Old and new
My proposal for this residency was to explore how can I bring local traditional art elements into my digital art practice. I would like to explore on brining my local art culture through different medium.
I did went for a short trip right before COVID hit early 2020 to East Coast of Peninsular Malaysia, a state called Kelantan. For me Kelantan is a Mecca of Malaysian traditional art culture. It is still practice by people around the area. My friend and I went for a week trip to Kelantan to check out the local art culture.
We visited Mr Azzahar at his studio, he is a researcher artist focus mainly on the topic of Langkasuka (old ancient S.E.A civilization). He shared with us some of projects that he been working on.
We also visited Akademi Nik Rashidin, late Nik Rashidin, was the master word carving and most of his work and collection was published on “Spirit of Wood”.
Through out this journey I became interested with an element that I saw at Mr Azzahar studio which is “Pohon Beringin” or “Pohon Budi” its a prop that most of shadow puppeteer use at the beginning of their shadow play.
Pohon Beringin artwork at Mr Azzahar sudio.
Pohon Budi is a representation of Tree of Life S.E.A culture, it is very interesting elements and I would like to explore more about it.
