The Blue Lotus magazine issue 21

Lotus

Issue 21 2020

The Blue

Arts Magazine

in this issue Li Yuan Chia Irene Wan Sadek Ahmed Aung Min Min Yashvant Singh Mohammad Eunus Celeste Lecaroz Siund Tan Siraja SK Barry Ong 1

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Lotus The Blue

Arts Magazine

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inside...

6 Editorial

Thoughts on the current issue

by the Founding Editor

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Li Yuan Chia Avant garde Chinese artist

22 Irene Wan

Non...Je Ne Regrette Rien, Malaysian photography

Waiting for Art

34 Waiting for Art

Short story, Martin Bradley

46 Tribe

New gallery in Siem Reap 56 Pastel

Colors of Cambodia soft pastel workshops, Siem Reap 62 Old Dhaka

Bangladesh watercolours by Sadek Ahmed

74 A Feast of Serendib

Book review 80 Aung Min Min

Artist from Myanmar

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Front cover; by Irene Wan

Issue 21 2020

90 Traveller in an Abstract Universe

Indian artist Yashvant Singh 102 Mohammad Eunus

Artist from Bangladesh 114 Comes in Colours

Philippine artist Celeste Lecaroz

124 Siund Tan

Malaysian artist

134 Curvaceous Colours

Indian artist Siraj SK 144 Barry Ong

Malaysian photographer 158 Lum Orng

Cambodian restaurant review.

Li Yuan Chia

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Lotus Welcome to

The Blue Lotus (arts magazine)

A new year, and a new decade. In June this year The Blue Lotus magazine becomes nine years old. In this issue we present artists from six Asian countries, from Bangladesh, Cambodia, India, Malaysia, Myanmar, and The Philippines. This continues our constant drive towards a diversity of ethnicity and pictorial enlightenment.

This issue could not have been created without the kind assistance of all the participants, to whom I am deeply indebted and, of course, you the readers.

The Blue Lotus is open for submissions but cannot pay, and asks those who submit not to simultaneously submit elsewhere. Thank you.

Now read on

Martin Bradley

(Founding Editor)

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1963

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li yuan chia

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Chinese artist Li Yuan Chia lived in England, next to Hadrian’s Wall, for the last twenty-eight years of his life. The wall, built by the Roman Emperor Hadrian to keep out the ‘Picts’ (Scots) is in Britain’s north west, and known for its naturally beautiful Lake District National Park. This ideal location formed a retreat for Li, a place where he could think, create and begin the construction of his Museum and Art Gallery (the LYC Museum and Art Gallery). He died of cancer at the Eden Vale Hospice in Cumbria’s Carlisle, in 1994, and is buried in Lanercost cemetery just below his renovated farm house in the small village of Banks.

Born in 1929, in Hsu village, near Lu Shan, Kwangsi Province, China, Li was the survivor of an adoption which went sour and, at the age of ten, was passed around orphanages and schools for children of bereaved Nationalist officer-families, eventually gaining an education at a special school for the children of Chang Kai-shek’s officers in China, and in 1949 moved to Taiwan with the retreating ‘Nationalist’ forces from China. Two years later (1951) Li was able to attend the art education department of Taipei Normal College for teacher-training, in Taiwan, from which he graduated in 1955.

The next few years saw Li exhibiting his artworks at the 4th Bienal de São Paulo, in Brazil (1957) alongside artists from the Taiwanese Tung fang/ Ton Fan hua hui (‘Eight Great Outlaws’ group) Painting Group, one of Taiwan’s most significant avant-garde movements, founded in 1956, and who later exhibited in New York’s Mi Chou Gallery in January, 1960.

We are reminded that….

“Artists in this group included Chen Tao-ming (Chen Daoming,), Ho Kan (Huo Gang) (original name Huo Xuegang), Hsiao Chin (Xiao Qin, Hsiao Ming-hsien (Xiao Mingxian) (original name Xiao Long), Hsia Yang (original name, Hsia Zuxiang), Li Yuan-chia (Li Yuanjia), Ouyang Wen-yuan, and Wu Hao (original name Wu Shilu). These eight core members were often referred to as “The Eight Bandits” (Ba da xiang ma) because of their

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rejection of artistic convention and of academic training.”

(McIntyre, Sophie. "Eastern Art Group (Tung fang/ Ton Fan hua hui)." The Routledge Encyclopedia of Modernism. : Taylor and Francis, 2016.)

The ‘Point’ or the ‘Dot’ represents the beginning and the end, seen in the Taoist ‘Yin/Yang (Taijitu) symbol as a white dot (a seed of white) against a black field while simultaneously a black dot is seen as a seed of black against a white field. In Buddhism (as in Hinduism) the Bindu (point or dot) relates to the concept of Śakti (or power) and is also known as the Ajna Chakra, a point of awakening or the ‘Third Eye’, and is the point where creation begins as in the centre dot in the mandala where the dot represents the seed of the cosmos. Li’s meditative dots were a by-product of these transcendent spiritualities, and his belief in the control of mind over brush, rather than the utilisation of accident.

Li, when referring to his concept of the distillation of Chinese calligraphic cosmology into a single ‘Cosmic Point’, said ‘In 1959 my first painting was a tiny black dot on a white square of canvas – nothing could be simpler than that.’ In essence it was Li’s preparedness for an encounter with like minds in the Italian ‘Punto’ (Point) movement.

In 1961 Li visited his dear friend Hsiao Chin (from the Tung Fang group), and went on to found a fresh art movement with him - Milan’s ‘Movimento Punto’ (the Point, International Art Movement, 1961). The Punto group was the only art international art movement, at the time, influenced by Asian Buddhist and Taoist philosophy, and became home to Chinese artists Hsiao Chin, Li Yuan-Chia, Huo Gang, Italian artists Antonio Calderara and Dadamaino (Eduarda Emilia Maino), and Japanese artist Azuma Kenjiro.

Li arrived in Britain in 1965, for an exhibition of his work at ‘Signals’ in London, where had been invited by David Medalla and Paul Keeler to participate in Soundings Two, an international survey of experimental art. Signals was founded in 1964 by artist David Medalla, Gustav Metzger and Marvello Salvadori, as an experimental

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Li Yuan Chia

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Movimento Punto exhibition, April 1965

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Unity-principle (the dot)

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gallery and a meeting place for young international artists including Mira Schendel, Heinz Mack, Lygia Clark, Carlos Cruz-Diez, Takis, Li Yuan Chia and others.

A year later Li Yuan Chia exhibited in Signals 3 + 1, and stayed in Britain, with diversions to Spain visiting friends, until his death.

Since his death Li’s works have appeared in…..

"Li Yuan-chia Exhibition", inIVA in collaboration with Camden Arts Centre 26 Jan-18 Mar 2001 Tate Modern: Display, London (2014) 'View-Point: A Retrospective Exhibition of Li-Yuan-chia,' Taipei Fine Arts Museum (2014) 'Li Yuan-chia,' Sotheby's S|2 Gallery, London (2017) 'Li Yuan-chia: Unique Photographs,' The Whitworth, Manchester, England, (2019) The LYC Museum & Art Gallery and the Museum as Practice Conference, Manchester, (2019).

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Bintu - Sanskrit word meaning "point" or "dot"

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"Li Yuan-chia Exhibition", inIVA in collaboration with Camden Arts Centre

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Yinyang or "taijitu" is a Taoist symbol or diagram

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"Li Yuan-chia Exhibition", inIVA in collaboration with Camden Arts Centre

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irene wan

Non... Je ne regrette rien Malaysian photographer Irene Wan prefers the use of her hand phone camera to a weighty traditional camera. Having travelled well, she still has time to look at her homeland, especially Kuala Lumpur where she has spent the majority of her life.

Through the use of candid images of foot ware, as clogs are eventually replaced with sneakers, Wan traces a traditional Malaysian Chinese family from singledom to marriage and children, reminding us all of the journeys families undergo throughout the decades

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short story

Waiting for Art

by Martin Bradley In the ‘Merlion’ city of Singapore it had not been a good year, month, or even a good day for Arthur Wellborn. Canadian Arthur (Art) R. (Randall) Wellborn (aka Art Wellborn), CEO and founder of the aptly named Cambodian charity ‘Art Will Save the World ’ was feeling miffed, no, more than that - he was pissed off.

Instead of being blessed, it had been a year crammed with infernal, practically Machiavellian, machinations within his family firm. The ever fluctuating business of providing containers for carbuncle cream, haemorrhoid cream and similar medicinal ointments had thrown his family business into disarray. Arthur, the youngest of the males in his family and the South East Asian uber-manager of ‘Clinical Tubes R Us’, had been left to pick up the pieces after many factory managerial walkouts.

