who said that, when my mother taught me.

And from that point I started to move in my direction, with my feelings, my aspirations, my hopes, not everybody else’s, all those who wanted these things for me. That is the thing about being taken away, you are reformed by everybody, as a child, you are brought up as a small child and twisted and turned to fit into this idea of who you are supposed to be and it is just wrong because that is not who I was.

That is why I was having so much trouble and was so traumatised by it all and then when I realised, well, this is who I am. I am that little girl who learnt this from her mother and that is where my journey began. From that point on I started to walk my own path and follow my own dreams and really put aside all the learnings of the white ways.

“My Aboriginal heart, spirit and soul” That is when I started to embrace my Aboriginal heart, spirit and soul and it made a huge difference to me and my life. Unfortunately not a lot of Nyoongar people can do that, or have that moment in time when they feel, okay, this is my journey, not that one. That is why I do this (pointing to art) maybe they will realise, be true to yourself. Maintain your culture, be proud, it is such a wonderful culture to be so proud of.

I wouldn’t want to be anything else.

I am a yorga of the Bibbulmun people and that is how I will die.

We would like to thank Mossenson Galleries Directors; Diane, Dan and Naomi Mossenson, images courtesy the artist and Mossenson Galleries

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South West Western Australia

Seasons

Aboriginal people in Australia have their own seasons. Seasons that account for country, for certain climatic conditions and the cycle of nature and the food it brings. These seasons reflect the deep knowledge of and connection to country. In South West Western Australia the Nyoongar seasons are:

Djilba

Bunuroo

July and August – colder and wettest, people collect roots and hunt emus, possums and kangaroo

January and February – hotter and drier – migration to water and fishing

Kambarang

Wanyarang

September and October – cold but warming, spectacular wildflowers bloom, people move back to the coast and diet changes to crayfish and other coastal type foods

March and April – still hot but cooling, fishing, bulbs and seeds collected for food

Biroc November and December – now warming and drier, some burning off

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Muguroo May and June – colder and wetter – in June people move back inland to hunt

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art stage centre stage

Tisna Sanjaya Watching Tisna perform each day in the Indonesian Pavilion at Art Stage as he developed his work I Like Kapital – Kapital Like Me made me want to know what would happen next – what the work would look like the next time I saw it?

This was hard work, industrial in fact, everyday more detail and change – a new image added here and another there. Inside the work things were changing too.

This is a powerful work and it becomes more so with the passing of time. It is the time that is so important, as when it passes, it chews away at Indonesian culture and nature, more destruction, more and more. This work and the culture and nature of Indonesia are somehow in harmony, on parallel tracks to somewhere and a place we won’t want to be in. …and Tisna, through his work, tells me a great deal.

“I want to pray for my local village and my country, so much and so many environmental destructions. This is Kapital” The rectangular box that forms part of the canvas for the installation I Like Kapital – Kapital Like Me is made from zinc and iron collected from the disused industrial fencing that once enclosed industrial projects around what were only recently, places of great beauty, the villages and landscapes of Indonesia.

These places are now overwhelmed by industrial development, the factories

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disgorging pollution, destroying and polluting the rivers and the air we breathe.

The paddy fields are gone, the flowers and animals and birds are no more.

“This installation is one uncomfortable, rigid and hot space, it limits our movements and aggravates our psyche. It creates an impression of arrogance, an obtrusive object in the landscape, stained with asphalt dye powder, mixed with turpentine and Arabic gum, along with dollops of mud – the residue of industrial disasters that were not well managed. Capital without goodwill only brings forth disaster and does not benefit civilisation.

Buildings of this kind symbolise the changes that have turned my beloved countryside into an industrial wasteland, contaminated by industrial chemicals which present a daily hazard to the local villagers and their children.

We as artists, humanists, intellectuals, politicians, businessmen, and citizens are witnessing a cultural paradox, namely the systematic rape of our land and its water resources in complete

contempt of the local wisdoms that were once the pillar of our society and the protector of our earth.

As an artist and citizen of the world I want to convey the reality of what is happening around us through installation and performance art. We must work together and assist each other in mutual sharing and through the power of art reject and eliminate the injustices of the ruling hegemony.”

I Like Kapital – Kapital Like Me is a masterpiece as is Tisna’s performance.

I find myself wishing that Tisna was telling us a very different story but I doubt that this new story is coming any time soon.

