“Beauty cannot be shown, it has to be realised by the observer. One has to feel it. A work of art is a statement informed by sentiment (rasa). The origin of rasa is from bhava. Bhava (emotion) is a concrete situation and condition for a period of time of some occurrence, and rasa is the aesthetic experience of that happening or condition.”
Aesthetics in Indian Art : The Ordering Principles, BansiI Lal Malla (Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts, New Delhi)
Indian artist Ramachandra Kharatmal (b.1977), through is graphic visual works, is able to gift his viewers with a realisation of sundaram (Beauty) - one of the triple Indian aesthetic principles (the others being satyam (Truth), and shivam (Goodness/ auspiciousness). Kharatmal enables we viewers to experience his aesthetic emotions of ‘beauty’, as he guides us into his thoughtprovoking imagery.
The artist Kharatmal is a Pune based figurative painter. He hails from Solapur, in the Indian state of Maharashtra, and is the winner of the prestigious Indian national Lalit Kala Award, as well as the Maharashtra State art Award, and other awards at an Indian national level.
He has also participated in 26 group shows in India, and abroad, as well as in several national and international art exhibitions. Kharatmal has three successful solo shows to his credit. He has been part of 15 national art camps, and has given demonstrations in national level art collages and art programs, and has received 2 years National Scholarship of PPIF(Poorna Prajna Institute of Fine Art, Mumbai).
In his myriad intriguing works Kharatmal blurs the line between ‘Fine’ and ‘Illustrative’ art. In this he continues the legacy of great European masters like the Frenchman Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec and the Czech painter Alphonse Maria Mucha before him.
Kharatmal’s great interest in Alphonse Mucha is witnessed in Kharatmal’s Beauty Series of paintings, which includes ‘Alphonse, Mucha and Me’ (2022) - a homage to that master of line and artistic romance. Where Mucha developed images from
Couple with peacock
Moravian folk arts and Byzantine icons, Kharatmal references his own rich Indian iconographic heritage. Not only is the European Mucha referenced, but Leonardo’s ‘Mona Lisa’ too. This reminds the viewer that Kharatmal sees himself as continuing a European figurative legacy within Indian arts.
In ‘The Body Adorned; Dissolving Boundaries Between Sacred and Profane’ (2009, Columbia University Press) Vidya Dehejia reminds us that …
“Readers of this book will have gathered that the beautiful, highly toned human body is the leitmotif of Indian art and that the actual human body, which received prominence in all modes of outer worship in India, is regarded not as an obstacle to be overcome but as a fine-tuned vehicle through which to achieve closeness to the divine.”
The art image of ‘beauty’ therefore becomes not an ideal to be achieved in the literal sense, but an icon of beauty through a stylised representation of the human body, ie a reference point.
However, Kharatmal is also steeped in the modern Indian romanticised realist art tradition which dates back to Indian artists like Raja Ravi Varma (1848–1906) with paintings such as ‘Hamsa Damayanti’; Abanindranath Tagore (1871–1951) with his painting ‘Bharat Mata’; as well as Devi Prosad Roy Chowdhury (1899–1975) and his image ‘Lepcha Girl’.
“Beauty may be defined as a perception of various kinds of gentler sensory stimuli (visual, tactile, auditory) or an imagination leading to a special state of mind called pleasure. The concept of beauty is a dynamic process and under the influence of economic condition, age, environment (admirers), and changes in imagination, power and mood. It undergoes constant changes. The same stimulus that appears beautiful at one time may fail to please on other occasions.”
Within his images of ‘Beauty’ Ramachandra Kharatmal renders stereotypical voluptuous woman and young, handsome, men. There is a hint of sensuality, as well as realistic portrayals of humankind with vibrant colours and, on occasion, gold leaf too depicting the artist’s notions of modern (Indian) beauty. Although Kharatma’s images are stunning in their graphic display, they never descend into salaciousness but, instead, revel in the (Indian) human form, revealing nuances of Indian culture.
Beauty (Beauty series) Alphonse Mucha & Me…
The Mona Lisa
ART IN JAKARTA
ART IN JAKARTA
Magiciens de la Terre …well-known Western artists intermingled with the shamans from outside the Western world. The selection of these shamans emphasised the insignificance of individual modern artists in the nonWestern world. Of course, this must have been quite disconcerting for Indonesian modern artists — who have adopted Western artistic methods — because their existences have been perceived as mere derivatives of Western modern art. Contemporary art has more or
labels to accompany the art works, so my only information (at the time) was the signatures (or lack there of) on each of the artworks. Arriving back at my Malaysian studio I tracked down those paintings online.
In that Swiss-Belinda Hotel space there were two pieces by Arwin Hidayat, unnamed, one a multi-coloured piece on a deep black
less changed the Western view of the existence of art in non-Western modern civilisation. Contemporary art has provided the possibility for non-Western artists to take part in the global art scene.
Asmudjo Jono Irianto in ‘Eyeing Indonesian Contemporary Art’, Indonesian Eye, Skirt, 2011.
That trip to find art in Jakarta began, for me, on my stay at the Swiss-Belinn Hotel, on Jalan Wahid Hasyim, Central Jakarta. On arrival I had witnessed a few fascinating items hanging in the Dinning/Reception area of the the hotel. Sadly the hotel hadn’t thought to put
background created in 2017 and another black and white piece created in 2013. While two other pieces had no discernible signature, I did spot the large Indonesian surrealist artwork by Enggar Rhomadioni, later I discovered it to be ‘Contraction: Post-Traditionalism’. Over the buffet area were several small pieces forming a unifying cosmological group which I later discovered to be by Radhinal Indra, and on another wall a three dimensional piece seemingly by Erik Rifki. Honestly, in that respect, I couldn’t have chosen a better hotel to spend my few days in.
My second, but no less surprising, re-introduction to current art in Jakarta was at the Sarinah Mall. It lay at the intersection of Jalan Wahid Hasyim and Jalan M. H. Thamrin, Central Jakarta, and was fortunately just a five-minute walk along Jalan Wahid Hasyim from the Swiss-Belinn Hotel.
The Sarinah was Jalarta’s first shopping centre, originally built in 1962, and inaugurated in 1966 it had since been renovated and finally re-opened in 2022. On the original Sarinah Mall had been a light concrete constructed ‘relief’. Last year (2023) this was written about that original relief…
“These ‘wall relief-sculptures’ impart an important message to show the transitional process of Indonesian society from an agricultural, craft-based society towards a modern commercial society”
(According to the essay ‘Reappearances of the SARINAH heritage mall building: an “urban forest” theme and restore the historical artwork.” by Yuke Ardhiati yuke_ardhiati@ yahoo.com Pancasila University; Asikin Hasan Fena Rushintadevi Pancasila University Rafli Alfiano Pancasila University)
The original relief had been lost and found, in a store cupboard, and recently reinterpreted by Indonesian Gorontalo artist Iwan Yusuf. That older relief’s reinterpretation ‘Study of Relief in Net works’ was created by Yusuf using fishing nets collected from Java’s coasts and (while I was there) had been exhibited near the original relief on the ground floor, which had been Yusuf’s inspiration.
In 2021 the Jakarta Post had reported that...
“Project Farmers residing in conical hats evoked idyllic Indonesian rural life while harvesting rice paddies. Meanwhile, a group of women from neighbouring villages carrying their wares to the market past grazing water buffaloes. These scenes were extracted from the Sarinah Relief, measuring 12-by-3-meter uncovered at the Jakarta departmental store in October 2020. The workers found the stone and cement structure in the warehouse of the shopping center after it had closed for
Iwan Yusuf
renovations in June last year. President Sukarno was thought to have commissioned reliefs, mosaics, and other art-works before Sarinah opened for business in 1966”.