Arthur Wellborn, whose face was gradually taking on a rather puce colouration, issued the final stressed out ‘Fuck, what the fucking fuck, va te faire foutre’, aimed squarely at his Singaporean secretary Mai Lai. Boss man Arthur slammed his hand down on the wooden table as he watched the office door slide, quietly, shut. He quickly issued a much pained ‘ouch, merde!’ as his hand reddened after contact with the solid hardwood surface.

The change from metal extruded tubes to plastic had been bad enough, but trying to find a more ecological and biodegradable plastic tube had been very stressful for the entire firm. To say that the now middle-age Arthur was stressed would be grossly inadequate. If Arthur had ever thought of buying a dog, which up until the present moment he had not, it would have been just so he could kick it, or there again a cat to sling just to see how big his apartment (at Nassim Park Residences) really was.

The closest Arthur had as a sop to his frustrations was his secretary (of twelve years), Mai Lai, who had just told him that she was pregnant and was leaving.

Mr Wellborn was oh, so, ready to kick back and relax in Siem Reap for a couple of weeks, if only to watch the sleek young things with their ponytails drift by on their Scoopys while he imbibed something vaguely cold and, very possibly, alcoholic. That idyllic, and quite possibly utopian, two weeks had now dwindled, due to the vagaries of his managerial life, to a quick couple of days. His recent, very expensive, divorce from his departed wife spendthrift Susannah (the lily of his life), had helped deplete his finances further while, simultaneously, grossly increasing his feeling of stress.

That much stressed Arthur Wellborn had been well born into a family well established in what is now Stanstead, Stanstead County, Quebec, Canada. The town of Stanstead had been created in 1995 by the merger of the towns of Stanstead Plain, Rock Island and Beebeis (Trois villages) 34

and is one of the more beautiful border towns Canada has with United States of America. It is a town which continues to have a visual border line running through it. Arthur would never admit it, but his family’s fortune owes more to his pioneer family’s expertise in smuggling than does in the shifting of medicinal tubes. However, as time has slid persistently by, respectability had been gained through the closing of several eyes, and the stretching out of several hands.

For the many years of his youth, the youngest Mr Wellborn had indulged his whims and his fancies. First there was art school for the budding nouveau Cubist, then the lure of the Iowa writing school followed by his many trips to the Far East to ‘find himself ’, but he never appeared to be there when Arthur arrived. However, as this young Mr Wellborn discovered on his twenty-fifth birthday it was not enough to have been well born, because the previously mentioned indulgences had come at a price. The price was a fait accompli, a done deal involving a life long commitment to the family business - medicinal tubes, or going it entirely on his own.

Family patron, Dwight Benjamin Wellborn had called his youngest son, Arthur, into his wood panelled office adorned with family portraits, and motioned for his son to take a seat.

‘Arthur. The manufactory of tubes for clinical usage is not the most glamorous of trades.’ He said in all seriousness. ‘Nevertheless, it can be a very comfortable living if one buckles down and knuckles under. Are you understanding me so far?’

‘Yes, sir buckles and knuckles.’ The somewhat startled Arthur replied.

While part of his mind had expected to be ‘hauled into the office’, another was still lounging after skiing down the gentle slopes of Austria, enjoying the freshness of air on his skin and the taste of après ski in his mouth.

‘Stick with the family firm my boy and you will do well,’ The elder Wellborn had said, and there had been a minute chuckle as he said this.

Arthur had nodded, realising that the party was, indeed, over.

‘I want you to start taking over in South East Asia. We will station you in Singapore and see how you do.’ That was twenty-five years ago almost to the day and Arthur was still in Singapore.

As his previous alternative lifestyle was now dependant upon his work performance, the youngest Wellborn male did indeed buckle down and knuckle under, limiting his gallivanting to his scant time off from promoting clinical tubes. Erstwhile playboy or not, the youngest Mr Wellborn grew into a social conscience. Still supported by his family, but in reality the family business, Arthur had volunteered amidst the downtrodden Rohingya in Myanmar, the Christian missionaries in Sumatra and had set his sights for other lands. Arthur had eventually disembarked in Siem Reap, Cambodia, ostensibly to see ancient city of Angkor, but was quickly drawn to the plight of the poorest Khmer children whom he encountered.

Siem Reap, back in its rawer days, had the feel of a frontier town. In this, it was somewhat akin India’s Goa back in the 1960s. Siem Reap was a fresh haven for both the ageing and new (age) hippies, and had 35

been mentioned by the 1950s Beat poet Allen Ginsberg during his trip to Angkor. Not that Arthur Wellborn was, our ever had been, a hippie, but simply "the poor little rich boy" out to have a good time well away from his family and the family business. But he (along with Bob Dylan’s Times) were a-changing.

Arthur Wellborn had joined one organisation volunteering with Khmer children (in Siem Reap), and quickly discovered his forte as well as a potential gap in the local charity market, that was teaching art to children who had no previous access to art. Arthur Wellborn started his own, bijou, enterprise teaching art in Siem Reap schools. Later, as the teaching was doing so well, and with permission from ‘The Family', Arthur acquired a building in an up-and-coming Siem Reap, and there developed an art gallery (Art Will Save the World - AWSTW), ostensibly to show children’s art, but also to use the upstairs as a free art teaching centre for Khmer children of all ages. Yes, Art was about to save the world (or ,at the very least, some of the children of Siem Reap). ………………………..

‘Smells like school dinners.’ Allen wrinkled his nose playfully.

‘What does’. Sugar was busy sketching on her iPad and really wasn’t bothered.

‘Well, the smell, I guess.’

‘Huh!’ ‘The smell, smells like school dinners.’

‘Andrew, I’m working.’

‘Eh, oh okay.’

Lanky Andrew Goodchild shifted in his seat, trying to get comfortable.

He sighed a deep, obvious sigh, still trying to get the more diminutive Sugar Khoo’s attention.

Flight AK540 from Kuala Lumpur was practically full. Lunch was being served, hence the aroma of ‘school dinners’ Andrew had sensed.

However, the complex Asian airline cuisine was a far throw from St. Helena Secondary Modern school dinners, as Andrew well knew. Or at least he should have, as he has travelled on this airline particular at least twice a year, every year, for the past seven.

Still being playful, Andrew issued a ‘Quick.’

‘Andrew.’

‘No, seriously, quick.’

‘Why?’ ‘What’s happening.’

‘Look!’ Andrew pointed to the metal foil cover over his airline meal.

‘It says, ‘Once served, consume within 2 hours’. You’ve only got one hour and fifty five minutes left.’

‘You’re bored, aren’t you.’ Sugar raised a rather obviously tattooed, black, left eyebrow.

Sugar really didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. In the end, she laughed, but not at Andrew. No, that ship had sailed. The elder, greying, slightly overweight gentleman next to her in seat ‘C’, wearing puce shorts, was snoring. His bass music rose and fell in such a comical way that Sugar could not help but laugh, though it was a small, discreet 36

laugh, more or a titter really, to vent her mirth without disturbing the neighbouring musician. Sugar dare not look to where his hands were strategically placed. It was as if he were a cricket fielder, expecting a red spherical object to make him sing falsetto any second. His bass notes continued, as did Andrew’s boredom.

Two hours is not long. Not when you take into consideration how long airline flights can get, but Andrew was feeling playful, whereas his normal partner in crime, was not. Not only was it that time of the month, yet again it seemed, but Sugar was genuinely busy trying to complete a sketch which she had begun some time before, but had only just found time to continue.

Sketching was Sugar’s forte. She had quickly mastered the art in her mid teens. Drawing remained her strong suit ever since, underpinning the strength of her paintings. But this time it was digital. Digital was a fresh challenge. Sugar had bought the iPad to stop her from carrying so much art equipment around (sketch pad, brushes, inks, watercolour palate, pens etc.), especially on her frequent trips abroad. The iPad, and digital sketching, had seemed the perfect solution (egged on, no doubt, by seeing a recent David Hockney exhibition). With the drawing programmes on the tablet Sugar was able to ‘draw’ and ‘paint’ in layers, changing the size of the ‘brush’, colour, even texture. But, in her busy life, it had taken her over a year to get comfortable with the new medium.

Hence her concentration and Andrew’s boredom.

The three dimensional film animation ‘Shrek’ has a lot to answer for…

Still fidgety, Andrew nuzzled up to his partner and was just about to say ‘Are we there yet’, in a silly ‘Donkey’ voice, when, at that very moment, the aeroplane's captain announced that the flight had just passed Phnom Penh and would be descending towards Siem Reap International Airport, shortly.

Kuala Lumpur had been hot but, somehow, Siem Reap had managed to surpass even that. Landing in the early afternoon sent passengers scurrying along the shade-less runway towards the Immigration and Customs building. The sun beat relentlessly down on Andrew’s hatless head as he dragged his black pseudo-airline pilot bag, (bought for him

by Sugar, in Figueres, Spain) along behind him as he too hustled towards the Immigration shed to fill in the necessary form for his Visa On Entry ($30).

