After a successful Chinese New Year installation of the Flying Dragon, Kwai Chai Hong is set to create a positive atmosphere again. This time for Mid-Autumn Festival, which actual day falls on 1st October, Kwai Chai Hong is bringing an exciting project to the community, by the community, for the community.
I have been invited to their open launch on the 17th of September. I'm really inspired by all the stories and spirit that the Kwai Chai Hong Management team does. Follow my post to check out what you can do during this Mid Autumn Festival 2020.
The team behind Bai Chuan Management has chosen the theme ‘Hops and Dreams’ to celebrate the virtue of a mythical iconic character affectionally referred to as ‘The Jade Rabbit’. This popular celestial animal exhibits similar values as our fellow Malaysians in trying times.
Although there are many versions of the story behind the Jade Rabbit, the common characteristics remain. It is a symbol of righteousness, self-sacrifice, loyalty, intelligence, patience, companionship, unity, and love. This is proven in the common spirit of our fellow Malaysians from all walks of life, who has done the nation proud during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Zeen Chang, the Managing Partner of Bai Chuan Management, said: “We at Kwai Chai Hong remain true to our intentions of preserving the heritage and sharing the culture from the past. We are humbled by the support we have been receiving a steady stream of the crowd. We feel it is time for us to do our part in providing an avenue to lifting everyone’s spirit and celebrate unity in such difficult times. And what better way to do this than through Art and Technology!”
Bai Chuan Management also crafted a proposal to call for local artists who shares the same passion to come together and create art to represent the Jade Rabbit as well as fellow Malaysians. As such, a team of eight homebred artists was formed. They are, Nini Marini, Master Siow Ho Phiew (蕭斐弘), Alice Chang (Lai Lai Art), Habsah Abang Saufi, Pamela Tan (Poh Sin Studio), Drewfunk, Shakir (Filamen), Farah Mohan (Novak Batik). Read more to understand what's their definition of Hops and Dreams.
Abdul Shakir
Shakir is an interdisciplinary artist who is also one of the co-founders of Filamen a new media art collective focusing on projection mapping, light installation, and interactive installation.
In 2016, he co-founded Filamen with Fariz Hanapiah and Nadhir Zuhari, to create a platform for new media and digital artists to showcase their work locally and globally. Some of the notable works presented by Filamen were installation for Urbanscapes Art Festival, The Other Festival, Rainforest in the City, RIUH, and George Town Festival – just to name a few.
Check out Shakir’s work at Filamen here
Shakir's rabbit idea is to do a Projection Mapping in action built with the holographic and light installation that shoots and showcases the vibrant and colorful Jade rabbit. Despite the pandemic season, Malaysian are still able to stay positive and live a colorful fun life with each other.
Learn more about Shakir's definition of Hops and Dreams here
Drewfunk
Born in Malaysia, Drewfunk who resides in Melbourne has recently returned to Malaysia. As well as on the streets, Drew has exhibited his work locally and internationally. Through ten solo exhibitions, a prolific street art reputation, and several group-shows, Drewfunk established himself as a key player in the street, and in the world of fine art.
Graduating with a Bachelor in Multimedia & Design from RMIT University, Drew’s design background is evident through his illustrative clean style of work. After moving to Australia, a fascination with his cultural heritage became apparent, as did the continuous influences of nostalgia and the art of the city streets. Although his initiation into street art was through graffiti writing, Drewfunk has always been drawn to characters. Animals and mystical creatures are often featured across a number of his work. A lot could be said about the shifting synthesis of East & West in Drewfunk’s work.
Check out Drewfunk’s work here
Drewfunk's interpretation of the Jade Rabbit is inspired by Chinese Porcelain with images depicting his childhood memory and love for Malaysia. His art is done by stencil capping where he modifies the head of the spray cap to create a thin fine line. His drawing art on the rabbit is all done by spray can. I like how he incorporates a lot of Malaysian culture and heritage ideas on his Jade Rabbit!
Learn more about Drewfunk's definition of Hops and Dreams here
Pamela Tan (Poh Sin Studio)
Pamela Tan is an architectural designer that explores various fields in art, architecture, and design. Her work blurs the boundaries between disciplines that embody narrative and values in all forms. She aims to propose speculative ideas that seek the subtle unseen and unveil the unknown delights in all scales.
