BERKEBUN

http://instagram.com/p/xEePwygP7M/

MARILAH MENUJU KEJAYAAN (LET US ACHIEVE SUCCESS)

http://www.ted.com/talks/amy_cuddy_your_body_language_shapes_who_you_are?source=googleplus&language=nl#

Our bodies are our media. So, lets improve our living by improving our postures or body language. The above link link is related to NLP(neuro-linguistic programming), non-verbal communication, assertive pose, presence, testerone and cortisol,  generating and transmitting positive aura, and internalizing healthy innernet through body postures. Checkitout.

I have included NLP in my Kebun Jiwa Halus workshop too.

http://hasnulsaidon.blogspot.com/2013/05/bahasa-badan-mencerminkan-getaran-batin.html?m=0

Postscript. Large percentage of human communication is non-verbal. Successful people and losers have different body languages. Similarly,  succesful people absorb and transmit different visual-aural vocabs compared to losers. Improving our visual and aural languages (our visual-aural vocabs and immediate surrounding) improves our experiences of living and being. It changes our neural innernet. Choose to absorb and transmit love, joy, gratitude, enthusiasm and peace in all sincerity through our body.

GROOVING WITH THE AMBIANCE OF ROZANA'S REFRESHING BATIK

"Not everyone likes to hear your music" said one annoyed minah saleh neighbour who came down her stairs and crossed the street to tell a group of street musicians to "turn down the volume".

The heritage city of George Town is blessed with a rich amalgamation of sounds. One needs to groove and dance with it in order to appreciate and live with it, instead of resisting in bitterness. Most of the passers-by stoped, took photos and droped few ringgit notes as a sign of appreciation to Irfan and Jihan, two young street musicians from Johor. Thankfully, not everyone has bitter ears in George Town.

The young couple droped by at Rozana's Refreshing Batik, to later 'berkebun bunyi' with Ainina and I. My favourite is Irfan's own version of 'malay dilema' in an upbeat funky folk rendition. Would be nice to see it performed in Persidangan UMNO or Muktamar PAS, perhaps as a part of 'meremajakan parti' or to 'listen to the voice of the younger generation'.

To Irfan and Jihan, garden your innernet with the voice of love, joy, gratitude and peace. Keep up the groove guys.

JOLLY GOOD HOLIDAY

To all my christian friends out there, may you have a merry good holiday with family and friends. Turn on our innernet, generate and transmit joy, love and gratitude beyond forms. Turn off all the hate preachers who seem to be given more space (and also overzealous angry responses that sometimes ironically generate more hate) in local newspapers, news and social media compared to those who transmit love. Don't be duped to respond to hate, because it has the cunning ability to generate more hatreds. Response only to love. Love washes away all forms of hatred like a flowing water. Or like a glowing light vanishing darkness, effortlessly, without resistence, without any need to shout loud or pointing fingers (at whoever we like to conveniently label as 'the others'). We are the all inter-connected in the much larger or vast ocean of cosmic energy. 

Lets transmit love and wash away all the bitterness within. 

ELEGI NELAYAN TELUK KUMBAR

Teluk Kumbar di Pulau Pinang kini sedang pesat membangun, ditandai oleh beberapa bangunan apartment dan blok rumah teres mewah yang rancak memacak tanah. Buminya disiram tangisan langit mendung ketika saya ke sana beberapa hari lepas. Saya membawa empat jejaka seniman muda dari Solo, Indonesia untuk singgah sebentar di Teluk Kumbar sebagai sebahagian dari sesi kuliah alami Kebun Jiwa Halus keliling Pulau Pinang. Ianya merupakan acara wajib yang sering saya sedekahkan kepada tetamu dari luar. Keempat seniman ini rakan bekas pelajar seni halus USM yang rajin dan cekal, Arina Kiswantoh. Bersama rakan dari Malaysia dan Indonesia, Arina mengusahakan pameran berkumpulan. Tahniah.

