A MAGAZINE BY CREATIVE COWBOY. APRIL 2013

A CREATIVE i ON A CREATIVE WORLDThe
Singapore
Issue

WOMEN WHO LEAD

Arahmaiani
in Tibet

Sandra Hill

Stolen Generations

Aminah Hussien

The Little Arts Academy

Eun-Ah Kim
WOOSON Gallery

Technopia Tours

ARCHITECTURE

Yann Follain
Designing art

14

In this issue we visit
Singapore’s where Art
Stage (Singapore’s
International Art Fair)
becomes centre stage
as we trace the art andconvictions of some of
the artists exhibiting at
the fair. The rise andrise of contemporary art in Indonesia isreflected by the Indonesian Pavilion at Art
Stage where the work is compelling anda demonstration of how contemporary art
can be a powerful reflection of society andmeaning.

18

It is here we catch up
with ARAHMAIANI(Indonesia’s representative at the 50th Venice
Biennale) whose work
stands as a bridge,
connecting cultures,connecting communities and connecting
ideas. In her article Arahmaiani takes
us on journey to Tibet and we meet the
15th Lab Kyab Gon Rinpoche who tells
us about the conservation project thatthe monks and the artist are creating in
the Lab community.

44

We go on an Art Stagejourney with Technopia
Tours

51

In the education section of the magazine
we visit Singapore’s
The Little Arts Academy
as some of the students tell us about theirwork and hopes for the
future In the education
section Maasai creative
cowboy scholar FRANCIS NKODIDIO
gives us an update on his progressfrom Nairobi.

52

We look at ‘designing art’ with Singapore
based architect Yann
Follain as we uncover
the architects workin the art spaces andplaces of Singapore.

Back at Art Stage we catch up with Eun-Ah, Kim,
director of Korea’s WOOSON Gallery from Daegu.

32

Andrea and I
particularly wantto thank SANDRAHILL for her
generosity in taking
us through her life
journey, in which
art has become acritical expressionof culture, of meaning and survival, as she tells
her story, the story of too many Aboriginal peoplein Australia.
That is the story of the stolen generations, in thiscase of her people, the Nyoongar people of SouthWest Western Australia and again we thankSandra for sharing her story in art with us all.

Singapore’s The Little Arts
Academy Aminah Hussien

4

48

Andrea and Peter Hylandsart stage
centrestage

ARAHMAIANI“Because basically what I want to
do is just to do good things for all
beings on this planet you know”
And it is in this place of environment and collective creativity where
we find Indonesian and international artist Arahmaiani (50th Venice
Biennale). Something very special
is happening in Indonesia and thatis the rise and rise of Indonesiancontemporary art and the work of
Arahmaiani internationally is central
to that journey.
ARAHMAIANI’s work explores social
themes and her art is a social commentary that engages with society andcommunity, not only working in Indonesia, but as a global artist engaged in
activism in many fields internationally.

other forms (such as performance) areproduced collectively, collaboratively orindividually”. And it is in this place where
ARAHMAIANI stands, as a bridge connecting cultures, connecting communities and connecting ideas.
Later in this article ARAHMAIANI
describes one such project in Tibet,
where the artist is working with themonks and the Tibetan and theChinese communities in an effort tobring people together and in doing
so to reverse the environmental
degradation of their region of Lab.

“During this process,outcomes, artworks“I implement an open art system in which
and other forms (such as
art is defined as broadly as possible,
to break through rigid discourses andperformance) are produced
established values, engaging in democratic dialogue, but also taking a criticalcollectively, collaboratively orapproach when this is needed. During
individually”.
this process, outcomes, artworks and18

art stage
Singapore

ARAHMAIANI: I have different kinds ofprojects coming up apart from my workwith Tibetan Monks in Tibet which is
ongoing and now it is somehow bigger
because the local government are now
happy, after three years they see theresult and approve somehow.
PETER HYLANDS: And so the workat Art Stage is The memory of Nature?
(The memory of Nature is a reflection on
the artist’s work in Tibet. ARAHMAIANI
also performed at the Indonesian Pavilion, Art Stage as part of this work).