Sadly, at the time that I was in Jakarta the ‘National Gallery of Art’ (along Jalan Medan Merdeka Tim) was closed for renovation. Luckily, another ‘museum’ of art was open. It was the ‘Art: 1 New Museum’ (established 1983), towards the north of Jakarta city, on Jalan Rajawali Selatan Raya No.3 (see page 68)
Elsewhere (page 30) in this issue I write about another aspect of Art:1’s exhibition - ‘Tale within Threads’ concerning woven threads and loomed fabrics, which was being exhibited at the time.
For lovers of ‘Contemporary Art’ the MACAN Museum (Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art,) resides at AKR Tower Level M, Jalan Panjang No. 5 Kebon Jeruk West Jakarta 11530 and, according to its blurb...
“The Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art in Nusantara (Museum MACAN) is an art museum in Jakarta. It provides public access to a significant and growing collection of modern and contemporary art from Indonesia and around the world. The Museum has an active program of exhibitions and events in a 5,000 square meter facility including onsite education and conservation spaces.”
MACAN (this issue page 82) is very different to those art houses that I have mentioned thus far. The museum’s emphasis is on the word ‘Contemporary” and reminded me of the Singapore Art Museum (SAM, currently residing at 39 Keppel Rd, #01-02 Tanjong Pagar Distripark, Singapore). (see page ...).
On the ground floor of that AKR Tower, I espied a total delight, it was a black ‘Beetle Sphere’ by Ichwan Noor. Those sculptures are, reputedly, Noor’s personal perception of “transportation culture” created out of parts from 1953 models of Volkswagen ‘Beetles’, combined with polyester
and aluminium, then painted and polished to appear new.
“On the ground delight, it was
ground floor of that AKR Tower, I espied a total was a black ‘Beetle Sphere’ by Ichwan Noor.”
Arwin Hidayat
Chun Kyung-Ja
Toward the Soul-Stirring Wind
Chun Kyung-Ja
Centennial
Toward the Soul-Stirring Wind
The Seoul Museum of Art proudly presents Toward the Soul-Stirring Wind, a permanent exhibition of the Chun Kyung-ja Collection commemorating the 100th anniversary of Chun Kyung-ja’s birth.
Chun Kyung-ja (1924–2015), a pivotal figure in Korean art history, carved out a distinctive niche in the realm of Korean chaesaekhwa (Asian color painting). She defied the constraints of formal traditionalism and embraced coloration, embarking on numerous experiments to forge a unique artistic style. In 1998, Chun donated 93 meticulously preserved pieces of her artwork to the Seoul Museum of Art, ensuring the accessibility and longevity of her artistic legacy for future generations.
Spanning six decades, from the 1940s to the 1990s, the Chun Kyung-ja collection at the Seoul Museum of Art includes an array of artworks personally selected and donated by the artist. Many of these pieces were regarded as “paintings created from travel” during their time. The current exhibition not only delves into her well-known representative works but also offers a detailed exploration of her travel paintings.
The title of the exhibition, Toward the Soul-Stirring Wind, originates from a travel essay penned by Chun Kyung-ja in 1986. It metaphorically portrays the essence of her life and artistic journey that transcended various boundaries―psychological, physical, geographical, and cultural―akin to the wind. The exhibition showcases 30 pieces organized into four thematic sections: “A World of Fantasy, Affection, and Sorrow beyond Reconciliation,” “Journey of Dreams and Wind,” “Art and Romance,” and “A Woman of Freedom.” It aims to deepen the audience’s understanding of Chun Kyung-ja’s life and works, highlighting her multifaceted nature while ensuring her legacy resonates with a diverse audience.
White Night
The Poetry of a Woman I
The Poetry of a Woman II
Woman
Invocation of the Spirit of the Dead
Memulihkan Keakraban
threads
Tale Threadswithin
Art:1 Community Program Vol. 4
Cultural values are often represented through the one thing closest to its people- textiles. Through woven threads and loomed fabrics, the identity of one's cultural and ancestral narratives are conveyed. These narratives lie within each symbol, patterns, or even colours, making each element render a significant purpose; whether for signifying human relationships with nature, or hope for greater things in life; health, fertility, and prosperity.
Nowadays, the presence of these symbols, patterns, and compositions of colours found its way to contemporary creation in a form of abstract exploration, serving the purpose of paying homage to traditional history.
Beyond paying homage to traditional history, artists of the contemporary age reconstruct patterns and its symbolism - coming up with new found symbolism that resonates with today’s culture. Rapid-growing modern culture and its influences had seasoned artists’ narratives, adding layers of emotional and material complexity beyond the choices of their abstract composition. With a wider range of materials and techniques to adapt, artists’ rendition of their personal or collective tales are projected within the core of their works; whether by artists choice of material, innovative approach to techniques, or ways of presentations.
In this exhibition, we focus on artists’ zest for storytelling. Stories that are told within each intricate stitch and stroke, creating a profound work that reflects their identity. Through a myriad of deliveries, we are invited to look closer, to examine the meanings and purposes of each presented element, to engage and resonate with the intimacy of visual storytelling.
Liar Yang Tak Lagi Sama, Yawara Oky Rahmawati
Cooling Down, Yawara Oky Rahmawati
The home I built for myself, Valrie Seraphine
rafiee ghani in morocco
rafiee ghani in morocco
Rafiee Ghani’s solo exhibition “Rafiee Ghani in Morocco” unveils a vibrant tapestry of colour, culture, and emotion. Morocco, a paradise for artists, has been a recurring muse for Rafiee, who has visited the country four times since 1987, with his latest journey in May 2024. His itineraries have covered iconic locations such as Tangier, Chefchaouen, Marrakesh, and the Todra Valley, capturing the country’s dynamic landscapes, bustling souks, and architectural marvels.
Deeply influenced by Henri Matisse’s fascination with Moroccan light and decor, Rafiee’s advantage lies in his devout Muslim perspective, allowing him to resonate profoundly with the ethos and culture. His works, rendered entirely in watercolours for the first time, feature sweeping lines, shapes, and vibrant colours. His artworks, ranging from a big composition to smaller pieces, highlight his signature style: multifocal, abstract sceneries that blend spontaneity with intricate details. Rafiee’s artworks reflect Morocco’s essence — a whirlwind of sensations, colours, and serenity amidst chaos. Whether depicting Chefchaouen’s blue hues or the arid Todra Valley, his paintings embody freedom, inspiration, and spiritual rediscovery.At its core, his exhibition is a celebration of life, identity, and prayer through the language of colour and form.
Rafiee Ghani in Morocco, runs from 11 to 25 January 2025 at G13 Gallery.
“Rafiee Ghani’s solo exhibition “Rafiee Ghani in Morocco” unveils a vibrant tapestry of colour, culture, and emotion. Morocco, a paradise for artists, has been a recurring muse for Rafiee, who has visited the country four times since 1987, with his latest journey in May 2024”
Tobatenun threads
Tobatenun
Batak weaving such as Ulos, Oles, Uis, or Hiou are works of art made with purpose. The various motifs handed down from their ancestors remind them of their love and hope, which are full of meaning in every thread.
We founded our community house, JABU BONANG, as a platform to learn, create, share, and grow together in support of textile artisans in North Sumatra. Through assistance
and mentorship, we encourage the revival of near extinct motifs alongside the use of natural materials. This is done to ensure the sustainability of culture and to show the characteristics, values and philosophies of each tribe.
JABU BORNA, a natural dye house in Pematang Siantar, is part of our commitment to providing accessible quality natural dye yarns for the weaving community in North Sumatra. Aside
from various yarn and fabric dyeing techniques and natural dye creation, Jabu Borna also cultivates endemic plants, both for use and for educational purposes.
Tobatenun Presents North Sumatra Weaving at the Jakarta Fashion Week 2024 Stage.
