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Kuala
Lumpur, Malaysia
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| melbourneconnectionasia
2003 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia Artists Abdul Multhalib Musa Wong Perng Fey Ahmad Shukri Mohamed Chong Siew Ying Noor Mahnun Mohamed |
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Moving
from one culture to another, one makes some conscious changes to thinking
but most happens unobtrusively and I have been unaware of how my ideas
have altered to fit the new... or stagnated, as my knowledge of my home
country has done. Some thirty years down the track, my language is peppered
with Malaysian slang, but I retain my Australian expletives that are still
somehow shocking here... My dress is mostly local and demure, concealing
the aging body nicely and attracting compliments for the mere fact of
it. In the gardens I have planted I have moved through fascination for the Balinese style, in fact a sub-tropical English cottage effect, to the completely indigenous. Back to my roots, copying my parents, and not such a big deal except it is a first for Malaysia. Sometimes I think I am back in Melbourne at the end of the sixties, with this addiction to things foreign and little sense of who we are, selling off the farm and thinking ours is the lucky country... So much is the same, so I take heart from the young who are looking for more than being accountantengineerdoctor, but worry that the environmental race will be lost by the time the transition to awareness is achieved. Does anyone know a shortcut? Angela Hijjas 2003 |
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Angela
Hijjas runs the Rimbun Dahan residency programme for Malaysian and Australian
artists and writers but is primarily interested in conservation of Malaysia's
biodiversity. She is closely involved with the Malaysian Nature Society
and WWF Malaysia and tries to link and promote conservation and creativity
as desirable development objectives in Malaysia.
Rimbun Dahan was established by Australian born Angela Hijjas and Malaysian architect Hijjas Kasturi in 1994. The year long residencies aim to create greater cross cultural understanding in the region. Several residencies have been in association with Asialink, Melbourne. Rimbun Dahan is set on 14 acres outside Kuala Lumpur as a centre for both traditional and contemporary art forms. It features contemporary buildings by Hijjas Kasturi as well as a fully restored 19th century Malay House in an indigenous garden environment. Image right Sidang Rakyat (People's Forum), Ahmad Shukri Mohamed, mixed media installation, 61 x 61 x 30cm, 2002 |
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| The
artists from Malaysia were selected by Angela Hijjas. All have been recent recipients of residencies at Rimbun Dahan. hijjaskasturi.com |
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