7/28/2019 dusun 1

1/50

dusunJune/July 2011

Ridiculously Free

all girls issue

Malaysian e-Journal of the Arts

georgette chen

sand T

yee i-lann

izan tahirshia yih yiing

sarah joan mokhtar

in this issue

siti zainon ismail

chuah guat eng

7/28/2019 dusun 1

2/50

Thank you....

.... for taking a look at Malaysias newest Arts e-zine Dusun(which incidentally means orchard in Malay). It is a nurturing

place where the Arts blossom and fruit.

Dusun is free, absolutely free. It will not cost you thereader anything to read Dusun. The only charges will be those

you might naturally imcur through your service provider fordownloading.

Dusun has been created to cover the Arts from painting to

poetry and, over time, will bring new insights into the Artscreated in Malaysia and by Malaysians wherever they may be

living.

Dusun will bring you some insights into the history of Malaysian

Arts as well as current happenings, and is dedicated toenhancing your visual experience.

This is an exciting age in which we live. That is why we theteam at Dusun, have chosen to launch in e-media rather thanin the traditional way. It also has the knock-on effect of saving

trees and reducing our carbon footprint on the planet.

As Dusun progresses the e-magazine will be available in more

places and in more e-formats suitable for downloading ontomobile phones, laptop computers and, of course, e-tablets and

e-readers.

Come, the ride begins here.........

7/28/2019 dusun 1

3/50

georgette chen 1906 - 1993

dusun

7/28/2019 dusun 1

4/50

7/28/2019 dusun 1

5/50

cont

ents

June/July 2011

page 6 editorial

page 9 georgette chen

founder painterpage 14 sand T

minimalist artist

page 22 yee i-lann

uid world

page 29 siti zainon ismail

poetry

page 34 shia yih yiing vessels of art

page 37 chuah guat eng

the bride from ceylon

page 40 izan tahir

mapping the unconscious

page 46 sarah joan mokhtar

rojakpage 50 next issue

cover sarah joan mokhtar

editor yusuf martin

email yusufmartin51@googlemail.com

Dusun TM

7/28/2019 dusun 1

6/50

edito

ri

al

The time is ripe.

After long days and even longer nights Dusun - Malaysias rst free dig-ital arts and culture e-magazine, blossoms and bears fruit.

Dusun is a brand new venture. Its aim is to bring the very best of Malay-sian creativity to the digital world., and in the coming months and years

aims to cover the ne arts, graphic arts, photography, lm, literature,poetry and other forms of creativity.

To this end Dusun is made available in Pdf format and on Issuu as a ick-able ash le, and is free to the end user.

This is the seminal issue of Dusun....it is dedicated to the creativewomen of Malaysia.

Women in Malaysian arts and culture have not featured prominently. This

rst issue of Dusun hopes to redress the balance by featuring works bysome of the most inuential female creatives - such as Georgette Chan,who inuenced painting in Penang and then Singapore in the 1950s.

More recently - SandT, Malaysian and born in Malacca, has had greatsuccess as a minimalist artist around the world, but especially in theUSA, while Malaysian artist Yee I-Lann, brought up in Sabah, was arteducated in Australia and the UK.

Shia Yih Ying hails from Malaysian Sarawak, and Izan Tahir was born in

Malaysia but has spent many years in the UK, while Malaysian cartoonist- Sarah Joan Mokhtar describes herself as rojak (mixed) and began hercareer in graphic arts, Malaysia, aged 14.

Malaysian poet Siti Zainon Ismail normally writes in Malay, but for thisissue of Dusun has given us the opportunity to read some of her workin English, while Malaysias most remarkable female novelist (in English)- Chua Guat Eng allows us to read The Bride from Ceylon a short

story.

This is an exciting issue, but it is only a start.....Dusun will be back everytwo months with more exciting Malaysian creativity, bringing Malaysiantalent and imagination to the world.

Ed.

