Yen 79 Travel Issue

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Drifters, Time Machines & Pop-Culture PilgrimagesÂ

YEN GUEST ARTIST PAGE

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YEN GUEST ARTIST PAGE

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JENNIFER TYERS

From Borneo to Malaysia to Singapore to Thailand, this Tasmanian artist bounces across borders like a marble.

When did you get travel fever? When I was in primary school I wanted to go to Kenya. I still haven’t been there.

You’re working in Thailand at the moment, what’s a normal day for you? I like to go for a bike ride for an hour or two.

I sometimes listen to music; sometimes internet radio.

It’s great cycling around Chiang Mai, as there isn’t much

Soundtracks can be good to listen to, as they make me

traffic and it doesn’t take long to get out of town. You

feel a bit heroic. Sometimes I have movies playing in the

can see a lot of creatures too: snakes, scorpions, beetles,

background while I draw [and I] actually have some

caterpillars, stray dogs – I don’t really like them much. I am

recordings of animals in the woods. A friend gave me a

glad there are no monkeys around though. There were

good one of wolves howling. I tried to scare away the

monkeys in Malaysia, and sometimes as I rode by on my

monkeys at Rimbun Dahan by playing it. It didn’t really

bike they would chase me. It was quite scary. After my

work. Monkeys are very smart.

ride I get breakfast, usually some kind of noodle soup. I like Tom Yum soup at the moment. Then, if it’s not raining,

What materials do you use? I use watercolour. I have

I go somewhere outside, near trees, and work for a while.

some acrylic paints and canvas that I am yet to use. The

Sometimes I visit my friend, and have coffee or lunch. If it’s

humidity here makes my paper floppy and damp. It’s a

raining I work in my studio, finishing off things.

little annoying.

Describe your studio space… My studio is a little bit open

What do you miss most about Tasmania? I miss going to

to the weather and has mint green walls and a picture of

Cradle Mountain and smelling the cold air. The forest feels

the king and queen of Thailand on the wall. It’s too dark so

so old there. It is more mysterious than tropical places and

I have a few lamps around and fairy lights and two Chinese

feels less disturbed.

lanterns hanging from the ceiling: a red one and a gold one with plastic mandarins and flowers stuck to it. There are

What’s been inspiring you lately? Fireflies. There are many

a lot of geckos around and big bamboo trees outside.

fireflies here. Sometimes they come into my house.

How do you get in the creative zone? I prefer to be outside

What are five things you want to cross off in the next year…

to make the landscapes. I feel it’s better as there are no

1. Go to Europe. 2. Make some big paintings. 3. Learn to

distractions, and I can be focused on my response to what

drive a car. 4. Learn to read Japanese. 5. Read a lot of

I see and feel. I also think the work is more spontaneous. If

books.

I finish the landscapes in my studio I often feel as though they might be missing something. When I am illustrating

See more of Tyers’ work at jennifertyers.com.

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YEN TRAVEL

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CHINA DREAMING

Close your eyes, slow your breathing and let your thoughts waft away like a dandelion caught in a breeze. Now you're ready to be snapped by photographer Olivia Martin-McGuire.

WORDS ANNIE SEBEL PHOTOS OLIVIA MARTIN-MCGUIRE

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YEN TRAVEL

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YEN BEAUTY

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ERIN

“Dreamer, eclectic, mischievous.”

YEN BEAUTY

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ERIN VINTAGE JUMPER.

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THIS PAGE SKIN Josie Maran Argan Oil, $66. Bobbi Brown Pot Rouge for Lips and Cheeks in Fresh Melon, $29. PAINT M.A.C Lipmix in Cyan, $25. Make Up For Ever Chromatic Mix Water Base Make-Up Liquid Pigment in White, $14. HAIR Sachjuan Volume Cream, $35, and Hair Mousse, $35.

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YEN PASSPORT

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YEN PASSPORT

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MONGOLIA

Unbridled adventure, existential-crisisinducing natural beauty, rodeo cowboys and a yak vodka chaser – it's all here before you.

WORDS AND PHOTOS NINA KARNIKOWSKI

Think you’re hardcore? Plan a trip to Mongolia, and think again. Adventuring to this immense and empty land, one of the harshest and most remote landscapes on earth, squished between China and Russia in the heart of central Asia, ain’t for pussies. This is a land that created warriors so fierce they conquered the largest land empire the world has ever known; a land that still sees 40 per cent of its population living as tough nomadic shepherds in gers (the Mongolian version of a yurt) year-round, despite temperatures dropping below minus 40 in winter. It’s a land that breeds wrestlers and archers, more yaks, eagles, twohumped Bactrian camels, goats and horses than you can poke a bottle of vodka at (Mongolians make and drink a truckload of that too), and the most skilful and resilient cowboys in the world, who can break in a wild horse faster than your best friend can say, “Where the hell’s Mongolia?”

Go there and prepare to have your metal tested, in the best possible way.

CRACKPOT CAPITAL Your introduction to Mongolia will likely begin in the capital city, Ulaanbaatar. Ignore your inability to pronounce the name and the boxy, depressing-looking Soviet-era buildings (a throwback to pre-democratic revolution times when the Soviet Union was Mongolia’s political, cultural and economic dominatrix), and make your way to Gandan Monastery. During Mongolia’s communist regime from the 1920s till the ’90s, more than 18,000 Buddhist lamas were killed and all but three of the country’s 800 monasteries were looted, destroyed or both. Gandan was spared as a state showpiece, and as you traipse through the complex of gold and crimson pagodas trying not to knock over

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