Lotus The Blue
Issue 23, Autumn 2020
SPECIAL ISSUE 2
Lisa Wong Sook Kuan Bhairja Maharjan Khchao Touch Kabir Kamal Kadimul Islam Jadu Janiz Chan Srimal Sanjeewa Kumara Nguyen Thành Hashim Hannoon Cristina Taniguchi Ch’ng Kiah Kiean Haren Thakur 1
colors of c
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# 270 Mundull 1 Village, Sway Don Tel: 855 (0) 63965021; Tel: 855 (0) 122
cambodia
l of art
Colors of Cambodia provides free art education for Cambodian children through our gallery and in local schools. We also host various workshops and lectures by local and internationally renowned artists and hold full-scale art exhibitions regularly. The art gallery at Colors of Cambodia features art by our students and teachers. Proceeds from the sale of art works by students, teachers, and our founder go directly to assist students and schools. Advanced art-training classes are offered to children showing special talent. Advanced teaching in drawing and painting is available to assist students in higher education, and to prepare them for a possible career in the arts. One long-term goal of Colors of Cambodia is to be able to offer scholarships to exceptional students.
ngKum Commune, Siem Reap District, Cambodia 214336 - Phany; Email: colors@colorsofcambodia.org
siem reap, cambodia
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contents p6
editorial
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lisa wong sook kuan
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bhairja maharjan
khchao touch
i am nature
kabir kamal kadimul islam jadu
dog series
janiz chan
regrowth
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sirimal sanjeewa kumara
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nguyáť…n thĂ nh
people (photography)
cover image ‘regeneration’ by Lisa Wong Sook Kuan, 2020
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hashim hanoon
the golden voice p108 graphic novel
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merdeka art fest
p132 cristina taniguchi
malay tale of the pig king p142 the book
p144 ch’ng kiah kiean
p154 haren thakur
reap sustenance p168 siem gastronomy
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Lotus The Blue
editorial First of all, I should like to express my deep heartfelt thanks for the support of Bill Gentry and his Cambodian charity Colors of Cambodia, for lending me a computer on which to design, edit and publish the last and this issue of The Blue Lotus magazine. I am still away from my regular studio in Malaysia and publish this from Siem Reap, Cambodia. There is no end to the exciting and amazing artworks which continue to be created in Asia. It is my sheer joy to be able to bring a mere fraction of these to you four times a year. Without any further ado, I just remind you all that there is a tremendous amount of beauty in life. I feel honoured to live amongst the fascinating people who walk with us and certainly give me hope for the future. I try to be as diverse as possible with the entries here but, at the end of a sun-filled day I can only work with what I have. I thank all those who have allowed me to place their work here and who automatically become part of The Blue Lotus family, now and forever. Martin
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Lisa Wong Sook Kuan There are occasions, when I stroll in my garden in the night-time, that I sense the veneer between the spiritual and the physical, thin. The sound of water running, the cry of the crickets and the occasional fell swoop of a bat creates a sort of mystical, contained space. Much of my work, be it figurative, or surreal, is a piece of that magic realism which comes alive at night. Goldfish fly inbetween leaves of taro plants, painted storks bathe in shallow waters of the pond, foliage shapeshifts with breezesong. What you see is not a plain image of real objects, but a vision of an existing part of my garden, somewhere in between planes. Magic becomes a part of my reality through my body of work, be it serene or swelling.
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Regeneration
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Paradise Found
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Bathers
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Covert Mystics
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Night Magic
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Garden of Delights
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Opulent Night
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Georges Georges Rhumerie French Restaurant
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Georges’ Lane, Krong, Siem Reap, Cambodia m.me/frenchrestaurantsiemreap Call 096 861 7448
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Happy Buddha Jayenti
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Bhairja Maharjan To make an effective and convincing statement through his art, Bhairaj takes advantage of a vast pool of existing visual resources, from which he selectively draws upon to create an effective visual vocabulary, which is selective in its use of appropriate elements to create a novel artistic expression. First and foremost, Bhairaj has deep roots - socially and culturally in the Buddhist thoughts. The social fabric of his life, like that of his ancestors, is steeped in the teachings of Lord Buddha, which has a strong presence in every aspect of then artist’s life. These teachings encompass the religious rites, rituals and festivals which are an integral part of Newar life. On a professional level too, since his student days, Bhairaj has remained well acquainted with the forms and motifs associated with the historic and exquisite Buddhist Art of medieval Kathmandu. There is no doubt that this rich cultural legacy has remained deeply engrained in his aesthetic subconscious. ‘In Search of Peace” Bhairaj is seen taking full advantage of both - his visual as well as social experiences. This exhibition presents an interesting array of paintings replete with symbols and imageries -depicting multiple forms associated with the ‘Buddhism’ as is present and practiced here. A number of works in this series are devoted to monumental images of the Buddha. His Buddhas are derived from the earlier medieval stone or metal works of Kathmandu - characterized by half-closed serene eyes with knotty hair atop the head. He incorporates floral motifs into his works as the lotus symbolizes purity, wisdom and awakening -thus augmenting the potency of his visual narrative. In some works he paints the standing Buddha, in others he concentrates on the serene Buddha visage. Monks in yellow robes dwell in the artist’s canvases as do the shadowy imageries of solitary monks, abstracted often to near silhouetted form. To enhance the serene and sublime atmosphere in his paintings, Bhairaj makes liberal use of repetitive textures and combines this with cultural symbols directly associated with Buddhism: Astamangal the eight auspicious symbols widely associated with the local religious practice here.
