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dusunAugust/September 2011

Ridiculously Free

Malaysian e-Journal of the Arts

yusof gajah

chan kok hooideyanna binti deraman

Ali Mabuha/Rahamad

1000 tentacles

uthayasankar sb

antares

surrealism issue

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dusun

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andre breton 1896 - 1966

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

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onten

ts

August/September 2011

page 6 editorial

page 8 andre breton

founder Surrealist

page 9 ali mabuha

surreal artist

page 17 Malaysian Surrealism

article

page 23 deyanna binti deraman

fantasy painter

page 30 antares

poetry

page 36 yusof gajah

naive elephants

page 44 chan kok hooi

provacating postcards

page 53 uthaya sankar sb

the painted cat

page 57 1000 tentacles

illustrations

page 66 next issue

cover 1000 tentacles

editor yusuf martin

email yusufmartin51@googlemail.com

Dusun TM

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edi

to

rial

Welcome back

This issue of Dusun fairly explodes with Malaysian Surrealism.

From ne arts to comic book graphics, Surrealism is begin-

ning to make its mark on Malaysian art, and the line-up of

artists and writers in this issue are in the vanguard of this

particular revolution.

Too long has Malaysian Surrealism hidden its light under the

proverbial bushel, so here it is - all bright and shining, just foryou.

Ali Rahamad aka Ali Mabuha, originally from Malaysia and

now living in the US of A, kicks off this issue and reveals his

surreal fantasies in a series of fascinating works inuenced by

his travels and his concerns for ecology.

Next up is Deyanna binti Deraman weaving dream-like fanta-

sies which recall fairytales and a certain romantically inclined

wistfulness.

Popular Malaysian writer/poet/musician Antares lends some

of his thought provoking poems, inspired, no doubt by his

Magic River, and Yusof Gajah, Malaysias premier naive art-

ist, presents those elephants that he has become renowned

for.

Chan Kok Hooi side-steps reality by merging cultures in his

darkly comic paintings, some of which may be described

as post-cards from beyond the edge in all true Surrealist

spirit, whereas writer Uthaya Sankar SB spellbinds us with his

short story The Painted Cat and 1000 Tentacles display their

darkly surreal comic book imagery.

Now read on...........................................

Ed.

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contact

email: pspa2011fest@gmail.comhttp://pspablog.blogspot.com

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andre bretonAndr Breton, 1896-1966 was a French poet and leader of the

surrealist movement. He studied medicine and worked in mentalill-health wards during World War I. Later Breton was a front runner inboth Dada and Surrealism.

Breton was fascinated with the works of Sigmund Freud. He becameinuenced by Freud and his ideas of mind, using these concepts in hisexperiments with automatic writing. Breton wrote for Literature - asurrealist periodical, which he helped found and edit.

Breton also wrote three surrealist manifestos - 1924, 1930, 1942 in

which he outlined his socialist leanings towards art and literature.Bretons major work was the novel Nadja (1928), besides which he

wrote articles and poetry inuenced by Paul Valery and ArthurRimbaud.

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ALI MABUHA(ALI RAHAMAD))

Ali Mabuha/Ali Rahamad

Born in Malaysia, 1952

He is a self taught artist. His

artistic work is inuenced bypersonal journeys throughoutthe world: Malaysia, Singapore,

India, Nepal, Pakistan, Afghanistan,Iran, Turkey, Greece, Switzerland,Germany, Holland, England, Yugo-

slavia, France, Italy, Austria, Egypt,United States, Hong Kong, Luxem-burg, Thailand, Philippines, Canada,Indonesia, Mexico, Colombia, and

his artistic experimentation.

Suling Bambu (Bambo Flute),2010

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Ocean Pollution, 2010

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Aztec Journey 3, 2007

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Self Portrait, 2011

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Rainbow Before The Fall of Night, 2007

Falling Bone, 2010

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MALAYSIAN

SURREALISM Frenchman Andre Bretons darling Surrealism, emerged bright,shining, phoenix-like out of the dying embers of avant garde Dada(approximately 1910 1922).

Andre Breton, poet, writer, collage artist and doctor studied neurology

and psychology. Formerly in the Dada movement, later he merged hisinterests into left-wing political Surrealism.

