Environmental Art

Art Installation
Zero Energy Markers
‘Zero Energy Homes’ Launch
Nov 2007, Bird Island, Sentul Park

It's a relief to know that some of the housing developers in Malaysia have started looking into greener technologies for buildings. With energy and environmental issues being in the forefront of their CSR (Corporate Social Responsability) initiatives , YTL Land and Development Berhad initiated the Bird Island Green Zero Energy Homes Competition, the first green (or sustainable) architectural competition of its kind, in recognition of the fact that energy-efficient buildings are the future of architecture and building design.

Eight architects and designers from six countries - UK, Germany, Australia, Hong Kong, China, and USA were chosen by YTL to submit designs for six Eco-friendly homes on Bird Island.
The tiny island is a green haven located in the 35-acre Sentul Park, part of YTL Land's iconic urban renewal development in Sentul, within a social and cultural landscape that is supportive of contemporary design and architecture.

I was one of the 7 artists invited to erect art installations to commemorate the launching of the project. As Sentul Park was once a railway hub, I decided to mount discarded railway slippers along the Sentul Park landscape to symbolize ‘100 – 0 energy’ countdown markers for the ‘Zero Energy Homes’ project.

Muzeum of Rubbish

Art Installation, Collective
Sonneratia II
2003, National Art Gallery

We have no qualms about being a throw-away society. But have we asked ourselves where our garbage ends up?

In 2003, I participated in a 9 day creative camp for 25 selected art students from Malaysia. Our collective experience culminated in an art exhibition at the National Art Gallery. We erected a Muzeum of Rubbish addressing the relationship between consumerism and the changing landscape of wetlands ecology. The museum exhibited artifacts which were brought in by the sea and were filtered down by the tides, along a stretch of mangrove forest on the coast of Kuala Selangor.

EARTHDANCE: Living Systems in Revolution

Art installation, 2003

Gaia, the collective spirit of our earth is embodied as a living entity. The realm of the Microcosm and the Macrocosm merge in an endless dance that revolves around the rhythm of her breath.

My desire for creating this installation was stirred by a need to celebrate the living earth. I have incorporated various scientific, mystical and spiritual concepts into my installation.


Key concepts:

GAIA THEORY
BREATH
CIRCLE
HOLON
SEVEN
SYMBIOSIS
MIRROR - REFLECTION
VANTAGE POINT
SPIRAL OF LIFE
CHAKRAS
MANDALA

GAIA THEORY
The Gaia Theory is my main source of inspiration for this installation. Simply put, it scientifically proposes that the earth is a collective living entity! Since its introduction in the late 1970's, the Gaia Theory has gained popularity and, and is now being championed by many environmentalists and scientists. Seen from space, the earth is like a beautiful glowing creature, pulsating and breathing, its surface constantly morphing beneath its swirling like skin.

According to the Gaia Theory, the organic and inorganic components of Planet Earth have evolved together as a single living, self-regulating system. The earth, possessing the qualities of a cybernetic system controls global temperature, atmospheric content, ocean salinity, and other factors, to maintain conditions of life necessary for its own survival. An example of the earth's choreography for optimal conditions is how the earth has been able to maintain its temperature at levels suitable for life even though the suns heat has increased about 30 percent since life began almost four billion years ago.

BREATH
In the installation, the sound of breath (exhalation & inhalation) is played in the background. The spirit of earth exhales & inhales as it revolves around its centre, similar to the movement of the earth around its axis. Each exhalation & inhalation symbolizes the passage of day and night, the passing of time.

CIRCLE
The skeleton of the installation is made of rattan vines which are shaped into 7 circles which decrease in size. In each circle, the root of the vine is joined to its tip, creating a complete form where beginning and end meet, dissolve and manifest an all encompassing 'whole' / cycle.

HOLONS
Ficus vines of varying length are spread along the periphery of the rattan circles, forming an interwoven mesh that connects all 7 circles as the vines of each circle touch, collide and brush against each other, dancing to the movement of breath. The vines, though setting the boundary of each circle's horizontal expansion in space, also provides a cohesive language that blurs the boundary between circles along its vertical extensions.

Each circle represents a holon which is 'A whole made of its own parts, yet itself part of a larger whole'. The holons vary in size, representing the systems that form the macrocosmos as well as the microcosmos. The term 'holon' which was first coined by Arthur Koestler can be conceived as a system nested within each other. The 7 circles combined represent a holoarchy. A holoarchy is a hierarchy of holons. If a single holon is annihilated from a holoarchy, then all other holons that are in some way or another nested under or over it will cease to exist too. Hence, everything is connected even though they are separate.

SEVEN
Why choose seven circles to represent Gaia? Seven represents fullness, completeness, perfection. In Hebrew, seven ([b'v, - Sheh'-bah) is from a root word meaning to be complete or full. In the genesis (from the bible), God created the earth and rested on the seventh day because his work of creation was complete, entire, perfect. Seven is a cyclical number, encompassing both beginning and end. There are 7 days in week. In Islam, there are 7 heavens or 7 plains of existence. In Hinduism, there are 7 main chakras, 7 elements. The earth is differentiated into 7 continents, and there are 7 rainbow colors. Both Indian music and western music recognizes 7 musical notes. They are sa, ri, ga, ma, pa, dha, ni and do, re, mi, fa, so, la,ti. In the installation, Gaia dances to these musical vibrations.