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art stage Singapore

Performance: Kim Donaldson and Sue Dodd

TECHNOPIA TOURS

Courtesy of Anna Pappas Gallery, Melbourne. Sue Dodd is represented by Anna Pappas Gallery.

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TECHNOPIA TOURS 47

Education

Singapore

Aminah Hussien

It was good to catch up with friend Colin Goh, the CEO of The Old Parliamen House Limited, again. This time it was a trip around some of the arts initiatives developed and developing in Singapore. There is a lot going on.

Driving up into a large city building, we park the car and then enter through a door leading from the car park and into an entirely different place. Welcome to The Little Arts Academy. Here we are greeted by Academy manager Aminah Hussien. Aminah and Colin talk about the Academy, when it was started and why it was started. All around us there is a flurry of activity, a ballet class is going on behind the glass windows of one studio, then a piano lesson and a painting studio. There is a sophisticated recording studio, multimedia centre a creative kitchen area and much more.

Impressive.

So is this a project developed for the wealthy elite of Singapore? Well no, as Singapore PM Lee Hsien Loong noted, when he mentioned young new talent Mohd Mazwan, that the Academy was

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an example of how the community could come together and play their part in helping those in need.

Back in 2004 the Budding Artists Fund was initiated by the team at The Old Parliament House. The idea and the conviction was that no child with a strong interest in the arts should be denied the opportunity to develop their talents, particularly when a lack of financial resources was involved.

In 2005 Singapore’s national daily The Business Times recognised the significance of arts funding in this way and adopted it. Now The Business Times Budding Artists Fund, the fund provides opportunities for disadvantaged children to discover their place in the arts and artistic expression and by doing so improving their skills and self esteem.

To date the fund has assisted some 9,000 children between the ages of 5 and 12 and since late 2010 the fund has also been assisting young students between 13 to 19 years old from financially disadvantaged families to access arts education. Various fund

programmes include art camps, workshops and performance.

In 2008 Old Parliament House Limited acquired 10,000 square feet at PoMo, now the school premises, and so created a dedicated space and facilities for the beneficiaries of The Business Times Budding Artists Fund.

A space in which structured and high quality education and training in the arts could flourish. Part of this learning journey is the encouragement given by the Academy for students to exhibit their work and to perform, both in Singapore and internationally.

The Little Arts Academy ‘curriculum’ includes an Art of Play module, conducted over a six month period to allow young children to explore dance, music, theatre and the visual arts. This initial period of arts education allows students, with the help of their teachers, to go on to select one of these four art forms in which they will specialise.

The Foundation course provides that specialisation and is designed to give

“Art of course is about under­ standing and interpreting the world in which we all live…”

students the technical skills required for their chosen art form.

Older students, aged 13 -19, can access a Mentorship Progamme, where they work with practising artists.

The emphasis here is for students to develop ideas, to perform and to curate their own exhibitions.

The next step is the Arts Incubation Programme which takes students beyond the classroom. Here students continue to improve their skills, become more closely involved in the arts scene and learn about managing a career in the arts.

Late in 2013 a new campus for the older group of students will open in Orchard Central Mall as a dedicated space where budding young artists can study the art form of their choosing.

I am now going to ask why art education is so important to Singapore? In its relatively short history as an independent nation (Singapore became an independent republic on 9 August 1965) Singapore has flourished, as a trading nation, as a financial centre and in the development of its physical infrastructure.

It has done so in peace. It is worth saying that the story could easily have been a different one given the complex environment from which the nation emerged. Our own relationship with Singapore reaches back some 40 years so in a small way we feel that we have been part of that journey.

Art of course is about understanding and interpreting the world in which

we all live, it is about education and pleasure, about happiness and sadness, about community and engaging with people from different places and cultures. Art is above all a place of creativity and ideas.

Nations undergo complex changes in their development path and the future for Singapore will very much rely on the skills and knowledge of its people, there are of course no natural resources to rely on.

So it is people power and that means an increasingly knowledge based economy, and that means greater diversity in education and skills development. Arts education

and the arts will therefore play an increasingly important role in projecting Singapore’s national identity, both at home and around the world. And business has not been shy in supporting art education and major sponsors of the fund and LAA include financial services companies J.P. Morgan and BNP Paribas.

Above all we need to equip the younger generations of this world with as many tools as we can to allow them to navigate an increasingly complex world.

