Category Archives: Art

My artistic sister

Posted on by
4

When you have been following my blog, you may have noticed that I have a nice family. See for example my recent report Family Gathering.  A disorderly bunch, my late parents called us lovingly. Here we are, in chronological order.

Only one sister, Lous, how she must have suffered in the past with five brothers..:-). During her working life she has been a teacher and counselor like me. But with an artistic streak which I completely lack 🙁

When I am back in the Netherlands, it has become a nice routine to visit her and her husband Arend in their  bungalow in Valkkoog, north of Alkmaar. During my last visit I took pictures of a number of her creations. Judge for yourself.

As you see, she is using a large number of different techniques. I am proud of her.

23-IMG_8849

Street Art in KL

Posted on by
Reply

During a recent visit to KLCC I spent some time in the Petronas Art Gallery to have a look at an exhibition about Street Art in Kuala Lumpur.

Last year in September, fifteen young Malaysian artists have created six large mural paintings on walls of buildings in KL. The project, sponsored by Petronas, was called  #tanahairku 2014 where Tanah Air Ku means My Homeland. In the exhibition small scale versions of the paintings were presented and in a folder the locations were shown. In a modern way, by giving the GPS coordinates…:-).

Petronas Exhibition

map

 

Quote from the folder: “Projek #tanahairku 2014 aims to encourage 30 million Malaysians – a unique melting pot of cultures, traditions and heritage – to come together, draw from our strength in diversity and unite towards a common purpose”

We decided to have a look at the paintings ourselves. Here I present pictures of each of them, with the title, name of the artist(s) and a short description, as given in the folder

1. Smile by Keep It Simple a.k.a KIS

Welcome to a surreal fantasy - a mural featuring a plethora of 
national symbols, elements and historical icons

Mural

Mural

2. We Are All In The Same Boat by District Creative

A boat and its passengers. 
A country and its people. 
A juxtaposition of imageries. 
A message of strength in diversity.

MuralMural

3. Brave by Anokayer & Yumz

An artistic take on the youth of the nation portraying the many 
compilations and contradictions in one visual

Mural

Mural

4. The Village and The City by Kenji X Cloak

The coming together of two worlds - an allegory of Malaysian 
life, and a wall-sized caricature portrait of the two artists

Mural

Mural

5. Makmur, Teguh, Luhur by Phiberwryte Connection

Three essential words chosen by the artist for the youth of the 
nation to embrace.

Mural

Mural

6.The Malaysian Model Heart Kit by KangBlaBla X Reeze

What is a Malaysian heart made of? What are the attributes and 
qualities that keep us going and define us as Malaysians

Mural

Mural

Altogether an interesting collection. Colorful, often graffiti-like. The description (given by the artists?) does not always help in understanding the significance of the mural, but never mind ..:-)

A few times you see 1957 in the murals. In 1957 the Federation of Malaya became independent, celebrated yearly on 31 August. The state of Malaysia was born 6 years later, in 1963. But that is a topic for another post…:-)

A nice project, I hope the murals will be maintained properly. Very different from the murals in Penang and Gopeng. Which is good! On our way back to our car we came across another one, not related to the #tanahairku project. I wonder how many more murals there might be in KL..:-)

Mural

The project got its name from the poem Tanah Air (Homeland), written by a Malaysian poet laureate, Usman Awang (1929-2001). My knowledge of Malay language is not good enough (actually almost non-existent) to understand the poem, but apparently it is popular. Recently a  very niceYouTube video has been created of this poem.

;

As you may know I am quite worried about the future of Malaysia, with a government who is stoking racial unrest, just to remain in power. A project like this and the video offer a glimpse of optimism.

 

Taiping May 2014

Posted on by
1

The main reason to visit Taiping was this time the excursion organised by the Taiping Heritage Society. See the separate post THS excursion. But there was more. I also wanted to visit the recently opened “Old House Museum“, located at Market Square. And an old house it certainly is, built ~ 1880 by a Chinese merchant Lim Ji You, after the big fire that destroyed much of Taiping.