The newly nascent 20th century brought changes. European Dada

grew. Meanwhile, across the waters - in America; fantastical newspapercomic strips began to appear. Windsor Mc Cays Dreams of a RarebitFiend (1904) Little Nemo (1905) and George Herrimans adventuresof Krazy Kat (1913) looked at the world askance, picturing dreams and

phantoms, perhaps inuenced by Freud and his dream investigations.

Dada acionados Aragon and Soupault discovered Herrimans worksthrough American - Matthew Josephson (1921) and consideredHerrimans works - pure Dada humour.

In 1945/46 Surrealist Salvador Dali, already intrigued with comic art,realised that collaborations between popular culture (cartoons) andFine artists would be inevitable. He teamed up with Mickey Mousecreator - Walt Disney to produce the short animation Destino

(running length 7 minutes). The lm, based upon images from Dalisown paintings, remained unnished until 2004.

Despite tangled roots in communism and Freudian psychology,over time Surrealism grew to be both popularist and materialist/consumerist. Over a forty-four year span - from the rst coining of

the word Surrealist by Guillaume Apollinaire (1922) to Andre Bretonsdeath (1966) Surrealism grew, metamorphosed into an entirelydifferent being from when it had rst emerged.

Surrealism has become one of the least dened and one of themost easily recognised trends in modernist art. That enigma which is

Surrealism is least dened because it is not just one style, or genreof creative work but encompasses a wide variety of arts from theprimitive, to the fantastic and the bizarre.

In its heyday, Surrealism championed art from the Haitian primitive

artists who often painted with household materials includingchickens feathers and household paint (naf art). Surrealismencompassed art produced by people suffering mental health problems(outsider art) and the fantastic arts of Dorothea Tanning and Leonora

Little Nemo in SlumberlandWindsor Mc Cay

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Carrington (recently deceased). Surrealism dismissed boundaries andre-dened conceptualisations of art, as did Dada before it.

Over time, artists on the fringes of Surrealism - Rene Magritte, JoanMiro and Salvador Dali (eventually expelled from the movement byBreton), have become the popular face of Surrealism - painting bowlerhated men, coloured crawling amoebas, melting time pieces.

Images of Surrealism have become popular and popularist - depictedon canvases, posters, postal cards, T-shirts, mugs, jigsaws for an adoring

public to purchase.

Surrealism and Dada stretch far in their inuence. Together theyare responsible for Pop Art, conceptual art as well as the art ofinstallation. Surrealism had a brief renaissance after Bretons death inthe 1960s and, later, Dada Surrealisms ancestor, inuenced Fluxus(Neo-Dada) and Punk culture.

Visual Surrealism had grown in popularity by the 1960s. Commercialand comic book artists such as Jim Steranko adapted Surrealist

imagery into popular comic books. Sterankos most striking comicbookcovers were for Nick Fury Agent of Shield (issues 1 to 7,1968), which borrow heavily from Salvador Dalis imagery, fused with

colouration from the then current psychedelic era.

Surrealism had spread when Breton, along with many other Surrealists,ed Nazi atrocities and settled in America (New York). Surrealismspread to Mexico, then around the world.Somewhat enamoured with the idea of the Orient, Andre Breton,in his Introduction to the Discourse on the Paucity of Realitycommands:-

Orient! Victorious Orient! You who have only a symbolical value,dispose of me, Orient of wrath and pearls! In the ow of a phrase aswell as the mysterious wind of jazz, reveal to me your plans for thecoming revolutions. You are the resplendent image of my dispossession,Orient, beautiful bird of prey and of innocence, I implore you from thedepths of the kingdom of shadows! Inspire me, so that I may be he inwhom there are no more shadows (1924)

In fact, that inspiration became reversed.

Surrealism has inspired a number of artists in the Orient, both in the

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so-called Fine arts and in the popular graphic arts. Surrealism, in itscurrent form in Malaysia, and among those artists who hail fromMalaysia, is not the political, revolutionary Surrealism of the 1920s and30s, but rather a fantastical offshoot of that artistic trend of portrayingother realities, myth, dream-work and the phantasmagorical to reectupon our consensus reality.