The ability to understand and interpret art and culture, our creative language, is amongst the most important of these things.

Nurin Syahmina

Nurin Syahmina practicing for LAA fourth anniversary production Maxine and The Wild Rumpus

“I feel happy when I am at the Little Arts Academy. Thank you for giving me the chance to learn ballet, something which I have not tried before. Now I love ballet very much. I hope to be a ballet dance teacher.”

Nurin “Nurin is a special child with the innate ability to dance. She is a very wellbehaved and well-mannered child who takes great responsibility in learning ballet. Committed and punctual for classes, she has good technical skills and physique that is suitable for ballet. In addition, she is a good listener so I think these qualities would enable her to go far in ballet if she is given the right opportunities.”

Jamie Pang, LAA Ballet Trainer.

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Madam Tan Peng Sim with her three daughters. Karyn is in the middle.

Karyn Poh, 9

I am very grateful that Karyn is able to pursue her dream of being an artist and a pianist at The Little Arts Academy. She enjoys attending both the visual arts class and piano lessons every Saturday. I was very proud of her when she received the sponsorship from Societe Generale.”

Madam Tan Peng Sim, Karyn’s mother.

Vincent Low, 10 “I feel very happy that Vincent has found something that he loves. I do not mind traveling to LAA every Saturday because I know that he enjoys playing the keyboard. He was a very shy boy but now he is very confident playing for an audience and even reading a poem for LAA’s concert.” Mrs Ng Gek Khim, Vincent’s mother.

Vincent Low, 10, performing and playing the Steinway piano at the Keppel Reit Ocean Financial Centre Christmas concert.

“When I grow up, I want to be the best pianist in the world like Beethoven, and show the world what I have learned.” Vincent

Vishnucharan Naidu, 17 “After the death of my father, I could not afford to attend shows, performances and theatre classes.

The sponsorship I receive from The Business Times Budding Artists Fund has given me the opportunity to receive an arts training at The Little Arts Academy. The training that I’m getting at LAA is a step towards making my dream of becoming a theatre practitioner come true.” Vishnu Vishnu, 17, as Doctor in LAA Youth division second production Lights Out Wonderland.

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“The yes I can is true.”

Education OBSERVATORY

Multi-Disciplinary Research in the Arts

Francis Nkodidio: a Maasai scholar I will be on industrial attachment with the Kenya Medical Research Institute (KEMRI) at the end of this academic year. I thought it was a big deal but it is coming to be true.

Here is an update from Creative cowboy Maasai scholar Francis Nkodidio about the progress he is making with his studies – Rift Valley Kenya.

A journey of a thousand miles starts with a single step taken, very true a dream comes true, for a long time dreamt, time has come and I am mid-way.

The yes I can is true.

I joined my campus with a lot of force to fight away my number one enemy, poverty and community oppression.

For a long time, I have been wishing to join a Varsity’s functional group.

Luckily enough, I am on the office board sponsored by the school and local Maasai leaders to advocate for educational change in Maasailand.

I am happy I am there and can impact change to our local village at home and to the rest of the community in Kajiado and Narok Counties where they live, the group is called JKUAT-MAA and it is on facebook.

Most of my studies have been of field and class work and soon I will be involved in many different projects to allow me gain enough knowledge for my studies.

It is not my own individual efforts, let me thank and credit the most supportive part, ANDREA and PETER HYLANDS Creative Cowboy Directors for financing my studies, The Dean of the School of Medical Science, Dr REBECCA KARANJA, Macconet Director Mr EMMANUEL PARSIMEI and his team, Mum VIRGINIA for supporting and taking me through this year.

Let me thank as well my close friend and Associate Professor School of Business JKUAT, JANE AMIRI for giving me a one semesters accommodation voucher. Above all thanks to God all of us have got through the year in love, concern and hard work towards my dream coming true … empower to power … and together as one lets shout… yes we can…

Kind regards to all FRANCIS NKODIDIO

Andrea, Ester and Francis

My second year of study was my last in a concentration of eight studying units, I will be majoring with six on the onset of May, then I will be taking my course BSc. Medical Microbiology and specialise completely on tropical diseases research.

It has taken the hand and minds of great men for me to be a medical science specialist, Creative cowboy films, I give you credit and honour for all your time, financial and moral support.

