The Arts Collective at Sama Sama Guesthouse
If there is one word i could use to describe the Sama-Sama Guesthouse Mini Alternative Art Festival, it would be “Inspiring”. Why? you may ask, because it made me wanna go home and paint? …maybe but rather the inspiration was more in the form of the camaraderie this fraternity clearly had and it was bursting with fruit flavours. It reminded me of the church camps i attended when i was younger.. we came as strangers and by night, we were one big noisy bunch…of course there are a few who are noisier than most, i think every party has some.
The passion and seriousness of their craft these artist brought to the table was incredible and yet, at the core, they are all very real, very human and very friendly. It made the entire trip down worth while.
In this crazy hot Melakan weather, artist came from all over to perform, display, visualize and sell their art.. though i don’t think any of them actually closed a sale…except for a handful.. i know i didn’t… damn it. But i’m pretty sure most were not here to sell but to exhibit and educate..or maybe they did..who knows. There were also participating artists from Japan and Singapore with a feast of audio and video flavour… not bad what.. for a D.I.Y festival put together by a group of passionate individuals and a crazy saxophonist (this mean you, Yandsen)
Held in the heritage area of Melaka, Jalan Tukang Besi to be exact, Sama Sama Guesthouse was indeed a rugged looking property, the kind that all artist like… old and dusty, yet charming with a sense of adventure.
Works were on display in almost every corner of the guesthouse, bringing colour and vibrancy to the aged plastered walls of the guesthouse…it’s like a very big rustic gallery with people living its the rooms.
When asked about how the idea for the festival came together, The organizers (Siew Wai and Yandsen) started the answer, “…we were in Kuala Lumpur, it was late and we were drunk”, you know there’s gotta be a good story when someone starts a sentence with a line like that. Yandsen explained that a friend had suggested that they rent some rooms in one of Penang’s heritage building and have a small exhibition there (at this time they were still drunk), Yandsen then proposed that it would be better if they could rent out an entire building for the show (yes, apparently he was out of his mind). They laughed it off as a wild thought powered by alcohol, till our friend Yandsen woke up the next morning, with a hangover, i assume and decided to make it happen…and month’s later..voila! an art festival.
Siew Wai & Yandsen
People still think that art is about nice looking sculptures and pretty paintings of ducks in pond and although the more savvy ones are in the loop about various art genres, there is a large amount of people who can’t imagine art being anything else than an oil painting of some bananas in a basket. The objective of the festival was to bring awareness to the public that art in fact, comes in many forms…some widely accepted and some not and both of these were present at the festival. It also gave a chance to artist to network and make new friends and probably collaborate in the future. Of course, if there is an opportunity to sell…better still.
Etchings by Tey Beng Tze
Toys by Nio + Mie
Pieces by Tuan Nini
The biggest challenge in having an exhibition of this scale, according to Siew Wai was in managing the artists (there are over 50 of them). You would think that securing a heritage building for 50 artists to do as they please would be tough, but they lucked out with Sama Sama Guesthouse, the owner, Lim, was generous enough to let them have the place for the 3 day event at no charge. I guess the man loves art…at least his neighbours do.
The host, Mr.Lim
The organizers hope that more people would get involved in the planning and execution of future exhibitions as it can get pretty tiring for just the 2 of them to run things, some people have trouble organizing dinner for 10. There was no man power to properly execute the performance schedule, the artists were basically left to their own devices in making sure things went according to plan.
The songstress Ika Huang
Performance by Lapar Lab entitled "The Campus Thought"
Jerome Kugan and his soft melodies
Azmyl Yunor and his folk rock pieces
Self Conscious Acronym Man with his offensive music..not all offensive
David Lim from The Ensemble (he owes me money).
No, not a Sarin gas attack..just Urich Lau from Singapore
The performances didn’t stop there, the events extended its more electronic performance over to Karabau Rock bar just down the road.
Ben from Ben's Bitches
As so it went for 3 days and 3 nights, performance after performance and people walking it in and out taking in all that art. It was a really cool experience for me and i would do it again next year when it comes around.
Kudos to the organizers and a big salute to all the showed up and made it rock. I’ll leave you with more picture from the event.