Old House Museum Side view

It is a nice example of Peranakan architecture. Left a frontal view, right a side view. Notice the three storeys of the back house , unusual in those days. Inside the museum you will find a large collection of antiques. The museum is a private one, I really hope they will succeed! Here a collection of pictures

The two nights I stayed in Taiping this time, I had dinner with my friends. It is never a problem to find a suitable place for food, be it a food court, a small stall or a more posh restaurant.

Dinner Dinner Dinner

Of course a visit of Taping is not complete without a visit of the Lake Gardens, the most beautiful gardens in Malaysia. The Lake Gardens Here a few more Taiping pictures. One of the old bridge near the Indian temple and the Coronation pool. I am still trying to find out who built this bridge and for what purpose. One picture of a rain tree. And finally a picture of one of the eyesores of Taiping. The remains of the Casuarina inn, on the location of the former British residence. Shameful that this historical place has gone down the drain.

The old bridge Rain tree Ruin of the Casuarina Inn

Mural art is becoming a trend in Malaysia these days, after the Lithuanian artist Zacharevitch created the first nice “paintings” in Penang. Here are two examples I found in Taiping. Not that special, copies of Lao Fu Zi cartoons

Street art Street art Street art

More interesting is what is happening in Gopeng, south of Ipoh. In the past a famous tin-mining town, now a sleepy hollow, but with a lot of historical interest. Along the Jalan Pasir and Jalan Tasik, unknown(?) artists have recently created a number of mural paintings and also street art in the style of Zacharevitch. Definitely worth a visit!

Taiwan trip

Posted on by
2

For quite some time Taiwan has been on our list of countries to visit and this year we finally booked an Air Asia flight to Taipei for a 12-day trip. To be honest, our primary reason was… the Taiwanese food! Aric likes to watch Taiwanese TV programs about food and had collected a large number of dishes to try out. But of course there was also culture and nature..:-)

As usual Aric had done  a thorough research for the trip. He suggested that we should not  try to cover the whole country (size a bit less than the Netherlands), but limit ourselves to the northern part, Taipei and surroundings. Here is the map of our traveling in Taiwan. The GPS tracks are often broken, in the town because we used the (underground MRT) a lot and in the mountains because of the many tunnels. Click on the map to enlarge.

Map

Actually we could have stayed in one hotel in Taipei center and  make day trips from there out. Instead we decided to move around to various nice boutiquehotels. We started in Ximending, the entertainment and shopping district of Taipei. After three days we took the MRT(!) to Tamsui, a suburb of Taipei where we stayed two nights in a nice “room with a view”. Back to Xin Beitou, one night, for the hot springs. After that by bus to the East coast, Jaoxi, two nights in a beautiful apartment with our own private hot spring!. The last three nights up in the hills, in Jiufen, another apartment with a view.

Room with private hotspring!

Our apartment in Jaoxi, in Japense style, with a private hot spring bath!

When you visit Taiwan, of course you have to visit the Taoist/Buddhist temples. Taipei has a number of famous ones, but you find them in every town and village. They are well maintained and beautiful, but also basically the same…:-). So after a number of temples your reach your saturation level.  Here only  a limited number of pictures. Below is the entrance decoration of the Qingshui Temple in Taipei

Temple facade

The (modern) architecture of Taipei is rather monotonous and a bit boring. Of course there is the “outstanding” landmark of the 101 tower, until a few years ago the tallest building in the world. Personally I think the Petronas towers are much more impressive. Of course we had to go up in the ultra-fast elevator (600 m/minute!) to the observatory on the 91st floor.

101 tower

The 101 tower as seen from the nearby Elephant mountain

More impressive is the Memorial for Chang Kai-shek, the former president of the Republic of China. It was opened in 1980, on the fifth anniversary of his death. During our visit there was an amusing panda event in the huge square in front of the memorial hall, attracting a big crowd of spectators. Many school children, it was nice to see how disciplined they behaved. Same with the people waiting for the MRT in an orderly queue. Our general impression of Taiwanese people is very positive, they are friendly and eager to help.

Chang Kai Shek memorial

We had a busy program, especially the first few days. We visited Sanxi (Old Taipei) where the “Old Street” was built during the Japanese occupation (1895-1945). The Red House is another example of Japanese architecture. Of course we went to the Shilin night market with its underground foodcourt. The MRT transport system makes traveling easy, but you also still have to walk quite a lot!