In Malaysia, Surrealism blends the fantastic, fantasy and pop-mythicalimagery recalling imaginings from dreams, reections, inner worldsand reveries. There is little of the left-wing, revolutionary zeal of

Surrealisms founders evident in Malaysian conceptualisations ofSurrealism, only the visually enticing.

Penang born Chan Kok Hooi paints images straddling a line betweenJungs enigmatic shadow and the purely fantastic. He weaves darklyhumorous tales of a land reminiscent of a modern day HieronymusBosch. It is a darkly sexual place - where people are cars, cars arepeople and weird narratives reveal themselves on chessboards of the

imagination.

In blackly comedic corners of Chan Kok Hoois imaginings, nakedcherubs car doors for wings, balance on pedestals, car-fathers park,pose, bedecked with wedding rosettes. A theatre (of the absurd?) - recurtain drawn, chandelier hanging elegantly down belying questionablereality, shifting the viewer towards surreal imaginings.

Chan Kok Hooi presents MSN Messenger icons, one black and onewhite, kissing in a ground level Asian toilet. It is a postcard. The

corners to the picture are rounded, aged, faded. We are distant fromthe images. It is a postcard from another reality. A reality where MSNMessenger icons live out their real lives when not called upon tofeature on the internet. They are almost black and white, hints of sepia,nostalgia for a bizarre land - the artist beckons for us, we are to beembroiled in this land of the other.

More postcards - from the land of breasts. Legged mammary glandstend children, have birthdays, and celebrate life of the breast. Baby

breasts stand transxed, comforters in their mouths. Teats replacenipples literally and guratively in Chan Kok Hoois paintings.

Chan Kok Hoois later paintings reect a degree of stillness, calm,

absent in his earlier works. The epic works of Raksasa (monster), TheLast Lullaby and Boleh teem with action, visual excitement. These arepaintings of action, modernity, contemporary icons clashing in jumbledKrazy Kat

George Herriman

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narratives of heroes and loss and yet, if you look very, very, closely youwill see that we are still in the world of car-fathers. They appear(Raksasa) farting like Boschs lesser demons in Garden of EarthlyDelights.

Mother-car appears (Musim Bunga Boleh - Flower Season, Can) layingstrewn like some milk sow feeding piglets, only she is not a sow but - acar, they are not piglets but -car-lets.

Elephant painter Yusof Gajah, born Mohd Yusof bin Ismail, paints hisown brand of Surrealistic fantasy - of elephants. Acclaimed as Malaysiaspremier naive artist, Yusof calls upon naf styles to conjure his own

kind of elephantine magic, painting pachyderms.

Surrealists adopted the work of the primitive French artist Henri

Rousseau (1844 1910) as their own. Rousseaus works meldedwith the Surrealists imaginings of authentic works of art - worksuncensored by the cultured conscious mind. Yusof Gajah continueswith Rousseaus simplistic imagery, his child-like innocence - paintingnot into the jungle as Rousseau had, but out from the jungle.

From naively painted scenes of jungle and waterscapes, replete with

stylised birds, trees and yellow suns, Yusof Gajah has matured intomaking complex images featuring elephants. Black and white elephantspresent a modern day visual Guernica, without the violence inherent in

Picassos original. Men, faces, cars, buildings and elephants all combineto recall the juxtaposition of man and nature, reminding the viewerthat we are not divorced from our surroundings, for we are eternallypart of it but not, now, at one with it.

At times cute, endearingly made for children and at times menacing,thought provokingly mature, Yusof Gajahs elephant imagery appearssynonymous with modern Malaysia with its incipient struggles foridentity and recognition.

Ali Rahamad, aka Ali Mubuha, is a self-taught artist born in Malaysia butnow living in North America. Alis art works are reminiscent of LatinAmerican fantasy artists - especially mythic gures of Peruvian artistTilsa Tsuchiya. Closer inspection reveals new mythologies, narratives ofa world traveller, gleaning global inspiration, stories from the country inwhich he lives, tales from his birth country.