The prestigious fashion exhibition in Indonesia, Jakarta Fashion Week 2024, became a historic moment for Tobatenun in making his debut on the prestigious stage. In line with the theme carried by JFW 2024 namely Fashion Continuum: Bridging Generations; Tobatenun echoes the preservation of culture and Sustainable Fashion through the latest collection 'Masa Rani: A Season of Bounty' which was featured on the JFW 2024 stage.
'Masa Rani', which means harvest time in the Karo language, shows the cultural diversity born from the amalgamation of several tribes living in Karo Regency as well as the richness of the produce of the Karo land. Karo Regency is known as a region that produces rice, fruits, and flowers where the results are enjoyed not only within the country, Indonesia, but also abroad. The natural richness of the Karo soil inspired the choice of colours found in the 'Masa Rani' collection, such as fir green which represents rice plants and sun kissed coral which represents various other products of the earth such as flowers and fruits.
At the JFW 2024 event, Tobatenun presented 16 looks showing the beauty of North Sumatra weaving with a modern touch on ready to wear
clothing, accessories and woven fabric. The 'Masa Rani' collection, Tobatenun introduces woven motif creations inspired by the traditional motif of the Karo tribe, Uis Beka Buluh. This is one of Tobatenun's efforts to preserve cultural heritage and advance the art of weaving by building and educating the community, especially weavers, through training held by Jabu Bonang. The training was held to equip weavers with the skills to weave North Sumatra weaving motifs that have not been found for a long time so that regeneration can be created.
Having the same spirit as the theme raised by JFW 2024, we do regeneration that goes hand in hand with the creativity of weavers in creatively combining traditional elements with contemporary nuances in weaving to bridge between generations so that culture can be sustainable.
In addition to regeneration, wearing clothes with woven elements in everyday life is one of the simple ways of promoting culture that everyone can do. The 'Masa Rani' collection and every RTW Tobatenun collection has a touch of Batak weaving that you can use in everyday life.
Tobatenun was founded in 2018 intended to be a social enterprise where the business activities have a mission to revitalize and preserve textile traditions from North Sumatra.
Before doing the weaving process, the partonun will do cotton spinning or commonly known as "mamipis". In this process, the partonuns will use a tool called Sorha.
In order to achieve uniform size, the mamipis process used to require two partonuns, one of whom would spin the yarn and the other would spin Sorha.
Over time, Sorha was simplified by adopting the technology brought by Japan during the colonial period so that the mamipis process could be carried out by one person only.
"In the past, every Batak woman knew and could weave" Sandra Niessen, an anthropologist from the Netherlands, who has been conducting research on Batak weaving for 30 years.
Tobatenun echoes the preservation of culture and Sustainable Fashion
My Mother Pattu
Saras Manickam
Deeply humane, in turn wry and humorous, the stories in this collection haunt readers with their searing honesty.
Lalitha, abused by her own mother, learns that bullies carry emotional traumas that scar everyone’s lives.
Shiva Das confronts the truth of his own culpability when his adult special child dies in tragic circumstances.
A woman, deeply in love with her husband, discovers to her anguish that the love of a good man is not enough.
A little boy tries hard to hold his family together as his parents’ marriage disintegrates before his eyes.
A mother has a poignant yet brutal conversation with God about her severely disabled son.
Three young people idealistically reject racial prejudice and stereotyping, only to find that in Malaysia, their future paths are largely determined by ethnicity and privilege.
The extent to which a woman will go in her hatred for her daughter’s childhood friend, ends in a violent aftermath.
An Indonesian maid realizes that the money she sends home has become more important than her own welfare or safety to her family.
A racial slur triggers reflections on friendship, identity, the loss of belonging and trust in a multi-racial community.
Meet the extraordinary in ordinary people when they confront the truth of their past and present – and refuse to look away. Authentic and unsentimental, each story celebrates the resilience of the human spirit even as it challenges comfortable conventions about identity, love, family, community and race relations.
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ISBN: 9789815266214
Ayanda Mabulu
Grace
Ayanda Mabulu
Ayanda Mabulu is internationally recognised for bold, often controversial figurative paintings that speak to injustices and inequalities in South Africa. Since 2010, the self-taught artist has created a series of polemical graphic works depicting high-profile political figures—including former South African President Jacob Zuma—in the nude or engaged in sex acts.
These provocative scenes have led to the censorship of Mabulu’s work and resulted in death threats. Mabulu’s paintings’ unique feature comes from a mix of acrylic paint, gold leaf, textiles, and other materials. Black women’s important role in South African society is celebrated in Mabulu’s “Healers” series.
The 2018 acrylic-and-gold-leaf portrait, Nontsundu, sold at auction in 2021 for $27,923, depicts a woman cradling her sleeping infant in one arm and holding a gun in the other.
Although political caricatures are Mabulu’s most notorious works, his practice extends to sculpture and playwriting. In 2018, the DuSable Museum of African American History staged his first U.S. museum exhibition, “Troublemaker: Art Is Our Only Hope.”
Zazi I (know yourself)
Ikhakhayi Lika Hintsa
I see god in you
The kiss
Grace 1
Tsikiz'eyonzake Leyo
Setia Sampai Tua, Adi Gunawan
Titik Jeda, Sunaryo
Art: 1 New Museum
“Art: 1 New Museum is a museum located in Jakarta, Indonesia. Initially, this museum was a private art gallery called Mon Décor, founded by Martha Gunawan in 1983. It was later renamed Art: 1 New Museum in 2009. The museum was officially inaugurated by the Governor of DKI Jakarta, Fauzi Bowo, in 2011.
Art: 1 is a frame of reference. The meaning of “ art for everyone “ refers to art with magnitude, i.e. art that possesses values, which are considered important by the public. It is within this frame of reference that art is believed to be a cultural activity, as a basis of public involvement in the establishment of art values.
Art: 1, as a framework, forms the foundation of all activities held at Art: 1 as an “ art institution”. In its totality, Art: 1’s orientation is to present exhibitions, because exhibitions are sources of the aforementioned Change discourses, that can continuously offer new possibilities in our process of discovery. This orientation is present in Art: 1’s two main components: as a museum that follows a new museum concept in Art: 1 New Museum ; and as an art space through Art Space : 1 . ” https://www.art1museum.com/
The first thing drawing the eye of the visitor to that museum was the extra large sculpture of working men on a red scaffold, attached to the museum’s exterior. It is a life-sized work was created by Sunaryo, and titled “Titik Jeda,” (Crossing Point), perhaps defining a philosophy and vision of building a strong art infrastructure within Indonesia.
On entry to the museum I saw my second
amazing sculpture of the day, another ‘Beetle Sphere’ (this time yellow) by Ichwan Noor. I’d seen a black version at the ground floor of Jakarta’s AKR Tower, Jalan Panjang No.5, Kebon, Jeruk Jakarta, near one version of Nyoman Nuarta’s ‘Borobudur’ sculpture, another being in Art:1. One interesting thing about the Art:1 space is the round cutaway through the ceiling where a Nyoman Nuarta ‘Borobudur’ sculpture can be seen ‘normally’ in the gallery in which it is housed, and is also able to be seen from the gallery above as the three-dimensional ‘mandalas’ which Borobudur and the sculpture effectively are.
Borobudur, Nyoman Nuarta
Borobudur, Nyoman
Nyoman Nuarta
Yani Mariani Sastranegara, Tembang Angin Tenggara
Mingle bench, Alvin Tjitrowirjo
Kamulyaning Samasta (Seri Varian Kamulyaning Bhuwana), Yani Mariani Sastranegara
Gusti Kompiang, Willem Gerard Hofker
The Portrait Sketch of My Dougter Miss Cempaka Blanco, Antonio Blanco
Affandi, Lotus
moist
A book in parts by Martin Bradley
moist
A book in parts by Martin Bradley
Malaya is a country in which strange things abound
p25, Phillip C. Coote, Peeps at Many Lands – The Malay States, 1923
Moistness
“Moistness is the quality of being slightly wet, especially in a pleasant or good way” According to the Cambridge Dictionary.
