Sunday, November 08, 2015



In 2005, I found out about food not bombs, activism and arts and activism. I have never quite fit in the activist circle nor the purely aesthetic role of the art/artist
2 years back, I thought that if the arts is about money and aesthetics, then the arts isn't for me. Lostgen has always had programmes that stimulate thought and discussion beyond the idea that art is for the collectors. The beauty of lost gen is that the artist are free to create as they please.
Last year I met Susanne Bosch whose works reminds me to question the role of the art and the artist. I just found out that I will be attending this masterclass TransActions in the field - challenging the role of citizen participation through participatory public art. Looks like I will be consolidating my past activity sooner than I thought.

Friday, October 23, 2015

On books and remembrance

I remember devouring books in high school when everything tire me.
I remember staring at my dog wondering if she is speaking to me, but I wasn't listening after reading a fantasy book.
I remember loving trees reading a story of a tree that grew up with a boy and gave all her fruits and life.
I remember the mundane disappearing as I turn the pages of my book.
I remember staring at other people's books and asking what are you reading hence making a new friend. 
I remember because she was talking about Sandman I met Neil Gaiman.
I remember the library being my sanctuary.
I remember my dad insisting I read some Pulitzer Prize books and not understanding what was going on. Later dad confessed the same haha
I remember being obsess with mythology and the British council library was my favorite place to go. The long hike up the hill made me me sweat in the sticky humidity,but as my little legs push my body forward,the dins of the rushing world slowed to the sound of my panting breathe and winds brushing the rain trees lining the road.
I remember the smell of the books long unopen and the pages crackling under my fingers.
My wander lust all started from stories and as I try to grow up and read serious stuff, slowly I lose my sense of wandering and imaginings which leaves possibilities hanging on closed doors.
Books made me dream reality and my 5 years hiatus from fiction was much needed to make my reality dream.
So after a month long trip to Europe and Enroute from Singapore, my suitcase is filled with books. This time photobooks. Still through these books, I step into someone else's world but the book and the story is only complete when I look through the pictures and insert my own decodifying processes.

Sunday, September 06, 2015

Bats and black gold

Last night I reached home.
The garden across the street at my parent's place.
I love the smell of the earth that warmly embraces.
I swear it smells sweet.
I've been looking out for bats in the garden.
Staring at the peony looking plant which is wilting
(damn whomever who poured poison on it....or creature killing it)
the stunted mango tree next to the frangipani
and the hibiscus plant that my neighbour threw away
something swooped between the trees and I think its a bat.
Bat (fu 蝠)
The bat is a symbol of happiness and joy. The Chinese for bat (fu 蝠) sounds identical to the word for good fortune(fu 福) making bats a popular Chinese rebuses. - reference from The British Musuem . org
I learnt in permaculture bats droppings are also call Black Gold. Bat droppings are rich in phosphates and nitrates which are used in fertilizer. Also bats eat all the pesky insects that chew on my crops.
This is my kind of economy, an ecosystem which doesn't require me to buy.
Welcoming a host of bats in the garden and guano for the plants and doubles as pest control. (So far I've
I wonder if my cotton plant weren't hosting some cotton ball bats...
maybe i should have checked in the banana leaves.

Thoughtful sleep

Sleep finally comes,
The idea, the thought,
is so demanding
the image, the sound
shouts to be recorded
Writing doesn't alleviate,
.........................
until all said and done
Rest is assured
who needs a coach
or a personal motivator
When you have an idea
in the head
roaring
...
zzz

Saturday, September 05, 2015

Under Yohji Yamamoto


偶像 - "That's why I'm always heading in my own direction,in parallel to fashion. Because if you're not waking up what is asleep, you might as well stay on the beaten path"
Yohji Yamamoto.



In a struggle to stay a float, I wrote this on my wall,in a room I slept in at my parent's place.
After 6 years, I breathe easy sleeping in this room, but it is not where I live at ease.












Thursday, September 03, 2015

Memoirs on walking


Stressed,
I took a walk
from Masjid Jamek
to Klcc.

Walking
the city,
pockets
of beauty
Remnants
of my love for
Kuala Lumpur
Unfold

Tuesday, June 09, 2015

On Dance



Looking forward to a week of Contact Improv grin emoticon

“It’s like a dance. And we have to give each being space to dance their dance. Everything is dancing; even the molecules inside the cells are dancing. But we make our lives so heavy. We have these incredibly heavy burdens we carry with us like rocks in a big rucksack. We think that carrying this big heavy rucksack is our security; we think it grounds us. We don’t realize the freedom, the lightness of just dropping it off, letting it go. That doesn’t mean giving up relationships; it doesn’t mean giving up one’s profession, or one’s family,or one’s home. It has nothing to do with that; it’s not an external change. It’s an internal change. It’s a change from holding on tightly to holding very lightly.”
.
— Jetsunma Tenzin Palmo

Wednesday, May 06, 2015

"Everything I say stems from you."

Memories linger as we walk through the streets impregnated with the sensations of a space within the body.

Holding within,
melding out.
Little breathes 
In and about
Listening on the fringes of the skin.
Memories are tricky.
You think about it or maybe memory dreams you.


