“But, you’re only here for three months!” a friend said… even though I am returning in December.
I am in Kuala Lumpur again, the first time since the pandemic. Having not taken a studio or arranged a residency this time, my apartment has become my studio. The art colonising the space of the ‘bodoh’ white coloniser #represent
A sofa table I purchased has has many lives; a desk, a light box, my formal dining table; the kitchen bench is where I am learning and failing at watercolour. An oil painter, this technique goes against everything I know.
I’m currently working on Altino, out of order, the second in the diptych I am making about the novel Sunbathing by Isobel Beech. The work if for Biblio, the quirkiest of quirky annual shows put on by Blarney Books & Art in Port Fairy each year, more on that soon, for the work needs a post of its own.
I have found myself collaborating with and belonging in a project space, a meeting place... the Temu effect as my friend Xeem says. I am co-curating an exhibition and will exhibit my work in a group show as well as a major solo presentation next year… The work I am making for the group show is fun and playful. My solo will be little more serious.
Strangely for solitary little me, I have become somewhat of a social creature during this visit to KL. I regularly sit in cafes with a chapter of writers, each so different and so precious, the larger group changes from week to week. After we write in silence, for hours, furrowed brows, iced oat lattes… a draft of us break off to the first bar, then when that bar closes, the second…. and so on. Finally down to a party of three or four, we find ourselves fishing steaming tofu and hand made noodles from bubbling hot soup or some such delight. Midday catch ups turn into midnight sangria and continue with poetry shared via direct-message until the night becomes day.
The Temu Effect: Louise Low, Sarah Radzi, Milline Low, Delightful human who’s name has skipped my mind and I will update, CC Kia, Xeem Noor, Lada Dedic