After three days in Ximen we took the MRT to Tamsui, a sea-side town, but still part of what is called New Taipei City. Different atmosphere, university town, a bit artistic. We visited the Santo Domingo fort, dating back to Dutch colonial times, and the nearby British Consular Residence. And we took the ferry to the harbour to see tne famous sunset, but it was cloudy. You can not have everything…:-)

Tamsui

We had chosen this time of the year for our Taiwan visit, because we were hoping to see the cherry blossom. The season lasts only a few weeks and is not really predictable. We were a bit late, but still we could see some. And there were other flowers as well, as it was the beginning of spring.

Cherry Blossom

From Tamsui we made a trip to a remote, little known jewel: the Shell Temple (Fufuding temple), completely constructed from sea shells and corals. Quite unbelievable. We had to hire a taxi to go there, but it was worth the effort.

Dingshan Shell Temple

Here are a few pictures of the interior. There is even a kind of cave behind the shrime, where you can crawl through. Good that there were no other tourists…:-)

One of the famous tourist attractions in Taiwan are the hot spring baths. The public bath culture was introduced during the Japanese occupation. Originally they were free of charge, with a separate pool for men and women, and you are bathing naked. These traditional ones are getting less in numbers, being renovated and modernised, mixed, you have to pay and you need swimwear.

A famous hot spring region is Xin Beitou, where we went next. There is a lot of geothermal activity around there and Aric had discovered a remote traditional public bath. We were quite shy to enter, because we were warned that you have to follow the rules, or you will be scolded…:-). But it was a nice experience and I was scolded only once. Mainly older men, who prepare their tea, and chit-chat a lot. We tried another one in Xin Beitou, also a traditional one. And we went to the original Japanese one, now a museum.

Geothermal activity

After Xin Beitou we took a bus to the West Coast, to Jaoxi, another hot spring center. Here Aric had booked a room with a private hot spring bath! In the town on several places there are popular public foot baths. We even had lunch in a restaurant while soaking our feet in the hot water! Also here we found a traditional bath and I even managed, a bit sneakily, to take a picture inside the bath hall…:-) Of course we also used our own private bath. It is easy to get addicted!

Public foot bath

Our last stop was in Jiufen, a small town in the hills. Popular tourist attraction but most visitors came on a day trip, so in the evening it became quiet. It was good that we had brought our jackets, because it was a lot colder here. From here we made two day trips. For the first one we hired again a taxi. First we went to…. a museum!

Ju Ming is a Taiwanese sculptor with an international reputation. He has created his own museum in the hills north of Taipei. I had never heard about him, and the museum was really an eye-opener for me. We spent quite a long time, walking around as many of his works are in the open air

Ju Ming museum

After the museum and lunch we visited the Yehliu Geopark, another surprise. Erosion has over the millions of years created an amazing collection of strange rock shapes. The most famous of them is the Queen’s Head. In earlier days you could just touch this rock formation, but now you can only view it from some distance, because unscrupulous visitors scraped some of the soft rock to take home, causing the neck of the queen to become thinner and thinner.

Yehliu geopark

The last day we took the train into the hills. In the past this was a coal mining region, now it has become a popular tourist destination.When there is no train coming, the tracks are used for walking. Couples leave bamboo cylinders behind with love(?) messages, a variation on the love locks you find in for example Paris. Another popular activity is to paint a message on a Chinese lantern and let it fly away as a hot air balloon.

Bamboo cylinders

The most famous tourist attraction along this train route is the Shifen waterfall, considered to be the most scenic waterfall of Taiwan. A real beauty. From Jiaoxi we had already visited two other waterfalls. Here are the pictures.Shifen fall

It was a wonderful trip, and we are already looking forward to visit Taiwan again.

But wait, I almost forgot to mention the food…:-) And I started this blog, mentioning the Taiwanese food. Well, we have done our best and tried as many different Taiwanese specialties as we could find…:-). It was a pleasure every day. Lots of pork, lots of delicious oysters. Menus are in Chinese, so I had to trust Aric. Here is a collage of what we had,  I don’t know the names.

Taiwan food

I also shot a number of video’s, but I will put them in a separate blog, as this one is already longer than usual.