Madan Chitrakar, Artist/art writer, madanc@ntc.net.np, April 1 3, 2012
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Love for Nature
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Aaja Bholi (now and Then)
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Just Born (detail)
Mirage Contemporary Art Space Oknha Oum-Chhay Street (Corner of Koulen Hotel) Krong Siem Reap 17252 Cambodia 17252 ph 097 892 1626 29
Postcard ink sketches
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Just Born
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Just Born
Nature is the essence of Khchao Touch’s practice. Her intricate and organically inspired patterns can feel almost psychedelic at first, but, within them, we sense a deep connection to the wider world. This profound link to nature, a recurring theme in her art, stems from a dedicated practice of meditation. For her, both nature and meditation are inextricably linked to existence. Each painting, made with the intricate pointillistic marks of tiny stems of bamboo and oil paint, can take months to create. Throughout this lengthy process, each piece grows like the world around and becomes a meditative process in itself. Text by Mirage Contemporary Art Space
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Just Born
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Just B
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Kabir Kamal Kabir's purpose has been to capture the mystery of the world below water. The world makes him always puzzled and his search for beauty and for contemplation on the water-world has influenced him to hold up in his paintings a vibrant blithe picture of the marine world. The poetry in the aquatic produces a surge of sensitivity in him, enabling him to hear and interpret the sounds, colours and rhythms in and around the marine world. The sturdiness of his lines (thick and scribbles) and colours are inspired by the world underwater and have evolved from a more traditional style to semi-abstractions that propagate wide-ranging views and imaginations. Kabir's canvases sometimes are lavish in abstract images with colours and ambiguous forms. But this semi-abstraction does not in any way obstruct the viewers' perception of the artist's feeling and pensiveness. Most of his canvases are large and it is noticeable that he has piled colour on colour with the use of hard brush, spatula and soft brush - some of his preferred tools and ingredients. These exercises project his ideas about feelings and moods.
Text extracted from The Daily Observer Kamal Kabir’s world of marine life and amorphous forms by Takir Hossain
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Freedom Fish
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Freedom
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kadimul islam jadu
dog series In a lengthy series (at least 95 pieces) of canine imagery in his ‘Dog Series’, the Bangladesh artist Kadimul Islam Jadu investigates our fascination with ‘man’s best friend’, and triggers a series of complex dialogues revolving around the animal, man and their place together especially in a country grown from Hinduism, through Buddhism into Islam. That is in the background, or in some niche at the back of the mind as the viewer encounters the artist’s sketchy, casual style reminiscent of the newer wave of American comic book artists like Bill Sienkiewicz, or the older Frank Miller. In a (good) way the imagery smacks of reportage. It is a little gritty, half finished fly-on-the-wall style which brings the viewer straight into an encounter which we can only be the better for.
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Janiz Chan
Regrowth Some sense of place in the time of pandemic “For me, a landscape does not exist in its own right, since its appearance changes at every moment; but the surrounding atmosphere brings it to life—the light and the air which vary continually. For me, it is only the surrounding atmosphere which gives subjects their true value.” - Claude Monet, 1891 In her latest exhibition Regrowth, Malaysian artist Janiz Chan, explores the sense of place in the time of pandemic through her landscape oil paintings. For Chan, the place is a contested space between human habitation and nature. In this time of the pandemic brought about by the Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19), she discerned the changes in the environment. In the early Movement Control Order (MCO) in Malaysia, she was wondering how the lock-down has affected nature. According to her, “[as] humans are step back, nature gain ground at once, when human advance, nature retreat.” It seems that in her painting entitled Lake Garden, nature has overgrown with trees and plants in varying shades of green, yellow, and pink as well as the pond full of lilies in various stages of blooming. Inspired by the Taman Tasik Perdana (Perdana Botanical Garden) built during the British colonial era in the late 19th Century, the gaps between the lily pads do not only reflect the clear blue skies above but the human intervention to manage the growth of these floating aquatic plants. These gaps suggest the subjugation of nature for human recreational purposes. In the initial phase of this public park, shrubs and local grass called Lalang were cleared and replaced with ornamental flowering trees and shrubs. The Sungei Bras Basah (Bras Basah River) was dammed up to create an artificial lake where the aquatic plants like water lilies thrived in a controlled environment. Manicured lawns, sculptured gardens, deer park, butterfly sanctuary, walkways, and other amenities were added to attract tourists and local residents into this large-scale recreational facility that is much-needed in highly urbanized places like Kuala Lumpur. Indeed, human needs have shaped the form of nature. Yet in her painting of Kinta Nature Park (Taman Alam Kinta, Batu Gajah), the largest bird sanctuary park in Malaysia, Chan imagines the recovery of nature with the lush green foliage overlaid with water hyacinth and buttercup flowers in blooms and inhabited with unseen species of birds because of the state-sanctioned MCO. But as the light blue boat traverses through the large floating colony of water hyacinth blooming in the foreground, she expresses her concern that despite the lock-down, the human intrusive activities are still present as a real threat to nature’s growth. However, when uncontrolled
