“Claudia den Boer (NL) visualises the possible upcoming disappearance of traditional trades from Malaysian culture in a photo series. Den Boer photographed the stillness and emptiness of workspaces without the artisans in it. Caught in between the presence and absence, the workspace metaphorically becomes a silent witness of the artisans’ work.”
This photo series I made in Malaysia, by invitation of choreographer and dancer Bchin Lau of JinnD Productions, to collaborate on her project Your Memories, Our Identity. YMOI is about traditional artisans jobs which are such a big part of every day Malaysian culture, but are about to disappear. The project consist of dance piece Shǒu (Hands) choreographed by Bchin Lau, documentary The Fading Hands by VFilm Pictures and my photo series Silent Witness for which I photographed 5 traditional artisans workspaces in an ‘old school’ way. The video’s, or ‘moving photographs’, I made where used for the scenography of Lau’s dance piece Shǒu (Hands).
Your Memories, Our Identity is a project of JinnD Productions in collaboration with VFilm Pictures Sdn. Bhd and Claudia den Boer, co-produced with Butterworth Fringe Festival 2018. This project is supported by Think City Sdn. Bhd., INXO Arts Fund, MyDance Alliance and private fund AuntArt (NL). Residency supported by Hin Bus Depot, Zart, Rimbun Dahan, Casa Ninda, Bilqis Hijjas, Carbon Art Space, C-Section, Choong Fatt Sze.
Special thanks to artisans in Butterworth: Mr. Leong Yu Hin & family, Mr. Sim Ah Ba & family, Mr. Chong Kean Soon & family, Mdm. Leong Swee Hium, Mr. Lim Teng Feng & family, Mr. V. Visualingam A/L Vai Thilingam