ARAHMAIANI and PETER HYLANDS
are at Art Stage, the Singapore
international art fair, as they
discuss the work that ARAHMAIANI
is showing at the Indonesian
Pavilion at the fair and some ofthe other projects the artist isdeveloping.

The memory of nature: Wukir Suryadi
provides the sound for Arahmaiani’s
performance

The memory of Nature

ARAHMAIANI: Right, right and I am also
now working with young Indonesian artists to deal with the environmental problems in Indonesia and we are going tohave also collaboration with artists from
Germany, young artists as well. So they
will do something together and we will
have a show in October and I am goingto do curatorial work for this project.
For the Singapore Biennale I am going
to work with artists from Singapore,
Philippines and Japan as well as an artist from South Korea and dealing with

About Wukir Suryadi

the issue of ring of fire and of course
environmental issues will be the main
theme there.
PETER HYLANDS: How long have you
worked on environmental type issues?
ARAHMAIANI: Well actually I started
in 2006 when my district was hit by anearthquake, where in my district there
were more than 4,000 people who died.
Less than one minute earthquake, so
this opened my eyes really widely. Thisis the thing we have to deal with now.
PETER HYLANDS: Where were you at
the time of the earthquake?
ARAHMAIANI: When it first hit I was actually in Bangkok and so panicked andthen everything cuts off, I cannot callanybody, friends, anyone you know. And
anyway after a couple of days I went
back then it was like big shock, yeah.

The sounds of Wukir Suryadi arecontemporary, a unique fusion ofancient Javanese tradition with an‘onslaught’ of contemporary noise.
His original instrument, shaped
like a bamboo spear utilizes both
percussive strings carved from thebamboo’s skin, and melodic steel
strings, bringing together elementsof traditional Indonesian instrumentswith garage guitar distortion.
Schooled in the theatre, Wukir
Suryadi brings theatrical ruckus to theclassical stage, plucking, strummingand bowing his way from peaceful
meditations to rhythmical frenzies.
The evolution of his music is nevercomplete as Wukir utilizes the agilityof his instrument to collaborate withmusicians and performance artists
from around the world, fluently
bridging musical styles and inventing
new instruments as he goes.

19

Monks outside the main temple…we really have to build this new way and new awareness ofa sustainable way of living, right?
And then since that time on I have beenworking with the community in thearea of earthquake recovery until today.
Community based project might bedealing with environmental issues.

like to categorise; you are there; youare there, no, but I am somewhere in
between. And I said there will be more
people in between and you have tohave a place for people like this.

PETER HYLANDS: In a way there is
still quite a gap between what Australian’s know about Indonesia, I don’tknow if it applies the other way around,but it probably does?

In this case I realized it is just not likehelping when the disaster is there you
know, but we really have to build thisnew way and new awareness of a sustainable way of living, right?

PETER HYLANDS: And being in
between, what does that make happen
if you like. Do you see yourself as abridge?

ARAHMAIANI: Yes definitely.

I have been working on this kind ofconcept for years but dealing with
community empowerment, especially on
art, education and economics. So thenthis community based kind of work is
becoming my speciality because of thisand because of this reason.
PETER HYLANDS: And that covers
environment, it covers gender issues,socio political kind of issues?
ARAHMAIANI: Of course, yes.
PETER HYLANDS: Is it correct to say
you are bridging cultures, placing yourself in between things?
ARAHMAIANI: That’s right, that’s right,
that’s very true. Sometimes, maybe
for some people it is a little bit difficult
where to place me because people

20

ARAHMAIANI: Yes right, as a bridge.
For example with this project in Tibet,
why I can go there. Everybody is asking
how can you make it. Everybody knowsthat foreigner cannot go there let alone
doing something with monks, Tibetanmonks.
And I said I was very lucky and maybe it
was the right timing and that they seeme as someone who can bridge these
two groups because they cannot reallycommunicate with each other, becauseof the situation and the belief system,
Tibetans accept me as Tibetan andChinese accept me as Chinese.
So then I can go in between. Yes this is
one example. But this is also my role inIndonesia itself, I am always in between
Indonesian and Chinese, between Indonesians and foreigners.