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by human intervention, this aquatic plant species also becomes a serious threat to the lakes and ponds by affecting the water flow and reducing the sunlight that reaches the endemic aquatic plants in the locality. In another painting, Chan depicts the lush water lilies in their natural setting at the Paya Indah Wetlands in near Putrajaya. Her depiction of the landscape is a memory of the place. Though the actual wetlands are now uninhabited by tourists and local residents because of the pandemic, the composition of the painting through a small patch of walkway suggests a proposition either to walk, to wade into the waters, to take a boat, and to explore the wetlands, or to leave the wetlands and to return to one’s place without intruding nature’s regrowth. Either way, there will always be an inevitable interaction between nature and human settlement. As shown in the painting of the water hyacinth with lavender blooms carpeting Melaka’s floodwater retention pond, Chan suggests the mutual relations of “give and take between human [beings] and nature.” In between the lined trees in the middle ground of the painting’s composition, the majestic mosque and Islamic center, Madrasah Al Ridzwan harmoniously towers the landscape of aquatic plant colonies. The architecture and the pond complement each other with the exchanges of their hues of greens and shades of purple. Thus, in this collection of eight paintings, Chan does not only represent the atmospheric environs of the local parks and wetlands with their greenery and blooms but also puts their true value in her own sense of place that is personal yet shared with nature and her community; contested yet can be negotiated between human beings and nature itself. AM+DG 2020 Jason K. Dy, SJ
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Water Lilies
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Half Ring
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PayaIndah
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Lake Garden
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sirimal sanjeewa kumara In Sanjeewa Kumara’s obviousness and uncompromising nature, Sanjeewa Kumara proves to be one of the best classic examples of a generation of artists belonging to the dawn of the new millennium, who not only rely on the canon of their culture, but also use the indisputable benefits of globalization to bring out the best of their works of art. In this sense his palette is much nuanced. What he collects in it are substances (in the figurative, narrative sense), sounds, memories, symbols and iconography, which are rich and abundant in variation, and which can thus be his trove of any desired texture, of every motive that appeals to him, of each color and mood. His combinatorics seems inexhaustible. But Sanjeewa is no rag-picker. He searches and sifts through his materials like a professional artist,who classifies the findings, evaluates and systematically exposes them. He calculates and finds the parts depending on their effects for his later works, and gets an initial idea in advance which he later transforms into a painting . In every sense, this seems to be an inherent aspect of his artistic composition. If one visits an artist at home and sees the unfinished works of the artist hanging on the walls, then he can imagine the outcome of this dramatic process.'' Gerd Pßschel ,Berlin, 2010
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Apsara
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Uncanny Personality 3
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Uncanny Personality 2
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Free Will
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Uncanny Personality
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Uncanny Personality 4
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Duality- Who Am I?
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Tree of Life
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Nguyáť…n ThĂ nh photographer from vietnam
people
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700 m from Sword Lake, there is a very different Hanoi!
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The old lady in ChuĂ´ng village. Ung Hoa - Hanoi
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Mother and child...
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Write calligraphy at Ho Van - Van Temple - Hanoi
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Hoi Quan - Bac Ninh 2017 weaving village
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I'm ugly, don't take photos! Told you
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The snare of the four surfaces..
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hashim hannoon Hashim Hannoon was born in a Basrah, Iraq, a shipping centre located on a river in southern Iraq, close to the Persian Gulf. In 1979 the artist was 22, a recent graduate from the Institute of Fine Arts in Baghdad. That year he received a Golden Sail Award for work shown in the Fourth Kuwait Biennial. The future looked bright. Basrah was a beautiful bustling city with a network of freshwater canals and walkways along the river. One year later, in 1980, war erupted between Iran and Iraq. Basrah’s strategic position near shipping lanes caused it to come under missile fire and chemical warfare attacks. The emotional toll of Basrah’s bombardments on the artist’s psyche are seen in many of his earlier artworks. Explosions, fire and fragments rip across canvases; burlap and distressed surfaces form the grounds. The burlap fabric refers to the sandbags piled near roadsides and buildings to buffer attacks and shield civilians. Between 1980 and 1988 thousands of people on both sides lost their lives and the entire region destabilized. “I witnessed the war during my twenties,” says Hannoon, “therefore the impact of the conflict manifested in my paintings for a long time.” In spite of the war, Hannoon continued to produce art and attend various exhibitions in Baghdad, Turkey and Yemen. Medals and awards also continued for the talented artist throughout the 1980s and 1990s. In 1999, he completed a Bachelor of Sculpture at the College of Fine Arts in Baghdad. His rough-hewn expressive figural pieces are cast in bronze. In 2007, he produced a series of pen-and-ink drawings included in a major exhibition at the O. Gallery in Saudi Arabia. from Hashim Hannoon’s ‘City Life’ by Kate Cino
