christography

These are the pictures of my opening this Wednesday. Thank you everyone who made it! For those not on the invite, really sorry, as the numbers are really limited due to conservation concerns. 

This exhibition has 5 large images (signature of course), and 4 installations.

For those who wants to catch it, it’s on at NUS Museum, Baba House, on 157, Neil Road. You’ll have to call to make a reservation before going as there are conservation concerns regarding the weight on old floors of the house. The number to call is 6227 5731. It’ll be one for 6 months, but don’t wait till the very end, as that’s when people usually forget, eh?

Finally had a break after whirlwind of meetings with museum curators and gallery owners. My Japanese parents decided to bring me up to their “summer home”. It’s in Yamanashi. Really nice place.. here’s a view from a rest stop. It’s only 3 hours drive away from Tokyo.

And I stayed there for 3 days. With some of the farm folks, and many retirees. Mostly professors, architects, etc. Quite an interesting lot.

This is the reason why I want to retire there.. *sigh* .. I miss it.This is the actual house with a small plot of farm on the left hand side.. and yes, those are my Japanese parents.

I like putting my hands into soil and getting myself connected directly with nature.

The minute a decision is made, that closes off all opportunities to grow an idea even more, no more decisions can be made. Sometimes, that’s the beauty of indecision! 

However, often times, decisions needs to be made if schedules are pending. And of course, in the digital age, time is always short. : (

Just finished my show in Ginza, Tokyo. In the Ricoh Ring Cube Gallery. It’s is right smack in the middle of Ginza, and it’s a very famous location for Japanese. I’m so honored to have a show there!

For my own little opening, I had so many friends comes over to Japan and so happy to have them all.. thank you, you know who you are.

Here’s a view FROM the widow opening within the gallery itself:

Nice leh!

This is wonderful. I remember a year ago when I made the trip here alone to find “Cow Books”  and it was really not that easy to find. But the walks around the little lanes really made it quite endearing! Ended up really quite liking the Naka-meguro neighborhood; not to mention the wonderful book store! Nice florist, book store manager (who promptly gave me a discount), Ramien store. 

This time round, May and I went back there again and I definitely had a much better time! It’s always nice to have friends who like the same things! Even the big drain looks nice - kinda reminded me of the one right outside my Ryokan in Kyoto, actually, except much wider and really, nice and lively drain. (yeah, and this is just the darn drain, right?!?)

More shops with better edited clothes. My fav Florist is no longer there, and I do suspect they’d moved on to another location, or, in the worse scenario, the number of florists have increased quite a fair bit and their business have dropped too much to be maintained! I will miss them, since theirs was more like a flourishing rainforest with many wonderful flowers and leaves! (Actually, quite like the Ropponggi florist I saw as well. Will make a trip there in the next few to see if I can catch them! 

Oh, Ramien store under renovation.. do hope that they come back after the reno!

My Baba House exhibition is finally up! I have decided to include photography as well as installation pieces. I’ve included the photos and one of the installation here.

If you are going, do look really carefully at the photographs, and you’ll see me in there as well! (I didn’t want to be just a spectator to this culture.) Don’t miss my ‘disco bag’ as well. 

Opening 25th June Call 62275731 (NUS museum) for an appointment to see the show. This is to ensure that the house doesn’t overload and thus preserving its integrity as a living heritage. 

See you all when I get back from Tokyo.

Just came back from Asia-europe Emerging Photographers’ Forum 2009, KL, with a sprain on my right hand. It’s not what you think; I hardly shot anything on my trip there.

I learnt:

1. How to present my works, should I ever get the chance to. Never bore your audience - let them bore themselves. 

2. History of Japanese girl photography. I’d wanted to ask about the possibility of ‘boy photography’ since the scene has been dominated by older men and now ‘girl’ photographers. I’m sure there are a huge bunch of boy photographers!

3. That Photoshop is really, really ok!

4. The importance of understanding history.

5. Being oneself.

6. Self-centered also boleh.

7. Malaysian roads are really, much easier to drive on, tho’ much more dangerous if you don’t know the ‘local rules’ of driving.

8. This, I’d know for the longest time - malaysian food is much better than singaporean food! And this has nothing to do with the fact that my dad was born in Malaysia.

this overwhelming sense of being enveloped and being excluded with the city just seems to cry for a series to be done.. I’ll keep this for now.

had to remove the last post as I felt it was really very unfair for me to be publicly educating someone so young. I removed it because of a breakfast meeting I had. It was with one of the most generous, and grounded photographer I know in my whole entire life. He happened to be in town and well, I needed a listening ear from someone who knew so much more about life than I do.

He’d been working on building a school, a festival, a collective of people with strong interest in photography, etc. All of which are things that I wished I’d and able to do. He hardly sleeps, but is always alert. He strongly believes in the people, and yet I’ve already given up. wah lao.. to be honest, one tough act to follow. But he gives me hope! 

I’ll now be looking at other avenues in which I can give of myself; rather than be angry that I’d been giving to people who are intent on selfish means. Need to learn to do that, as well. 

Wish me luck.

“Before this century shall run out, Journalism will be the whole press - the whole human thought. Through that prodigious multiplication which art has given to speech - multiplication to be multiplied a thousand-fold yet - mankind will write their book day by day, hour by hour, page by page. Thought will spread abroad in the world with the rapidity of light; instantly conceived, instantly written, instantly understood, at the extremities of earth, it will spread from pole to pole.

Sudden, instant, burning with the fervor of soul which made it burst forth, it will be the reign of the human soul in all its plenitude. It will not have time to ripen, to accumulate into the form of a book - the book will arrive too late. The only book possible from today is a Newspaper,” - Alphonse Marie Louis de Prat de Lamartine, 1861.