7/28/2019 dusun 1

7/50

contactemail: pspa2011fest@gmail.com

http://pspablog.blogspot.com

7/28/2019 dusun 1

8/50

http://www.facebook.com/home.php#!/pages/Northern-Writers/123984087675769

7/28/2019 dusun 1

9/50

g

eorge

tte

chen

self portrait 1946

Georgette Chen was born Chang Li Ying in China (1906) and was

a forebear of visual arts in Singapore, contributing to the birth of theNanyang style of art. Georgette studied art in the Art Students Leagueof New York in 1926 and in 1927 studied at the Acadmie Colarossi and

Acadmie Biloul. Paris. During the 1940s Georgette lived in Shanghai,China.

In 1951 she moved to Penang and then in 1953 to Singapore. Sheexhibited her work at the Chinese Chamber of Commerce (1953) and

the Singapore Art Society (1954).

She was awarded the SingaporeCultural Medallion in 1982 and died March 15, 1993

7/28/2019 dusun 1

10/50

singapore waterfront 1958

7/28/2019 dusun 1

11/50

east coast vendor 1961

7/28/2019 dusun 1

12/50

still life moon festival 1965 - 1968

7/28/2019 dusun 1

13/50

unknown malay woman

7/28/2019 dusun 1

14/50

san

dT

7/28/2019 dusun 1

15/50

7/28/2019 dusun 1

16/50

voice of silence

7/28/2019 dusun 1

17/50

time and space

7/28/2019 dusun 1

18/50

Sand T was born in historical Melaka, land of Nonya/Baba, cincalok andgula. This extremely prolic artist, whose work is also in the Malaysian

National Art Gallery collection, drifted towards the US of A for her

Master of Fine Arts degree - and stayed on, in Massachusetts. There

she has developed her stunning visual style and makes a point in

promoting better understanding of ne art through her minimalist works.

For those more familiar with the gurative art of Zakaria Ali, Raee Ghani, or

indeed the more abstract works of Latiff Mohidin and Ibrahim Hussein, Sand

Ts take on minimalist art refreshes the senses that other arts cannot reach.

Michael Fried, in Artforum 1967, suggested that the concept of

minimalist art, or liberalist art as he prefers, is an entirely ideological

enterprise. To a large extent minimalist art separates itself off from mod-

ernist art, and more especially from the contemporary arts of the time

Op Art and Pop Art. Released from the boundaries of painting, minimalist

art becomes freed from the need for pictorial illusion and, to a large extent,representation andat art altogether, in favour of an art utilising three dimensions.

Minimalism, in its stillness, transcends the mere mimetic, stripping away the

irrelevant, revealing the fundamental and it is these very qualities which

are inherent in Sand Ts works, and may go some way into describing the

otherwise indescribable qualities of her transcendental, seemingly tranquil, art.

Sand T specialises in art made using epoxy resin, usually on a

clayboard, with additional colour, and occasionally the use of

graphite too. Her works are highly reective, making use of internal

colour and space as well as reections and shadows cast onto her works.

There is a sublimely sumptuous quality about Sand Ts epoxy

resin works which, though termed by the artist minimalist, actually defy

categorisation. At moments when visitors wax lyrical, these highly polished and

reective epoxy resin works, often graced with graphite, appear to have

freeze-framed 1970s lava lamps (as seen at the Massachusetts exhibition

Negotiating the Irrationalities hosted by artSPACE@16). At other times the

viewer might be encouraged to imagine that the tiny globules of semi-opaque

uid, are, seemingly, suspended, transxed in time and space (Black Ecstasy B-2).

The self-delusionary viewer, who may or may not be a budding art

historian high on the uniqueness of Sand Ts art, may imagine water drop-lets on the Pop Artist Allen Jones black patent leather boots (Voice of

Silence), or perhaps the steamed windows of Dalis surreal Rainy Taxi

(Dancing Lights (clear)) as seemingly represented by Sand Ts radiant epoxy

works; for there is little doubt that her works lend themselves to such reveries.

Old hippies may recall the 1960s band Trafc, singing ...capturing

moments of life in a jar from the song Heaven Is In Your Mind (album Mr

Fantasy-1967). From one perspective that is exactly what Sand T ap-

pears to do with her works. Observing globules of epoxy resin seemingly

suspended within the works lends a notion of time transxed, or caught.