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art stage centre stage

Wy-to Art Stage front gate © Franck Pinckers

Yann Follain Happy circumstances and a chance meeting at Art Stage, and that is part of why attending these types of events can be so useful, and it all started with Sophie Liberatore, Singapore based communication consultant, asking Andrea Hylands about what we were doing as VIP guests at Art Stage ...and then Sophie introduced us to Yann Follain, co-founder (with Pauline Gaudry) of WY-TO Architects based in Singapore and Paris.

“We believe in people” Yann told us that he was an architectural associate partner of Art Stage and that WY-TO Architects had been commissioned to design the entrance way to Art Stage and the VIP Lounge, from which we had just emerged.

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“Art is everywhere in our design process” WY-TO Architects is a firm that has offices in both Paris (2009) and Singapore (2010), Yann is now very used to life in South East Asia, previously living in Indonesia which he describes as a place that is very important to him, then moving to Singapore fulltime about four years ago.

Very good timing of course because of the considerable recognition now given by Singapore to the creative and technical arts.

“Despite the common misconception among his Europe-based architects that Asia’s boom conditions are a goldmine for architects, setting up a practice in Singapore has not been easy. What I find great in Singapore is that among the young architects here there is a sense of solidarity and I really appreciate that.”

“I came to Singapore to work on the National Art Gallery (South East Asian art and Singapore art) to work with architects studioMilou (Paris and Singapore) and this was an extraordinary project which required converting the historic Supreme Court Building and City Hall into a stunning new cultural institution and art gallery.

It was after that we launched WY-TO in Singapore. Museum design is something I want to work on more in the future and that is to create spaces and places for people to dream in, to escape the everyday.

We see ourselves as a company that first and foremost believes in design and architecture, this means we work on a diverse range of projects including commercial buildings, domestic architecture and around the idea of designing art, which might be the design of exhibitions and gallery spaces.

Here at Art Stage the two architectural and design elements we have created are the entrance to Art Stage and the VIP lounge. The entrance is a gateway

Wy-to Art Stage VIP Lounge © Art Stage

Designing art to the art fair, an important architectural point of transition, as we move from one space to another, the stage entrance and an important place that should define for each visitor the memorable beginning of the discovery of this major cultural event.

The design of this ‘gateway’ does not distract from the work within the art fair but is complementary to it. The gateway has a feeling of lightness and, above all, we wanted it to be a welcoming place of transition.

Because I am very familiar with South East Asian culture I have been influenced by the textiles that are all around us, each of these cultures using their own patterns. It was from these textiles that I drew my ideas in relation to designing the entrance to Art Stage.

These textiles are something you find everywhere across South East Asia.

It was this technique, the textile loom from which the cloth is woven, rather than the diverse regional patterns of weaving that influenced my designs for Art Stage, particularly the use of lines in

“Something simple, something welcoming and something amazing, welcome to Art Stage” my designs. It is these lines if you like that link the people while at the same time linking us back to the traditions of the region. This is a sculpture in motion giving us a different impression, the warp and the weft, from every different angle”.

“Something simple, something welcoming and something amazing, welcome to Art Stage” “Abstract art has been a significant influence on my design and architec­ tural thinking, that is, colour, compo­ sition, shape, form and movement and that was also a major influence

in the design of the VIP lounge. Light is important to us in design and it is important in the VIP lounge at Art Stage.

Our design philosophy is very much to reference the local culture in our work, the other side of this story is also to consider the local environment, climatic conditions for example are very important.

Designing for France can be very different than designing for Singapore, sustainable design is also foremost in our thinking – how can we best design for the climatic conditions of a place?

Function is important and this is linked to artistic expression.

I think Singapore is a place where we will see more and more curated exhibitions in the developing institutions of Singapore and these exhibitions will change the fabric of Singapore in terms of allowing more and more locals to engage in arts and by attracting more and more visitors who come to Singapore to learn about the art and culture of South East Asia”.

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WY-TO Art Stage front gate looking out Š Franck Pinckers

Yann and Peter discuss some of the architectural issues that Yann has had to contemplate now he is deeply engaged in South East Asian culture.

Peter One of the things I am really interested in is that you are designing for place and what I am trying to understand is what designing for place means, by that I mean Singapore is a very different place to be an architect in than say France is. How do you conceptually feel about those differences?

Yann For me the main difference between France and Singapore is of course the weather and that has a direct impact on the design and it is something after almost five years of being in the tropics that had a dramatic impact on my way of designing.

Which is designing for hot weather, humid weather and there is either very harsh sun or heavy rain.

