Following our invasion of Armenian Street Kopitiam in April, onistudio is stepping our toes into The Riverwalk HOME club with our concoction STREET OF CROCODILES inspired by Brothers Quay's haunting yet visually enchanting animation of the same name.
We are proud to present live! the very performative TIRAMISU
very intense ENGINEERED BEAUTIFUL BLOOD
very mashed-up DJ KIMUS
very strutty egopop band SAMANTA
and a very mad noise orgy between
ZAI KUNING, MINDFUCKING BOY & THE ESCAPIST THEORIST
Date: 10th June 2006 Time: 9pm till laate Venue: HOME club, 20 upper circular road The Riverwalk Entry: $15 includes 1 drink
Funny that some people thought that I am arrested for the controversial open letter concerning the garden recently. The management did file a complain against me but so far nothing happened and I understood they also think of suing me. How strange isn’t it? Very interesting indeed. For those who is curious/worry there’s nothing happening yet and I definitely have to boycott from going to the garden unless there’s really something important happening there.
I am still alive but only half alive because my greatest enemy now is the vertigo syndrome which comes once or twice a day and stays for several hours. It has been a struggle to get up and stay focus and try to do things because the effect of vertigo is a head spinning and it’s psychologically torturous which makes me think of suicide all the time. I can only describe it as a negative energy around me and I think my guidance angel is the one who took holiday.
The only thing I can do is watch some vcd/dvd and now seems like nothing much to rent from the shelf. For those who love manga I like Final Fantasy VII based on the playstation of the same name, its much better then many disney’s shit
By now I already cancel several things. My solo exhibition in Bangkok June is cancelled because I don’t really like my drawing’s and I cant put my act together in the studio. I also got to cancel my trip to KL and London for the PSI conferences. I really regret I can’t go to London because I have not been there. sigh
The doctor told me to relax and take it easy and it seem like I am told to take a holiday but without any dollar in my pocket. It’s funny that recently being broke and hook on whiskey for sometime already I wish I can drink my urine back and have the same effect or better.
I have stopped using the hand phone it does felt better and peaceful somehow and I don’t have to deal with the fucking charger. But some people already started complaining that its hard to get me. Maybe soon I will have to get back to civilization starting with handphone.
I also have to stop making too many promises because right now I can’t really function like what I use to. It felt like im having a new body and I don’t really know which button for what function and definitely this new body don’t really like the sun and it seems like I got to make a deal with the devil and live as vampire haha that sound rather fun though the fact is for several week I felt jaded and fucking lazy.
By the way 10 June is a promise of fun because onistudio is collaborating with HOME club and we give you
Dj Kimus Escapist Theorist Mindfuckingboy Engineered Beautiful Blood & Tiramisu
Oh myself too. The event will be called
Street of Crocodiles
inspired by Brothers Quay fantastic animation ever. Highlight of the event includes a Chinese shaman to do some paper burning and tongue piercing to kick the butt off vertigo that has been screwing my head.
hahaha.
But before that on the 3rd of June I will be playing with koichi shimizu and Tim dwyer at Singapore Art Museum. More details refer to Hadaka C.
Zai
Photo: 1.Layla in black with zai 2. Scene from adventchildren 3. CURSE, 1985 (don't ask)
Sorry it's been quiet for the past almost two weeks. oni has been suffering from hyper-ventilation after the bird conference and trying to get out of bed has been an out-of-breath affair. On the other end of the studio, there is half-deaf vertigo zai trying to find the balance back into his spinning head. It's tough-luck down here, not to mention the persistently never-ending construction, noisy people and cars screeching in the streets.
it's 2am now and only oni's fishes are talking in the tank. it's finally quiet.
anyway we decided not to write too much in here lest we aggravate everybody's current state of depression. No, we know, the salary and lottery and progress package didn't help; you spent it all on alcohol and cigarettes and useless gadgets. The moon is bright but sky is so bleak and... you are depressed again.
But quietly and gently with our tortured ears and noses, we are working to lessen those grey clouds hovering above your head.
We are not actually doing anything, BUT, we are not lazy. We promise a few surprises coming up for you.
Surprises, are like how nature can cheer us up even in the most boring climate:
Nature speaks beauty but we have to be quiet to hear it.
For those who took part in Conferences of the birds we like to say thanks a big time. In all we think that the event went really well. Even though everyone was equally supportive in taking part of this event we must say that the punk are the best who make a full use of the space, even with a last minute gig deliverance which is truly fun.
Suhaili poetry reading Seelan on acoustic and vocal
Ducky Star sound scape on laptop and effects
Our closing event was something that we loved to do since past 1 year when oni woke up from a long deep sleep. Though the turn up is small, after talking to everyone I realized its better to start this way because our interest is not business to begin with but we wanted to offer something nobody can do. Of cos without any sense of business we can’t continue this dream-turn-to-reality.