Sunday was quiet in Siem Reap. While waiting for his hotel to allow checking-in, it took Andrew two gin soaked Pink Ladies to take the edge off at the Hideaway Barista and Lounge, along Central Market Street.

Sugar knocked back a bottle of delightfully cold local Anchor Beer, and then off they went to bed, to rest. Each to their own, separate beds, that is. Sugar was camping out on the second floor of the ‘Art Will Save the World Gallery’, (the bijou charity she was area manager of ), in the room now set aside for volunteering foreign teachers. Andrew wrestled with the idea of the lack of a promised tea/coffee maker in his twin bedded room at the Candle Inn, two streets away from the gallery.

After resting, Sugar and Andrew met with Meyta (i.e. Meyta Souk - the on-site Khmer Manager for Art Will Save The World), and her equally exotically beautiful twin sister Meyka, that evening at Hola (Mexican restaurant and hotel) on the other side of the temple (Wat Preah Prom 37

Rath). After ordering Chimichanga, Nachos Supreme, Hot Wings chips and salsa along with a ‘bucket’ (aka a carafe) of Frozen Margarita (for the girls) and a Gin & Tonic for Andrew, they began talking.

‘So, when’s Art arriving?’ Ventured Andrew.

‘He say he come, don’t know when, but I send text message, many times over, no reply,’ replied Meyta.

‘But he is coming,’ tried Andrew again. Meyta simply shrugged her shoulders and had a quick conversation with her sister (in Khmer).

‘We don know. Sometime he say he come, then he not come. He busy man. If he come, he come, if not, not.’ Explained Meyka.

‘Won’t you need to pick him up at the airport.’ Andrew just would not let it go.

‘No, he take car, stay ‘Nita by Vo’ hotel, they pick him.’ Said Meyta.

‘Andrew, why are you so interested about Art’s movements?’ Chipped in Sugar. Andrew shrugged his shoulders.

The evening wore on. Sugar was talking ‘Art Will Save the World’ business with Meyta and Meyka, and Andrew quickly got bored. Luckily he had the foresight to get a local SIM card for his phone and spent the rest of the time hiding in Facebook and WhatsApp. Eventually the food ran out. The second ‘bucket’ of Frozen Margarita ran dry and the tipsy trio of young (ish) ladies spilled onto the street. A non-tipsy Andrew followed. Meyta and Meyka climbed aboard their ‘Scoopy’, with Andrew looking on a tad anxiously. Off they went weaving down the neon lit streets. Andrew escorted Sugar back to the ‘Gallery’ and, as she pulled down the internal galvanised metal shutter, Andrew mooched off, kissless, to his small hotel, feeling more than a little sorry for himself.

Monday morning brought out the worker bees and breakfast hunting tourists along Preah Sangreach Tep Vong Street. Right next door to the ‘Art Will Save the World’, the Vintage Cafe (which was not a cafe but a restaurant, and strictly speaking was not vintage either, but faux La Belle Époque) had dimmed lights and a flamboyantly wooden, rounded, mirror in which you might expect to see Matisse anemones reflected.

True to form, Andrew and Sugar snapped away to their heart’s content with their mobile phones and hastily posted their captures on Facebook.

They were eager to tell the world where they were, and what they were doing. While they awaited breakfast (Andrew - a pot of tea, toast with avocado, poached egg, bacon, tomato and onion jam, and Sugar - a pot of tea, noodle soup with pork Khmer ‘donuts’ and rice) the not so hidden restaurant speakers soothed the only two customers with Jo Stafford singing ‘Make Love to Me’. The lyrics of which (from a 21st century perspective) denied the innocence of their original intent, and had Andrew idly thinking ‘fat bloody chance of that, this trip’. He sighed.

Andrew, already annoyed by the song, became more so when Sugar began pointing out how he should hold the camera-phone to shoot in dim light.

‘Andrew, no! You have to hold it still, like any camera, and do take your time.’

‘But,’ ‘No buts darling. You see.’ She said, showing him her perfectly shot cafe interior.

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‘You’re too quick, but I’m a good photographer, aren’t I? You tend to rush before the image is captured properly.’

Andrew just could not resist saying, ‘careful when you walk through the door, my love, your ego may not fit, and you might be stranded here for all eternity.’ Sugar’s momentary glower turned to a fake smile as breakfast arrived.

Later, in Siem Reap, that blue skied, tropically hot, day...

‘Art’s due to arrive in a couple of days,’ mentioned Sugar.

‘Yes, but are we getting Art or Arthur?’ Andrew said in reference to the dual nature of the man called Mr Wellborn who, when stressed, had a very complex relationship with his anger management. It was then that Sugar and Andrew referred to him as Arthur. But when he was his more playful, relaxed, self he was Art. Then…

‘Hmmm, thought he was due in after us,’ Andrew continued.

‘He was, change of plan. Couldn’t quite catch what he was saying, something about accommodation, but Meyta confirmed.’

‘Hmmm.’ Andrew sounded a little put out.

‘Don’t worry, I’ll find some time for you too. But you know that Meyta, Art and I still have a lot to talk about, especially now that ‘Art Will Save the World’ has moved into the new premises.’

‘Yeah, sure.’

‘But you like Art, don’t you? I thought you two were best buddies now.’

‘Hmmm, well, he’s American, you know.’

‘He is not. He’s Canadian’ ‘Same difference’ ‘Not really’ ‘Hmmm’.

‘Come-on Andrew, look, you know there’s nothing between us, don’t you, Andrew…Andrew!’

The look on Andrew’s face said it all. For years now he had felt inadequate because of the well born nature and distinct millionaire air of Mr Wellborn, aka Arthur, aka Art. It was nothing tangible. Perhaps it was just Andrew’s own insecurity. However, Art was rich. Richer than Croesus it seemed. To make matters worse, Art was handsome in his own clean cut, tanned and blonde haired American, sorry, Canadian, way. To top it all, Art was ten years younger than Andrew and now, dangerously, single. In fact, Art was everything Andrew wasn’t and Sugar, even now in her forties, was still a very sexy and very desirable woman.

“You fancy him, don’t you.” “who” “Art, you fancy Art, don’t you.” “................”

“You do. Your delay speaks volumes.”

“No, don’t be silly.”

“Oh I understand. He’s rich, handsome, sort of, and freshly single. He would be any girl’s dream.”

“Not mine.”

“Really” 39

“Look do we have to talk about this.”

“Ah, there, you see, you do fancy him.”

Sugar’s cheeks coloured.

“Andrew, stop being so childish and insecure. You know that I am fond of you.”

“Fond. Is that all get now.”

“You know what I mean Andrew. Buddha knows that we’ve been together long enough.”

“It’s only seven years.”

“Well…it… is… seven… years.”

“Meaning?”

“So far we have been together seven years. Art was there when we got married, wasn’t he.”

“True, but he was married then. His wife would have cut his Canadian hairy bits off if she had caught him lusting after you. The operative word being ‘caught’.”

“Oh, do give it a rest Andrew. You’re not funny anymore.”

“See, I told you. You fancy him.”

“Grrrrrrrrrr.”

This trip, Sugar had come to Cambodia to spend her time reorganising the new ‘Gallery’, with Meyta. Andrew, on the other hand, was under the distinct impression that he was on holiday. Andrew had never been inculcated in to the AWSTW charity and, as such, and was technically not part of it, certainly not in any official capacity, for neither his picture nor his name appeared on the poster of the charity’s staff and volunteers, nor on the individual ‘volunteer’ cards on prominent display. When visiting, Andrew tried not to get under Sugar’s feet. Nevertheless he constantly felt like a spare groom at a wedding.

While Sugar was arranging the transportation for a trip out of town, teaching art to children in one of the more remote Khmer schools (some two hours away), Andrew thought about breakfast again.

Bacon. It had to involve bacon. Real bacon, that is, bacon from a pig rather than the modern day travesties of Turkey bacon, Chicken or indeed Beef bacon. Pig bacon was scarce and very strangely flavoured back in Kuala Lumpur. This reality constantly left Andrew dreaming of the exquisite taste of ‘real bacon’. Bacon from a pig. The kind of bacon that you might find while morning dining and luxuriating in Dublin, for instance. Finally, with rumbles in his tum, Andrew opted for The Little Foxy Hen, an American styled eatery, just along Hap Guan Street. It serves bagels - with bacon.