Penang Street Art

Posted on by
Reply

Since 2012 there is one more reason to visit Penang, besides the food and the cultural heritage. During the Georgetown Festival 2012, the young Lithuanian artist Ernest Zacharevic has painted a number of murals, which have become one of the major tourist attractions. Here are two very popular ones, a combination of a painting and an existing object. These two are floodlit during the night, which adds to the atmosphere.

Boy on a Bike

Children on a bicycle

The next morning we visited the rest. This one is called Wushu Girl and can be found at Muntri Street. Tourist arrive with taxis or on rental bikes to take pictures.

Wushu Girl

Tourist attraction

And this is The Awaiting Trishaw Paddler (Penang Street)

Trishaw Paddler

Trishaw Paddler

Here are two more. But only the left one, called Reaching Up is by Zacharevic! In quite a few places you will find now similar murals by others, a clear proof how successful the concept has been.

Reaching Up Unknown artist

The artist is becoming popular all over the world. In Malaysia he also created works in Kuala Lumpur and Petaling Jaya. And of course the (in)famous one in Johor Baru, depicting a lady and a robber, both in Lego style. JB has Legoland and reputedly a high crime rate.

Johor Baru

The JB town council was not amused and had it removed within a few days. Ridiculed of course by many, amongst them the Penang council. Art should be respected and free! But when Zacharevic decorated a pothole (which had been there for many years), framing it as a painting, the council acted quickly, and filled the pothole…:-)

The pothole as painting

No more there

During our visit of Penang an exhibition was opened of (new) works by Zacharevic. We were eager to visit this exhibition but found the door closed..:-(  We could only peek through the fence. The exhibition opens from noon to 8pm daily until Feb 14. Free access. Maybe we should go back to Penang soon.

The exhibition building

A peek inside The exhibition theme

To find the locations of the Zacharevic murals, you can now install an App on your smartphone! For the other murals you must just walk around Georgetown which is a pleasure in itself. Here is a collection of pictures. The town council has placed a large number of decorative metal wire signboards in the historical center. And a bit outside the center you can find the famous UBAH bird. UBAH means change in Malay, Penang is governed by the opposition, so this bird is both art and a political statement.

Two more reports will follow, one about Penang and its food, the other one about Thaipusam,

Singapore

Posted on by
Reply

Recently I got a phone call from my friend Paul. “I have booked a trip to Singapore, with an overnight stay in the Marina Bay Sands hotel. Leaving tomorrow. Just got news from my friend that he is unable to join because of a problem in his family. Can you replace him”?

I was free that weekend, so of course I did not say no…:-). Two years ago I had visited this iconic hotel and enjoyed it very much, see my report.

The next morning our bus trip to Singapore took about 6 hours. There is now a MRT station near the hotel! That afternoon we spent a lot of time in the infinity pool..:-)

DSC_6877

DSC_6885

Here are more pictures of the hotel, the shopping complex  around it and the views from the Skypark on the 57th floor. The weather looked a bit threatening, but we had no rain

After our dinner (in the food court, the Marina Bay Sands restaurants are too expensive.. haha), we walked a lot in the the town and around the marina. Here are some night views.

The next day we visited the Gardens by the Bay This park of more than 100 hectares, on reclaimed land, was not yet open to the public during my earlier visit. The park itself is freely accessible, but for some of the attractions you have to pay. From the park you have nice views of the hotel and the Singapore skyline.

DSC_7005

DSC_6988

You can easily spend many hours here. Access to the two domes is expensive, we did not go in, later we heard that it is worthwhile. But we visited the “canopy walk” Here is a collection of pictures.

The next day,before we took the bus back to KL, we visited the Haw Par Villa. This theme park, containing over 1,000 statues and 150 giant dioramas depicts scenes from Chinese mythology, folklore, legends, history, and illustrations of various aspects of Confucianism. Created in 1937 by the makers of Tiger Balm, its main attraction are the Ten Courts of Hell

2013-12-15 09.27.18

2013-12-15 10.30.39

Access to the park is free and easy, there is a new MRT station around the corner. Not so many people know about its existence. The park is a photographers delight. Here is a selection of my pictures.

And here is what you can expect as punishment for what you did wrong in your life. Don’t worry too much. Before you are reborn in your next life, you will be served a cup of tea of Forgetfulness, so you will not remember anything in your next life!