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Good morning Jordan
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a graphic novel 108
by Gregory Cahill and Kat Baumann
Ros Serey Sothea
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THE GOLDEN VOICE
A forthcoming graphic novel based on the life of Ros Serey Sothea Written by Gregory Cahill Illustrated by Kat Baumann Ros Serey Sothea was Cambodia’s most popular and beloved female singer of the 1960’s and 70’s. Boasting a music catalogue of nearly a thousand songs in every conceivable genre, Sothea was a recording studio juggernaut with a distinctly soaring angelic voice. She was dubbed “the golden voice of the royal capital” by Prince Norodom Sihanouk. But as the Vietnam War spilled over into neighboring Cambodia, the country devolved into a brutal war of its own. After the communist Khmer Rouge seized power in 1975, the Cambodian music scene came to a screeching halt. Most artists of the era, including Ros Serey Sothea, died in the infamous Khmer Rouge genocide. The first time I heard Ros Serey Sothea was in a movie called City of Ghosts, directed by Matt Dillon. I bought the soundtrack, and found myself listening to her music on repeat for weeks. As an American, I didn’t know what she was saying, but I could feel what she was saying. I think that’s a dying art form – singers who convey the emotion of their lyrics so vividly, that the listener feels it too. When I learned about her tragically early death at the hands of the Khmer Rouge, that was a sort of ‘Eureka!’ moment. Not only was her music so good, but the story behind the music was extremely powerful. The thing that really struck me was that outside of the Cambodian community, you’d be hardpressed to find even a few people who’ve heard of her. Back in 2006, I wrote and directed a low-budget short film, also titled The Golden Voice, depicting Sothea’s struggle to survive at a Khmer Rouge work site. For an amateur production, the short film got a huge reaction, and that encouraged me to develop a full-length feature film. In 2007, I spent time in Cambodia doing research. I learned that Sothea had led an extraordinary life in her short time on this world. She is mostly remembered as a romantic singer, but she was also an actress, a mother, a rice farmer, and a paratrooper. And despite her horrible fate, Sothea’s voice lives on in the popular music of Cambodia to this day. I felt that there was a hopeful message in that. Piecing her life story together has been a challenging journey, but a beautiful journey. It’s an ongoing process. As recently as this year, new primary sources have surfaced, and I’ve been lucky enough to speak with them. But since the very beginning back in 2007, the central figure in all of my research has been Sothea’s surviving sister Ros Saboeun. Without her guidance and support, none of this would be possible. She is tremendously passionate about her sister’s legacy. By 2008, I had a first draft of the script. Over the next decade, many producers were interested, but ultimately, no one would commit the financing. There was this general attitude that a subtitled film with an unknown cast and a tragic story wouldn’t be profitable. The Golden Voice being my long-term passion project, I decided to bring the story to life another way, where I wasn’t reliant upon gatekeepers saying “yes” or
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“no.” The graphic novel medium has really come into its own as a well-respected art-form. It appeals to me because like cinema, it’s visual. But when you hear that someone is working on a project about Ros Serey Sothea, you immediately assume it’s a film or a documentary. But a graphic novel comes out of left field. It’s unexpected. I spent the first half of 2019 trying to find the right artist for the book. It was a bit of a labyrinth, and I started down many dead-end paths. But finally, I connected with Kat Baumann, a comic book artist based out of Minnesota. After speaking with her, I could tell that she really “got” what the project was all about. She has a cinematic mind, and like Sothea’s singing, Kat has an ability to evoke real emotions in her illustrations. She is taking a story that’s already quite powerful, and she’s elevating it. People are universally blown away by her work. I think it’s really something to see these historic figures like Ros Serey Sothea, Sin Sisamouth, and Huoy Meas coming to life as comic book characters. We often associate comic books with superheroes, and these musicians are superheroes to so many people. You can’t tell the story of Ros Serey Sothea without music. And so, the graphic novel is going to have a built-in soundtrack that’s synced to the story. Let’s say you’re reading a scene where Sothea is performing at a nightclub. You can stream the song she’s singing as you read. It’s really going to immerse you in the world. And I’m pleased to say that we’re working with the families of Ros Serey Sothea and Sin Sisamouth, making sure that they benefit from sales of the book and soundtrack. As of August 2020, Kat and I have completed about one-third the 175-page book. We expect to finish sometime next year, in 2021. At that point, we’re going to seek a publisher and hopefully get this story out to a global audience. I think it’s so important that we remember Ros Serey Sothea and her fellow Khmer artists whose lives were cut short by terrible circumstances. There is much to learn from her story. I’m hopeful that people will be inspired by her. To stay up-to-date on the book’s progress, please follow us on social media and sign up for our mailing list. Links are provided below.