This notion might be encouraged by the resonance of the spectacular Timeand Space B-1 (in the National Art Gallery, Kuala Lumpur), where carefully

placed semi-translucent epoxy drips and lines, against a backdrop of deep

reective black, may give the viewer the illusion of a transcendental, Zen-space.

7/28/2019 dusun 1

19/50

A mind oft used to indulgent fantasies might imagine strains of Miles Davis cool

jazz, John Cages Dream (1948) or Phillip Glasss Opening (from Glassworks 1981)

frozen at a potentially mind-blowing ecstatic moment, solidied music, entrapped

in epoxy resin, forever blowing, notes gelling into reality, reincarnated into resin.

In German philosophy, Martin Heidegger reveals the concept of theAugenblick, a specic minimal moment in time quite literal-

ly the blink, or glance of an eye, time frozen, reduced to its smallest

component part. And in many ways Augenblick may be enough to describe

Sand Ts work, where drops of epoxy resin, on clay covered board, come to

represent, in the eye of the beholder, innite time and space encapsulated.

Whatever the viewer projects onto, or into, Sand Ts works, there is

certainly little doubt that those works, whatever they may appear to be, are a

trigger to meditation, or prayer, if ever there was one. For the viewer,

observing Sand Ts work becomes inundated, washed with spiritual, Zen-like

vibes; this is one of the most vital, intrinsic values of these alluring works -their innate ability to seemingly encourage contemplation and introspection.

Sand Ts frozen Zen drops are painstakingly placed for maximum effect, despite

minimalist content, delivering surfaces which at once reect an external world

of physicality, while revealing a transcendental space for meditation, inner

reection and projection. Her intricately constructed resin works literally

mirror external shifting reality while, simultaneously, capturing moments forever

in stasis, sitting somewhere between realism and abstract, reality and construct.

While Sand Ts works have the appearance of trapping the moment,

catching the Augenblick that notion is, in reality, a sheer fallacy, for movement

and time continues reected on the surface of her works in a gleam of her

highly polished epoxy resin. The works surfaces, with their mirror-esque

qualities, bring exciting new dynamics into an already complex artistic equation.

It is true that Sand Ts artworks may appear as stasis, time encapsulated, but

that is all it is - a Platonic appearance, not reality. Where romantic artistic

interpreters dream of ies in amber and imagine raindrops on tropical leaves

(Euclidean Space in Electric Lime), sheen on black metal (Voice of Silence),

condensation in taxis (Minus Space) reality is, in fact, reected on the works surfaces.

Like froth on a daydream, life is being lived external to the epoxy

resin works themselves - reections of cameras, lights, visitors, and in the

darkened gallery shadows, all dance to the tune of light reected on thesurface of Sand Ts works. For that, essentially, fundamentally is the delicious

tension of Sand Ts constructs the projected into and the reected onto.

Ultimately her artistic constructs are non-representational, in so much as they

are things/goods/objects in themselves, and need exist only for themselves.

Euclidean Space in Slate Gray

7/28/2019 dusun 1

20/50

k-1 orange

7/28/2019 dusun 1

21/50

7/28/2019 dusun 1

22/50

yee i-lann

7/28/2019 dusun 1

23/50

malaysia day commemorative plates

7/28/2019 dusun 1

24/50

7/28/2019 dusun 1

25/50

uid word book cover

Yee I-Lann (born 1971, Sabah) strad-

dles the South China Sea between herhometown in Kota Kinabalu, Borneo

Malaysia and

Kuala Lumpur, West Malaysia as an artistand a production designer for feature lms.

I-Lann received her BA in Visual Arts fromthe University of South Australia, Adelaide in

1992 majoring in photography and

cinematography. Incorporating various media

including photography, lm and installation,her practice seeks lattices between history,landscape, memory and cultural identity. Her

visual vocabulary is extensivedrawn fromhistorical references, popular culture, urban

landscapes, archives and everyday objects.