Ali is a visionary artist in the true sense of the term he paints visions

and prospers visions in others. Alis work represents the direction newSurrealism took into fantasy and the fantastic, preceded by the likes

of Dorothea Tanning and Leonora Carrington. Early works from the

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1980s - such as Sprite of the Eagle seem inuenced more by thetraditional Surrealists like Salvador Dali, or his predecessor Giorgiode Chirico, whereas Alis later works - like the Aztec Series - sparklewith Latin American mythic/fantasy elements. Ali is also a concernedenvironmentalist, and something of a social commenter. Ali, as wellas mythic fantasies, paints concerning mans place in this world, socialupheavals.

Deyanna binti Deraman paints enchanting fragments of dream,reminiscent of the wondrous works of Leonora Carrington.

Deyanna binti Deramans strange dreams reveal our innermost fears,fantasies and the world of childrens storytelling. The viewer cannotbut help recall the darker fairytales, Red Riding Hood, woods, witches,houses made of sweets. Yet there is something else present in her

works. It is as if that writer of fairytales for adults Angela Carter,were take up the brush, giving we viewers the benet of her adult viewon stories of imagination and myth. Perhaps there is soupcon of NeilGaiman too, lurking.

A hint of the primitive, naive art, informs some of the foliage in the

work May It Be, that and the wistful gaze of the young woman leaningagainst a tree (watched by a treed white cat). Playing with Dreamingonce again sees woman with cat, but this time we know that we arein the realm of Morpheus, because of the title. There are red-cappedhouses, mushrooming, in Deyannas fantasies. There are Moorish spires,doors and windows from which the imagination may drift, but always

she sits, a little sad maybe she is the younger Bob Dylans Sad-EyedLady of the Lowlands sans cat, long blue clothing hanging, and singlewhite tree growing inside the house, inside dreams, recollections, inthe work entitled The Tree House.

Robert Hughes brought us The Shock of the New, while thoseenterprising chaps from 1000 Tentacles (Leong Wan Kok and PH Khor)present us with the shock of the old. Its not old in the sense of beingancient, but old as in that darker side of ourselves, the Id, the Shadow,old as in old evil, but not evil comic.

1000 Tentacles present a comic Surrealism that Dali and Max Ernstcould only dream of (pun intended). Looking at strange rabbits,fantastic octopus tentacle wielding creatures, weird sh, spurtingdroplets of who knows what gunk, we are in a world, or worlds, where

Science Fiction meets HP Lovecraft, mates and has sons who can telltall tales with or without Photoshop.

1000 Tentacles

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There is darkness, but black comedy too. Moist menaces roam, fetid

creatures lunge, but it is all somehow very comic, made for comicbooks, illustration and lest I forget, there are oddly vicious penguinstoo, encouraging me to play BeeBop Deluxes Surreal Estate as I writethis.

Surrealism is new to Malaysia, taken up by fresh generations raisedon the strangeness of Japanese Anime, Sponge Bob and countlessAmerican comic books. It is a different Surrealism from that prosperedby Andre Breton. Many political and philosophic messages have alteredwith a new Surrealism that retains visual functionality above all others.

It is a very visual, consumerist, materialistic society in which we live,but Surrealism thrives, altered - but still challenging, this small selectionof Malaysian artists tell us that.

Chan Kok Hooi

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deyannabinti deraman

Deyanna binti Deraman was bornin Machang, Malaysia, August 1982.She continued studies in ne artsat university, began in 2001 withdiplomas, and completed herdegrees in 2006. She became a full

time artist in 2009.

The Joy Of Life At Journeys End, 2009

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The Tree House, 2010.

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A trail is laid which leaves a tell-tale guide behind, 2010

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In the dark, the lambent lights gleam and glimmer, no date

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Playing With Dreaming, 2008

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antaresThe quick brown fox of intuition

jumps over the lazy dog of intellect.

In the cavern, shadows gather round the stewor huddle in crannies (but only on weekends)

to hear Platonic oratorios rendered inoffensivelyby descendants of Aristotle and his Orchestra of

Broken Winds.

The atulent frog of nancial successhops over the fraudulent toad of commercial excess,

Leaving a denite whiff of death and decay.The dead red bleeds through a yellow ag

into the deep blue of oceanic woe.

