#19
The contemporary dance performance I produced last year was nominated in several dance categories and the best of 2023 in the 19th BOH Cameronian Arts Awards. Immediately, there were social media postings and coordination works following our nominations.Â
[Video description: In the LRT/MRT station, a person holding a large poster, covering his face and upper body, showing only legs, wearing black jeans and black shoes. The poster has a thick bright orange frame, written #19BCAA indicating 19th BOH Cameronian Arts Awards, and in the center of the poster is a black and white performance poster of “Switchblade Operation: The Longing”, nominated one of the as ‘Best of 2023’. At first the person with poster (poster man) appear from a descending escalator, behind a cleaning janitor. Next, the train approaching, door opens to the poster man standing inside the train coach. The long train bends, giving a feeling of strangeness. Next, the poster man stand near the ticket gate, a women walks behind quickly from the right to the left. Lastly, the person ascend the escalator with poster covering their back. The video is rendered in blur distorted edges, some noise and coloured in warm teal tone, like a dream state.]
#20
I travelled back to my hometown.Â
I was tired. I spent one day resting and one day doomscrolling.
:S
[image description: Mobile screenshot of a digital bus ticket from TBS to Kuantan for an adult passenger named Low Pey Sien on 20/03/2024, at 7:00am.]
[image description: inside a dim and small room, there is a projection of a landscape photograph of an Asian women in her late 50s with white hair looking into the camera. She is wearing red t-shirt and pink pants, sitting on a stool washing something with a yellow hose. In front of the projection is a bald person, probably in 30s, wearing teal coloured t-shirt, sat sideway on a rattan chair with their right side profile facing us. In between the person and projection is a bed with bookshelves flanked on one end. Some of the light is projected on their face, shoulder and the top of the bookshelves. Even so, the room is too dim, making their face and body unclear.]
#22
I was thinking about how to apply projection mapping in this residency.
– surface of projection
– projection contentÂ
– and the relationship with subject
– what I’m trying to say???
#23
I’m applying for some government grant for our coming contemporary dance production. I feel that I always work under very small budget. This is a problem because I am the producer, the responsibility of looking for funding falls onto me. I need to get better at this so everyone can work comfortably in the project.
[image description: square photograph of a newspaper cutting. The cutting show a portion of an article on our left, three landscape images arranged in middle column, and another part of article on our right. The image in the center written ‘A view of the dance show Switchblade Operation: The Longing by Kongsi Petak and Cake Project in July 2023 – TAKA CHANG’. There are eight performers in a big space, most of them are holding something rectangular in the air, the lighting is dramatic and backlit, emphasizing silhouette as they stand further from the light. ]
#25
[image description: In the bottom center of square photograph, a right palm basks in bright morning sun. In the background is a part of the neighborhood at road junction. Further away is a small hill with a pointed tip in the middle, like how you would usually draw a mountain. The sky is blue with slight overcast near to the horizon. An electric cable curves upward from our left to the top right.
[image description: An old landscape photograph of a family sitting and posing on rocky formation, kept inside black sleeves of a photo album. The happy mother look to us, she is embracing a toddler in her left arm. On her right is a little girl wearing red and white dress with her arms leaning on the rock, smiling at us. On her left are two little boys who look like twins, sporting same pale stripe shirt and hairstyle, they both look away to their left bottom. The family is positioned in the center, with rocks surrounding them on the left, right and bottom, leaving only bit of the sky on our top left. The vegetation around the rocks has thin branch and pointed leaves.
#27
 My family before I was born
[image description: vertical photograph with abstract motif of tiny columns of parallel lines running down the long edge. The colour is predominantly blue and teal, looks like the colour of sky. The lines on our left are broken into shorter grain of irregular lengths. Some cells are black, some cells are clear blue and some cells has dark grainy gradient, they look like onion cell under microscope. On our right and bottom of image, the gradient looks like a long streak, like raindrops on window, or dripping paint.]
#28
To understand my hometown better, I tried to visit two museums with my brother and nephew, but they were both closed for renovation. It seems that they have always been closed for renovation. I wonder when will they open again.