I-Lann has exhibited widely. She has takenpart in the Third Asia-Pacic Triennial at theQueensland Art Gallery, Contemporary

Commonwealth exhibition at the NationalGallery of Victoria, Australia, IndependenceProject and Out of the Mould at GaleriPetronas, Kuala Lumpur, Thermocline of Art:

New Asian Waves at ZKM Museum ofContemporary Art, Germany, New Natureat the Govett-Brewster Art Gallery, New

Zealand and was invited to speak about herpractice under the Global Photography Nowseminar at the Tate Modern, London.

7/28/2019 dusun 1

26/50

7/28/2019 dusun 1

27/50

huminodun

7/28/2019 dusun 1

28/50

7/28/2019 dusun 1

29/50

SITI ZAINON ISMAIL

7/28/2019 dusun 1

30/50

Eclipse Over My City

The angsana gasps, I cant breathe

the bird pleads, be patient

at least our budgies

can still play on your boughs

the palm whisper, you can see how dust- laden my leaves are

where else do we dispose of

the sighs and the prayer of the winds?

O Sun, why are you hiding your wings of re?

I cant breathe, either

this dust is blinding my red hot eyes

how will you shield yourself from my heat

when mountains and halls are broken and barren backed to dust

now see for yourself

desert of sand strewn all over the earth

little lakes riddle the parched wasteland

and barren rocks on mountain peaks pierce the sky

so now, sleep under this dusty blanket

but dont ask me about my eclipse.

.....

Siti Zainon Ismail ( Malaysia , b 1949 - )

Translated by Zawiyah Yahya (Malaysia, b 1949-)

( Siti Zainon Ismail, The Rainbow, Galeri Melora 2000, p143)

7/28/2019 dusun 1

31/50

Returning

Dont suffer this life

for the truth at the end of the tunnel

it would take countless trials

for you to decipher

His strange weave.

There the blurred vision of marsh lands

will grow darker and darker

rivers will return to their source

will birds will y

out of their nests

in confusion

become stars

rising to the clouds.

Then will you understand the breathing of the exiled heart

that gathers the tears of grass owers

that quietens the trembling pond

that gives birth,

like the seeds of blooming lilies

to charity and gratitude.

Dont ask

where the rainbow has disappeared

end the cloud dreams.

...

Siti Zainon Ismail

October November 1999

Translated by Harry Aveling (Australia, b 1942-)

Ibid, p 147

7/28/2019 dusun 1

32/50

ways remember Saadi

visiting his rose garden

ersing the songs of the universe

Canterbury Rose Garden

I always remember Saadi

visiting his rose garden

traversing the songs of the universe

the valley ood with tears.

Here the garden is replete with followers

in the twilight of dust

inviting Miss Tanya!

rose of a million aromas

I entered deep into my dream rst

like Saadi

careful in selecting the petal

unwilling to ruin the love

that is there.

Saadi whisprered again

do not drop the petals

my rose is endless love

the rain softens the painting of the garden

let it be there

the love of God

in fragrance genuine

of the garden.

Siti Zainon Ismail

Canterbury East, UK

July 1986

Translated by Prof Zakaria Ali (Malaysia, b 1944)(Siti Zainon Ismail, The Rhythm of Night Song, ITNM 2009, p125)

7/28/2019 dusun 1

33/50

7/28/2019 dusun 1

34/50

SHIA

YIH

YIIN

G

VESSELS OF ARTimages courtesy of shalini ganendra ne art

vase of joy

7/28/2019 dusun 1

35/50

Shia Yih Yiing was born in Kuching, Sarawak and

obtained a diploma in ne art from the Malaysian

Institute of Art.

Shia has exhibited in group shows andindividually. She took part in Asean Visual Art

Education Symposium & Workshop 1994,

Mandalayong, Philippines and theCommonwealth Fellowship in Arts & Crafts, UWS Nepean,

NSW Australia,1999, and had these solo exhibitions

1998 Homage to Ordinary Life, Creative

Center, KL

1999 Performer, Space YZ, UWS Nepean, NSW, Australia

2004 wOm(b), Galeri Petronas, KL

2006 Vessels of Art, Shalini Ganendra Fine Art, The PrivateGallery, KL

2008 Motherhood Games, The Art Gallery,

National Institute of Education, Singapore

7/28/2019 dusun 1

36/50

relax

7/28/2019 dusun 1

37/50

by Chuah Guat Eng

This picture I have of her. A young woman newly marriedand newly arrived from Ceylon, sitting at the back of her new

house. The back of the house faces an abandoned coconutplantation, so no one sees her. She is sitting on the oor in

the open doorway, leaning against the door post, legs tuckedin a half lotus position. She is dressed in one of the new saris

she has brought with her as part of her trousseau.