It's only a nightmare of carnival ponyridesdriven by the slave power of wild horses

captured in their sleep.

I wake up to the green tones of birds and squirrelstrying to hold back the afternoon.Morning is too short and the nights are too long.

With rings under their eyes and through their amingnostrils, froth on their lips and electrode scars

on their skulls, the foreign legionnaires of the insaneshriek through the streets:

"UNPLUG THE JUGGERNAUT!"But their thin voices are drowned by the trafc.

I watch from the tower safe behind glassand the sight of a crawling humanity turns my reality

into a desperately dull movie with only one redeeming

An Epilogue of Sorts

poetry

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feature: there are no credits

and all the blame goes to no oneexcept us.

Yes, US. Because we are too busy with our handsto bother thinking what kind of world we are making

with our minds.

So we leave it all to the Experts.Whose minds are not their own anyway,

since nobody gets to be an expert who won't surrender

his soul to Mammon & Moloch. And an entire pantheon ofpathetically false gods, worshiped neither by animal

nor vegetable nor mineral -only by a benighted humanity half-awake to itself,

half-asleep in pyjamas of scientic concupiscence,abusing itself in fear and guilt,

never knowing ecstasy.

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she's an Oist

she doesn't believein GOD

she believes inGOOD

she doesnt believe

in only oneGOOD

she believes in manyGOODS

shes polytheisticbut realistic

GOODS ARE GOOD

she saysproving

thatOism

goeswellwith

Consumerism

TheOlogy

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Next week I will invent a world that works.

A world that works will be a place for us to play in.It will be a home sweet home with a heart and a hearth

to warm our feet on.

There will be room for infantsand outfants and elefants too;

enough headroom to grow minds up.

Enough legroom for every dance oflife and the kitchen will always be

clean, and the toilet too.

A world that works will provide useach with a home in the sun or in

the snow and it will always be

comfortable.

There will be privacy and

publicry built into everyroom in every home on thevast range of world designed

to work while we play.

Play will consist of fun andgames and drama and action and

interaction, no more will

reaction move us wrongwards.

A world that works will alwaysbe right because no one will

ever be left out of it.

It will be a rubbery stretchable bouncing ball of a worldand nobody can ever get

seriously hurt in itunless they insist.

And if the world that worksdoesn't last forever

we'll invent a foreverthat works.

A World That Works

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ways remember Saadi

visiting his rose garden

ersing the songs of the universe

Vote for meThe Macho Man said.Please cast your ballot

in my favour.

If there's one thingA Macho Man

Can't stand,It's being told

He's lost the poll.

Empty your boxes,

We'll tally the votesAnd pray god the results

Don't add up to aLow Sperm Count,For that would beTantamount to...

Er, listen, Doctor,Dear kindly Doctor...

Kindly doctor the Books(We are not crooks)

And send that Fat Man the bill!

With your hand in the till

You may do as you will:Rattle your vinyl seeds

And your styrofoam beads.You can fool most of the people

Most of the timeBut you won't get away with

Trying to cheat Nature.Isn't that why you're hellbent on

Destroying her?

V-Reality!

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I sat on a dead tree

watching the mighty rollersbreak upon the shore

And I said to myself,

I shall write a poem about the sea!

Whereupon wave after waveof appropriate phrases

ooded into my brainand drowned me.

A Poem about the Sea

Antares (named Kit Fong Lee at birth) was born 7 January 1950 in asmall Malaysian town. As a 17-year-old exchange student in Essex Fells,

New Jersey, he discovered Allen Ginsberg, Walt Whitman, E.E. Cummings,Lawrence Ferlinghetti, and Bob Dylan. In 1992 he relocated to the

jungly heartland of the Malayan Peninsula, where he met and marriedan aboriginal girl, with whom he now shares a cozy home between twomagnicent rivers. Two years later he assembled all the scraps of his

early poetic excesses and published them as Moth Balls.

He reviewed theatre and arts events for various national newspapers

from 1984-1992 and has since written dance, music and book reviewsand features for websites and magazines.

