Renewable Coexistence:
Silvana S. Foundation Commission Award Exhibition, 2nd edition

Sep 17 – Oct 9 2022

Learn more: https://www.mizuma.sg/exhibitions/2022/09/01/renewable-coexistence-silvana-s-foundation-commission-award-exhibition-2nd-edition

About The Photographer

Ian Teh

Ian Teh is a British-Malaysian documentary photographer whose work is motivated by environmental and social issues. In an era of continuous urbanisation and development, at its roots, his work explores the underlying dreams and desires in society and the individual and of the sacrifices often made to realise them. In the age of the selfie, Teh has returned to the classical monumental landscape. His panoramic series, Traces: Landscapes in Transition on the Yellow River, is an alarm, an announcement of terrible beauty, heralding the advancing threat we pose to our planet.

Ian has published three books, Undercurrents (2008), Traces (2011) and Confluence (2014). His work is part of the permanent collection at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA), The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (MFAH) and the Hood Museum in the USA. He has received several honours, including a grant from the Pulitzer Center in 2018 and presented his work on climate change at the 2018 National Geographic Photography Seminar.

He currently lives in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

About The Exhibition

Renewable Coexistence by Silvana Sutanto

The covid-19 pandemic prompted widespread, collective reflections on the changes that are needed for a more equitable and sustainable world. With our human lives intrinsically intertwined with other animals, how can we co-exist in sustainable ways that benefit human beings and the planet? This second edition of the commission award welcomes explorations of renewal, regeneration, and synergistic co-existence with a sensitivity toward the conditions needed for our shared survival for generations to come.

Agats Budaya Festival, West Papua

Agats, West Papua, is home to the Asmat people in Indonesia. Despite not being as developed as other modern cities, they live a simple and sustainable life with their natural environment, a rarity in this rapidly modernising world. This series was taken during the Agats Budaya Festival, an annual celebration of Asmat culture and tradition. Silvana saw their lifestyle as something to aspire to achieve balance between modernity and Mother Nature.

Silvana also explored similar sustainable festivals and societies in Indonesia, such as the Pacu Jawi festival in Padang, where the locals celebrate the end of the rice harvest by holding bull races across the paddy fields, and the Tenggerese horsemen in Bromo Tengger Semeru National Park, who live sustainably with the local flora and fauna in a nationally conserved, active volcanic area.

The proceeds from this exhibition will go towards Make-A-Wish Singapore.

The Line of Least Resistance by Ian Teh

East of Kuala Lumpur stands the lush verdant hills of the Titiwangsa range. The region is significantly bio-diverse with areas of primary forest. It serves as a critical water catchment area for the city’s population. At the edge of the woodland is Klang Valley, an urban conglomeration of adjoining towns connecting to the capital that stretches westwards towards the coastline by the Malacca Straits. Dotted in between are remaining pockets of densely forested greenery. Their edges, usually frayed, are threatened by the endless expanse of encroaching concrete and tarmac.

Compared to its South-East Asian cousins — hyper-urbanised cities like Manila, Seoul, and Jakarta — Greater Kuala Lumpur is uniquely green. Its forests are biodiversity hot spots where researchers continue to make scientific discoveries. Forests within an urban environment are an essential offset to the urban sprawl. Like lungs, they provide oxygen to cities and capture various greenhouse gases. They filter water supplies, prevent erosion, and control floods while sustaining biodiversity. They cool built-up areas and bestow residents with opportunities for recreation, education, and cultural enrichment. Indeed the city’s green spaces boast a network of community-maintained trails for hiking and mountain biking, crags for rock climbing and waterfalls that are outstanding but often little known. These ecological services are priceless but usually undervalued, perhaps because they are unaccounted for in the nation’s GDP reports. In an era of climate change where recent years have made it explicit how much our homes and lives are at risk, Greater Kuala Lumpur’s ability to re-evaluate the importance of its remaining forests will determine the city’s long-term livability and survival.

A 2010 World Bank report describes Greater Kuala Lumpur as the eighth largest in South East Asia, its urban sprawl more extensive than many other population-dense megacities in the region. In contrast, its low population density ranks it 22nd in the area. Currently, unoccupied homes are at their peak in the Klang Valley. This data indicates longer work commutes, especially on the city’s extensive highways, which are more developed than its public transport services. Traffic jams abound. State authorities persist in raising funds by selling government land, often forested, and financial incentives by banks make buying new properties cheaper than existing ones. It all makes for ineffective city planning leading to more pollution and a continual loss of valuable natural green spaces. The addiction to continuous development needs new land; too often, the path of least resistance is in clearing forests.

Artists:
Silvana Sutanto
Ian Teh

Organizers:
Silvana S. Foundation
Mizuma Gallery
SIPF

Charity Partner:
Make-A-Wish Singapore
The proceeds from this exhibition will go towards Make-A-Wish Singapore.