Being in tropical latitudes, Malaysia has high temperatures and humidities with, at times, heavy rainfall. Its humidity aids and abets moistness. Unaware foreign travellers, especially those coming from cooler climes, may want to consider the vast amount of humidity in the air, for humidity causes moistness, and Kuala Lumpur, although a city, is near the Malaysian tropical moist forest biome, a haven of moistness
In Singapore, (which at one point in the past was part of Malaysia), and on Sunday January 19th, 1879, having just arrived on the island, British explorer, writer, photographer and naturalist Isabella Bird wrote in her ‘Letter VII’.
“It is hot—so hot!—but not stifling, and all the rich-flavoured, coloured fruits of the tropics are here—fruits whose generous juices are drawn from the moist and heated earth, and whose flavours are the imprisoned rays of the fierce sun of the tropics.”
In the green haven of equatorial Malaysia, Brian Holland is also moist.
From Britain’s First City - to the130 million year old Jungle
British Brian Holland is moist.
The Malaysian heat, so typical of the tropics, is drenching and draining him.
In the sundering humidity of Kuala Lumpur, sweating is all Brian can do. Especially as it is yet another muggy, sunny day in Ptolomey’s ‘Aurea Chersonesus’ (Golden Chersonese).
Brian Holland’s light-blue Marks and Spencer cotton shirt (made in Bangladesh) is already, uncomfortably, soaked. It clings to his ageing and overripe figure like a second, distressing, skin. Before long he will be experiencing that annoying, and rather familiar, itch (which some individual in 1744 had accurately defined as ‘prickly heat’ or ‘Schweissblatterchen’). Prickly heat grows in Brian’s moistened nether regions. It’s just as well that Brian carries a small tube of the anti-fungal cream ‘Canestan’ in his yellow hand bag (picked up on his travels, in Cambodia).
Mr Holland adjusts his well-worn black (Lairds of London) fedora, to keep the glaring sun from his British hazel eyes. He looks around for a taxi, then eases into the shade of a convenient tropical tree to wait for a ride, simultaneously disturbing a perturbed Golden Oriel.
The sweet aroma of coffee has caught Brian’s attention. Outside Kuala Lumpur’s Mid-Valley Mega-mall the scent of that beverage is a welcome distraction. It, momentarily, takes Brian’s thoughts away from the heat and his crotch, up and away to thoughts of Java, Joe, and cafés far and near. It also brings to Brian’s mind
one advert from the Malayan Tribune (1928) he recently read online , that ...
“The habit of drinking coffee, with its drug, caffeine, promotes sluggishness of the liver and throws the entire human system out of balance, causing biliousness, headache and fatigue. A man’s reason prompts him to avoid foods that are detrimental to his well-being, and so Instant Postum is now given to the inhabitants of the world as a delightful beverage to take the place of coffee and tea.
It possesses all the refreshing qualities without the harmful results, Drink Instant Postum in your favourite coffee house, or buy it by the tin, and partake of its joys without any after-effects...”
Never mind.
The scent passes, as do all things. The heat remains.
Brian Holland had been living in the English antediluvian sea-side town of Blictonon-sea. That was before any notion of existing in rural Malaysia had been seeded into his receptive mind.
Nineteen-eighty-one had been Brian’s very first visit to viridescent Malaysia. He’d been invited to the green State of Kedah (once known for its splendid port in the Bujang Valley during the 2nd to the 14th Centuries, and is now known for its verdant carpets of rice ‘padis’). Looking out of an unshaded airplane window on a Malaysian Airline System (MAS) flight from Kuala Lumpur’s ‘Subang’ airport, to the island of Penang, Brian had become instantly transfixed by the silhouetted (and romantically towering) coconut palms as they’d reached to catch that island’s early morning sun.
After a gruelling 18 hours flying, Brian Holland had officially arrived. Howsomever, the British naval officer Francis Light had got there long before him, in 1786. In a very real sense Captain Light is still there, for he died of Malaria in 1794 and was buried in the Protestant Cemetery, Jalan Sultan Ahmad Shah Road, George Town, Penang.
Courtesy of his friend Tharumarajah (Raja), Brian was driven into Penang’s capital, Georgetown (named after Britain’s King George III ), and to into an antique hotel where he was served with a ‘full-English breakfast’ he really didn’t want. Brian had then been whisked away, across the Penang Strait on an, even then ageing, yellow ferry (a service which had began in 1957). Brian, Raja and Raja’s olive coloured
Toyota Corolla had alighted from the ferry terminal at Butterworth, They had gone, forthwith, into the lush state of Kedah, to Sungei Patani. Chatting to Raja and gawking at imposing water-buffaloes with stately their horns, Brian had travelled between Kedah’s pastoral ‘padi’ fields towards that small town.
All that green was, to Brian Holland, an ‘Oriental Magic’. It had been calming, washing over him, seeping into his very bones and had laid there, like malaria, dormant, part of him.
All that Malaysian lush green was because of the rain. It was not, however, the chilled-to-the-bone, can’t shake this ruddy cold off English rain, but a temperate, warm rain - the sort of rain that encourages young children to run around in the fields, naked, laughing, dancing, and singing.
The warm, nurturing, rain encourages Malaysian greenness. The rain feeds the lushness of the tropical rainforests. The rain gives water to the waterfalls and helps bountiful fruits such as Bananas, Breadfruit, Ciku (Sapodilla), Durian, and Mangosteen to flourish and grow. That rain also helped cool off the over-heated Englishman.
In 1981 Brian Holland was thirty. He’d had six weeks off from studying catering at Tendring Technical school, and had been invited, by his friend Raja, on a holiday to South East Asia’s Malaysia. That holiday had been stunning. It was so memorable that, twenty-three years later Brian had found himself, after a divorce, and a sojourn in India, back in the land of chip butties, battered fish and curious sausages made from pig’s blood, making a hasty exit towards memories of the increasingly sunnier climes of luxuriant Malaysia.
Luckily, or unluckily, dependant upon your view-point, Brian had gained an early medical retirement in the UK, and his freedom from a relationship he should never have been in from the start, and had believed, whole-heartedly - like his father before him, that his future lay in India. It didn’t. Not for Brian’s father, and not for Brian either.
Over the years, and over time, Brian had visited a variety of Indian destinations. There were the sun-kissed and sandy beaches of Goa, where dinning on freshly caught fish and seafood had been heavenly. Brian had been to ‘filmi’ Mumbai, where he had enjoyed a too expensive degustation meal of ‘Thali’ - sweet, sour, salty, pungent, bitter/astringent at the Taj Mahal Hotel (Tajma), and very nearly visited the ISKCON (Hare Krishna) Temple in Juhu. Ironically, that temple was
closed for lunch when he had arrived, and saw no reason why they should reopen just for him.
From India’s New Delhi Brian had undertaken the traditional tourist package to Agra and Jaipur, seeing palaces and, of course, Agra’s most famous mausoleumthe Taj Mahal. Brian had also partaken of the stupendous Indo-Persian Mughlai cuisine, and ‘Dum’ cooking (food is sealed in a tightly covered pot and cooked slowly over a low flame or in an oven). Brian had always thought that India, so beloved of The Beatles, Donovan and Allen Ginsberg, with its colours, its spirituality, its cuisines and intoxicating ragas were for him. They weren’t.
Growing moist in Tamil Nadu’s largest city, Chennai (formerly Madras), amidst an environment draped with brown dust, or being almost drown by brown street floods, Mr Holland had longed for the green of his many holidays (over two decades) in tropical Malaysia. Not even the complex flavours of Tamil Nadu’s Chettinad cuisine could delay him. Brian’s reasoning had been “if I have to live in this kind of heat, I also want it to be green”. He had longed for viridness and knew that Malaysia could supply copious amounts of it.