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At the same time we want to be highly sustainable to make sure that we do not need to use so much air-conditioning.

So all that has a really big impact on the design we do, we tend to have bigger roofs, bigger eaves to protect the house and have large openings to ensure the wind can enter inside and to have cross ventilation, that is the key.

It is really really important because it is due to this cross ventilation that the wind enters into the house and the building and those are the main differences in the way that I use design when we compare Singapore and France.

Peter And that creates a lot of aesthetic possibilities because the tropics can be very beautiful?

Yann Yes, I still have an office in Paris and I was talking to my business partner there and I started to put a lot of patios into my designs and that is where you

do not have a lot of light entering the building but here it is very very bright.

The particularity of Singapore is that we are on the equator and that makes the sun very bright from very early in the morning until it goes down at night (twilight is just an instance on the equator).

Consequently this is a very harsh bright light so it is hard to protect the building and the people against the sun while still having sufficient daylight entering the building, and that is very important.

We can see the evolution of the architecture in Singapore decade after decade and the eighties were buildings that used black tinted windows and that created some very dark spaces, the nineties buildings had blue tinted windows, the year 2000 on were the green windows and now muted glass, a new kind of glass.

Yann Follain Designing art

The particularity of Singapore is that we are on the equator and that makes the sun very bright from very early in the morning until it goes down at night (twilight is just an instance on the equator).

WY-TO Art Stage VIP lounge blue armchairs Š Kingsmen

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WY-TO Art Stage VIP lounge entrance Š Art Stage

The issue now is that you are not protected sufficiently against the sun which makes all the new tall buildings in Singapore similar to those we would find in New York, Sydney or Paris.

Because they are made of glass they are becoming glass houses so it is very hot inside. Against that you have a new generation of architects in Singapore where we are working in a high density way on tropical architecture.

So what is the new tropical architecture? And that is something for me, not

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a Singaporean, and clients here are very surprised to see a foreigner talking about tropical architecture.

All the buildings we design are highly embedded in that concern and to make sure that we are renewing our body to the environment. And that is very very important.

Peter What do you think the appreciation of your work is in Singapore? I am thinking about how conscious the people are about environmental design issues.

Yann That is a challenge because Singapore has grown very very fast in the last 25 years and here we show a certain level of richness and air-conditioning is one of them.

To go beyond that in the last two or three years all those green marks are now entering into the minds of the people and that is not only about creative buildings but a conscience about how to protect the environment through things like the recycling process for instance and through reducing energy consumption.

Yann Follain Designing art

Reducing energy consumption is through intelligent building and not intelligent equipment. When I was talking about sustainability what people think is having efficient equipment, but we need to go beyond that were we design spaces that do not need this equipment and from that point of view there is still a long way to go.

There needs to be an understanding, YES we can design ALTERNATIVE spaces with the flexibility that allows us to use or not to use this equipment.

Peter In Australia in the 1850s for example there were buildings that were beautiful for the climate and something similar happened in Singapore back in the late 1800s, where if you look at the Supreme Court or the Parliament buildings those spaces were relatively cool.

Yann When we look at the colonial architecture of course there were these buildings. Colonial architecture is very interesting, I used to study Dutch colonial buildings in Indonesia and my thesis was all about that.

What is interesting is how those people took some model from Europe and they put it in a tropical environment and they adapted it completely.

High ceilings so the heat can go up and at the highest points openings so the wind can come in so you constantly feel a breeze and that is all about the level of comfort.

You can be in a hot and humid environment but if you feel a bit of a breeze you feel comfortable.

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WY-TO Art Stage VIP lounge, red overall © Franck Pinckers

Peter I guess people in Singapore are now so used to air-conditioning that this whole issue is a real design problem because everybody expects air-conditioning.

Yann Yes that is the issue, for instance in our office we do not use air-conditioning so for the people who are coming here to work it takes them a while before they re-adapt because when you constantly live in an aircon environment which is between 22 and 25 degrees if you are in 27 degrees you start to sweat and you feel really uncomfortable.

While if you are constantly in an environment where it is 30 degrees when you find yourself in 27 degrees you feel cool.

It is a matter of re-adapting our own body to the environment.

I will share with you a small story, I was designing a house here, the clients were Singaporean, they had always used aircon. So I said you know what I will provide you the aircon, no problem.

