Help KLPac, The Arts Need Help too – Part II

I've had just enough time to...   be pierced in the heart.

 A place to be creative...

I was asked by an artist friend just a week ago “Art… Luxury or Necessity?” I do not know the correct answer so I gave a personal one - “One thing I find in many of my travels - poverty and wealth never have any correlation to happiness. If anything there is a bias of happiness towards poverty ironically. To the rich, art is more often a luxury. They can do without it. And if they do enjoy it, it ranges from entertainment to passion. To the poor, after the essential of survival and if they enjoy art, it is quite often a need. A need to lift themselves off the depressing life they live and gave them hope and fulfillment. Like happiness, there really is no correlation but a bias and intensity.” I concluded by saying, that I hope I was making some sense. We could expand the term ‘poor’ from beyond ‘materially poor’ to ‘culturally, emotionally and spiritually poor’ and we can then understand how an organization like KLpac touches the lives of so many of us. It enriches the lives of the 'rich 'and transforms the lives of the 'poor'.

A place to chill out...

I personally think that KLpac is modest when they declare “while KLpac has served the general public, it impacted 3 groups – artistes/arts group, youth and the under-privileged”. Nurturing, developing, and providing the avenue for growth for the first group. Exposing, stirring interest and expanding the horizon of the second group.  Reaching out, touching them and giving hope for the third group. All these KLpac had done and is doing.

A place to get the rhythm...

However, KLpac may have impacted the general public more than it gave itself credit for. Many years ago in the early days, I asked a local singer, songwriter friend – “what is so different about performing arts?” It seems so, ‘inefficient’ (they could put it in DVD, couldn’t they?). I could not remember the exact words he said but some words stuck like – ‘communicating with the audience’, ‘closeness’, ‘touches you like no other medium’, before he went into the really bloody stuff like – ‘tearing out your heart and chewing it raw!’. That was when I said – ‘Enough!’ and dismissed him as those artsy-fartsy type. Chewing my heart. Imagine!

A place to have fun...

Then I went for this performance. And this beautiful lady sang till the tears rolled down her cheek. Those couldn’t be real tears could they? Not when she got to do the same thing again for another 5 nights! Then she stabbed me right in the heart from where she stood 10 meters away. I felt a piercing pain in my chest and a chill ran up my neck to the side of my face. Why are my eyes welling up? 

You came through such an experience transformed, humbled. And some of the words made sense for the first time. You have been touched. It is like a high. You went back seeking it again and again. You do not find it often but that does not stop you from looking and I believe it makes you if not a better person, a more sensitive and caring one.

A place of dreaming...

Oh! For that sublime, exquisite moment when your tender pulsating heart was torn from your rib-cages setting all your senses afire! 

Oops! I am going to have that term thrown back at me if I am not careful. It is the dream of every artist to be able to touch you this way. That is when the sublime moment is shared between the artist and the audience. What is more meaningful than to feel life with the sharpness of a razor’s blade? KLpac is the place where moment like this happened. For that reason alone, its fire should never be extinguished...

A place to keep our balance...

A place for the young and matured...

A place for the child and woman in us...

A place of magic...

A place to learn...

A place to participate...

A place to ponder...

A place of movements...

A place to reach out...

A place of sharing...

But I’ve not mentioned the one reason, which I do not have a photo which can do it justice.

It is – A PLACE OF LOVE!

Help KLPac, The Arts Need Help too – Part I

I've had just enough time to...   find a place where Arts survive and thrive

A place to make music...

KLpac need your help. KLpac (Kuala Lumpur Performing Arts Center) is a “not-for-profit organization dedicated to nurture, practices of traditional and contemporary Malaysian Performing Arts”. It is now fighting for survival. Although it produces more than half of Malaysia’s performing arts show in the country, it receives zero funding from foundations and government. No. That is not a typo error – it is 0% while most of such organizations in other countries will receive a significant portion of their funding from their government and institutions. To make matters worse, the 2007 Economic crisis hit it hard and it lost 75% of its corporate sponsors from 12 to only 3. 