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Ros Serey Sothea and Sin Sisamouth
Real to Comic
Links: www. thegoldenvoicemovie.com facebook.com/thegoldenvoicemovie instagram.com/thegoldenvoicemovie twitter.com/thegoldenvoicex GREGORY CAHILL is an Emmy winning producer for CBS entertainment talk show The Talk. His previous television credits include 24 starring Kiefer Sutherland, Mad Men starring Jon Hamm, and Medium starring Patricia Arquette. He served as assistant director on animated comedy Hell & Back starring Mila Kunis and Bob Odenkirk. His debut feature film Two Shadows took home the Audience Award from the Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival, while his short film The Golden Voice was selected for over a dozen international film festivals, winning several awards. Gregory is a board member of the Cambodia Town Film Festival, and a graduate of NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts. KAT BAUMANN is an illustrator from Southern Minnesota. She grew up in a family of musicians, and as a kid she spent most of her time singing show tunes in her room and drawing her favorite manga characters. After graduating with a BFA in Studio Art, she interned at Helioscope Studio in Portland and began working as a freelance cartoonist. Other works of hers include Ferdinand Magellan Sails Around the World (Black Sheep: Extraordinary Explorers), Blind Spot (from the anthology Death Saves Vol. 2), 20 Fists by F.D. White, and her 2017 autobio graphic novella Broken Plastic Horses. She now shares a studio in Mankato with her partner James and their geriatric tabby, Abner.
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Christine Das by Mahesh Kulkarni
The Malaysian Advanced Photographers Group (MAPG) continues to promote the arts. They have recently inaugurated the Merdeka Art Fest at Kajang Art Heritage, Kajang, Malaysia. It has been for them a year of embarking upon larger, more ambitious projects. They continue to welcome photographers, serious hobbyists, professional artists as well as art lovers, and look forward to working and synergising talents, resources and networking towards a new art movement in Malaysia. It is ambitious, but this recent exhibition demonstrates just how determined this group is to promote the arts in Malaysia and, over time, across Asia too. 119
Raymond Koh by Andy Chow
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Grace Oh
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Kulit Baru by Andy Chow
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By Suzan Manen
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Lisa Wong by Chris Chong
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Curly Ray by Andy Chow
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Maedeh Hosseiny artwork by Andy Chow
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Mahesh Kulkarni by Andy Chow
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Irene Wan by Andy Chow
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cristina taniguchi
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The Imagination of Eve
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The imagination of Eve
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Of gods, symbols and magic The recent art of Cristina Taniguchi By Martin Bradley
“The mind loves the unknown. It loves images whose meaning is unknown, since the meaning of the mind itself is unknown.” ~ Rene Magritte.
It is intimated that Leonardo da Vinci had written; "Painting is poetry that is seen rather than felt, and poetry is painting that is felt rather than seen." It is certainly attributed to him. The exceeding literate Filipina artist Cristina (Kitty)Taniguchi has been both poet and painter. She could, no doubt like the French creative Jean Cocteau, make the claim that she is first and foremost a poet. She is a person who paints poetry. Her works exude the beauty of well written poems while simultaneously teasing the viewer with visual signs, symbols and partially hidden mystic metaphors enough to both capture our attention, and to hold it. Taniguchi's fellow Filipino poet José Garcia Villa (in his poem 'First, A Poem Must Be Magical') alludes to the inherent magic and music in the everyday. Taniguchi lifts a blinding veil to reveal images of that underlying magic in all its glory and accompanying symbolism. Taniguchi’s artworks bring to mind those of the British artist Leonora Carrington, who once intimated that "Art is a magic which makes the hours melt away and even days dissolve into seconds." Carrington was, of course, talking about the art making process, but the same could be said of the act of gazing at Taniguchi’s spiritual Mise-en-scène. It is not enough that Taniguchi paints poems on canvases, she also ‘paints’ colour into her textual poems. Where (in Dylan Thomas’s ‘Under Milk Wood’)’ moonless nights might be “Bible Black...crowblack”, in ‘The Dance of a Crow (Between illusion and reality)’ Taniguchi gives her crow ‘brown feet, yellow dreams and vermilion skies’, in ‘Salvo to Crows’ we are presented with ‘reddish stares’, as she weaves textual and visual languages in her painting and in her poetry to transcend the notion of ‘crow’ intuitively from what had become a heavily narrated metaphorical blackness. In Taniguchi’s powerful painting ‘Millennium’ (2018, 5 feet by 5 feet, which could be a companion piece to her series of symbolist pieces ‘City of Gods’, more later...), green cacti are arranged to the foreground of the painting while red continues
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to dominate the background, effectively pushing all other colours forward. Centered within the painting is a female figure having yellow hair (perhaps an ancient Greek symbol of Aphrodite, goddess of love and beauty), a yellow sleeveless dress and blue wings. Is she an angel? Near her are four golden apples (symbols of immortality) from the mythological Greek Hesperides garden. The feeling of Gauguin’s ‘Vision after the Sermon’ is even stronger here, with the apples recalling Gauguin’s apple tree, birds and cacti replacing the on-looking Breton women. The angel girl (who may represent the more ancient form of Aphrodite, as the goddess Astarte, before she became Aphrodite or Venus) has her wings closed in front of her. Is she trapped? Locked into herself? If she is then the plethora of birds may represent her eventual freedom. Birds frequently are considered representatives of inspiration, messengers from the spiritual realm (especially crows or ravens) and givers or representatives