In his Chennai rental of ‘Little King’s Cottage’ (in Anna Nagar, and on the fringes of India’s Chennai), Brian had packed a medium-sized rucksack, flew to Sri Lanka , visited the famed ‘Temple of the Tooth’ (in Kandy), stayed in the Grand Oriental Hotel, Colombo, and gorged on Sri Lankan appams (or hoppers, ‘crepes’ of fermented rice batter and coconut milk) whilst also wallowing in that island’s seductive greenery.
Back in the UK, Brian had settled some outstanding financial affairs and straightaway had headed out for what was to be over two decades of living in the green and gastronomic paradise of Malaysia.
With a small tear in his eye, and a large grin on his lips, the fifty-three-year-old Brian Holland had bade a fond farewell to fish and chips of the cold mist-layered Essex villages of Wormingford, Little Baddow and Nayland. He’d headed for the mysterious Gulais, Rendangs and Lemangs of Malaysia’s Tualang Sekar, Membang di Awam and a tasty ‘mee rebus’ (a Malaysian dish with yellow noodles in a rich, spicy, and flavourful potato-based gravy, along with crispy prawn fritters, fried bean-curd, and hard-boiled eggs) found in Perak’s Batu Gajah (aka Elephant Rock).
Brian currently lives adjacent to the vibrant, multi-cultural city of Kuala Lumpur, in its Bangsar suburbs.
(Bangsar was originally rubber plantations and called Bungsar, after the Kuala Lumpur Rubber Co. Ltd. (KLR) top executives Edouard Bunge and Alfred Grisar, who had created a plantation with the name of Bunge-Grisar rubber estate. Bungsar Estate for short. As the word Bangsar signals ‘ethnicity’ (or The Nation) in the Kerinchi dialect from Sumatra, Indonesia, the plantation became renamed ‘Bangsar’).
Brian’s third-floor apartment in the Bangsar Permai residence, is along Jalan Tandok and conveniently near to Jalan Riong, where the New Straits Times newspaper is situated. In the UK Brian had been hoping that Malaysia’s première newspaper might have room for him as a food writer, if not editor. That too wasn’t to be. He’s since looked for similar expatriate employment elsewhere, but has rapidly come to the conclusion that ‘freelancing’ his writing, if not culinary, skills might be the best option to top up his UK pension.
The longer Brian Holland lives adjacent to the energetic city of Kuala Lumpur, the more he wants to get away to a simpler life, perhaps in rural Malaysia. The pull of ‘green’ remains within him. He really wants to live somewhere that doesn’t feel like a holiday apartment with its downstairs swimming pool and little shop for purchases of sliced Gardenia bread and/or Karex condoms.
Mind you, for Brian, that ‘holiday let’ is convenient. It’s near the Light Rail Transit (LRT) at Bangsar Station, which is on the same line as the main train station of KL Sentral, and is easily accessed (just a short walk away) from his apartment (British might say ‘flat’).
That residence is also within walking distance to the main suburban Bangsar centre with its Jalan Telawis and Lorongs lined with small shops, restaurants, bookshops and a variety of art galleries. The small mall called Bangsar Village Grocer is located not far away, and is next to a large mosque. Bangsar Village has an upmarket supermarket, shops, a Nandos and a Starbucks convenient for meeting up in.
Brian’s accommodation is also but a short bus ride away from the Mid-Valley mega mall where he currently stands, outside, sweating and waiting for a taxi.
He’s just out from eating Nasi Lemak at the Australian ‘DÔME Café’ (established in Malaysia in 1995), (In the national language - Malay, ‘Nasi’ means rice, ‘Lemak’ means “fat, especially the rich coconut milk; The rice is usually cooked with pandan leaves to give it a distinct flavour. It may or may not be Malaysia’s most famous dish, depending on whom you ask, but it was first mentioned (in English) in a book titled ‘The Circumstances of Malay Life’, written by Sir Richard Olof Winstedt,
1909).
On the odd, mad, occasion Brian goes up to the 3rd Floor of Mid-Valley and watches a film at Golden Screen Cinemas (GSC). Mostly he doesn’t, because the films are censored for Malaysian sensibilities. Plus films in English are subtitled in both Chinese (Mandarin) and Malay (which he finds most distracting), and the unnecessarily bad censorship concerning sex, race, religious practices and/or aspects of ‘LGBTQ’ culture, which Brian finds so annoying.
Brian was never much of a ‘mall rat’ until, that is, he’d decided to live in a country where the temperature, at its coolest, is around 25.4°C. (about 77 to 78 degrees Fahrenheit). For Brian Holland, shopping in a mall now is ‘cool’.
All good things come to an end. Brian’s days in Kuala Lumpur’s Bangsar too...
...Read part two in the next issue of The Blue Lotus magazine
Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art in Nusantara (Museum Seni Modern dan Kontemper di Nusantara –Museum MACAN) is an art museum in Jakarta. Museum MACAN is an institution that provides public access to a significant and growing collection of modern and contemporary art from Indonesia and around the world. The museum has an active exhibition and events program in a 5,000 square meter facility that includes educational and conservation spaces.
Korakrit Arunanondchai (b. Thailand, 1986)
Breath (2024)
Silicone cast head, silicone cast hands, LED lights, rabbit plush toys, one set of animatronic hands. Courtesy of the artist, Bangkok CityCity Gallery (Bangkok), Kukje Gallery (Seoul/Busan), Carlos/ Ishikawa (London), C L E A R I N G (New York/ Los Angeles). Image Courtesy of Museum MACAN.
Installation
view of Stage (2024), Hold my Hand and tell me not let go (2024), Seraph (2024), Breathe (2024), Imagination (2024), Cry (2024), Angel’s Egg (2024). Courtesy of the artist, Bangkok CityCity Gallery (Bangkok), Kukje Gallery (Seoul/Busan), Carlos/Ishikawa (London), C L E A R I N G (New York/ Los Angeles). Image courtesy of Museum MACAN.
Installation view of Sing (2024) and The Undoing, is Soft, is light (2024).
Courtesy of the artist, Bangkok CityCity Gallery (Bangkok), Kukje Gallery (Seoul/Busan), Carlos/Ishikawa (London), C L E A R I N G (New York/ Los Angeles).
Image courtesy of Museum MACAN.
NATASHA TONTEY’s "Primate Visions: Macaque Macabre" at Museum MACAN, Jakarta, 2024. Courtesy the artist and Audemars Piguet Contemporary.
NATASHA TONTEY’s "Primate Visions: Macaque Macabre" at Museum MACAN, Jakarta, 2024. Courtesy the artist and Audemars Piguet Contemporary.
Raffaele Mainella
Illustrations for
‘Nos Invisibles’ (1907)
Raffaele Mainella
Illustrations for ‘Nos Invisibles’ (1907)
Text by Daisy Sainsbury
At first glance, it is difficult to conceive of Nos Invisibles (1907) as a controversial text. Its pages contain dreamy ruminations on the quest for spiritual serenity and “the mystery of eternal life”, interspersed with elegant illustrations by the Italian watercolourist Raffaele Mainella that conjure celestial bodies and the healing power of nature. But, as the old adage goes, looks can be deceiving. For a start, the author of Nos Invisibles — a certain Charles d’Orino — is in fact a nom de plume for Clotilde Briatte (1850–1910), a figure of Parisian high society married to a wealthy banker, Frederic Pillet-Will. Briatte received a degree of recognition in her lifetime for the six volumes of spiritualist works she published under the same pseudonym between 1904 and 1908, but was above all reputed for hosting lavish Saturday dinners and Tuesday salons. Today, she is perhaps best known as the finely dressed sitter in a portrait by James Tissot.