SYMBIOSIS
' By creating organisms that are not simply the sum of their symbiotic parts - but something more like the sum of all possible combinations of their parts - such alliance push developing beings into uncharted realms. Symbiosis, the merging of organisms into new collectives proves to be a major power of change on Earth. The symbiotic process goes on unceasingly. We, organisms of the Microcosm, continue to depend upon and interact with the macrocosm as well as upon each other. Each living creature must be looked upon as a microcosm, a little universe, formed of a host of self-propagating organisms, inconceivably minute and numerous as the stars in heaven'.
-Lynn Margulis, Microcosmos

MIRROR-REFLECTION, VANTAGE POINT



A circular mirror is placed at the bottom of the installation. The viewer is invited to enter the last holon in the installation, stand on the mirror and contemplate on its reflection. The viewer is a participative object of the installation, as well as an observer. Looking into the mirror, the viewer becomes part of the installation, and can either place himself/herself at the very bottom, or at the very top of the installation (mirror reflection)... it all depends on the vantage point of the viewer.

Is there room for hierarchy in our ecology? Should significance be placed on what is on top and what is above, what is important and what is unimportant, what is essential and what is unessential? Should we remove pedestal and hierarchy all together? It all depends on the vantage point of the observer.

SPIRAL OF LIFE

When the 7 circles in the installation are flattened, it forms a spiral.

In the Islamic tradition it is said:
“I was a hidden treasure and I loved to be known, so I created the world".

'On the spherical vortex, the hidden treasure is the point of origin. In order for the one to be known - for there to be consciousness of the treasure; the earth was created. The cycles of becoming, the rounds of existence, spirals on and reveal their source by the creation of a vantage point: from its own opposite pole, the source may view and hence be conscious of itself"
- Jill Purse, The Mystical Spiral Journey of the Soul

The spiral has actually returned by winding to its source. The 'end' is not and therefore reactivating infinity as implied by the single spiral. The duplication of the one is simply the one looking at itself, and in so doing becoming subject and object: this is the duality by which all is known

CHAKRAS
The rainbow colored lights emanating from the centre of the installation represents the 7 chakras. The word chakra means 'wheel' in Sanskrit, which is essentially a circle by design. Chakras are spinning spheres of bioenergetic activity emanating from the major nerve ganglia branching forward from the spine. These activity centers or chakras are nodes that contain and distribute life force tapped from the cosmos.

I believe the wisdom of the chakra system reflects a pattern which must surely be an extension of a larger living entity which we are all a part of...as the saying goes, 'a fruit does not fall too far away from the tree'. The earth as a living organism has its very own chakra nodes, which are concentrations of extremely high energy distributed in sacred spots throughout our biosphere.

Each chakra has a specific color, and is situated in a certain location in the human body. The seven chakras are said by some to reflect how the unified consciousness of man (the immortal human being or the soul), is divided to manage different aspects of earthly life and evolution. The chakras are placed at differing levels of spiritual subtlety, with Sahasrara at the top being concerned with pure consciousness, and Muladhara at the bottom being concerned with matter, which is seen simply as crudified consciousness. Interestingly, each chakra also corresponds to elements of the earth, which according to Hindu philosophy takes 7 forms. Does the same spiritual struggle towards enlightenment take place in both man and nature? If so, do plants and bees have similar chakra systems?

MANDALA
The installation is a great mandala. The creation of a mandala requires great amount of patience and reflection. In Tibetan Buddhism, the Maha mandala is the Great Mandala. The great mandala expresses the entire universe in which, viewed broadly, human beings and all living things maintain harmony and interdependence within each other.

The pattern of creation
The word "mandala" is from the classical Indian language of Sanskrit. Loosely translated to mean "circle," a mandala is far more than a simple shape. It represents wholeness, and can be seen as a model for the organizational structure of life itself--a cosmic diagram that reminds us of our relation to the infinite, the world that extends both beyond and within our bodies and minds. Describing both material and non-material realities, the mandala appears in all aspects of life: the celestial circles we call earth, sun, and moon, as well as conceptual circles of friends, family, and community. "The integrated view of the world represented by the mandala, while long embraced by some Eastern religions, has now begun to emerge in Western religious and secular cultures. Awareness of the mandala may have the potential of changing how we see ourselves, our planet, and perhaps even our own life purpose."
-Bailey Cunningham, Mandala: Journey to the Center

OF ILLUSIONS AND IMPERMANANCE...
In Tibetan Buddhism, a mandala is destroyed shortly after its completion. This is done as a metaphor for the impermanence and illusion of life. In striving to locate our place in the universe, and in trying to understand the secrets behind nature's myriads of manifestations, we realize that the universe is constantly changing, and so are we. Nothing is permanent, and hence we are called to look behind nature's reflection, behind her veil of illusions, and discover her unchanging and timeless spirit in ourselves.

The installation was destroyed a month after its creation. end