Is she crying? I dont know. But I imagine that in her head is aconfusion of questions.

Upstairs her husband sits at the marble-topped table with a bottle ofwhisky in one hand and a half-full glass in the other. As he has sat everyevening since he brought her here, her new home in Malaya. On the

oor is a torn up photo of Seroja, her younger sister. Thebeautiful Seroja, whom everyone knows will marry very, very well.

The Bride from Ceylon

Chuah Guat Eng is a Malaysian writer born in Negeri Sembilan.She was Malaysias rst English-language woman novelist and receivedher early education at the Methodist Girls School, Klang and VictoriaInstitution, Kuala Lumpur.

She read English Literature at University of Malaya Kuala Lumpur, andGerman Literature at Ludwig-Maximilian University, Munich.

She received a PhD from National University of Malaysia in 2008 for herthesis From Conict to Insight: A Zen-based Reading Procedure for theAnalysis of Fiction.

7/28/2019 dusun 1

38/50

She had found the photo that afternoon while putting away his freshlyironed shirts away in the dresser in their bedroom. How had it come tobe there? Had he known Seroja before he came to her parents housein Kandy to nalize the marriage arrangements? His visit had been morefor her benet than for his. It was so that she could get to see himbefore she gave her consent. Her parents were more liberal than most.They had said to her: You may take a look at him. If you dont like him,we shant proceed. But you must know that we think he will be a good

husband and provider. He is well educated in English, has a B.A. from theUniversity of London, and is a schoolteacher in a Government school inMalaya. Not only that, although he is in a position to demand a bigdowry, he is prepared to forego it because he is modern in histhinking.

But has he seen me, she had asked. What if he doesnt like me? Shewanted but didnt dare to add: What if he doesnt like the way I look?My dark skin? My protruding teeth? The fact that Im now twenty-two?That I never went to school and cant speak, read or write English?

Her parents had assured her that he had already seen a photo of her,and had no objections to her looks. If he had, would he have agreed tothe marriage without even asking for a dowry? For him it is enough thatyou can cook well and keep house for him and give him children. Thatis all he is asking for.

She had seen him through the lattice screen as he sat in the living roomwith her parents and the matchmaker that afternoon, and her hearthad started to race. He was more than she could ever have hoped for.He looked like a young god, fair-skinned, tall, well built, lean. He had the

noble air of a lion, with his keen eyes, high-bridged nose, broad slopingforehead, and thick wavy hair. For reasons of propriety, herparents had not allowed her to bring out the tea. Instead Seroja, as theyounger daughter, was given the duty. She noticed how he had kept hishead down when Seroja entered the room, and had blushed when shebrought him his cup of tea. A man of twenty-ve, and still so shy withwomen? Her heart went out to him.

She didnt see him again until their wedding day.

She had been fearful of what would happen on the wedding night. Butshe need not have been. He did not touch her. Nor did he speak to her.On the ship, he left her alone every evening in the cabin they sharedwith four other people, coming back to his bunk in the early hours ofthe morning, stumbling slightly over the metal trunk on the oor. At theport and on the rail journey to their home, he only spoke to ask her ifshe was hungry or thirsty. He never looked at her. At times she thoughthe was angry with her. But she could think of no reason why he shouldbe, and so she attributed his reticence toshyness.

It wasnt until they had lived together under the same roof that sheknew something was wrong. He spent every evening sitting at themarble table with his bottle and glass.