To say that disappointment hung in the air like an over-ripe Great Yarmouth ‘Kipper’, would be have been a gross understatement. Andrew’s favourite dish at The Little Foxy Hen had been its very Derridian sounding ‘Deconstructed Bagel’. It was a suitable standby on the very odd day when Andrew was not fancying bacon. The Little Foxy Hen’s ‘Deconstructed Bagel’ featured smoked salmon (Lox) and cream cheese in much the same way as his favourite bagel joint (in all the world) ‘Beigel Bake’, (founded 1929) in Brick Lane, in London’s Shoreditch, did.

The ‘deconstructed bagel’, in Siem Reap, was served for the customer to put together themselves, therefore adding a further modicum of interactivity into the process of consumption. Only, now there was no smoked salmon, perhaps because of the sodium (salt) content, only the 40

otherworldly smoked chicken. Hence Andrew’s gross disappointment.

All the bacon in the world, as delicious as it was, just would not make up for the absence of smoked salmon in Andrew’s bagel. Not even the jumbo sized ‘Flat White’ coffee, or the 1960s pop songs (sung in Khmer), which were normally able to elevate Andrew from despondency.

The sun, shining through the cafe’s glass windows, indicated just how hot the Khmer day was becoming. If Andrew lingered any longer over breakfast, it would be lunch, and the June day at its hottest. Andrew sighed, more decisions.

June in Siem Reap is dry. Except, of course, for when it was wet. No one had, it seemed, quite explained the need for consistency to Mani Mekhala (Goddess of the Waters and Ream Eysaur, the Storm Spirit).

One day, this day, laterite dust flew freely as Sugar and Meyta drove the two hours out of Siem Reap to the rural Samamke School. The school lays on the very fringes of Siem Reap and maybe a tad closer to the famous, not so lost, city of Angkor and it’s Lara Croft (Ta Prohm temple) Wat. Under vivid azure skies, the two women and the young male teacher (Kosal Son), drove past acres of green rice paddy, then fields of pink and white lotus were, silently, praying for rain. Dry wallows, even in their desiccated state, remained magnets to water buffalo. That cliché of blue sky and little fluffy clouds accompanied the trio right up until they parked outside the school buildings, then, seemingly from nowhere, the deluge began.

Playful drops of water soon ganged up and fell, hand in metaphorical hand, into puddles as if miraculously appearing in the dust. In its own way it was a blessing. The air quickly cooled under a teasing wind, which soon insinuated itself into the classroom chosen for the weekly art lesson.

As the aged, and a tad ramshackle, wooden shutters banged in hearty wind, forty, small, smiling Khmer faces looked up at Kosal, Meyta and Sugar as they carried art materials for their two-hour art session with the children. Every one of the children, from the age of six to fifteen had, very quickly, learned the skill of drawing, with thanks to the frequent ‘Art Will Save the World’ teacher visits. Yet still many a child lacked the ability to create without visual reference. Teachers happily coaxed the students through their initial experience with colours, yet students were a tad disappointed when their personal visual targets had not been reached. Overall, teachers and students enjoyed the experience. Khmer schools are generally very poor and do not have art on their syllabuses, but are very grateful to this charity teaching art for free. Sugar frequently regretted the very little time she had with the children, but it was better than nothing, she supposed.

The lesson sped forward, accompanied by the dance of rain on the walls and on the roof of the classroom. Led by Sugar, the teachers guided the students in their imaginative endeavours. Sugar drew what see imagined to be a typical Cambodian countryside scene, with chalk, on the blackboard.

‘Susaday, or is it Choum reap sor’ said Sugar giving the traditional prayer hands salute (Sampeah).

‘I am Teacher Sugar. Today we will draw you homes like this one I am drawing on the blackboard.’ Sugar knew that most of the children had no English, but she spoke on as a token to communication.

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Sugar drew small houses with doors and square windows. They gave a backdrop to the figures of happy, smiling, children, parents, cats and chickens. When finished, Sugar walked up and down the rows of children seated at their wooden desks. As she walked she noticed that the children were not drawing windows for their houses.

‘Meyta. Why don’t the children draw windows to their houses. Look at this one, and that one over there. There are no windows.’

‘No windows on houses.’

‘But there, I’ve drawn them on the board.’

‘Yes, but home no have windows sis.’

‘Really. I hadn’t noticed.’

‘Next home visit, you look.” It was a pause for thought.

For it was true, many of the very rural Khmer houses were very simple.

A rectangular shape, a corrugated galvanised steel sheeting roof, woven bamboo wickerwork matting for walls, a wooden door for the entrance, all held up on pillars in the ‘post-and-beam’ construction using wood.

The idea was to be above water when the heavy rains come. ………………………..

Meanwhile…

The sun, shining through the cafe’s glass windows, indicated just how hot the Khmer day was becoming. If Andrew lingered any longer over breakfast, it would be lunch, and the June day at its hottest. Andrew sighed, more decisions.

The solution - a tuk tuk.

‘Tuk tuk, sir.’

‘Yes.’ The poor driver nearly fainted. So used was he to countless rebuttals, even so early in the hot morning, that it took him a moment or two to recover.

‘Where.’

‘Anywhere that has bacon for breakfast.’

Anywhere turned out to be the driver’s friend’s, cousin’s restaurant, over the river. It was a little place called Hawaii Pizza House, on Rubber Road Wat Bo Village Sangkat Sala Kamroeuk.

Andrew’s first thought was ‘Pizza, for breakfast, what the……?’ But, perusing the menu, there it was…TWO EGGS ANYWAY COOKED, TWO STRIPS OF BACON, HASH BROWN AND TOMATO. Andrew’s day and bacon, or at least his breakfast bacon, was saved.

Idly, whilst chewing a particularly delicious slice of Kher pig bacon, Andrew mused ‘I wonder if Art is coming.’ …………………………..

Drinking cheap, cold, Anchor beer in Nai Khmer (a mid range cafe/ restaurant at the side of Siem Reap’s Old Market) …

‘Is he coming?’ Andrew uttered with entirely mixed feelings.

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‘Meyta, said so,’ explained Sugar, with more than a modicum of doubt clinging to each syllable she spoke.

‘Give her a call.’

‘Who?’ ‘Meyta of course, just give her a call, just to make sure.’ Andrew let out a long, pent up, sigh.

Sugar began fingering her iPhone, stabbing the digital keyboard, then, as Meyta answered, Sugar took herself out onto the pavement, where she dodged backward and forward trying to avoid a troupe of elder white tourists lead by a diminutive Asian guide and her furled, bright pink, umbrella.

Sugar turned towards Andrew. It was her turn to shrug her (quite shapely) shoulders.

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one woman

Every so often a book appears that reveals and illuminates a project that might otherwise remain largely unknown by the outside world: ‘Colors of Cambodia’ is such a book. This is a highly personal and passionate account written by Martin Bradley and illustrated by Pei Yeou Bradley of her encounter with a remarkable art-based project in and around Siem Reap in Cambodia, and how she was drawn into practical involvement with the children for whom the project exists.

The book shows how a small NGO run by William Gentry in Siem Reap has been able to reach out to children in local schools, some in areas of great poverty, through the medium of art, and to give them hope for the future in a country that has suffered so much. The children and their families who are drawn into the project prove how art can cross all borders of language and culture. The book also tells of how Malaysian children and their parents have been encouraged to support the project and to become involved with the children and their work.

This is a highly personal and passionate account written by Marti remarkable art-based project in and around Siem Reap in Cambodia, for whom the 44

n’s journey

And there is the additional touch of magic as Pei Yeou and Martin tell of their meeting and of how he too was drawn into the story, and contributes to it, and of how it changed his life. His sensitive words and poetry add another colour to this unique book In a world in which the news is bad more often than not, this inspirational book tells a story of optimism and success, and of how dreams can become true.

Richard Noyce, Artist and Writer, Wales, July 2012 contact honeykhor@gmail.com martinabradley@gmail.com http://colorsofcambodia.org/

in Bradley and illustrated by Honey Khor of her encounter with a , and how she was drawn into practical involvement with the children project exists.

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ART GALLERY siem reap 46

Fin DAC

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TRIBE Art Gallery and Cocktail Bar Opened in November 2018, TRIBE Urban Art Gallery is the latest edition to Siem Reap’s coolest district, Kandal Village and it’s Art scene.

Nat Di Maggio & Terry McIlkenny, the owners/managers both share a love and passion for Urban / Street and Contemporary Art. Originally from London UK where they have been heavily immersed in the Street Art scene as Gallery & Exhibition Curators and collectors.

The Gallery’s purpose and mission is to primarily nurture and support local Khmer talent, established and emerging. Inviting international Artist to showcase their work, share their experiences and skills, tell their stories enabling Khmer Artists to realise their global artistic possibilities.

The Gallery acts as a creative hub, hosting many events, exhibitions and workshops.

Tribe invites all artists to make contact or to come and meet with them, established or otherwise, The Gallery has a Classic Cocktail bar where the works can be enjoyed in a relaxed informal atmosphere.