But let’s design the house in a way that is cross ventilated, natural ventilation, a

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“It is a matter of re-adapting our own body to the environment.” concept for all the spaces and we will see. They entered the house and now they are living inside and they called me after a little bit to thank me. Yann after 20 years sleeping with the aircon we are not using it anymore. It is just that, it is how to readapt the body.

I am not saying we should be against air-conditioning because sometimes it is necessary for certain environments.

For a museum you must have air-conditioning, it is compulsory for the artwork.

But for a living environment, a house or public space, we do not need air-conditioning as long as the space is cleverly designed for local weather and climate.

Peter Well when I think about tropical life one of the great beauties is to engage with the environment and tropical weather. People are losing out from all that aren’t they?

Yann It is about opening the window and feeling the environment around you.

We just need to be protected against the sun and the rain. That’s it!

Peter This idea of designing for art, the issues you face when you are designing an art exhibition or a space for art to go in, one of the things I guess you try and do is not to conflict with the art itself by doing things that are too overwhelming. There is a fine balance there as an architect isn’t there?

Yann Yes, when I did my first exhibition, that was for Andy Warhol (ArtScience Museum).

My first real big exhibition, Andy Warhol.

As architects we did one hundred pages of analysis, of building analysis, visitor analysis, artist analysis. We gave that to the director and he was surprised, wow, this is heavy work. We started to

Yann Follain Designing art

WY-TO Art Stage VIP lounge, blue overall © Franck Pinckers

explain what we did and he said okay guys stop it. I will tell you how to cook an exhibition. There are three important elements when you do an exhibition.

The first one above all is the artist, that is the most important thing, the artist.

Secondly is the museum, the museum as an institutions and the museum as a building. So that is the second component that we should respect and should work with.

Third, it is the visitor, never forget the visitor. A visitor can be an 80 year old person, can be a three year old person from anywhere in the world. So the artist, the museum and the visitor.

So for me when you see inside I don’t put the exhibition designer because the exhibition designer is the one that will bring the three components together and to make it like a dream and to make sure these elements work well together and that we do not see the exhibition designer. If this was not the case the exhibition would be about the exhibition designer and not the artist.

“For me the most beautiful thing when you do an exhibition is this idea of dreaming…”

So that is very very important, the exhibition designer should be a Chameleon that constantly adapts itself in many different conditions, different philosophies and ideas and always to convey the right message and to tell the story behind that.

That is the most challenging part when you do an exhibition, to combine those elements together without putting yourself in front. For me the most beautiful thing when you do an exhibition is this idea of dreaming (I was doing my first artwork of lighting), I am not and artist but an architect so what I do is architecture, that is a space with a function.

That is quite straight forward.

When you do an artwork, what is the point? What is the function? We did this first lighting artwork and I was just standing alongside it during the opening and I looked at the people around and they started to interact with the work.

They were clapping their hands and thinking the light was following them.

They started to smile a lot and I realised that a main function of an artwork is to make people dream and this is really nice.

You can go into a museum and whether you like or do not like this artwork you start to think and escape from where you are and where you were.

That is the most beautiful thing in an artwork and designing for that is to make sure that this dream is conveyed to the visitor.

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WY-TO exhibition design, ArtScience Museum for the Andy Warhol 15 MINUTES ETERNAL exhibition

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WY-TO Smart Light sculpture Š Franck Pinckers

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nature-i

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Rainbow Lorikeet Trichoglossus haematodus Andrea Hylands

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The creative cowboy global design project:

10 BAD Indentify

consumer products In all the universe nature is what makes planet earth special – nature needs you and you need nature.

The challenge – to identify and then redesign 10 BAD consumer products, that, in their current form, do great harm to our environment when they are thrown away.

Ulysses Butterfly Papilio ulysses

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Want to get involved in 10 BAD stage one consumer product identification?

10 BAD stage

1 Identify 10 BAD consumer products that, in their current form, are an environmental menace. These products might harm animals when they end up in the environment because the products trap animals or are ingested by them or the products might just be a pollution and health menace in their current form and construction.

We might ask the question, do we really need the product at all?

10 BAD stage

2 The challenge will be to think of ways to redesign the 10 BAD or replace them entirely.

10 BAD stage

3 get involved Please email your identification of a BAD consumer product to phylands@creativecowboyfilms.com

To sell these design changes to manufacturers and consumers.

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WY-TO scaffold photo © Jeremy San