The collection of texts that make up Nos Invisibles purport to channel, via Briatte (or indeed Charles d’Orino), the voices of Honoré de Balzac, Emile Zola, Gustave Flaubert, Alphonse de Lamartine, and other illustrious writers and thinkers from beyond the grave — the authenticity of which, readers can determine for themselves. Critics at the time certainly had their own opinions. One journalist, Jean de Bonnefon, described Briatte in the following terms: “Mme d’Orino is not the only woman who writes in the spiritualist world. But she is the only one who is dangerous, spending her fortune to peddle her books.” Reeling off a list of the various authors appearing in Briatte’s work, Bonnefon continues: “Unfortunately, the deceased all have the same style, make the same mistakes in French and repeat the same nonsense as soon as they’re channelled via the medium of Mme d’Orino.”
This reflects the broad critical consensus of the time: Briatte was a charlatan, dipping into her deep pockets to finance the high production costs of her lavishly illustrated volumes destined for other wealthy readers – or, as another contemporary critic put it, “people naïve enough to take an interest in such claptrap”. A major criticism was that works like Nos Invisibles purporting to channel the voices of famous authors created unfair competition for the actual works penned by those writers during their lifetimes. And yet, Briatte was far from the only one doing it.
After the development of spiritualism in the United States in the 1840s, France was quick to embrace the trend for communicating with the dead and publishers soon cropped up to profit from the fruits of their labours. Some of the country’s finest writers developed a penchant for the spirit world: Victor Hugo (1802–1885) presided over seances that contacted literary greats of the past, even assisting Shakespeare to conjure one last play from the afterlife. Briatte was therefore not alone. However, her wealth, the whiff of vanity publishing that hung around her oeuvre, and the fact that she was a woman whose every outfit was reported in painstaking detail in the society pages, made her an easy target.
Swirling galaxy
The critical backlash against Briatte’s publications was clearly not an obstacle for Raffaele Mainella (1856–1941), the Italian artist who provided thirty-three plates for Nos Invisibles. After training at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Venice, Mainella honed his skills painting Venetian landscapes and ephemeral scenes from everyday life, before travelling to Egypt in 1887 and the Holy Land in 1898, two trips that would have a significant impact on his work. Indeed, it was to exhibit a series of watercolours from those journeys that he was first invited to Paris in 1901. The exhibition at Galerie Le Petit was a success, cementing his reputation in Italy and abroad. He was soon called upon to decorate the châteaux and villas of wellheeled clients from Paris to the French Riviera. One of his clients was the Greek arms dealer Basil Zaharoff, a man of extraordinary wealth who earned the nickname “the merchant of death”. By comparison, a few watercolours to accompany a volume of dubiously authored spiritual texts was child’s play.
As the preface to Nos Invisibles suggests, Mainella was given the task of creating “astral images” that offer readers a glimpse of “as-yet unknown spheres” and reawaken “the dormant memory in [the reader’s] soul that is asking only to rediscover its intensity”. A tall order for a man more accustomed to painting gondolas on canals or Middle Eastern bazaars. But Mainella diligently set about finding a visual expression for Briatte’s oeuvre, with thirty-three plates that all bear a Latin inscription. He tends to err towards the literal: beside the words “Ubicunque undique deus” (God is everywhere and all around), a man prays before a host of gods and goddesses from various world religions, as well as a secular scene of a bench beside a tree. A plate entitled “In luce universa non terra videtur” (In the light of the universe, the world is not visible) gestures toward the magnitude of the world via a spiral of galaxies that leads the eye endlessly upward, cutting off only with the top of the frame, thus offering an apt, if rather mundane, interpretation of the brief. And yet, Briatte chose her illustrator wisely: in a work permeated by an optimistic belief in the continuity of life after death, in a benevolent divine force that transcends individual religions and touches all things, Mainella’s paintings — beautiful, idyllic, and bathed in light — conjure exactly the right note.
From ‘The Public Domain Review
JAKARTA
six days in
JAKARTA
The city of Jakarta is on the Indonesian island of Java. It was formerly known as ‘Batavia’ (under the Dutch who had destroyed the original fortress of Jayakarta, founded in 1527 ). I’d written about Java, previously, in The Blue Lotus magazine number 7, after my trip to Yogyakarta and visiting the artist Kartika Affendi (the great Affendi’s artist daughter), Borobudur and the Prambanan Temple Compounds, so forgive me if I don’t repeat that information here.
According to Encyclopaedia Britannica…
“The first settlements on the site of Jakarta were established at the mouth of the Ciliwung, perhaps as early as the 5th century AD. The city’s official history, however, starts in 1527, when the sultan of Bantam defeated the Portuguese there and called the place Jayakerta (Sundanese: “Glorious Fortress”). The Dutch, under the leadership of Jan Pieterszoon Coen, captured and razed the city in 1619, after which the capital of the Dutch East Indies—a walled township named Batavia—was established on the site.”
My Airasia flight from Kuala Lumpur International Airport Terminal 2 (KLIA T2) touched down at Soekarno-Hotta International airport in Jakarta, the Indonesian megacity, at about lunchtime. Lunch, however, was to be delayed.
Unlike entering some other Asian countries, getting into Indonesia’s current capital, Jakarta, was relatively easy. Well, easy if you discount the various ‘apps’ and internet forms that you now have to fill in to get into the country, especially the health App accessed via a QR code. This is admittedly is easier than the SATUSEHAT
Mobile Heath app that you are encouraged to fill in prior to flying. That first devious app plays its own little game with your data, and refuses to allow corrections. The second (on arrival and accessed via a QR code) was easy, but nevertheless redundant - no one asked to see it.
The QR code for ‘Customs’ was scanned, as was the one for ‘Immigration’. I idly wondered “what happens if you have no mobile phone?”
Now, whether you consider yourself most fortunate or, alternatively, ripped off, I suppose really depends upon the mood that you’re in at the time. I’m still thinking about the Indonesian Immigration officer who, so very helpfully, offered to get my Indonesian ‘Visa on Arrival’ for me, at the extra cost of Idr 200,000 for himself (the visa was already Idr 500,000). That was a grand total of just over £34 (or RM194.78). It seems that Indonesia is no longer cheap to access - more expensive than Cambodia ($30) in fact.
I had read, on that modern marvel of the Internet (World Wide Web), that Jakarta’s streets are jampacked with traffic. I was ready for a long wait getting from the airport to my accommodation at the Swiss-Belinn Hotel along the Wahid Hasyim road, in Central Jakarta. The ‘Grab’ (taxi app.) journey, accessed at the ‘Grab’ stand at the airport, was in fact one hour and thirteen minutes, and it was fine. I had expected traffic jams like those in India’s Chennai/Mumbai, or the practically static crush of Bangladesh’s Dhaka, but compared to those cities my initial trip in Jakarta was a breeze.
The pavements, in Central Jakarta, and walking to the old Sarinah mall (which rapidly became
my ‘comfort zone’) at rush-hour, was another matter altogether. At that particular time, two-wheeled motorised vehicles tend to use the already narrow and broken walkways (intended for pedestrians) as their escape routes from the nose-to-tail fourwheeled bottlenecks. Pedestrians beware. Central Jakarta’s twowheeled pavement traffic is unyielding and, at rush-hour, brutally persistent.
That Central Jakarta area, in which I had stayed for those few days, was tree-lined and a joy to observe upon opening 6.30am curtains. In December the weather alternated between breezy, mild and rainy. This meant lower temperatures than I’d been used to around Malaysia’s Kuala Lumpur, but an air more polluted by vehicle emissions and cigarette smoke, thus discouraging sauntering on foot. A great amount of people in Jakarta ride ‘bikes’ and many others are still smoking tobacco. I was surprised to find that my hotel had a smoke room (a room set aside for people to pollute their and other people’s lungs in).