A place to dance...

With the rising costs as well as putting up a larger number of shows – from 66 in 2006 to 188 in 2011, is it any wonder that there is a gap between expenses and the revenues it generates? It is now in debt to the tune of RM1.3 million. It is only the belief and passion of volunteers and artists who donated their time and money that kept it going for so long – 7 long years. That is dedication for you. And they are not passively waiting for their own demise but taking matters into their own hand with the same belief, passion and dedication that has kept them going over the years. They are not giving up without a fight.

A place to sing...

KLpac is staging a fundraising act this Dec 22 to Dec 23. Buy a ticket and be entertained in the process with a show of comedy (laugh in the face of danger and worry), dance and music. Or make a donation, your money is going to good use.

A place of laughters...

But if you ask me, why I’m supporting KLpac personally, I think I can do better with the images I took in the KLpac Open House in 2009 than words. The founding members conceived KLpac with this vision “A space to dream, to nurture and to realise, a space to laugh and a space to cry, a space to educate and a space to create”. For me, it is a place –

A place to feel...

A place of passion...

A place of transformation...

A place to dress up...

A place of reflection...

A place to fall in line...

A place to let go...

Watch out for Part II where I will give you more reasons why you should support KLpac and share with you the lives they touched. And of course, more photos!

The Face of An Artist

I've had just enough time to...   see the budding of a star

Taken outside the Ubud Palace in Ubud, Bali

On a leisurely stroll one morning passing by the Ubud Palace, I spied a group of young boys practicing their craft. To the tempo of imaginary music that only they themselves heard, they stomped and jerked violently. The sequence was not a graceful flow but a series of sudden violent movements and abrupt stops. The expressions on their faces were deadly serious and exaggerated as they played the characters of their act.

But it is more than an act. It is their religion and they are playing the Gods. They are not just performing a dance, they are re-telling the story of creation and they are honoring their Gods in the recreating of the tale. This went deeper than the passion for their craft. It is their faith and they are living it.

I suspect that it will be many years before these boys ever get the chance to perform before an audience. Meanwhile, they trained every day and showed a dedication stronger than any professional athlete. And what drove them is not fame, adulation or monetary rewards. It is their culture, their beliefs and it is beautiful to watch.

But even among them, one particular boy stood out. You will have picked him up just by looking at the photo. His divine expression, the sharpness of his moves and his total immersion into his character is mesmerizing. His talent is undeniable. He is the future star of the play. I hope one day to be able to return to Bali and watched a performance and recognized him there.

The Master

The World's Happiest Weather Vane.

I've had just enough time to...   catch the breeze with the weather vane.

Taken of a building among the padi fields in Ubud, Bali.

In the distance on top of a buiding among padi fields, I spied a weather vane made of flimsy wood, rusty metal and the dried branch of a coconut tree. It was the happiest wind vane I have ever seen. It caught the slightest breeze and waltzed along with it. When the wind leave, it let it go free and waited for another breeze.

And the happy couple on the wind vane did a celebratory dance every time the wind came a-calling with such joyous movement that I swore there are spirits in the figurines. Or my eyes deceived me.

“What is it you’re looking?”, they asked.

“Oh, nothing. Just the wind dancing free.”

The Line of a Dance.

I've had just enough time to...   dance a little.

Taken in a quiet corner of Ubud, Bali.

The line of a dance is the most graceful, not the shortest distance between two points. The progression from one stage to another evolves as naturally as a river in its meandering flow to the sea. A dance shows us how we should live our life – with passion, spontaneity and grace; not speed and efficiency.

- Thou San

Wind & Curtain.

I've had just enough time... to feel the breeze.

Taken at home

The wind lifts the curtain,

My smile,

With tales of flitting shadows

and dancing light.