Mr Tai the owner of winfood kopitiam is a really open-minded Chinese businessman, whom I slowly realized is not as greedy as many Chinese businessman that I know of. He told us why not we do it every weekend. Wow that’s really cool but I don’t think we have enough energy to do it. We think once (or twice) a month is enough and another good news is Mr Tai has another kopitiam which he say better for such event. But its outdoor. We will check the new kopitiam but for now I think what make us feel so ‘cool’ is that we (and many other) been talking so much about doing things in winfood and now we make such dream come thru. It’s also because of substation. So for those who think Timber sucks and want something different for a pine of beer, your call is answered.
I have to talk about this night because the next one is coming next month and we want to do it regularly. Let me explain a little about the ‘DJ’ session with Kim, X’Ho, Chee Wai and leslie. At first I did use the words ‘DJ’ but after mingling and listen to the stuff they played I think its not about a ‘DJ’ its about people who listen to some good music and play it for us. Not that I go against any DJ but a DJ is someone who in a way has to play music that people like in partying, for that reason I find the whole set that the guys played seems because I get to learn about some music I don’t usually listen too.
Kim Seng is a new ‘spinner’ on laptop and he is one of my oldest friend on earth who have been supporting me for ages. It’s also the second time I heard his stuff and now Kim is recruited as Oni permanent face when we have event we will have Kim to open and close the event with me as a sound check spinner/cum pimp. So if you want to listen to what I spin you got to come early during a 1 hour sound checking or warming up.
Xho gave a pleasant surprise because (unlike when he’s in liquid room) it’s performative with statement and that is X’ho. Les and chee wai set is awesome nothing then that I can say because we really enjoy their selection and how they react to their listener… At first I do thought that they going to indulge in their own mood... But no they want to entertain you with a different mood and good feeling. Nobody get to emotional and cry, nobody get drunk and puking and nobody argue and fight. You may not be allowed to dance around because I think its purely about listening but if the music grooved you up dancing is never a sin.
Now we had small pleasant dilemma because several people already give opinion all with excitement for the success of the night. People already ask who is the next ‘DJ’? and what kind of music we should play etc. first I must say lets trust them whatever music they want to play depending on how they react to listeners vise versa and we definitely have Kim Seng, Leslie and chee wai. I already told some guys ‘im not going to let this guy go easily’ they have to spin in the next few month. So the 3 of them will be a regular face while we get another person as special guest and it got to be ladies next time. And probably next time you will see chee wai and leslie perform not only spinning.
Conceptually I think this could be one of the kind of ‘gig’ in kopitiam but next time I got to work hard to get different people to enjoy the night together with a perfect regulars on that night. And we try to provice different kinds of beer (sorry no whiskey, no license lah) with some munchies and food. really sorry about having only tiger beer that night. We were caught abit unprepared on several things to make the night warm and nice besides I’m having to deal with my always drowsy state of mind because I’m on medication but I’m already thinking about creating a mix as oni cocktail mainly for ladies.
Now about the space we mark history. Don’t forget it’s a kopitiam not pub or bar meaning that’s what the license say and kopitiam with ‘dj’ is not a sin because it as similar to having the tv on all the way. The timing is from 6 until 12 because that’s what the license sing too. I think its perfect timing so that after 12 you can go to your favourite zouk, MOS or Liquid. And lets not forget above winfood is a hotel so after 11 we got to bring the volume down little. What I like to maintain is that it remains as a kopitiam with good music and beer price is in between pub and kopitiam. So you pay more but at the same time you pay less. Its like the middle path haha and again it will not become or look like a pub.
Meanwhile keep throwing your ideas while I polish up mine
I got to mentioned people behind this event and I got to thank Hafiz, Hannah, fairul, Syamsir, Hasib, james, glen, mish and many more who have been very supportive and responsible taking care of the gallery and making it exciting. The silk screen demonstration was very open due to the fact the it did not try or pretend to demonstrate. The guy are just there casually and people respond to them immediately fom 4 till 9pm
Special thanks and big kisses to Shaiful, our favorite kepala for the conference.
Many also ask me what do I think of the whole thing. Basically I try to bring the punk and the sound artist together because I do find some similarity in them. But I think we are still not sure how to hangout and talk about our differences. But that’s not easy I think because its first time for all though I must say the punk is always there for all to chat with them while I hardly see the other half of the participant but again it’s the first time we did this so maybe we do it again and improve on our participation.
On behalf of onistudio I am very happy how excited everybody are and supportive of oni’s sentiment.
onistudio was initiated by Zai Kuning in 2003 as a small café space where individuals could present works at a minimal scale. In 2006, it was revived as an organiser of art projects ranging from theatre, dance, music, performance art, visual arts and dialogues between creatives.
We wish to engage artists as well as the public in questioning the importance of independent and improvising attitude towards the developing and presenting of art works.