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Tribe Siem Reap interior

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Urban/contemporary art gallery and cocktail bar set in Siem Reap's coolest district, Kandal Village. Showcasing international street art whilst nurturing and supporting local Khmer talent

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Call +855 81 378 233 / m.me/TRIBEcambodia / tribecambodia@yah

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hoo.com / 655 Central Market St, Krong Siem Reap 17252, Cambodia

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pastel Colors of Cambodia On St. Valentine’s Day this year, students at Colors of Cambodia, Siem Reap, were privy to a second practical workshop demonstrating the soft pastel medium by Audrey Ng - a Singaporean exponent of Japan Nagomi Pastel Art. For the second time, students delighted in the medium and produced many impressive images, in a relatively short time.

Such was Audrey Ng’s diligence that, because the current virus concern, and her tenacity in not wanting to disappoint, Ms Ng arranged

a Televideo conference lesson between herself in Singapore and Colors of Cambodia students in Siem Reap, Cambodia. It was a win/win situation with students experiencing distance video teaching for the first time, as well as being able to learn a little more from their Singaporean volunteer teacher.

A brief history of soft pastels (some times called chalk pastels) reminds us that they have become one of the many mediums available to artists.

In more recent times therapeutic effects of using the very malleable soft pastels have come to the fore, popularised by organisations such as one Japanese pastel art organisation originated by Hosoya Norikatsu - Japan Nagomi Pastel Art. We learn that the idea of colour drawing sticks (chalks or pastels) is not new. In 1762 Georg Christoph Günther, in his “Praktische Anweisung 56

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Images are taken from the physical workshop led by Audrey Ng, in Siem Reap

zur Pastellmahlerey / geschrieben” sought to enlighten us about the manufacture of pastels as a medium while, according to traveller and writer Frédéric Auguste Antoine Goupil….

“The name pastel, from the Italian pasta, which means paste, is given to a kind of drawing or painting done with coloured crayons, more or less soft, on paper of a certain grain; on paper, boards, etc., coated with a certain preparation; on wood, prepared in the same way; on vellum, rendered downy or cottony by rubbing; or even on canvas, coated with a preparation.”

Frédéric Auguste Antoine Goupil, Pastel Painting: Simplified and Perfected, F.Weber & Co. 1899, original French edition 1858.

Pastel pigments, with binders such as gum Arabic, fish or animal glue, originated, we are lead to believe, from 16th century northern Italy, and were used by artists such as Jacopo Bassano and Federico Barocci.

However, it was in the 18th century that the medium came into its own, and was revived in the 19th century by artists such as Edgar Degas, Auguste Renoir, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, Odilon Redon and many others.

The original ‘hard’ pastels (with more binder and less pigment) were firm and could be sharpened to a fine point, for artistic detail, whereas ‘soft’ pastels, using less binder and therefore more pigment, have allowed pastels to gain in colour range and support greater artistic effects.

However, the looseness of soft pastels has meant that ‘fixatives’ are needed to prevent unintentional smudging. These are details currently being learned by students at Colors of Cambodia, with thanks to Singaporean Audrey Ng and Malaysian Honey Khor.

Colors of Cambodia students are already adding soft pastels to their repertoire of mediums - watercolour, coloured pencil, acrylic and oils, in which they already excel. This is demonstrated by the wide range of prints produced of the works by Colors of Cambodia students and staff, their postcards, and calendars.

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Colors of

Providing art fo

No. 592, Preah Sang Svay Dongko Siem Reap cit

Business Hours: 9AM-10PM (with 60

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greach Tep Vong St, om Commune ty, Cambodia.

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Sadek Ahmed is a freelance artist with twenty plus years experience in the field of visual arts. Watercolour painting and print making being his passions. Ahmed completed his BFA (Hons) and MFA Degree at the Dept. of Print making, Faculty of Fine Arts, at the University of Dhaka, Bangladesh 1st Class. As a fine artist he has had a solo exhibition and more than thirty five group exhibitions and workshops at home and abroad. He achieved an Honourable and 2 Media Best awards for Watercolour & Print making from the Annual Art Exhibition of Faculty of Fine arts, University of Dhaka.

Bangladesh bank, Hotel Intercontinental, United Hospital, Bengal Foundation, Shilpokola Academy, Renaissance Group Limited , Popular Diagnostic Centre and Many private collections to Home and Abroad have collected his work.

Phone: +88 01770705474 Email: artistsadekahmed@gmail.com Website: www.sadekahmed.com FB Profile : https://www.facebook.com/sadekahmedbdartist

Old Dhak Sadek Ahmed

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Kartalab Khan Mosque, Beguam Bazar, Old Dhaka

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Boro Bari from BK Das Road

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Burigonga from Ruplal House

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Armenian Church, Armanitola

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Morning Shine of Old Dhaka

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Kartalab Khan Mosque, Begumbazar

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Tales of Old Dhaka

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BK Das Road, Forashgonj

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Sri Lankan American cookbook

Author Mary Anne Mohanraj

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A Feast of Serendib

by Mary Anne Mohanraj A Review

by Martin Bradley

Sri Lankan American academic, novelist and story teller Mary Anne Mohanraj, author of numerous books of different flavours, now presents a visual and textural feast - ‘A Feast of Serendib’.

This appetising book is published by Mascot Books and printed, coincidently, here in Malaysia. The book’s informative and poignant illustrations are by Pamudu Tennakoon, and overall book design by Jeremy John Parker. Mary Anne Mohanraj’s ‘A Feast of Serendib’ is available through Amazon.

In this culinary/literary infusion, Mohanraj has laid out, cover to cover, some one hundred flavoursome recipes (over 270 plus pages) from an appetiser of Chili-Mango Cashews to a dessert of Tropical Fruit with Chili, Salt, and Lime. The recipes originated from recollections of her mother’s Sri Lankan superbly multifaceted cooking, collected more than a decade before. Mohanraj’s hard work, patience and diligence has paid off in the production of this elegantly designed, and most informative, volume of a rare cuisine.

The book’s title ‘Serendib’ is where the word serendipity derives. In Arabic/Persian, ‘Serendib’ means the Island of Rubies - that stunning isle which we now call Sri Lanka, or Lanka - the famous isle of the Hindu Ramayana (Sita and Rama’s love story). For others that punctuation of Indian sub-continent is Ceylon, wafting memories of tea.

My personal attachment to the island of Sri Lanka had began in 2004.

I carried a broken heart to heal from India’s Chennai to the majestically spiritual island of Sri Lanka. Previously I had foolishly engaged in a short lived romance with a Keralan Singaporean (no Sita/Rama story), which had sadly gone sour. On the way back to England I took the opportunity to heal my aching heart in Sri Lanka. I had looked forward to the distinct pleasure of spending a few days sheltering beneath wind cooled banana fronds on Sri Lanka’s west coast, near the capital, Colombo with a hankering for authentic ‘Hoppers’.

As I was on an ancient island known to be blessed with a most diverse of cuisines from Sinhalese and Tamil traditions; from the cuisines of Arabia, from the Portuguese, the Dutch, British etc., it seemed pertinent to discover more about the food that I had come to love back in the amiable homes of British friends of Sri Lankan descent.

Since the 1990s I had developed a taste for the aforementioned Sri Lankan ‘Hoppers’ (those delightfully thin fermented batter ‘pancakes’ with the soft spongy middle used for absorbing coconut milk and 76

Chili-Mango Cashews photo by Mary Anne Mohanraj

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Hoppers photo by Mary Anne Mohanraj

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Meen Kari photo by Mary Anne Mohanraj

jaggery, called appams in Indian, page 203). Likewise, the sheer delight of the thin rice noodle ‘String Hoppers’ (Idiyappam, or rice flour dough steamed noodles, also called putu mayam in Malaysian) which had captured my gastronomic imagination. Incidentally, hoppers and string hoppers are excellent with curries, especially when eaten using your fingers for an authentic experience and an enhanced taste. I suggest that you follow the recipes laying betwixt the pages of ‘A Feast of Serendib’, and thereby discover for yourself. I might also imply that the simplicity of a Sri Lankan ‘Fish Curry’ (Meen Kari, mentioned on page 109) with hopper/string hopper or rice is similarly difficult to resist.

Mary Anne Mohanraj’s delicious book brings all those righteous tastes back to me. Mohanraj’s ‘A Feast of Serendib’ feeds my inner craving for Sri Lankan cuisine, and those items of Indian cuisine which have slipped into it, like ‘Chai’ (Indian tea) and ‘Falooda’ (which is somewhere between a drink and a dessert containing milk and sweet basil seeds and sometimes rose water and ice cream), and may just have an Iranian connection. Reading Mohanraj’s book, and gawping at the images and recipes makes me wish that I could just up sticks once more and travel back to that resplendent island, and again savour its distinctive fare.