Pamela obtained a Masters in Architecture RIBA Pt. 2 from the University of Greenwich, London. Her first-year architecture design project entitled ‘Mappa Mundi: A Map Maker’s Dream’ was selected to be exhibited in The Royal Academy of Arts. She was the recipient of the PAM-Tan Sri Ar Chan Sau Lai Award 2016. She presented her final year design thesis project entitled ‘Soil City’ for TED X- University Teknologi PETRONAS.
For more design work and a list of Pamela’s awards, visit here.
What inspired Pamela's creation of the Moon Rabbit is she hopes her creation will inspire people to celebrate diversity. In Pamela's Moon Rabbit, you can see there's a lot of shapes and textiles similar to porcelain. The round shapes represent the moon and do check out the details of her's rabbit ears where she creates the moon in different phases.
Learn more about Pamela Tan's definition of Hops and Dreams here
Master Siow Ho Phiew 蕭斐弘 (萬勝行 Wan Seng Hang)
Master Siow Ho Phiew 蕭斐弘 (萬勝行 Wan Seng Hang) The original creator of the lion dance, Master Siow Ho Phiew, 60, is from Kuala Lumpur. He began to participate in the Lions team in the 1970s. In 1992, because of the same philosophy as the leadership of the Muar Guanshen Temple, he decided to work with a group of like-minded behind-the-scenes to promote Malaysia’s unique local lion dance culture.
He promoted to the international stage, the "Malaysian Drumming Lion", which combines the drum music of the three major races, which has since become famous internationally. The Lions team of Guansheng Palace, led by him, has won many championships in domestic and international lion competitions and has the reputation of the world's lion king.
Master Siow Ho Phiew was nominated as a national cultural figure in 2009. After Chen Huichong and Shen Muyu, he is the third Malaysian Chinese to enjoy this honor.
Find out more about Master Siow here
Master Siow 蕭斐弘 presents a Jade Rabbit that is multi-cultural, fashionable, and fun - bringing abundance and well-wishes to everyone. I like how Master Siow combines both Chinese and Malaysian culture to create his Jade Rabbit. He uses batik on his Jade Rabbit, besides mixing both of the cultures, he added a really cute bow tie from the Western culture too.
Learn more about Master Siow definition of Hops and Dreams here
Nini Marini
Nini Marini Marini (aka Nini Marini) is an artist and self-taught painter based in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. She graduated from The Birmingham Institute of Art and Design, in Visual Communications (Time-Based Media). She spent 20 years in the Media industry as a producer, content Innovation head for a national media company while practicing art on the side.
Today (2020) she is a full-time artist & maker dedicated to building her art business. As an artist, she loves exploring art through various mediums. This includes translating original artwork onto different materials like ceramic, textile, metal, and even artificial intelligence.
Find out more about Nini’s work here
Nini's Moon Rabbit is created and design by using Tshirts that she dyed the Tshirt herself. She even names it Trixie the Moon Rabbit. She loves nature and vibrant colors, and you'll notice that Trixie the Moon Rabbit comes in so many colorful fun colors. With weaving techniques use on Trixie, Nini's hope that the spirit of Trixie is to bring everyone together, and be good to each other.
Learn more about Nini Marini's definition of Hops and Dreams here
Alice Chang (Lai Lai Art)
Alice who is also known by her international clients as Lai has a keen interest and strong talent in art. Besides painting, she does a lot of embroidery and mosaics work, and pottery painting whilst being very involved in charity works. Alice travels extensively to Italy, Tuscany where art is part of her daily life allowing her to foster deeper dedication and passion for art. She is currently working on her next exhibition in KL launching in October 2020.
Find out more about Alice of Lai Lai Art here
Watch Alice's inspiration behind her creation of the Jade Rabbit with her intricate craftsmanship. She hopes her work will inspire others to preserve, spread tradition and culture to everyone. A closer look at Alice's Jade Rabbit with beautiful lace and beads, the colors that she uses represents Chinese joyous celebration color. Do check out the word that she glued on her Jade Rabbit, its in Chinese, which represent reunion with friends and family during this festive season.