Saya sampaikan elegi Teluk Kumbar pada empat seniman muda ini, yang disertai juga oleh Sasha, penuntut tahun akhir jurusan seni halus USM. Eleginya disusul oleh santapan rezeki laut dalam bentuk mee udang. Elegi dan rezeki berduet menerusi dayungan nelayan solo di pantai Teluk Kumbar. Seniman muda dari Solo menjadi saksi elegi mencari rezeki oleh nelayan solo. 

Foto di atas amat dekat dengan getaran saya yang terkini.

INNERNETTERS OF PEACE

"The Tao that can be talked about or put into words is not the eternal Tao."

Yet, how obsessed we have been in objectifying everything, even the most sacred of utterance, to be fought over, abUSED, confUSED, diffUSED, refUSED, diminished and even insulted as object of contesting egos, words and discourses. 

How easy have we been duped and veiled from the notion that we are essentially inner netters of peace.

With gratitude to Stella Chong for the book gift, "The Inner Chapter" classic Taoist text by Chuang Tzu. It came few days after I bought "The shape of inner space" (2010) by Shing-tung Yau and Steve Nadis on string theory and the geometry of the universe's hidden dimension. All came around my current interest in the narrative of the innernet.

What kind of thought and feeling are we generating within our own innernet and transmitting to the rest of the neural network? Or to the rest of the vast web of cosmic energy? Are we generating and transmitting peace or hatred?

DRAWING FROM THE HEART

Beautiful drawings from the heart of wife-partner Rozana Mohamed, known mostly for her batik works instead of drawings. These drawings (2006) of me and our daughters sleeping in peace, are testaments of her training under few of the best fine art lecturers in the late 1980s such as Amron Omar, Fauzan Omar and Ismail Zain. Her drawings are airy, light and minimal, characters that one can also discern in most of her batik works, especially her janting lines. Sometimes, it amazes me to witness how few fine art-trained artist seemed to downplay her batik works as mere decorative and 'craft' or even simply 'gedik' (kitschy sweet) yet are themselves very weak or poor in drawing, especially figure drawing. Despite my personal explorative take on creative works, I still place traditional hand drawn fine art figurative drawing as a fundamental pre-requisite for a good artist and designer. When it comes to drawing, I'm old school. It is an insult to see many fine art students in colleges today neglect drawing, even not bringing their sketchbooks and drawing tools everywhere like I (and Rozana) used to do during our colleges years. Some of them don't even bother to download and use drawing apps in their expensive computer or mobile phones. They don't have the 'heart' to draw. 

BUKAN IKLAN UNTUK HOBBIT

Hobbit semuanya berjambang. Mereka 'menjumpai' semula pusaka harta keturunan setelah lama hidup dlm pembuangan dari tanah atau bumi warisan kelahiran dan keturunan, yg juga menjadi rebutan banyak pihak. Mereka 'menemui-semula' jati diri setelah melalui pengembaraan pulang yg jauh, amat getir dan penuh dengan cabaran serta dugaan, yg memerlukan bantuan dari beberapa puak lain. Dalam satu babak, sebelum menghembuskan nafasnya, Thorin berpesan pada Bilbao bahawa dia berharap ada lebih ramai insan seperti Bilbao di dunianya, yg lebih menghargai persahabatan dan kampung halamannya, lebih dari longgokan emas yg menggunung. Thorin, yg sebelum itu disampuk oleh saka tamak setelah berjaya kembali ke tanah pusakanya, akhirnya menghembuskan nafas di bumi pusakanya dlm keinsafan bahawa kasih pada kampung halaman, persahabatan dan persaudaraan merentas puak adalah lebih bernilai dari ketaksuban melampau terhadap harta mimpi benda. (Merujuk satu babak dalam filem 'Hobbit' edisi 3 arahan Peter Jackson)

Beberapa jam sebelum menontonnya, saya dimaklumkan oleh rakan-rakan Arina Kiswantoh dari Solo, bahawa ramai pengkarya kelahiran Bali yg sebelum ini berhijrah ke merata kota besar di Indonesia seperti Jakarta dan Jogja, setelah menjadi mewah dan berjaya dlm karier dan melepasi usia 50, kembali pulang ke Bali tanah kelahiran mereka, dgn niat untuk menghembuskan nafas akhir di kampung halaman masing-masing.