Thank you, Mary Anne Mohanraj, for the nostalgia.

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Aung Min Min Aung Min Min was born in 1953 in Yangon, Myanmar. He studied cartooning from Saya U Win Mg and U Kyaw Ooand began his career as a cartoonist from 1971 to 1987. He also studied Myanmar Traditional art under Saya Gyi U Kyaw and also Thai Traditional art with the Thai artist Arset.

Aung Min Min's main medium is acrylic on Canvas.

In 2017, he started to change the way he painted, depicting daily life and rituals of the people of Myanmar. In" Myanmar Rituals Series", his subjects are depicted with black or brown faces which capture the nature skin tones of the Burmese people.

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Traveller in an Abstract Universe Yashvant Singh

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Yashvant Singh is a Traveller in many senses. He strolls, saunters and roams around in different parts of Delhi, where he has been living for some years and pursuing his art. He is a Traveller in another sense as well. He started as a figurative artist, and after Travelling for a while in this genre, has now become an abstract artist. Born in Jhansi, a historical city of Uttar Pradesh Yashvant got formal education in art places. He did his BFA and MFA from Gwalior Madhya Pradesh. He now lives in Delhi and is totally committed to arts. He neither teaches art nor does other kinds of job/business for living. He is totally dependent upon and committed to paintings. He makes art, breathes arts and dreams art. He is an artist round the clock. But how is Yashvant Singh a traveller in abstract universe? Is the `abstract universe' a word- play?

Not at all. To understand it one has to know the journey of Yashwant's art. When he started painting seriously, he was very much influenced by folk and tribal arts, particularly which are permanently displayed and exhibited in Bharat Bhavan, Bhopal, where he used to visit regularly during his student days. Whenever he found time he visited nearby villages and watched the working styles of folk and tribal artists. The motives, styles, different types of figuration and above all the innocence inherent in folk and tribal arts influenced and captivated the mind of young yashvant. They fired his figurative imagination. He totally devoted himself towards figurative painting. This, however, proved to be a passing phase for the budding young artist as soon enough he came in contact with Anwar, the veteran of Indian abstract painting. Then began his new journey. Gradually he shifted towards abstract paintings and the figuration started to wane. Nevertheless it has not yet completely disappeared from his visual language. Glimpses of figurative art are still present in his recent works, and so are imageries of folk and tribal arts.

In fact, the figurative elements of his art are still prominently present in his drawings which are unfortunately not exhibited here. In my opinion, there should be another exhibition of his artworks consisting of only his drawings.

However that is a separate issue that can be mentioned but not be discussed at length here. A few years ago Yashvant wrote a few lines in Hindi about his art which can be summarized as such “me and my art are the same; I see my temperament in the colours I use, I write my emotions through the language of colours which are becoming mysterious and deep over the course of time�. In the meanwhile Yashvant Singh continues to be a traveller in abstract universe occasionally visiting the realm of figurative art.

RAVINDRA TRIPATHY Art Critic and Playwright New Delhi. 2019

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Rhumiere &

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Georges' Lane Krong Siem Reap +855 9

orges

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96 861 7448 www.georges-rhumerie.com

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Mohammad Eunus Mohammed Eunus is an artist from Bangladesh who is born in 1954 at Thagurgaon district, north-west Bangladesh. From childhood Eunnus was interested in painting. He passed his SSC examination from PTI school in Thakurgaon, and interest in painting drew him to Dhaka and art college. He was admitted into the Institute of Fine Art, at the University of Dhaka.

The life journey for Mohammed Eunus starts from there. Eunus mostly produces pure abstract paintings. The painter frequently changes the arrangement of his forms, compositions and largely the structure of the paintings. His means of expression is pure abstraction and abstract expressionism. He feels that drawings are an appearance of the thoughts, the inner world and what literally makes the daily life of an artist. His works show the world the way he sees it, and manifest the essence of the things he has seen. Eunus’ paintings are also mirror of his mind frame.

His lines signify the modern mode of expression. His expression features varied structures, oval, encircled and doodle forms, symbols, triangular and rectangular shapes and lines have taken over the canvas. Geometric structures and architectural views also give a new perspective to his works. His colours and forms clearly voice the dilemma of our times.

Mohammed Eunus is one of Bangladesh’s leading painters from the ’70s, when the nation was caught up in the freedom movement. His thinking and thoughts are different from other painters because of his pure canvas art. In an interview Mohammad Eunus said something about him…..

“My work is something like ‘camera’ a poem that contains million metaphors. When I start painting in my studio, I work with passion and inspiration. I play with line and colour, I nourish themes and proportions.

Many in my society believe that painting or any short of art work is a visual entertainment. If you are like most people, visual artwork is not even on your radar screen. Painting to me are something worship. It is the most glorious moment when I complete a canvas. I see my colours are in a dancing mood on the canvas and they interact with stunning gesture.

Something I think even when I am much satisfied and relaxed with my works, that is, is the work understandable to the audience? Generally I think you do not need an art education, grounding is art history or a ton of money to understand a piece of art work. Appreciation of art has to do with developing your stability to it, which in turn, expends your perception 102

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and enriches your life. My works are like our surroundings, most known world we belong to. one of my critics wrote on my works … “do not speak on it, let the work speak to you”… actually this is the whole thing how a visitor can find the meaning of a painting or art work. In my work I always transfer my beliefs, emotions and passion which can be told as ‘universal energy’ and those elements portray the universal feelings. When you stand in front of my painting you can feel universal energy vibrating from it the painting is alive.

Now I must tell something about inspiration and how has it been playing an important role in my paintings. All through my painting career I always look to vibrant, sensual and expressive canvases. My Inspiration can come from almost anything. I carry this inspiration with me as I keep sketching and experimenting until I arrive at an image that is my artistic response to that inspiration. I strongly believe that my painting itself is like a dance, it flows effortlessly and naturally.”

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Sisterhood in Spontanrealismus

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Celeste Lecaroz Comes in Colours

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Comes in Colours

by Martin Bradley She comes in colours ev’rywhere; She combs her hair She's like a rainbow Coming colours in the air Oh, everywhere She comes in colours Keith Richards, Mick Jagger, from the song She’s a Rainbow, on Their Satanic Majesties Request Album, 1967

Celeste Lecaroz (Celeste Lecaroz - Aceron y Salud) hit the ground running with her first solo exhibition, in May 2018, titled “Lecaroz Spontanrealismus”, after having been painting for only two years. Lecaroz developed her artwork in a style which she has referred to as “Lecaroz Spontanrealismus” (or Lecaroz Spontaneous Realism), styled after the work of ‘Spontaneous Realism’ by the neo-Fauve Austrian artist Voka.

Voka describes "Every painting is an impulsive challenge that starts with a first idea and ends with the final brush stroke, and each brush stroke decides over victory or defeat.” Lacaroz, like Voka and the “Les Fauves” (The Fauves) before him, has a distinct “dialogue with colours.” For she creates her vivid imagery full of gusto, verve and robust colour.

In the early 1900s, Fauves’ initiators were Henri Matisse, André Derain, Raoul Dufy, Georges Rouault, Maurice de Vlaminck, Albert Marquet, Kees Van Dongen, and Othon Friesz. The Fauves, meaning the ‘Wild Beasts’, had been so named by the French art critic Louis Vauxcelles due to the shocking non-natural colouration of their canvases. Incidentally The Fauves are believed to be the first real ‘Modernist’ painters and leaders of avant-garde art, due to their use of colour as expression rather than mimesis.

Fauve Henri Matisse had written (in ‘Notes d'un peintre’ in La Grande Revue, Paris, 25 December 1908) that…

“Expression, for me, does not reside in passions glowing in a human face or manifested by violent movement. The entire arrangement of my picture is expressive: the place occupied by the figures, the empty spaces around them, the proportions, everything has its share. Composition is the art of arranging in a decorative manner the diverse elements at the painter's command to express his feelings. In a picture every part will be visible and will play its appointed role, whether it be principal or secondary. Everything that is not useful in the picture is, it follows, harmful. A work of art must be harmonious in its entirety: any superfluous detail would replace some other essential detail in the mind of the spectator.”

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Although Celeste’s Filipino artistic predecessor, Victorio Edades (1895 to 1985), has been proclaimed as the “Father of Philippine Modern Art”, it is Fernando Amorsolo y Cueto (1982 to 1972) who brought the sunshine into Philippine painting. He coloured rural imagery full of Post-Impressionist lightness, typified by his paintings ‘Workers in the Field’ (1926) and ’The Tinikling’ (1946), whereas Edades was inclined to more sombre representations. It is Fernando Amorsolo y Cueto’s tradition of colour in the art of The Philippines, which re-emerges with the flamboyant imagery of Celeste Lecaroz.