PETER HYLANDS: It’s quite interesting how that has persisted over a long
period of time.
ARAHMAIANI: Yes, that is right. But I
think now it is changing again and getting a little bit closer now.
PETER HYLANDS: Well it should beclose.
ARAHMAIANI: Yes, there is no excuse
not to be close and since I used tospend a lot of time and I used to live in
Sydney, in Perth also so actually I havea lot of good friends in Australia andbeing doing some, recently, projects in
Sydney on the Sydney Festival for three
years. Then it is also becoming alive
again.
I am also thinking of doing otherprojects for the future especially now
dealing with this environmental concern.
We know what happened, Australia is
now really hot and has all these forests

Arahmaiani in Sydney – Make-Up
or Break-Up (Artspace, curator
Blair French, August 2007)

burning and all that. And we have been
affected by all that you know. I was in
Jogja (Yogyakarta) last week and we
also experienced the heat coming fromthe south.

Working together, Arahmaiani andSonamrinchen

PETER HYLANDS: Yes, because you
have this trough of incredibly hot air
sitting over Australia. We all share theworld and we need to think about eachother.
ARAHMAIANI: Right, exactly
PETER HYLANDS: And in a way what
is happening on the Tibetan Plateau
has got very little to do with Tibetan
people themselves because all their(environmental) problems are being imported from somewhere else whether it
is China (India) or Europe or the UnitedStates.
ARAHMAIANI: And that’s right, thenI said to my monk friends look you
know you now really deal with things
around you. You don’t have to go into
this too abstract. Ideas are coming fromeverywhere but now it is about dealing
with the real thing, the issues aroundyou. Then you will help yourself. If you
feel miserable because of the situation
now is time to help yourself. Well if I canhelp you I will try to do my best.

21Preparing a garden in theMonastery yard

But so far what I can do like giving
ideas you know, in a way teachingscience basically, science of nature,science of environment . Slowly, slowly
I got support from friends but of course
working in China I have to be very
careful in connecting these things towestern world and on the other hand
you know on the western side there aremany different groups with different
interests, I have to find also the rightpeople to deal with this kind of thing.
Because basically what I want to do isjust to do good things for all beings on
this planet you know. So politics sometimes can be a bit tricky.
PETER HYLANDS: How do you see
the 21st century? Is it more depressing
than the past or is it getting a little bit
better? Do you have hope, I suppose, iswhat I am asking?
ARAHMAIANI: Yes what I have seen so
far because I travel almost right aroundthe world, on the one hand there aresome really depressing situations, natural resources wise everything is almost
falling apart, people are like busy, busy,
busy with themselves and they do notcare about their neighbours.

22

But on the other hand there is this new
kind of awareness, like a flower startingto bloom. I see that, I feel that and thatis why I am going up there with some
optimism because we can do something you know.
Maybe some parts of the world will be
destroyed, some people, some nature
will be destroyed but we can also startsomething new. I am quite optimistic
about that.

Restoration

…on 27 May morethan 5,700 people
died in less than
one minute
PETER HYLANDS: And tell me thestory of the Tibetan Plateau.
(Here we are joined by the head of
the Monastery the 15th Lab Kyab Gon
Rinpoche).
ARAHMAIANI: I am going to start by
telling you a little bit of the story of how I
got to Tibet around three years ago.
My journey to Tibet started with aproject at the Museum of Contemporary
Art Shanghai. We had a group show
there of Indonesian artists and then I
asked the curators to allow me to workwith the community because my art iscommunity based kind of art and thenusually I am working with community
leaders in earthquake disaster regions.
So the curators say to me well okay
there is an earthquake in Yushu (Qinghai province 2010 – 2698 deaths)
Tibet which is a very isolated and remoteplace and at a very high altitude.
With all the challenges I heard frompeople I finally decided to go there. I
was accompanied by a young artist from
Shanghai. We went there and there was
nobody to see so my intuition told me togo and see the monks, the Lamas.
Yushu is a town of 300,000 people andit was almost completely destroyed,when we arrived it was about twomonths after the earthquake. I haveworked with victims of earthquakes
back home in Indonesia in Jogja since2006 where the region in which I live
was hit by an earthquake on 27 May
and more than 5,700 people died inless than one minute (36,000 people
were injured and 1.5 million people
were left homeless). The most tragically
impacted area was Bantul. That was
something very dramatic and opening
up my eyes and since that time on I am
somehow working on this and environmental issues in Indonesia and Tibet
and I guess globally because I movearound places.