* Adoi! (a collection of satirical essays and cartoons published by TimesBooks International, 1989)

* Moth Balls (scatological and eschatological poems published by

Magick River, 1994)

* Two Catsh in the Same Hole (annotated and illustrated Malay

sayings published by Times Books International, 2001)

* Tanah Tujuh - Close Encounters with the Temuan Mythos(published in 2007 by Silversh Books, Kuala Lumpur).

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of

ga

jah

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black and white series

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elephantoidea

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teapot elephant series

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gajah series

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Yusof Gajah is Malaysias foremost nave artist . He was born in 1954in Negeri Sembilan as Mohd Yusof Bin Ismail. He was educated in

Singapore, and received his art training at the Sekolah Seni RupaIndonesia and the Akademi Seni Rupa Indonesia in Yogjakarta.

Yusof has won several awards for his work, both nationally and

internationally. He was awarded the Grand Prix ( The Real Elephant)Noma Concours for Childrens picture Book Illustration by ACCUin Tokyo, Japan in 1997. He has held a number of solo exhibitions inMalaysia, Indonesia , Japan and Norway .

He now paints in his studio in Batu Caves Selangor.

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chan kok hooi

the performer, 2008

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the smile, 2008

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the bath, 2007

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orchard hotel 2010

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boleh, 2003

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Chan Kok Hooi is a full time artist.

He was born 1974, in Penang, Malaysia, and currently lives andworks in Penang.

He graduated from the Malaysian Institute of Art, majoring inpainting, in 1996, and has had a number of very successful solo

and group exhibitions since.

His work has featured in a number of magazines and foreign

exhibitions.

musim bunga boleh, 2006-2007

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Uthaya Sankar SB

short story

DAD came home one night and woke us from our sleep. We rushedout of the house. Then, we took out a match and burnt down the

house. The whole family stood staring as the ames brought down thehouse to ashes.

Since then, we have been moving from place to place without a houseto stay. This is a better situation, said Dad. We dont have to crack ourheads to think about what colour to paint the walls, what brand ofpaint to use, hire someone to paint or paint it ourselves, how manycans of paint would be needed and so forth.

That is only about the paint. Dad listed tens hundreds andthousands, indeed of problems that we would be able to avoid alltogether since we do not own a house.

But, Dad, said one of us while we were seated inside a peanut shell.Which address shall we use for ofcial purposes? What about schoolregistration; which address to use? What if someone wants to send usa letter; a fan perhaps.

Just give the Parliament address or our Prime Ministers, Dadanswered spontaneously. At least we wont be receiving all those junkmail.

And we do not have fans. We are nobody, someone among us added;but of course not the one who raised the initial question.

The others among us agreed while shaking our heads in unison. Bythen, we had already left the peanut shell where we took shelter whilewaiting for the rain to stop.

What about school registration; which address to use? Someoneasked; could have been the same person or someone else.Why worry? Have you forgotten that all of you have never been to

school, Dad assured while walking.

the painted cat

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Oh, yeah! We responded in unison.

We dont know why we named him Cat. Perhaps since to the bestof our knowledge there has never been a cat called Kucing, wespontaneously named him Cat.

Cat is bright. Not very long ago, a government department advertisedan opening for its Head of Department. The word was that all theprevious heads were too old and had to retire merely a week afterbeing promoted to the post. So, the Government decided to hire ayounger Head of Department who would last longer.

Cat applied for the job. He was called for an interview. The interviewerhad no reason to deny Cats right to apply for the advertised position.Cat seems to full each and every requirement and qualication to bethe head of a government department.

Indeed that was the reason why, said Cat, the Public Services

Commission called him for an interview.

We are looking for a candidate who is uent in more than twoforeign languages, said the interviewer while using a pen to circlethe requirement which was indeed clearly stated in the newspaperadvertisement.

Hence, Cat began to deliver a speech in Italian, German, French,

Japanese and Hindi.

Strangely enough, the interview result which was received three

months later said Cat was unsuccessful. It seems that when Catspoke Italian, German, French, Japanese and Hindi, it sounded the

same: miew-miew-miew.

What a stupid interviewer! Doesnt he know that cats in Italy saymiew-miew-miew, cats in Germany say miew-miew-miew, cats inFrance say miew-miew-miew, cats in Japan say miew-miew-miew andcats in India say miew-miew-miew?