I roamed around as much as I could in the time that I had. Most my journeys were undertaken via the modern luxury of ‘Grab’ 30 minutes or more whichever way I travelled out from Central Jakarta. I had been particularly interested in looking at Jakarta’s Chinatown.
The (online) Minority Rights Group, in an article ‘Chinese in Indonesia’ had this to say about the history of Chinese people’s in Jakarta…
“Small Chinese settlements have existed in Indonesia since the late thirteenth century, but larger-scale immigration took place under early Dutch rule when Chinese served as economic intermediaries between the Dutch East India Company and the Javanese…Nearly all Chinese in Indonesia came from either Fujian or Guangdong provinces in southern China. The dominant languages among these
immigrants were Hokkien, Hakka and Cantonese.”
At https://doi.org/10.26721/spfajournal.2021.v5.650 I found that…
“At the beginning of Batavia, the Chinatown area was part of the city center. In 1740 there was a massacre that killed almost the entire Chinese population in Batavia. After the massacre, the Chinese no longer lived in the city center but filled the area outside the city walls.”
A trip out, to see an authentic ‘Chinatown’, resulted in much walking. The ‘lanes’ of that ‘Chinatown’ (Glodok, West Jakarta), branched out from Jalan Panchoran and the Chinatown Gate (only inaugurated in 2022), and were reminiscent of Bangkok, but in a smaller space than I’d expected. True the hustle bustle of life, with stalls such as ‘Combro Pedas Pancoran’ (spicy snack made with cassava and a combination of tofu and tempeh) were plentiful but space was at a premium in those narrower confines.
In Jakarta’s older ‘Chinatown’ I’d stopped at ‘Gold Dragon Coffee’, on Jalan Kemurnian Utara, in the Petak Sembilan Market area. I snacked on a “crunchy melting pineapple tart” and drank ‘Kopi Susu’ (local coffee with condensed milk). Then I battled through pavements which were nearly impassable due to clothes shops selling items predominately red in colour (for the coming Chinese New Year) draped over the pavements, and the occasional man cooking deliciously scented pork.
Looking for something more obviously antique,
or antiquated, I had accidentally walked out of that Chinatown area. I’d found myself traipsing through an older, though more run-down area which had all the appearances of leading towards the Old Batavia, in the distance. What I discovered was, on foot I couldn’t actually get to that Batavia, despite my efforts. I had also been getting a little weary of traipsing the streets. Looking at the app. I’d noticed that there were also fewer ‘Grab’ drivers in that area, or fewer who wished to take me back to Central Jakarta, and my hotel. It took me nearly an hour to capture a Grab (at Jalan Telephone Kota), with many cancellations, which Grab are now notorious for) to take me back to familiar surroundings and the Sarinah mall.
There is another ‘Chinatown’ (Pantai Indah Kapuk, frequently referred to as PIK, aka Beautiful Kapuk Beach). It, supposedly, has an architectural style adopted from traditional Chinese styles in Zhangzhou City, Fujian Province, China. However, for me, this North Jakarta new Chinatown is less of a mirror than a distortion of Chinese reality with its ‘Disneyfied’ approach. That area appears to be one result of a chequered history which, only in the 21st century, sees Chinese residents becoming a little less marginalized and a tad more accepted after the infamous ‘May 1998 Indonesia riots’. In those times Chinese Indonesians had become victimised and a target of civil unrest. I was curious to see what this new Chinatown had to offer.
A disappointment was the answer.
While the more authentic Glodok Chinatown was crammed, crowded and, well, very Chinese, the ‘new’ Chinatown at PIK was its opposite. The old Chinatown was distinctly and authentically non-touristy, the new had an over-abundance of touristy Chinese pap, and more resembled a Chinatown theme park with its reproduction pagoda and statue of Guan Yin (Goddess of Mercy).
Thokchom Sony
Three friends
Thokchom Sony is an artist based in New Delhi, India. His paintings are inspired by ethnic cultures, multicultural diversity, nature and urban fashion.
My Beloved Tani and Koko
The Dreamer
Symbiosis
Dear friend Dragonfly
I'm still beautiful and strong
Papia Das Baul is a disciple of the legendary Pandit Puma Das Saul Samrat. She is a singer, lyricist, poet, actor and line artist simultaneously based in London, Prague & Kolkata, Papia is blessed with an exotic and raw voice which is the voice of the sal. The particular unique voice connects to the soul of her followers, be it in the West, or in the East. Papia has done her masters degree in Indian Classical Music, but has passionately spent more than thirty years of her life with the Baula and the Fakirs of rural Bengal and aquired her spiritual and musical name Papia Das Baul from her diksha guru (music & spiritual guide), the living baul legend Pandit Puma Das Baul Samrat, as well as stiiksha guru, Sadhon Bairagi.
She believes the combination of painting and music to her daily life gives her the sense of freedom and ecstasy. Papia has many disciples all over the world who has joined her to practice sadhana, the body philosophy & the tantric practice of the Baul minstrels.
Papia sings & dances with her Baul instruments Ektara, Octane, Ananda Lohori, Dubki & Ghungoor. She also has a music and art akhara/atelier in the conjugation point of the holy Celtic forests, Vltava river and the hills in Prague, Bohemia, UK, as well as in Kolkata. India.
Papia Ghoshal’s music and spiritual name is Papia Das Baul, after taking initiation by her music guru the legendary Pandit Puma Das Saul. Papia Das Saul has performed in various festivals and important stages in Europe and in India. (To mention a few) • Folklorum Fest in Germany • Women In Music • Art Festival London • World Yoga Day Festival In Prague • Ayurveda Festival Prague • Refu Fest • Talc Fest & Camp • Capmir Fest Vysehrad in the Czech Republic
• Chemnitz • Stadfest Germany. National Museum Prague • Brandenburg Museum Germany - Museums in Plzn & Camp Bohemia • Team() museum Ostrava • Indian Embassy • Tagore Cultural Centre Berlin • Club Lucerrka Prague • Baul Fakir Fest in Shaktigarh Kolkata
• Lalon Mela in various festivals in Bengal, Rabindra Sedan • Gotha Institutes & Camp • Sanskriti Bhavan in Kerala camp Chennal • Lucknow Literature Festival, Kolkataintemational literary festival 2019 and many other important museums camp stages in Europe • Play the song Pkkiare Palasher Bon (Tin Pa gale, Rags musk)
Papia achieved various prestigious International and National awards for her contribution to Art and Culture such as:
Trebbia International Award 2022 Mother Teresa International Award European Union Of Fine Arts Award Medal Of Franz Kafka Award Kolkata International Literary Award Lucknow International Literary Festival Bangladesh Lalon Music Festival
Surnandan Bharat! International Foundation Award
among many more International and National awards.
Chicken’s feet
Chicken’s feet
aka Phoenix Claws (Fèng zhǎo (鳯爪)
SOMETHING NEW
Lester buys chicken feet on a stick at Wing Fat’s down on Mott Street. He does not know why. He’s not even sure what you do with a chicken foot. It’s just that on this particular Saturday he awoke realising he didn’t want to die never having bought chicken feet. He suspects they are meant to be eaten, seeing as how they are sold in Chinese food stores. But he does not know how and he is afraid to ask. So he carries them back home on the Number Four train, climbs to his third floor walk-up on Amsterdam and 119th, and places the chicken feet in a green crystal vase with half a dozen daisies and a handful of baby’s breath. Then he smiles as he realises he has just done something never before done by anyone ever.
Culinary ‘Chicken’s Feet’ are, quite literally, the feet/ claws/paws of chickens, appropriately cleaned and prepared. Benefits of eating chickens’ feet come due to their high collagen content, which improves skin, joint, bone, and heart health, in we humans, or so it is said.
On the internet it was been suggested that eating chicken feet may have originated from the Chinese belief that chickens symbolise good luck and prosperity, and that eating a chicken foot will bring those qualities to the person/ people who eat them.