After visiting Yushu we went to visit Lab
Monastery which is about two and ahalf hours away in a much more remoteregionOn the journey we travelled along theYangtze River, the longest river in Asia
at some 6,500 kilometres on its journeyfrom its headwaters from the glaciers of
the Tibetan Plateau on to Shanghai andthe East China Sea.
PETER HYLANDS: The Tibetan Plateau or Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau as it isalso known is the highest and largest
plateau on earth. It is a place of criticalimportance to Asia as it is the great wellspring of the entire region, delivering
water to some two billion people in thesubcontinent and China and elsewhere
through the great river systems that areborn on the plateau. For very obvious
reasons the environmental health of theplateau is a critical matter.
The great glaciers (the third pole)that grind slowly through their rocky
landscape are the source of the greatriver systems of this part of the world.
This is the third largest ice depositoryon earth and the cooling and warmingof the plateau as the seasons change
from winter to summer has a major
impact on monsoon activity and hence
precipitation further to the south.
Environmental concerns about the
Tibetan Plateau include the rapid
increase in average temperatures on
the Plateau which is speeding up theglacial melt. The great river systems of
the region including, the Yangtze, theIndus, the Ganges and the Mekong owe
much to the stability of these glaciers
over centuries past.
Everything about the Plateau isimpressive, its extremes, in parts it is oneof the least inhabited places on earth,
the beauty of its mountainous terrain
and escarpments, its rivers, wetlands andgrasslands, its weather and its scale atnearly a million square miles.
To the North-East of the Tibetan Plateau are the critically important Zoige
Wetlands, that feed both the Yangtze
and Yellow Rivers and nurture the surrounding region, the largest alpine peat
wetlands on earth, are increasingly introuble, as are the associated grass-lands, both for a set of complex reasons
which I won’t go into here. Tracking at
30,000 feet on a flight to the north of
the Plateau and then down in to China
it is not difficult to see the inversion
layer of pollution gathering here froma host of places and one of the manyreasons for the environmental problems
going on below.
ARAHMAIANI: In Lab I am working withthe monks on an environmental project.
From here comes my work Memoryof nature, an installation now at theIndonesian Pavilion at Art Stage whichis composed of a mandala made fromnatural materials, soil, plants and waterand a series of photos of the monks
that I have worked with.
In Lab the environmental project withthe monks including cleaning up the garbage dumped in various places includingnear rivers. The monks cleaned up the
garbage themselves so a place that was
not that clean is now pretty good.
As part of the environmental project
the monks have now planted an
extra 70,000 trees including Poplar
trees and Pine trees and medicinaland herbal trees. The area has
improved a lot and the people fromthe village and neighbouring villages
are also joining in on these kinds ofactivities and there is an increased
awareness about these matters.
Another segment of the community are
the elders, the old people, they have theirown group. There is also the artist groupin the village as art is important particularly as the temple has many sculpturesand paintings and people are once moreproducing traditional clothing. These are
all activities supported by the Lamas.
The surrounding area of the village is
now very clean and flowers are blooming.
Our plans for the future are to get further
support from the locals as well as theinternational community so we can continue to improve the environment to help
protect the ‘third pole’ and Asia’s ‘water
tower’ and its rivers, this is a really crucial
point of the project. If it all goes wrong
up on the Plateau then there will be
serious problems in many other places.