Mum would lose her temper if she nds the males among uspretending to cook. Or if the males among us wanted to play housewith the females among us.

The traits of a real man are as follows, Mum would quote twoWestern feminists who have done studies about the expectedbehaviour of boys among the American parents: Aggressive, strict,brave, active, rational, not inuenced by sentiment, and not showingemotion.

And if the males among us are disheartened and confused withwhat Mum says, thus give Dad a hug and start crying, he would say:Boys are not supposed to and are not allowed to show emotion, not

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supposed to and are not allowed to hug, not supposed to and are notallowed to have fear; not supposed to and are not allowed to cry.

Unable to bear such long lectures, the males among us would startmaking guns and knives out of wood. The males among us would play

war. The males among us would combat each other and hit each otherand hurt each other.

The males among us would tear down the homes built by thefemales among us. The males among us would bully the females amongus until the females among us start crying. Upon seeing that, the malesamong us would laugh arrogantly.

Mum and Dad would smile proudly upon witnessing the males amongus bullying the females among us. They would say: We are very proudbecause all the males among you will become real men.

One day, we caught Cat and dumped him inside a glass container. Then,we bought a can of paint. We are not sure of the colour. We donteven recall the brand.

But the word was that the paint which we bought had a ve-yearwarranty. If used just after a general election, the paint is assured to

last until the next general election, ve years later.

Thus, we poured the paint into the glass container containing Cat. We

let Cat soak in the paint for a few hours. Later we took him out. Ofcourse Cat had changed colour according to the colour of the paint.Cat told us that he was actually dead. But he was still alive, he said,

because cats have nine lives.

Miew-miew-miew, said Cat. Meaning: Take me to the governmentdepartment which rejected my application to become the Head ofDepartment.

What for? asked someone among us.

Miew-miew-miew, said Cat. Meaning: Do not ask!

Cat demanded a second interview. Throughout the interview, Cat saidabsolutely nothing. Not even miew-miew-miew. Ten questions asked,

zero answered. A hundred questions, none answered.

Great! This is the sort of Head of Department we want. Mister Cat,you still have eight lives, right? So, the Government hereby appointsyou, Mister Cat, as the Head of Department until you, Mister Cat, diefor the eighth time, the interviewer decided.

Cat is bright. He seem to have paid close attention to what Mumand Dad have always been saying about the traits of a real male. Cathas also mastered the art of reading. Cat has become known as a

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respected leader in the society.

Cat, whom was once soaked in paint the colour which we dontseem to remember now has in himself all the criteria of a real maleas mentioned by Mum and Dad: strong, not soft and feminine, choosesaggressive games, able to command the women to follow all his orders,

unemotional, does not like to hug and be hugged, and has a strongerdesire than ever to become the nations leader.

Cat has also made it possible for us to buy a residence by means ofhis salary as the head of a government department. Whats more, Catis often refered to as the most potential candidate to become thenations prominent leader.

But the fact still remains that Cat is a cat which was once dumped intoa glass container and soaked in paint God knows what colour that

is assured to last for ve years only.

Dad came home one night and wake up from your sleep he said. Werushed out of the house. Then, we took out a match and burnt downthe house. The whole family stood, staring as the ames brought downCat to ashes.

Uthaya Sankar SB was born in

Taiping, Perak and is a Malaysianwriter of Malayalam origin whowrites in Bahasa Malaysia, hisrst language. He lectured Ba-hasa Malaysia, Moral Educationand Malaysian Studies in variouscolleges from 1999 to 2007 and

between 1996 and 2010, was alsoattached to Radio Televisyen Ma-laysia (RTM). He has written eight

short story collections, numerouspieces of childrens ction andtwo novels.

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1000 tentaclesunamed illustrations

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1000Tentacles Is award winning artist, Leong WanKok

and writer Khor PheikHoy. They havebeen involved in art industry for over 20years, with numerous art projects ranging

from commercial illustration,art print, comic, character design, toy

sculpture and 3d arts.

1000tentacles's art has appeared in artshows and exhibitions both local and

oversea. Besides art creations, 1000ten-

tacles also write articles about Graphicsoftware and tutorials forinternational Art Magaziness

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