Learn more about Alice's definition of Hops and Dreams here
Habsah Abang Saufi
The Sarawakian native has produced a prolific body of work, repeatedly dispelling conservatism. Instead, her personality frames her art, telling her stories in her own eclectic way. Ie Bakawali blooming at midnight; Men gathering for Friday prayers; Frisky fish forging ahead in a crowded pool.
Habsah Abang Saufi captures moments in time, filling her book of life with sentiments of her surroundings. Inspired by the teeming life around her, Habsah’s artworks echo her feelings, provoking viewers to respond. “I see things that are underneath”, says the trained mathematician whose outlook is shaped by formulae. On canvas she captures swirls of color, depicting movement in stillness. Peppered with parody, cheeky humor, and acute observations, her perspective is nonconformist.
Check out Habsah’s fine work at her IG here
Habsah's creation of the Jade Rabbit; a spiritual and fun-loving character who loves the earth and mother nature - something very dear to Habsah's heart. Try to look closer to her Jade Rabbit when you are Kwai Chai Hong, where you get to see so many details, such as turtles, trees and etc.
Learn more about Habsah’s definition of Hops and Dreams here
Farah Mohan (Novak Batik)
Farah Mohan is a self-taught batik artist who has been in the industry since 2015. In 2017, she found her passion and learned to pick up the skill seriously. She founded Novak Batik after coming through an architectural background. Her early designs were influenced by bylines, Art Nouveau and Art Deco.
She started off with designing women's custom-made attire but later decided to put her focus on batik painting which she named, #projectbolat. The idea behind #projectbolat was solely to practice her skill while recording herself and her progress of work out of interest. The videos surprisingly gained a lot of positive feedback which resulted in requests from followers asking for workshops to be conducted. Today, she has a steady stream of monthly workshops catering to the needs of her students and growing followers. Through her #projectbolat initiative, she expanded it to producing a Do-It-Yourself Batik Kit with a variety of designs to choose from. Buyers are able to take home the Batik Kit and exercise creativity with the fabric dye that’s provided. This quickly gained popularity particularly during the “stay home” period.
Her next product is a Batik Starter Kit catered for those who are interested to start their own batik journey at home just like she did 4 years ago.
Check out Farah’s IG for a huge list of beautiful Batik designs here
Presenting a whimsical creation by Farah. Her batik creation stayed faithful to the legendary story between 'Chang Er' and her loyal companion, Jade Rabbit. Also featured are the Monkey and the Fox. I really like how Farah's style of batik is so modern and how she combines her own skill, batik panting with the Chinese legendary characters during this Mid Autumn festival.
Learn more about Farah’sdefinition of Hops and Dreams here
Each of them is given a plain Rabbit-shaped light fixture to work on. Within two weeks, these artists were tasked to craft their own interpretation of ‘The Jade Rabbit’. Each masterpiece on display is accompanied by a QR Code that leads the audience to a video of the artist sharing the story and inspiration behind their very own creation.
Mid-Autumn Festival has been my favorite festive since I'm a kid. Because I'm been fond of lantern and moon, it is so pretty when it lights up at night. Until now when I saw those pretty lanterns, I will feel very excited and happy.
They have also this very huge Jade Rabbit in the center of Kwai Chai Hong. Don't forget to take a photo with it too, it is so huge and cute.
Some of my favorite Jade Rabbit designs by the artist. I like how each of the talent artists creates their own piece of Jade Rabbit. It carries different purposes and stories in their own life.
Don't forget to take photo at this bridge with all the lanterns hanging on the bridge.
Happy Mid Autumn Festival!
The eight masterpieces will be on display at Kwai Chai Hong from the 18th Sept – 4th Oct 2020 during the Hops & Dreams Mid-Autumn Art Installation with daily extended opening hours from 9AM to 12 Midnight.
鬼仔巷 Kwai Chai Hong
Lorong Panggung, City Centre,
50000 Kuala Lumpur, Wilayah Persekutuan
Photo Credits to the event Official Photographers @TianChad, @heartpatrick, @vernieman
Till Then
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