Henri Matisse also wrote (again from ‘Notes’) that….

“The chief function of colour should be to serve expression as well as possible.

I put down my tones without a preconceived plan…..I cannot copy nature in a servile way; I am forced to interpret nature and submit it to the spirit of the picture. From the relationship I have found in all the tones there must result a living harmony of colours, a harmony analogous to that of a musical composition."

Fernando Amorsolo y Cueto,'Workers in the field', 1926

Jay Maisel (in his book “Light, Gesture & Color”) reminds us that…

“Color is seductive. It changes as it interacts with other colors, it changes because of the light falling upon it, and it changes as it becomes larger in size.

This last aspect can be seen in the tears and rage of anyone who has chosen a color based on a two-inch sample and painted an entire room in it.”

From the Impressionist’s (1860 onward) with their scientific approach to colour, to Georges Seurat and Paul Signac’s Pointillism (mid 1880s) and those artists who have been deemed Post-Impressionist all were developing fresh ways of painting the art subject. Colour was an integral part of this. Artists began to move away from the colours they perceived directly from the subject, away from what might be noted as a cold clear naturalism, and trying desperately to emulate the colours they thought they saw before them, to investing feeling, and emotion, into the equation.

This led to emotive exploration by a group so named “Les Nabis” (or ‘The Prophets’ ,1880 to 1900s) who worked towards a stylised flatness of colour, often using decorative elements as seen in Paul Élie Ranson’s 119

painting ‘Nu se coiffant au bord de l’étang’ (1897), a variation on the artistic ‘Bathers’ meme.

Post-Impressionists (from 1886 onwards) like Vincent van Gogh, Paul Gauguin and Alfred Wolmark worked with heightened colouration and emotive form, as witnessed in Gauguin’s ‘Vision after Sermon ( Jacob Wrestling)’ (1888), Van Gogh’s ‘The Mulberry Tree’ (1889) and Wolmark’s ‘Decorative Still Life’ (1911).

A flamboyant use of colour had been developing in the West which eventuated in the aforementioned works of those painterly wild beasts “Les Fauves” (1905 to 1910), and a wonderful quote from Henri Matisse “...when I put down a green, it doesn't mean grass; and when I put down

Paul Élie Ranson, ‘Nu se coiffant au bord de l’étang’, 1897

a blue, it doesn't mean the sky.” Colour, in a sense, had been set free from the subject and enchained only by imagination and emotion, aided and abetted by science and new ways of manufacturing brighter tube paint pigments.

Further to this, Nathalia Brodskaïa, in her book ‘The Fauves’ (1995, pp30) writes…

“Their painting [the Fauves] brought out the very thing inherent in the 120

Roxanne in Spontanrealismus

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Alfred Wolmark, 'Decorative Still Life', 1911

medium: the capacity of oil paints to set in pastose clots or to spread in a thin layer making it possible for one colour to penetrate into another without losing its purity and resonance in the process. They were united by a genuine, feverish delight in the possibilities offered by a bare canvas and tubes of oil paint….”

The advent of Otto Röhm creating acrylic resin, in the 1930s, later heralded the notion of acrylic paint, and changed the way painters painted. Artists such as David Hockney, Roy Lichenstein and Andy Warhol, in the 1960s, championed acrylic paint because of its perceived diversity and quick drying properties. Since those days the quality of acrylic paints has improved no end, as has the initially limited colour range. New testing standards suggest that the new acrylic paints will be lightfast between 50 and 100 years.

Acrylic paints enable Celeste Lecaroz to rapidly capture her images without having to wait inordinate amounts of time before applying fresh colours. She is able to react in a spontaneous manner, and create in a figurative, some might say realistic, fashion. Hence her reflection of Volk’s ‘Spontaneous Realism’ while simultaneously giving an art historical nod to her predecessors, Filipino and foreign.

Vincent Van Gogh,‘The Mulbe

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erry Tree’, 1889

Rosas Pandan in Spontanrealismus

André Derain, 'The Pool of London', 1906

Sir Matthew Smith, 'Nude, Fitzroy Street, No. 1', 1916

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siund tan Fables, folklores, mysteries, adventures, events, opinions, history, and stories became larger than live to those who affixed their gaze onto that little box one has at home. It is not an uncommon sight to see kids spending time in front of the television whilst their parents are preoccupied with their daily activity. To many, they are indeed safer than to let the kids out into the streets and subject themselves to impending accidents.

Since young, Siund is one such individual who is much affected by it. The sight and sounds on the television screen and the radio are what fascinate him as he spends many hours affixing his gaze onto them which allow his imagination to soar taking in all that entertainment has to offer. From advertisements to cartoons, the imagery embedded in his mind consistently replays as he acted out those scenes with his siblings, mimicking the somersaults and the gestures of his heroes on tv. Those were the heydays.

Nevertheless , as the years pass by, such memories of what has conjured has a deep influence on him. Locked inside his little grey cells, he managed to capture specific moments of those glorious images and today, allowed them to be replayed as narratives on his canvasses. Elements of nostalgia are his adventure.

Fast forward, rewind, pause, the impulse to allegorise pulsates through him as he allows stills and specific moments to dominate his works.

Born in Kedah in 1981, Siund Tan graduated with a B.F.A in Graphic Design from Curtin University of Technology, Australia. He is the winner of Malaysia Emerging Artist Award (MEAA) in 2011, and one of the finalists of The 16th Da Dun Fine Arts Exhibition of Taichung City, Taiwan.

11, Lorong 11/4F, Seksyen 11, 46200 Petaling Jaya, Selangor, Malaysia.

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Siraj Sk

curvaceous colours Siraj Sk, aka Shaik Sirajuddin creates curvaceous Indian beauties with his Shakuntala series of work, in watercolours on paper. He hails from Hyderabad, India.

In Indian mythology Shakuntala was a beautiful young woman who was the adopted daughter of Sage Karnva. They lived together, along with her pet deer, in a hermitage in the forest. She married a king who became cursed, and forgot her, but, as in all moralistic stories, all turned out right in the end.

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imaginings from my escapades

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"Leading and influencing change for a living, photography connects what I see with what I feel, outdoors and travelling expands my appreciation of nature and other cultures, great food and restaurants are always better with friends and family.

If paintings depicting photo-realistic scenes are readily accepted as fine art, is it possible for photographs that look like art to be accepted?

That was the question I sought to find the answer to as I embarked upon my quest to understand fine art photography.

Inspired by photography works of Michael Kenna, Saul Leiter and paintings by Vincent van Gogh, Monet and Paul Cezane coupled with connections to my values, life experiences and emotions, I continue to seek to create through my lens."

Barry Ong (Malaysian photographer)

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Kampot black pepper

New Mekong Cuisine Thlok Ondong Village, Group 23, Slorkram Commune, Siem Reap, Cambodia Call +855 61 926 562 m.me/lumorngfarmtotable info@lumorngrestaurant.com http://www.lumorngrestaurant.com

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Lemongrass

Edible flowers photography by Terence Carter Photography

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Kampot black pepper

Organic to Orgasmic

by Martin Bradley Paul McCartney’s song “The long and winding road” perhaps should have included Cambodian potholes.

The journey out of Siem Reap central, via ubiquitous tuk tuk, to dine at Chef Sothea Seng’s freshly originated Lum Orng farm to table Khmer (Cambodian) restaurant, may have been long and indeed winding, but the journey was 100% necessary and extremely worth the effort of being jostled in that open sided Cambodian vehicle. To be fair, Lum Orng does provide its own tuk tuk, as local drivers have yet to learn the lengthy way out to the restaurant’s secluded location at Thlok Ondong Village, so there is little chance of either getting lost or being stranded without transportation.

Lum Orng means pollen in Khmer. The restaurant’s naming is indicative of the seriousness with which Chef Sothea Seng takes his organic philosophy (from ‘farm to table’) within the concepts of a high cuisine eatery. As far as it is possible, Lum Orng cultivates its own herbs and vegetables to be enjoyed at their peak, meaning that freshness is a key component to the look and taste of the restaurant’s delectably nouveau Khmer cuisine.

My guest and I had arrived a little wind swept and interesting (to quote once vegetarian Glaswegian comic Billy Connolly), and were immediately escorted into a nearby wilderness.

Through rows of intriguing plants, bushes and trees we traversed the darkening paths (it was past eight pm and past sundown too. The fields behind us were dark. Stars dotted the heavens. Actually seeing what we were being handed was troublesome. It was like dinning in one of those now trendy dine in the dark restaurants, only we hadn’t quite made it to the restaurant yet.