of freedom. Doves, sparrows and swans are also associated with Aphrodite and Astarte. Taniguchi’s 2019 painted series ‘City of Gods’ is not Fernando Meirelles’ hard hitting filmatic ‘cidade de deus’, though like the Meirelles film the scene obviously reflects Latin America. In Meirelles’ case it is Brazil's Rio de Janeiro, in Taniguchi’s series of paintings, each titled ‘City of Gods’ Taniguchi speaks with ancient visual languages segueing pre-Colombian imagery into ancient European mythology. In one predominantly red canvas (2019, 6 feet by 6 feet), the artist allows the gazer to touch base with a recognisable ‘modern’ figure in the foreground. Behind is an array of mythological creatures projected forward by a vivid red Gauguinesque background (‘Vision after the Sermon’ (Jacob Wrestling with the Angel), 1888), revealing a striking splash of Kandinsky yellow (Yellow, Red, Blue, painted in 1925) on a female figure’s skirt. These are accompanied by the powerful green of cacti, which completes Taniguchi’s hints at the simple power of primary colours. The ‘gods’ we see range from an ‘Alicorn’ (winged unicorn) to a lion, crow, cheetah, gorilla and a ‘draco’ (flying lizard). Practically subsumed into the background red is a South American pyramid-like temple (possibly from
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Millennium
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City of Gods
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Teotihuacan aka Nahuatl: “The City of the Gods). Dotted here and there are perfectly placed green cacti brought forward by the redness behind. The aforementioned female figure is dressed simply with a pale blue sleeveless top, the yellow skirt and a predominantly white headscarf with red patterning. Through the visual cornucopia of Taniguchi’s mixed theological symbols we can identify Medieval Christianized lions as representatives of a Christian ‘God’, or Christ, a cheetah indicating flexibility and adaptability, and a winged unicorn (perhaps from W.BYeats) representing spiritual light (to be enlightened, quite literally), while a flying lizard acts as a symbol of spiritual messages or messenger. The artist’s ubiquitous crow, which in Greek mythology is considered prophetic and a symbol of good luck, is no longer that deep black (for it was originally white before it was cursed by Apollo for bringing bad news) as it struts across the painting from our right which is the crow's left towards its right (away from sinister to dexter, reflecting part of the Christian blessing of the cross). It is interesting that Taniguchi’s simply dressed female figure appears to lead the coterie of beings away from all that passion of red, turning their backs on the ancient pyramidal structure at the rear. Does the insertion of the very green cacti into the red of the painting hint at hallucinogens (‘mescaline’ and ‘peyote’), or is that a projection from my overactive imagination? A hallucination would certainly explain, but perhaps too literally, the scene represented in this ‘City of Gods’. In a second painting in the ‘City of Gods’ series, the gazer is presented with a canvas dominated by a slightly muted yellow. Due to the absence of that very rich red, this canvas appears subtler and more regal. The ‘Alicorn’ appears slightly in front of a seated female figure who is dressed in yellow with a matching headscarf having a graphic sun design pattern. Cacti, crow, lion and cheetah are still there, as is the Latin American temple in the background, but all are muted, of lesser concern than the pale seated lady. Throughout ancient cultures yellow represented spirituality, royalty, wisdom and intellect. In antiquity women were frequently pictured with yellow ochre or golden faces as symbols of hope, fertility and nature, with a special emphasis on the sun. In the female’s lap is a basket of green, not golden, apples. Have we moved on from the Greek Hesperides garden to the Christian paradisiacal Garden of Eden, Adam and Eve and the green apple as the fruit of knowledge and
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temptation? Maybe, maybe not, as Aphrodite, Freya the Norse goddess of fertility, love, war and death, Pomona, the Roman wood nymph and deity of orchard fruit and Eris (a Greek goddess) are all associated with apples. In the Jewish Kabbalah green apples are also associated with being spiritual, as well as healing. There is much poetry in the painted works of Cristina Taniguchi. She uses colours and imagery in the way a poet uses words, in symbols, metaphors and signs which are there to be ‘read’ by the careful observer. She controls our gaze by her understanding of colour theory, and our minds with delicate compositions of images. Taniguchi’s is a world in which I would happily be lost while awaiting paradise, Eden or Utopia, and that is part of her magic.
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City of Gods
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The Malay Tale of the P ig King Translated by Heidi Shamsuddin Illustrated by Evi Shelvia
The Malay Tale of the Pig King is an intriguing fairytale set along the lines of Beauty and the Beast. The Malay Tale of the Pig King also resonates with a Chinese ring and tales of ‘Pigsy’ (Zhu Bajie also named Zhu Wuneng) from Wu Cheng’en’s ‘Journey to the West’. Like many such tales, it is hailed as a story for children, or tales we now consider that are for children, yet adults too can learn a lot from fairystories, especially this cautionary tale about love and appearances. The British Library has mentioned that “Hikayat Raja Babi, ‘The Story of the Pig King’, is highly unusual in a Malay Muslim milieu, where pigs are regarded as unclean animals staunchly avoided and best ignored. What’s more, this Pig King is described as a paragon of courage and nobility.” The Malaysian publisher FIXI Retro, in 2015, had renewed interest in the original story by Usup Abdul Kadir which was first published in 1775, and has now lent its support for an English language retelling by Heidi Shamsuddin, Illustrated by Evi Shelvia. Heidi Shamsuddin has mentioned that ‘The Malay Tale of the Pig King’ was originally written by a merchant from Semarang (now Indonesia) in 1775 as Hikayat Raja Babi. The story begins when a royal couple is cursed to have a child who resembles a pig. Aside from his unusual appearance, The Pig King is a cheeky but brave, strong and kind-hearted person. He goes on several thrilling adventures in order to prove himself -- and also to win the heart of his lady love. Will he succeed?