23

The 15th Lab Kyab Gon Rinpoche

The 15th Lab Kyab Gon Rinpoche describes
to us what has happened to the environment
around Lab over the last century.

LAB RINPOCHE: The degradation of
the environment occurred over the last
100 years and the problem is that theenvironment and all sentient beingsinterdependently survive so during thetime our environment was degraded
we needed to think about how we
could reverse the situation. As part ofthis project we started a regenerative
project in Lab. So you understand thesituation I want to tell you about thepast, the present and the future.
The livelihood of people in the Lab
region in the past and up to the middleof the last century was mostly traditional farming and herding cattle. For
hundreds of years the way of living as
farmers and nomads has contributed
immensely to preserving the naturalenvironment and the flora and fauna in
the region of Lab.
There were herds of yak, horses andsheep grazing the hills around our
region and these good natured anddomesticated animals enjoyed the lush
green grasses and their natural fertilization of the land contributed to thenatural history of the region and made it

24

possible for natural growth of beautiful
flowers, herbs and medicinal plants toflourish around Lab on the mountains
and in the valleys. Also the water usedby farmers and nomads was from natural rivers and streams that flowed downfrom snow covered mountains and fromlush green forests and valleys. These
places were very clean and pristine.
This natural water was also full of minerals and far superior than any modern
bottled water, for example in summer
when people got sick they would resort
Tree planting

to drinking lots of water. The mountains
and valleys also had many medicinal
plants over which the water would run,passing their medicinal qualities to thewater itself.
By 1914 the 13th Lab Rinpoche had
developed a great concern about the
Tibetan environment and started a large
tree planting programme of many trees.
This first project involved discovering
which trees would be best suited to ourhigh altitude places and the soils of theregion. So the 13th Lab Rinpoche travelled to similar regions and found that
Poplar trees grew the best. He then undertook the enormous task of transporting back to Lab 440 shoots of Poplar.
He travelled back through wetlands andriver banks to ensure there was water,
the shoots were carried in bundles of
15 and watered during the night.
The journey took the team up to 70
days of travelling through treacherous and difficult country. Even with all
the care taken to transport the youngshoots many Poplars perished on theLi Mu (Chinese assistant), Sonamdawa (the translator), Sonamrinchen (working
partner), Lobsangnima ( a little Lama) with Arahmaiani

to the climate including a lack of rain.
Vast areas of farm land are now being
left empty as farmers are not interested
in farming anymore.

long journey. By the time they reached
Lab only 13 shoots had survived andthese were planted with great care. Further such trips were made over a periodof six years and eventually many Poplar
trees were planted and grew successful
around the Lab Monastery and surrounding areas.
During the last century and particularly
during the 1980s people moved tolarger towns and cities from rural areas
and their livelihood began to change
to trading and other business activities.
Meanwhile the livelihood of farmers
began to shift away from working withnatural resources to working with modern technology that involves a lot of useof chemicals and so forth.

Wild nature, the animals and birds in thesurrounding mountains are declining
year by year and many of the natural
resources and water systems, rivers andlakes, have become polluted by people
throwing garbage into them which
has made the water unfit for humanconsumption. Areas are also drying out
and the number of trees that are dying isincreasing year by year, all indicating thegrave dangers our environment is facing.
I would like to propose some ideas
about how to prevent the future decline
and destruction of our environment. It isclear if the future of humanity is going
to be able to survive well, we, as humanbeings must be responsible for protecting our environment.
In Lab we will initiate a care campaign
for our environment involving everyone.
There will be a cleanup day every weekwhere the monks and locals will cometogether and clean up the lakes and riverbanks and other places by picking up
the rubbish. I am also proposing to plant
trees along the river banks.
It is my hope that by implementing these
initiatives Lab can clean up its environment and water so the water will, once
more, be safe to drink. I also intend toencourage the local farmers and nomads
to go back to the old ways of making
their livelihoods which will benefit boththemselves and the environment. I hopethese proposals will go some way to restoring the natural flora and fauna of theregion and we want to establish a longterm plan to plant trees by involving local
communities.