7/28/2019 dusun 1

39/50

When she woke in the mornings she would nd the space beside herempty and unslept in. She would get up and dutifully cook breakfast forhim, lay out his clothes for work, and then wake him up where he hadfallen asleepat the marble tablewith a gentle touch on theshoulder. He would rouse himself with a start, smelling of drink, eyes

red-rimmed and unfocused; go to the bathroom, change in theirbedroom, go down to the kitchen to eat. Then he was off and she wouldnot see him again until lunchtime. He ate lunch alone in the dining roomwhile she sat in the kitchen, wondering why he never thought of askingher to join him.

In the afternoons, he gave lessons at home. Then she saw a side of himthat lled her with pride and sadness at the same time. He chatted. Hemade his students laugh. At times he yelled at them and even threwtheir books at them. On warm days, the lessons were conducted in the

garden under the mango and cashew nut trees.

From the kitchen, she observed him. His energy, his vitality, his leonine

maleness. The promise of a lively companion and a good father. Butonce the students were gone, he went straight to the cabinet where hekept his books and bottles. And it was back to the marble table until itwas time for dinner, which, after the rst week, she decided to servehim there.

A part of her knew this was not how marriage was meant to be. Thiswas not the way her father behaved with her mother. But another partof her thought that perhaps it was all he wanted. Hadnt her parentstold her that he was content to have someone to cook for him and

keep house for him? Maybe that was why he had not bothered with adowry.

But hadnt they also said that he wanted her to have his children?

The question so absorbs her that she forgets what has happened a fewminutes ago. Her puzzlement at nding her sisters photo, his angerwhen she asked him about it, her horror when he tore it up, and thedesolation that drove her to the doorway at the back of the housewhere no one would see her.

She begins to make plans for the night, thinking about what she willwear, the perfumed oils she will use, the incense she will light, how topersuade him to sleep with her so that she can do what he wants and

give him children.

There is no other way for her to think, because she cannot read. If shecould, she would know that the name written in her fathers hand at theback of the photograph is not her sisters, but her own.

7/28/2019 dusun 1

40/50

Born in Malaysia, Izan lived mainly in the

UK where she gained a BA (Art & Design) from the

London College of Printing in 1971.

She worked as a graphic designer in the UKand Malaysia - with Terence Conran at the Conran

Design Group, Robin Wade Design, Johan DesignAssociates, Leo Burnett and McCann Erickson.

Izan returned to Malaysia in 2004 and is now a full

time artist with a studio in Kuala Lumpur. She is a

founding member of the Alternative Printmakinggroup, Goblock. She also produces collaborative

work with Malaysian artist Marvin Chan under thename im.

My creativity crucially draws upon the most

ordinary of our inherent abilities. Noticing andremembering. The understanding of language.

The recognition of analogies.

Printmakers have what Michael Rothenstein

calls a kind of conspiracy with their materials

and this, I believe, is true for all makers of art .

izan tahir

7/28/2019 dusun 1

41/50

in touch

that place

7/28/2019 dusun 1

42/50

7/28/2019 dusun 1

43/50

nd a way

7/28/2019 dusun 1

44/50

come my friends

7/28/2019 dusun 1

45/50

7/28/2019 dusun 1

46/50

sarah joan mokhtarAt the age of 15 Sarah Joan Mokhtar became Malaysias youngest published cartoonist and comic artist.She has since taken part in comic collaborations around the world, published illustrated books, comics andcartoons.In 2000 she won the The One Academy New Media Award Scholarship, 2001 Malaysian Red

Crescent Society Selangor-Ishikawa Cultural Exchange, 2005 National Art Gallery Sonneratia II Youth ArtCamp, 2006 Nokia Upstart Awards - Honorable Mention, 2006 Malaysian British Council In PrintNational Art Competition, First Runner-Up, 2007 Winner of Mdec Digital Comic Competition2007 Recipient of Malaysian Digital Comic Grant by MDec, 2010 1 Malaysia Contemporary MuralPainting Winner, 2010 Napoleon Hill International Convention Winner

7/28/2019 dusun 1

47/50

7/28/2019 dusun 1

48/50

7/28/2019 dusun 1

49/50

7/28/2019 dusun 1

50/50

next issue August/SeptemberSURREALISM SPECIAL