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Ch’ng Kiah Kiean Ch’ng Kiah Kiean, born 1974 in George Town, Penang, Malaysia. He graduated from Universiti Sains Malaysia with Architecture Degree. After running his own graphic design studio for about 10 years he is now a full-time artist based in Penang. He published Sketchers of Pulo Pinang in 2009 and Line-line Journey in 2011. Kiah Kiean joined Urban Sketchers in 2009 and co-founded Urban Sketchers Penang in 2010. Find out more of his work at www.kiahkiean.com.
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Two Red Melons
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Moonglow series
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Moonglow series
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Earth series
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Earth series
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Olive green series
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Yellow ochre series
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Sunflower series
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Sunflower series
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haren thakur Haren Thakur spent his life and nurtured his creative ventures partaking in the core life style of the tribes of Jharkhand. He trained at Shantiniketan, under the tutelage of eminent stalwart artists like Ramkinkar Baij, Vinod Bihari, Somnath Hore, Dinkar Kaushik, Selim Munshi, Sarbari Roy Choudhury and many others. His work encompasses tribal art forms and carries the essence and emotion of nature, life and faith. His work depicts harmony, simplicity and peace through color form & use of camouflaged icons of tribal and contemporary blend. He gets inspiration from the core of creation, complimented by the serene natural surroundings of Jharkhand. Thakur has discovered the essential structural patterns of tribal art and fused its geometric sophistication with visual concepts culled from Egyptian wall paintings of the Thutmosis IV era, when eastern Mediterranean art genres of decorative painting began to free themselves from a subsidiary and narrative role. Like many painters all over the world, Thakur has sought to rediscover the essence of the primitive creativity of the eighteenth century dynasty style of Nile Valley paintings. His unique work comes across mostly through mix-medium on Nepalese rice paper. Text takem from http://harenthakur.in/#home
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The peacefulness of tribal life, in harmony with nature
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Untitled
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Love in black and white
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Intricate Splendour
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The hill story
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My nature
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Divine shelter
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Nature always connected with Cosmic vibration
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Siem Reap Sustenance
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Kmer sour beef soup
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Siem Reap Sustenance Khmer Pork noodle soup at Mi keav Siem Reap
by Martin Bradley
The ancient Chinese traveler Zhou Daguan (in his book A Record of Cambodia: The Land and its people in the early 1300s) called Cambodia Zhenla. In other times Cambodia has been called Kampuchea and Camboge (by the French) but now is generally referred to as the Kingdom of Cambodia. The area which we now call Cambodia has had human settlement for over seven thousand years. For many hundreds of years those various kingdoms which eventually became Cambodia have traded with countries far and wide - Persia, Europe, China, Arabia, India etc. Spices and flavourings from these countries (as well as neighbouring countries) have all added to the cuisine of Cambodia. Later, French cuisine (while under French protection from 1863 until 1941) also influenced the way Cambodians ate, as seen in the proliferation of baguettes and frogs legs. Any place having 2.6 million hungry international visitors per annum will, unquestionably, develop a gastronomic infrastructure to cater for those hordes. The city of Siem Reap (which means defeat of Siem or Siam/ Thailand), where the majority of visitors to the ancient city of Angkor will stay, has grown exponentially to house and feed that continuous stream of the hungry and thirsty. Cambodian street foods are generally safe to eat, with the usual cautions like watching it being made fresh in front of you. These street foods vary from fried or grilled chive cakes (Num Kachay) and sweet potato cakes (Domlong Ang/Noum Domlong Barang), to grilled banana kebabs (Tcheck Ang) or rice cakes (Noum Krour) filled baguettes (Noum Pang Sak) and fried noodles (Lot Tcha) and a whole host of others, depending on where in Siem Reap you are. In Phnom Penh, I also saw the fertilised duck eggs 170
Home food, Khmer sausage
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Grilled Khmer coconut cakes (Noum Domlong Barang)
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Grilled banana kebabs (Tcheck Ang)
date. At some point ‘homesickness’ will creep in, even for those sick of home. It is with this thought in mind that those cuisines other than Khmer, Thai or Vietnamese have taken a firm foothold within the ever welcoming kitchens of the Cambodian city of Siem Reap. Rather than give a widely extensive list of all the international restaurants in Siem Reap, of which there are quite literally hundreds, I’ll let you into the secret of those which I have frequented over the past nearly a decade, and keep coming back to. Many restaurants sell the all pervasive burger, from Burger King to KFC and more local restaurants which proffer something resembling a burger, be it meat or vegetarian. The Vibe presents a meat alternative burger but you’d have to go a long long way to beat the intriguing named Jungle Burger Sports Bar and Bistro with intriguingly named burgers such as the Hong Kong Phooey Burger, the Sloppy Joe Burger, the Pulled Pork Burger, the Kalifa Burger, Godfather Burger, Avocado & Bacon Burger, Blue Cheese & Bacon Burger and many many more Jungle Burger’s most endearing offering, however, is not a burger but New Zealand pies. To be specific, those Anzac homemade pies (including the New Zealand staple minced meat and onion pie) served up at reasonable cost in a friendly, relaxed atmosphere, and not just for expat New Zealanders either. The