Dalam semiotik tradisi Melayu, dan tanpa kaitan langsung dgn Hobbit, berjambang sering dikaitkan dgn kealiman dan kearifan.  Sebagai satu kelompok bangsa, warisan lisannya juga penuh  pengembaraan menemui 'hero' dlm diri. Selain dari mewarisi pusaka warisan yg mewah dan kaya, ia juga amat perlu pulang menemu-semula jati dirinya yg sebenar, bukan jati duri yg disampuk saka yg sama merasuk Thorin.

CINTA TANPA SUBSIDI.

"That shop government subsidized one, after 3 months sure gone and close lah."

Itulah antara ayat tentang kedai kecil Rozana Mohamed, Rozana's Batik di Lebuh Acheh, yang pernah saya dengar terkeluar dari mulut seorang manusia yang dikhabarkan oleh beberapa 'saksi' lain sebagai seorang yang suka berprasangka buruk, stereotaip dan rendah terhadap 'orang lain' (dari dia), apatah lagi terhadap seorang 'wanita' (yang kecil)  seperti Rozana Mohamed. Rozana tidak memohon, mahupun menerima apa juga bentuk subsidi dari mana-mana pihak, kecuali subsidi ciput bulanan dari suami dia sebagai tanda kasih.  Modal Rozana kebanyakannya datang dari 'cinta' tanpa subsidi.

Namun ayat di atas (dan pelbagai ayat-ayat yang lain yang pernah di'hunus') sebenarnya adalah cara Allah membekalkan 'ubat perangsang' yang membantu memacu kehadiran Rozana's Batik di Lebuh Acheh, George Town, Pulau Pinang. Kehadirannya yang serba sederhana, telah dengan cara tersendiri, memberi sumbangan terhadap kekayaan pengalaman seni dan budaya di George Town. Ia semakin diperakui dalam pelbagai cara. Rozana's Batik adalah galeri kecil yang cekal membuatkan pengunjung dari merata dunia merasa 'besar hati' kerana dicurahkan dengan rasa hormat, ikhsan, kasih dan keghairahan terhadap keindahan seni batik. Menerusi seni batik, ia membekalkan kemewahan cinta, ceria dan kegembiraan kepada semua pengunjungnya, tanpa mengira siapa jua.  bacalah sendiri testimoni para pelanggannya jika berkesempatan.

Perakuan yang terbaru, adalah dalam buku terbitan Areca Books, tulisan Chin Yoon Khen. Syabas dan terima kasih Mr. Chin. Saya panjangkan juga berbanyak kesyukuran.

Tahniah, Rozana! heroin dalam cerita 'cinta tanpa subsidi' saya.

THE PREDICAMENT SURROUNDING ART WRITING.

(From left) Paka, Beverly, U-Wei, yours truly, Bang Usop, Nur Hanim and Jai during the launching of the second volume of Narrative in Malaysian Art series.

A music to the ears upon hearing an an award has been given to "Narratif Seni Rupa Malaysia - Menanggap Identiti", and congrats to all who were involved . It is a deserving reward too, especially to the editors, Nur Hanim and Beverly, who had worked so hard on the book.  Syukran, let us extend our gratitude as well.