It was in London’s China Town, in the late 1970s, that a Malaysian Sri Lankan friend first introduced to the eating of chicken’s feet. They were part of the goodies on offer as a collection of (small plates) called Cantonese ‘Dim Sum’. Dim Sum literally means ‘touch the heart’ in Chinese, and comes from the Cantonese word ‘tim sam’, which also means an appetiser). It is…
“…a large range of small Chinese dishes that are traditionally enjoyed in restaurants for brunch. Most modern dim sum dishes are commonly associated with Cantonese cuisine, although dim sum dishes also exist in other Chinese cuisines.” Or so says Wikipedia.
Chicken’s feet are not just part of Dim Sum, but also a gastric Chinese delicacy known as ‘Phoenix Claws’ (fèng zhuǎ) or ’Chicken’s Feet’. This has been a known Chinese delicacy since the Zhou Dynasty (1066 – 221 BCE). So, who was I to argue with Chinese history.
A small, slow steamed, bamboo container held the plate in which my chicken’s feet came in a black (soy) bean sauce. It had recently been extracted from a huger bamboo steamer somewhere in the depths of that Chinese restaurant’s kitchen. I didn’t want to seem too typically English when it had been suggested that the coming Dim Sum should contain the
feet of chickens, as well as a variety of pork and prawn dishes such as ‘cheung fun’ (a steamed rice roll with a prawn filling) ’har gau’ (shrimp dumplings), ‘siu mai’ (dumplings with pork and prawn) and ‘cha siu bao’ (dim sum stuffed bun with char siu filling). With a little trepidation I tasted, and immediately enjoyed a dish they many Westerners refuse even try.
That was over forty years ago. That restaurant has moved from its previous location in Gerrard Place, London’s China Town, but I have continued to eat (and cook) a variety of dishes containing chicken’s feet ever since. Living in Asia does have its own rewards.
The Australian author Gillian Kendall, in her book ’Mr. Ding’s Chicken Feet (on a Slow Boat from Shanghai to Texas, 2006) was not enamoured of the feet of chickens. The cook (Mr Ding) had lovingly prepared a dish of chicken feet which had been tossed, surreptitiously, and bit by bit, out of the ship’s porthole and into the accompanying waves, even though the Western recipients were ‘starving’ on the journey.
Asia
In China, Chickens Feet appear as Phoenix/ Dragon Claws - Dim Sum (Fèng zhǎo 鳯爪); Tiger Skin chicken feet(虎皮凤爪); Paojiao fengzhua ( 泡椒凤爪) marinated chilli pepper and chicken feet; Chicken feet with lemon (柠檬凤爪); Dim sum chicken feet (虎皮凤爪); Sweet and sour chicken feet (白云凤爪); Red-braised chicken feet (红烧凤爪) Chicken feet blanched and then braised in a soy-based sauce; Soy-marinated chicken feet (卤凤爪), and “Treasure in the palm” (掌中宝) Chicken footpads are seasoned with salt and pepper and then fried.
Chicken’s feet are not only a Chinese delicacy, but a delicacy across Asia. In various Asian countries, as well as China. Chicken feet appear
Steamed Chicken Feet with Black Bean Sauce (Fung Jao)
in the cuisines of Vietnam (‘chân gà’, marinated in sauce with garlic, chili, salt, pepper plus other spices, and grilled). Also in Vietnam there are ‘chân gà sả tắc’, boiled chicken feet which are marinated in lemon grass and kumquat and, also Vietnamese chicken feet with (American) Buffalo sauce.
In Laos, chicken feet are ‘Yum Tien Gai’, or boneless chicken feet with a salad. Chicken feet are plentiful in Malaysia and Singapore, while in the Philippines there is ‘Chicken Feet Adobo’ where the feet are first cleaned and then marinated in a mixture of soy sauce, vinegar, garlic, and bay leaves. In South Korea there is Dakbal - chicken feet prepared by cleaning, steaming, and then stir-fried with a spicy ‘gochujang’ sauce, and perilla leaves.
In Thailand there are ‘Thai Chicken Feet Salad -Super Teen Gai (chicken feet) and Thai spicy soup. In Indonesia chickens feet are known as Ceker Ayam and appear in dishes like Soto ceker, a popular soup; Kripik ceker, a crispy snack; and Nasi tim, steamed rice, with boneless chicken feet. While in South Asia chicken feet appear in Indian ‘Panja/Punja' Curry (or chicken feet curry); and ‘Murge Ke Panje Ki’, and are known as Karahi in Bengal.
Latin America
Popular in many Latin American regions, "Caldo de Pies de Pollo" is a beloved soup where chicken feet are simmered with vegetables like corn and potatoes, which are enhanced with traditional seasoning such as cilantro, garlic, and onion as the broth gains a rich, gelatinous texture. It’s often served with a squeeze of lime and accompanied by warm tortillas, as homecooked Hispanic comfort food. In Guyana there is Guyanese chicken foot, (sal sev) which is not made from actual chicken feet, but is seasoned dough cut into strips, and deep fried. Some say that it’s the ultimate Guyanese snack food.
Caribbean
In the Caribbean there’s Chicken Feet Soup, with or without dumplings. In Jamaica there’s a Chicken Foot Soup, Chicken Foot Pumpkin Soup, Jamaican Style Brown Stew Chicken Foot, and Curry Chicken Feet. In Trinidad there’s Chicken foot souse and in the Dominican Republic, Chicken’s feet is a common dish known as pico y pala.
South Africa
Amanqina Enkukhu is a chicken feet dish from South Africa. There dishes of ‘chicken feet’ are variously known as Amanqina/ Maotwana/ Makwanda, Ticondo or Seblak. They are also known as “walkie talkies” or “runaways.”
A final thought….
In ‘Utopia’ a novel by Egyptian author Ahmed Khaled Tawfik, (published in 2008) society (like HG Wells; Time machine) has only two classes.
For Wells it’s the fair, non-working class - the Eloi, and the working class - the Morlocks. For Tawfik it’s the extremely poor and the extremely rich. In a future Egypt the poor can no longer afford to have meat or chicken. In the market the only thing the poor could afford is chicken feet. Which some might say is a blessing, but I don’t think it’s meant that way in Tawfik’s future Egypt.
“It seemed that chicken feet were also popular – and heads – and wings. But where was the chicken itself? Even their chickens had apparently been turned into nothing but skin and bone. No muscles and no innards.” From Utopia, by Ahmed Khaled Towfik, Bloomsbury Qatar Foundation Publishing, translated by Chip Rossetti, 2012)
Chicken feet Thai spicy salad
Yum tien gai, Lao chicken feet salad
South African Amanqina Enkukhu (Chicken Feet dish)
Dak Bal (Korean style chicken feet) Chinese boneless spicy sweet and sour/pepper flavour
A variety of pre-cooked and packaged Chicken’s feet
Martin Bradley is the author of a collection of poetryRemembering Whiteness and Other Poems (2012, Bougainvillea Press); a charity travelogue - A Story of Colours of Cambodia, which he also designed (2012, EverDay and Educare); a collection of his writings for various magazines called Buffalo and Breadfruit (2012, Monsoon Book)s; an art book for the Philippine artist Toro, called Uniquely Toro (2013), which he also designed, also has written a history of pharmacy for Malaysia, The Journey and Beyond (2014, Caring Pharmacy).
Martin has written two books about Modern Chinese Art with Chinese artist Luo Qi, Luo Qi and Calligraphyism and Commentary by Humanists Canada and China (2017 and 2022), and has had his book about Bangladesh artist Farida Zaman For the Love of Country published in Dhaka in December 2019.
Canada 2022
THE BLUE LOTUS
The Blue Lotus magazine is published by Martin A Bradley (The
LOTUS BACK ISSUES
(The Blue Lotus Publishing), in Colchester, England, UK, 2024