Batik technique 

Thursday, April 23, 2015

On Gardening

Sometimes I pretend to be a gigantic (not so scary)squirrel. I've buried mango seeds, rambutan seeds and durian seeds in the garden... So far the rambutan has grown a mile high, the mango tree turns out to be a stunted bush and my durian tree of 3 years is just branching out......Not bad for seeds that I tell "dear I just bury you. Mama nature take care of you.Grow or mulch, whatever it is you'll do some good. 

Wednesday, April 15, 2015

Chobi Mela VIII – An Experience by Lim Paik Yin

An article I wrote published on Exposure+ blog

Chobi Mela -Ricksaw exhibition1

I arrived in Dhaka at 9pm after a series of mis-incidents. I’ve missed the opening rally and the river cruise but here is a snippet of a conversation I had with Shahidur, a student of Pathshala Media Institute and a fellow participant at Cristina Nunez’s self portrait workshop, about the opening rally some years back.

"I was stuck in a jam, on the way to uni. It took a long time for the bus to get moving. As the bus passed by a group of people dancing and singing on the streets with the banner for Chobi Mela, I was so annoyed because it made me so late for class...but the people were happy and dancing, that it made me curious about Chobi Mela. Years later, here I am in Pathshala and Chobi Mela VIII..."
Tushar Shahidur Rahman


I found out about Chobi Mela in 2013 when I was at the Angkor Photo Festival. That was a year after I “graduated” from the Exposure+ Mentorship Programme and I was still wondering about my place in the field of photography.
Angkor Photo Festival was my first photography festival and when Shahidul Alam founder of the Chobi Mela festival presented a slideshow of contemporary photography, what caught my interests in the presentation was the idea of photographs beyond the genres of documentary photography or photojournalism. I remember thinking here is a person in Asia, which is presenting photography as art and research in a manner that I felt was open and approachable.
CHOBI MELA VIII
Chobi Mela is a bi-annual photography festival in Dhaka, Bangladesh. The components of the festival is similar to many others – portfolio reviews, workshops, photography exhibitions, artist talks and lectures on photography. However what makes a festival stand out is the breadth and diversity in exploring the field of photography as well as the contributions the festival brings to the dialogue on photography. With festival directors, photographers, photo editors, curators, artist and students in the mix, the Chobi Mela festival was a breeding ground for dissent, illuminations and engaged puzzlement in the lectures and panel discussions.The workshop at the Chobi Mela VIII grants participants a multitude of points to delve in the photography world through it’s workshops.Theworkshops range from the practicalities of grant writing, to creating conceptual dialogue in the Between Fordism, Post-Fordism and Neo-Fordism workshop.
Chobi Mela -Nepal Picture Library Exhibition
Chobi Mela -Nepal Picture Library Exhibition at the library12
Chobi Mela -Mahesh Shantaram's 'Matrimania' at Beauty Boarding House
Chobi Mela -Luis Gonzalez Palma Annuciation at North Brooke HAll 2
The exhibition routes which when fully explored, in total brings the visitor to 11 different venues about Dhaka.Some of the interesting exhibition sites were Luis Gonzalez Palma’s “The ‘Annuciation hosted by an old movie theatre hall with round shaped photographs hanging in mid air. ‘Waiting’ by Jana Romanova whose photograph through familiar through the internet, was refreshingly viewed as one peers from above upon sleeping couples. Mahesh Shantaram’s ‘Matrimania’ in its vibrant excessiveness displayed in colourful rooms in Dhaka’s oldest hotel, Beauty Boarding House, which also hosted Yusuf Sevinçli quiet and discerning exhibition. The main highlight for me was the melding of photos and curation of the space in Michel Le Belhomme’s ‘The Blind Beast’. The space created by the curation of the exhibition, which intersects with another separate exhibition‘Where My Childhood Died’ by Arthur Bondar, felt as if I was stepping into a sculptural maze further enhancing the disorientation of space mentally and physically. The diverse field of practice within the curator team,which includes photographers, artists and architects, could be a factor in the interesting display of photography in the Chobi Mela VIII Festival.
Chobi Mela -Chobi Mela - Michel Le Belhomme 02
On the whole, this year’s festival is very much represented by the 8th Chobi Mela book.Thebook on appearance is simple and thoughtful with a surprising tinge. As it unfolds, each artist’s works are published in different “books” of various sizes, thus a steeple of diversity is collectively binded and presented. The atmosphere is informal and jubilant as the students and teachers from the Pathshala South Asia Media Institute play a huge role in hosting the festival.
Chobi Mela - Luis Gonzalez Palma Annuciation at North Brooke HAll 1
Chobi Mela - Michel Le Belhomme The Blind Beast 01
The Chobi Mela festival caters for all levels of practitioners in photography – curators, cultural researchers, artist, anthropologist, sociologist with interests in photography. A very inclusive feature of the Chobi Mela Festival is it’s live streaming of the lectures and artist talks. So for all who could not make it to Chobi Mela VIII this year, you can view the archived talks HERE (http://www.chobimela.org/live/)
~ Lim Paik Yin, Kuala Lumpur

Tuesday, March 31, 2015

Media



My interest in media studies has always stemmed from the Malaysian government.

The old structures of powers cannot hold up with the advancing rise of technology.
We can't aspire to be participating in the knowledge economy without knowledgeable citizens.
Sorry no way can we be smart enough but not too smart. What a paradox.

http://www.themalaysianinsider.com/goodbye.html