Now allow me to indulge a bit, sorry, can't help it. I can personally relate to the hard work and challenges of writing and publishing art books in Malaysia, perhaps due to my 'seposen' experience of trying to initiate a 'publication profile' for the Muzium & Galeri Tuanku Fauziah (MGTF) USM during my seven years tenure as the director from 2005 until 2012. The initiative came from a persistent urge by the then Vice-Chancellor, Tan Sri Prof. Dzulkifli Abdul Razak.  With his support, and the support of the then Deputy Vice Chancellor, Prof. Asmah, and together with two of my most dedicated and hard-working staffs, Fina and Laila, we managed to publish quite a number of books, including few that involve Nur Hanim and Beverly, plus other promising young writers. We also managed to secure a special ISBN pubisher code for MGTF USM.  Now, this active and enriching writing, translating, editing and publishing phase (institutional wise) is increasingly becoming a distant echo for me.

I have been involved in numerous art book publications under different capacities, I lost count already. Recently, I was privileged to be a part of yet another excellent art book on Sooshie Sulaiman entitled "Sulaiman itu Melayu". Its a good book worth buying and reading. Of course, I can be accused of practicing 'kronisme' here, but heck, the community of writers on modern and contemporary art in Malaysia is small. We don't really have much choice except to know and support each other, even though at times we may disagree with each other. Plus, credits must be cited and given to those who deserve them. 

Writing and publishing books on modern and contemporary art in Malaysia have not really been a 'celebrated' or highly appreciated endeavor, as compared to making art and exhibiting them. They have also not been a 'luxurious' job. Sometimes, they may even backfire, as not everyone welcomes critical judgments and writings. In addition, the larger Malaysian public don't really like to buy (not to mention read) books about art.

For those interested in reading about some of the polemics of art writings in Malaysia, they have to wait for the forth-coming publication of volume (3rd. or 4th.) of the Narratives in Malaysian Art series. I have just finished translating an essay by Dr. Sareena Abdullah of USM, on the predicament surrounding art writing vs art criticism in Malaysia. 

Therefore, the award can also be taken as a timely acknowledgement and encouragement to all writers who have contributed in so many different ways, to the discourse of modern and contemporary art in Malaysia. Being a subjective and interpretive practice, there is no one single absolute (or 'right') way of writing about modern and contemporary art in Malaysia. To streamline art writing and criticism to only one narrow 'method' or 'objective' criteria would not create a healthy setting for a discursive visual art ecology in Malaysia. It would be too prescriptive (if not restrictive), autocratic, didactic, rigid and counter-intuitive as well. 

All approaches (even those that one may strongly disagree with) that have been deployed by numerous individuals who have written about modern and contemporary art in Malaysia, should be given due credit, acknowledgment and respect. One may disagree with another writer's approach, or even counter his or her argument; but surely it would be unwise to discredit his/her contribution all-together in one generic or lazy sweep. We should rather be thankful to them.

Now, another personal indulgence. 

In my humble 'Kebun Rupa' (personal repository of reading materials and resources), I have hundreds of books and written materials on modern and contemporary art in Malaysia, that I have lovingly bought, collected, kept, arranged, archived and managed, for so many years. Even books with writings that I may not favor (totally disagree) are given a place and respect in the 'Kebun'. 

I went through lots of challenges, troubles and problems to keep them together too, especially whenever I had to move them from one place to another. Once, I was directed to empty the space (Kebun Rupa) where I used to keep the books and other written materials for my students, other students, fellow friends and visitors to use as references.  The directive came during a very testing time when I had to be with my dying father then, who later passed away in June.

Kebun Rupa also used to serve as a semiotic register for the spirit of 'writing and publishing' since I edited, translated and wrote few important materials on contemporary art in Malaysia there. 

Now Kebun Rupa is tucked tightly in the living room of my small rented terrace house. Nonetheless, the directive reminds me of the predicament surrounding learning, writing and publishing about art; it also reminds me that life is not only transient, but also full of interesting twists and ironies. That is why any acknowledgement or credits given to fellow writers (and editors) on the modern and contemporary art in Malaysia, will always be a music to my ears.

Tahniah, and syukran. 

     

I-NINA - "STANDING IN THE EYES OF THE WORLD"

Excerpt from I-Nina's performance in "Music Extravaganza - USM Jazz Band Concert"

DTSP USM, November, 2014