Installation

The Voice of Inconstant Savage
Commissioned for the Engawa – Japanese Contemporary Art Season programme organized by Calouste Gulbenkian Museum's Modern Art Center, The Voice of Inconstant Savage is an immersive installation that superimposes a prayer inspired by the story of a 16th-century Portuguese missionary, a chant from a Kakure-Kirishitan (hidden Christians) prayer – a religion rooted in Nagasaki Prefecture –, a chant from the Karawara spirits of the Awá indigenous people – who live in the Amazon rainforest – and a chorus of Western Gregorian chant. Morinaga questions the position of the aesthetics of inconstancy in relation to the discourse of the “savage” that modern society confronts.

Field recordings

Sombat Simla: Master Of Bamboo Mouth Organ
Simla is known in Thailand as one of the greatest living players of the khene, the ancient bamboo mouth organ particularly associated with Laos but found throughout East and Southeast Asia. His virtuosic and endlessly inventive renditions of traditional and popular songs have earned him the title ‘the god of khene’, and he is known for his innovative techniques and ability to mimic other instruments and non-musical sound, including, as a writer for the Bangkok Post describes, ‘the sound of a train journey, complete with traffic crossings and the call of barbecue chicken vendors’.

Cinema

The Edge of Daybreak
The Edge of Daybreak examines the devastating psychological landscape of a dysfunctional family as it falls from grace in the shadow of wars. The oppression of the student uprisings in the 1970s and the 2006 military coup are the implicit historic anchors for an equal parts fluid and suffocating family chronicle marred by psychological trauma, violence and guilt complexes. On the eve of a shift in political power, a woman is taken to a safe house, sharing a final meal with her husband before he is smuggled abroad. 30 years earlier, Ploy was a young girl in a coma after nearly drowning. Her father, a soldier, has been missing for three years and her mother is recovering from a nervous breakdown. Together with her lover, her husband’s younger brother, she relives the traumas of their youth. Impending doom and repression pervade monochrome shots of desolate, dilapidated locations with lanterns creating ghostly shadow theatre. The dark soundtrack, minimal cinematic action and slow tempo conjure up a hypnotic state. The characters seem imprisoned in emotional paralysis where past and present meld into a single, endless nightmare. A shadow crosses the sun: is it an omen or will it awaken everyone?

Field recordings

Yasuhiro Morinaga presents Field Recording Series Endah Laras [Surakarta, Indonesia]
Endah Laras [Surakarta, Indonesia]
A pioneer of Japanese Sound Design, Yasuhiro Morinaga’s field recording series has just launched the first edition! This first edition is featuring one of the most astonishing Indonesian singers, Endah Laras, who has been known for Javanese traiditional art like Wayang Kuri. The recording was conduced at the open-air studio, owned by Endah’s father who was regarded as one of the maestro of Javanese Wayang Kuri. The location has rich sonic environment and enriches natural resonance. Through her astonishing voice with different music instruments, such as ukulele and guitalele and other traditional Javanese instruments like gender and Javanese sitar, The music in itself beings us the feeling of Kroncong and Folk. Although we all know that Indonesia has strong tradition in gamelan music or ritual ceremonies, this recording work should be treated as a new music of modern Indonesian sound.

Installation

CDOSA
CDOSA (the critical dictionary of southeast asia), begins with a question: what constitutes the unity of southeast asia — a region never unified by language, religion or political power? cdosea proceeds by proposing 26 terms — one for each letter of the english / latin alphabet. each term is a concept, a motif, or a biography, and together they are threads weaving together a torn and tattered tapestry of southeast asia. cdosea is a platform facilitating ongoing research, a matrix for generating future projects and an oracular montage machine.