The procession

The result of all these things was thatthe natural soils and environment began
to rapidly degrade and Lab and its
region has suffered this fate. Becauseof these changes many people in Lab
over the last 30 years have resorted
to harvesting many rare and precious
medicinal plants beyond their needs asa means to getting quick money.
In this drive to get more money people
did not consider the impact on the environment and nomads have also been
selling their herds of cattle and sheep
as they do not want to do this work any
longer. As a result many precious herdsof Yak have declined and some species
are on the verge of becoming extinct.

Yangtze River

Some rare and precious plants havealready become extinct and many more
have become endangered. Furthermore
the growth rate of trees has declined
and there have been irregular changes

25Collecting rubbish

26

“It is clear if the future of humanity isgoing to be able to survive well, we,as human beings must be responsible
for protecting our environment”
The 15th Lab Kyab Gon Rinpoche

27

The memory of nature
at Art StageWe will need advice about farming andwhat kinds of crops and fruit trees canbe planted under present conditions
and how to prevent species from dyingout and our trees from dying in the current climatic conditions. We will implement a fund raising scheme to help usprotect and beautify our environment.
Through these things we will make theregion an enjoyable and pleasant place
for local people to live and for people
to visit.
I would also like to thank ARAHMAIANI
for contributing to this project by visitingus, organising cleanup projects andplanting new trees and bringing awareness to the local people, I would like toacknowledge her efforts and take thisopportunity to extend my sincere thanks.
Artists getting involved in protecting theenvironment is special, it is through art
and performance that the message issent to the public, it can be a very effective and innovative way of telling people
about environmental problems and how
they will impact on them.

Beneath
our feet

Tectonics
do matter
ARAHMAIANI’s plans to explore
the ring of fire with the regions
artists are extremely interesting.
The question being asked by
the artist is what impact does
the morphology of the earth, theshaping of its surface by volcanoes
and plate systems and earthquakes,
have on human populations.

28

Does the warming of the earth, themelting of the polar ice sheets,
particularly in the arctic, impact on
the stability of the earth’s tectonic
plate system? Are the ice sheets
themselves giving greater stability tothese plates and if so what will be theconsequences for Pacific Rim nations if
the ice cover continues to vanish?
While much of what happens toshape the surface of the earth canbe measured in millions of years theimpact of tectonic processes on thelandscape can occur in minutes and on
a vast scale as they did because of therecent earthquakes in Indonesia andJapan.
Earthquakes can submerge, bylowering the land surface, large areasof land, creating new areas of wetland
while volcanoes can build new islands
or totally destroy them. Volcanic
eruptions can profoundly impact theearth’s atmosphere as did Indonesia’s
Krakatoa eruptions in 1883, the largest
and loudest explosions ever recorded,causing fearsome tsunamis, blasting
away and pulverising the major part

ARAHMAIANI: There will be new works
from me out of this experience and I
look forward to returning to the region
to continue this work.

“There is this new
kind of awareness,
like a flower startingto bloom. I see
that, I feel that andthat is why I am
going up there withsome optimism
because we can dosomething you know.”of Krakatoa Island and killing tens of
thousands of people as huge tsunamis
rolled and churned their way across theregion.
Krakatoa was a global event, impacting
weather systems all around the world,in England and the United States
the red sunsets caused by particles
from the explosion in the atmospherelasted for many months. In Northern
Australia the boom from the explosions
resonated across the landscape.
This is a critical example of how
complex the connections between
the earth’s systems are, that is, its
biodiversity, its weather patterns, its
atmospheric composition and its
geomorphology.
Indonesia of course has anotherfascinating story to tell in relation to
the early understanding of the earth’s
geomorphology and that is the storyof the Wallace Line. We will consider
the Wallace Line in the next issue ofcreative-i magazine as we speak withJohn Wolseley about art and natureand his work in this evolving landscape.