Both the journey, and the wandering into cloches of (perhaps) greenery, of Morning Glory (Water Spinach) of ‘Fishwort’ (mint) leaves (which, magically, taste of fish) and the spiky bushes of ‘Kaffir Lime’ (which distinctly remind me of all things Thailand) was well worth it for my, much needed, Khmer culinary learning curve.

I confess to a great deal of ignorance concerning Khmer cuisine.

Although I have visited Cambodia many times over the last seven years, have taken mediocre to marvellous ‘Amok’ and less than interesting ‘curries’, have written about my discoveries and those interesting looking but bland items I have tasted (including desiccated snake, ants/other insects), until this revelatory night of the winding road I had not been privy to the more gastronomically experimental side of Cambodia’s food, now aptly called ‘New Mekong Cuisine’.

It was in Siem Reap (Cambodia) that I first encountered ‘Moringa” leaves, or the leaves of the ‘Drum Stick Tree’ (seen in Malaysia as 160

Kaffir lime leaves

murungai). Those very green tasting ‘Moringa’ leaves have taken on a life all of their own and are now the latest, Western, faddiest, most nutritional in-thing. If, for what ever reason, one cannot take the small leaves au naturel there is a host of choices from ‘Moringa’ powder, tablets, ‘Moringa’ mixed with honey tablets and ‘Moringa’ mixed with ‘Spirulina’ tablets too. In Siem Reap there is even a bar and restaurant named from that darling leaf.

In the Lum Orng restaurant it was to be yet more leaves. Leaves and edible flowers. This was curtesy of the two ‘Tasting’ (degustation) menus my guest and I enthusiastically ordered. During my, now lengthy, time in South East Asia, I have been well aware of the many uses of the ‘Blue Pea Flower’, which is often used to colour rice in Malaysia. However, I have been quite remiss concerning the plethora of other Asian edible flowers. Sure enough (to educate me in the ways of edible Cambodian flora), there was a host of petals on my plates. Those petals were blue and tantalising, yellow and intriguing, white and alluring, red and boisterous (Flamengo Bill - Sesbania grandiflora, known locally as angkea dei) and mauve (Sesbania flowers) too. It was as if the management knew that my partner was an artist. There were two Tasting menus, we tried both. One Tasting menu was vegetarian, the other not. We shared.

As with any reputable restaurant, the menu changes. As so it was with our ‘Tasting’ menus. We sampled and savoured the sheer delights of those menus, visually, texturally and for palatableness too. From the menus our samples included ‘Beef Carpaccio’, described as …’a Cambodian ‘carpaccio’ of beef, doused in lemongrass oil, sprinkled with finely sliced kaffir lime leaves and a little chilli, encircled by fresh fish mint (fishwort), fragrant basil, and edible flowers, including butterfly pea and pink sesbania grandiflora, known locally as hummingbird flowers’.

There was also ‘Braised Mekong River Catfish’ striped of its ‘fishiness’ and presented as ‘Braised fish fillet of Mekong River catfish with Banteay Srei palm sugar, Kampot black pepper and wild ginger root, and it’s served with green mango with sautéed water lily’.

Halfway through there was a palate cleanser of ‘Sorbet Intermezzo’, which is described thusly…’Kaffir lime sorbet served on bed of watermelon salsa, dried fish flakes and chilli flowers’.

Upon visiting, you may delight in practically any variation of this new Cambodian cuisine, from ‘pan-seared langoustine served with crispy rice noodle and chive salad, special minced pork and lobster sauce, and poached quail egg’ to ‘wok-fried rice-crusted frog legs, lotus root and straw mushrooms in homemade oyster sauce with fresh watercress’ and, quite possibly, anything in-between. For us, the presentation perfectly matched the subtle variety of tastes and textures presented on the rustic plates before us.

There were no highlights to the meal(s). Each serving was as intriguing as the next, and the last. The mid-way sorbet, dusted with dried fish flakes was a nice touch. But, there again, so were the various garnishes of exotic leaves and edible flowers which both added to the mix of exciting tastes, and to the overall look of all the dishes.

Overall, the restaurant was intimate, tastefully decorated and respectful of the cuisine being presented. It was a more than pleasant experience all round.

Kampot black pepper

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Beef Carpaccio

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Pan seared scallops

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Deep fried edible flowers

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Sorbet Intermezzo

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Coconut dessert

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Dusun Publications The Blue Lotus Publications

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Books by Martin

Bradley 171

Out NOW......

An exciting new book about Bangladesh artist Farida Zaman.

This books charts Zaman's successes from a childhood in rural Bangladesh to her training at three of South Asia's top art schools (Bangladesh's Charulekha - Dhaka, India's Baroda, and Santiniketan in India's Bengal).

Early in 2019 Martin Bradley spent time in Dhaka getting to know the artist Farida Zaman, observing her life, becoming familiar with the local culture and, of course, getting to know Zaman's exhilarating paintings.

This fresh look at Farida Zaman's works can only ever be a snap shot, but it is a snap shot filled with information about the artist's life, her background as a female painter (in Bangladesh) and as a Professor at Dhaka's most prestigious school of art, affectionately known as Charulekha.

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by Martin Bradley

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Books By Ma

Luo Qi and Calligraphyism (2019) China Academy of Art China One of a series of biographies concerning the Chinese artist Luo Qi, and his contemporary blend of the ancient art of Chinese calligraphy and Western concerns with 'Modernism' in art.

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The Journey and Beyo (2014) Caring Pharmacy Malaysia

A brief pictorial look at history of 'Community Ph in Malaysia, charting the community pharmacies an roots in Singapore and M

artin Bradley

ond

t the harmacy' rise of nd their Malaysia.

Uniquely Toro (2013) Walters Publishing House The Philippines A 'Retrospective' concerning 'Toro' an enigmatic artist from Manila in The Philippines, whose dynamic Pollack like paintings have captured the Asian imagination

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Books By Ma

Remembering Whiteness & Other Poems (2012) Bougainvillea Press (digital) Malaysia Martin's first collection of poetry concerning his life in South East Asia. Many in this collection have been read in performance across Asia and Europe.

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A Story of Colo (201 Everday Art Stu Mala

This is the jo Malaysian artist into working wit children's char and joy of giv and eventually education of Khm book is about the of learning alo volunte Profusely illust Honey Khor ( K

artin Bradley

ors of Cambodia 12) udio & Educare aysia

Buffalo & Breadfruit (2012) Monsoon Books (digital) Malaysia

ourney of one t (Honey Khor) th a Cambodian rity, the beauty ving, teaching sponsoring the mer children. This e ups and downs ong the way to eering. trated by artist Khor Pei Yeou).

Martin unwittingly discovers, that there is nothing quite like uprooting yourself from your home of fifty-four years in suburban, temperate England and transplanting yourself into rural, equatorial Malaysia. with its trial and tribulations.

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Antho

The Best of Asian Short Stories (2018) Kitaab Singapore

Best of Southeast Asian Erotica (2010) Monsoon Books Singapore

New Malaysian Essays 2 (2009) Matahari Books Malaysia

Story - Bougainvillea

Story - Awakening

Story - Colourful Language

A sequel to Martin's 'The Good Lieutenant". Reggie Gold's younger son, John, pays his respects and discovers more than he bargained for in the process.

It is a journey into John's past. A journey from John's comfort zone of Blicton-on-Sea, to equatorial Ipoh, and to emotions and cultures he did not know he was ready for.

In the heated atmosphere of an Indian Malaysian 'roti' shop, pubescent passions become inflamed. It is the awakening of young, innocent, desire and the complications which arise.

Not so much a story, as a light hearted essay about the difference between American English and British English, the notion of Malaysia's continuing Colonisation of the mind, and the effect of the West's materialism on Malaysian young minds.

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ologies

Urban Odysseys KL Stories (2009) MPH Publishing Malaysia

Silverfish New Writing 7 (2008) Silverfish Books Malaysia

Silverfish New Writing 5 (2005) Silverfish Books Malaysia

Story - Mat Rempit

Story - The Good Lieutenant

Story - The Orchid Wife

A Mat Rempit is a Malaysian term for "an individual who participates in immoral activities and public disturbance with a motorcycle as their main transport", usually involving underbone motorcycles. This is the story of one wannbe Mat Rempit, 'Abangah', and what happens to him in Kuala Lumpur.

The story of British Lieutenant Reggie Gold, working for the Federation of Malaya Police, and his family in England, during the days of Malaysia's 'Emergency'.

This story underlines the sacrifices undertaken by British soldiers, in Perak, Malaya, during a very difficult time for Malaya.

This is, ultimately, the story of an Indian Malaysian couple, Devi and Chandran, living in Butterworth, near Penang. It is a story of the cruelties and abuses within marriage and how they become resolved.

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BANGLADESH

CAMBODIA

CHINA

WITH MARTIN BRADLEY

ITALY

MALAYSIA

PHILIPPINES

SPAIN 180