Street snacks, fried grasshoppers
which are so popular in the Philippines where they are called Balut, in Cambodia they are Pong Tea Kon. There are a plethora of local ‘Cambodian’ restaurants, which in themselves range from cheap eats (like Mi Keavv and Thai Boat Noodles) where breakfast is pork, duck or beef soup and all its trimmings (intestines, blood etc) and is available at a reasonable price ($3 at the time of writing). There are also gourmet nuvo-cuisine emporiums like Malis, Chanrey Tree and Lum Orng (where colourful edible flowers, like those from the Sesbania family of plants, have become fashionable). Then there are truly international cuisines available for those able to pay (in US Dollars) for the privilege of ‘Fine Dining’ and/ or a champagne breakfast (offered by the Grand Hotel d’Angkor). If you are staying for any number of days in Siem Reap, taking time to visit and revisit Angkor and its multiple ancient Wats, when it comes to food you may like to mix it up a bit for variety. You might choose to sample something other than the Khmer beef stir fry which is Lok Lak, or the steamed fish ‘curry’ known as Amok or the ubiquitous ‘curry’ which resembles those of Thailand but are easier on the stomach (and bowels). Well, lucky for you there is an abundance of cuisines just waiting for you to try While Khmer (Cambodian) restaurant cuisine may be an adventure for a few days, like any cuisine it has its sell by
Minced meat pie at Jungle Burger
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Hideout too has burgers (two mini burgers for the price of one), but really specialises in low cost international and local meals for those on a budget which it does with aplomb and courteousness. Also on my list, in no particular order, would sit the haven which is Georges Rhumerie French Restaurant which, strictly speaking, is a Creole fusion establishment making its own varieties of rum as well as some great food such as Vindail Fish (fish fillet cooked with French whole grain mustard, Garlic, Long chili) and Sweet Cambodian Prawns (organic palm syrup with sea prawns). At Georges the staff will soon make you feel at home and the mixture of Western and Eastern tastes will enthrall and excite, especially if you have the 13 different flavoured organic rums taster set. The afore-mentioned Jungle Burger is a favourite go-to, as is The Hideout and the American cafe nearby called Common Grounds. Common Grounds is a Christian charity cafe and internet hub, helping local youth into the catering and service industries. For Mexican (and for that read Tex/Mex) food there are many choices but, for me, the go to is always Viva Mexican Restaurant, with its ‘bucket’ (carafe) of frozen Margaritas, good size dishes and great views of Siem Reap street life. For Italian you simply cannot do better than the family owned Mammashop with reasonably authentic pizzas and pastas at good prices. For cheap Khmer eats head to the extensive menu of Psa Chas Restaurant Chan Loemluon in front of Siem Reap’s Old Market (Psa Chas), with a wide range of popular local dishes, and will also cook ‘eggs and bacon with a baguette’ for breakfast. Elsewhere in Siem Reap there are German, French, Greek, Indian Korean and a whole host of other cuisines fit for kings or paupers, or both. At the time of writing (the 2020 Covid days), many Western owned eateries have closed waiting to reopen, or have closed down. The usually rowdy ‘Pub Street’ with its slightly up-market (and more expensive) Khmer fusion restaurants, is quiet. Some restaurants around the city centre have reopened, like Sister Srey (a middle of the range cafe and restaurant by the river diving Siem Reap) but many have stayed closed after the initial lock-down awaiting the reopening of Cambodia, and the return of foreign tourists, or new owners. While elsewhere a new(ish) mall has opened replete with a cafe - Amazon Cafe. 174
Sweet Cambodian prawn, made with
Eggs Benedict at Common Grounds
h organic sugar palm nectar at Georges Rhumerie French Restaurant
Salami Picantti Pizza at Mammashop Italian Restaurant
It’s 8.30am. I’m off to The Hideout for an ‘Eggs Benedict’ breakfast. I’ve been trapped here (in Cambodia) for six months and am on a budget for the foreseeable future.
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Martin Bradley short story inside “Murder in Malim Nawar� Kitaab Books Singapore https://kitaab.org/about/ 176
Martin Bradley short story inside “Siem Reap - A Slight Return” Kitaab Books Singapore https://kitaab.org/about/ 177
martin bradley
singapore 2012
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Martin Bradley is the author of a collection of poetry - Remembering Whiteness and Other Poems (2012) Bougainvillea Press; a charity travelogue - A Story of Colors of Cambodia, which he also designed (2012) EverDay and Educare; a collection of his writings for various magazines called Buffalo and Breadfruit (2012) Monsoon Books; 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). Martin wrote a book about Modern Chinese Art with Chinese artist Luo Qi, Luo Qi and Calligraphyism from the China Academy of Art, Hangzhou, China, and has had his book about Bangladesh artist Farida Zaman For the Love of Country published in Dhaka in December 2019. He is the founder-editor of The Blue Lotus formerly Dusun an e-magazine dedicated to Asian art and writing, founded in 2011.
malaysia 2012
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bangladesh 2019
hilippines 2013
china 2017
malaysia 2014
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Lotus The Blue
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