2024.03.01
Today marks one month into the ‘Creative Access in New Media’ Online Residency with In Transit (UK) & Filamen (MY). I always find it hard to start updating the artist studio (blog).
As I’m writing, I’ve decided to not think if the blog looks good; or if the blog = final residency work, but rather to start working on my consistency first – showing up daily to post.
Last February during our first workshop, curator, Celina Loh guided us to meditate and set our intention for this online residency, which I enjoyed very much. Each of us shared about something we want to do. I said, “I want to take care of myself better, so I can extend the care to others, and make space for new learnings.”
This year, again, I’m in a transition mode, I’ve just moved all my stuffs back to my hometown, Kuantan. I felt cluttered and overwhelmed mentally and physically, while I was re-organising my room before the Chinese New Year. Spring cleaning is an annual tradition to welcome the new year in our house.
Having experienced a physical residency where I can just throw away all my responsibility and focus entirely on making work, online residency is challenging. Finding time and space to commit is difficult. I don’t feel empty enough to start doing something…
I also said that I wanted to explore my hometown, but I don’t know exactly what to explore. What if the open ended exploration, without goal leads to nothing worthwhile? What will I show at the end of residency in the exhibition?
Celina assured us at some point, that the residency is a transit point, it’s a process, a journey, never a destination.
Image Description: At dusk, puffy white clouds frame the cerulean blue sky. Several shiny dots in distance, they could be satellites. Feels like staring into the distance.