This Haw Par Villa is definitely worth a visit!

Journal 17-10-2013

Posted on by
3

The last three weeks, after Aric went back to Malaysia, I have been busy with many social and cultural activities. I started with visits to my GP, my cardiologist, my diabetician, my ophthalmologist and my dentist….:-)  Everything is under control.

My dentist used a new torture contraption, which made me look like a breedbekkikker (wide-mouthed frog, rana ore lato, can only be found in the Netherlands, lol).

Breedbekkikker

I visited two more musea and went to two concerts. In the Concertgebouw I listened to Maria Pires, playing Beethoven. She got an ovational applause which she rightly deserved. With a friend I went to the Gauguin, Bonnard & Denis exhibition in the Amsterdam Hermitage museum. A bit disappointing, although the museum itself is worth a visit. Another concert was given in the impressive Neo-Gothic Dominicus church in Amsterdam. My friend Yolanda sings in a choir, they performed works by Bach and Mozart. Beautiful music, especially the Bach cantata Aus der Tiefen rufe ich, Herr, zu dir . With another friend I went to an exhibition of Hundertwasser  in the Cobra museum in Amstelveen.


The Hundertwasser exhibition was a pleasant surprise. I knew him only as an architect (here is is picture I took of the Hundertwasserhaus in Vienna, 6 years ago), but first he became famous as a painter, in the 1950’s. Here are some of his paintings. Both from these paintings and his buildings it is clear that he did not like straight lines, he called them devil’s tools..:-)

When I am back in the Netherlands, it has become a tradition to have dinner with Yolanda in a  ‘fine dining’ restaurant. This time we went to restaurant Vandemarkt and had a delicious dinner there. The presentation of the food makes it almost a work of art.The reason that in the picture the main course looks messy, is that I could not control myself, I started eating before I thought about taking a picture…:-)

vandemarkt food

Yolanda

Another tradition during my stay in the Netherlands is a reunion with my siblings. This time it took place at my sisters place. My brother Ruud could not be there because he just had had a hip replacement operation, but in these days, with webcams and skype, he still was able to join virtually…:-)

Just before coming back to Malaysia I went to Groningen to meet Ruud and his loved ones. He was already able to walk in the garden with his crutches and could point out to Jur where the walnuts were hanging. I stayed overnight and met his two sons, my favourite nephews.

Harvesting walnuts

Two nephews

 

 

I also met many friends, former students, ex-colleagues etc. Often for a drink and food, so not surprisingly I gained weight again, will have to work hard to slim down. The weather remained nice and warm with often spectacular sunsets.

It was only during the last few days of my stay in the Netherlands that the weather became autumn-like, with some heavy rain and lower temperatures. But altogether I have been very fortunate, the weather gods must love me. On  my way to Schiphol airport I finally could take a picture of the trees near my apartment in autumn colors.

I will end this post with a picture of my new watch. It is a Pebble watch, synchronised with my iPhone. It gives a warning when a SMS or email has arrived and you can choose between many different displays of the time.

Pebble watch2013-10-16 09.36.26

Europe trip 2013 Barcelona & Amsterdam

Posted on by
1

After our two-week trip through Europe we needed some time to relax and do our laundry. Only a few days because we had one more destination on our program: Barcelona in Spain. The town of Gaudi, the country of paella and sangria!

It was a short visit of three nights only. Instead of looking for a hotel we found a nice apartment, a loft on the fourth floor of an old building, near to the Ramblas and in the middle of the Red Light district…:-) The dimensions must have been something like 30 x 5 meter!


Of course we spent most of our time in Barcelona visiting and admiring the wonderful works of art created by Gaudi.. A pity that we were not the only ones! I have created a separate album about Barcelona on my Stuif’s Adventures site. Here only four pictures of the places we visited
We had lots of tapas and sangria. Not always top quality. One night we had really a wonderful meal in a local tapas bar suggested to us by the hostess of our apartment. Spanish style, We started our dinner at about 10 pm..:-). Delicious food. The name of the restaurant is Cañete and you should not miss it when you visit Barcelona!
Back in Amsterdam, we had a few days left before Aric went back to Malaysia. The weather was still ok, so we looked for some more of the KLM houses. And we visited the Rijksmuseum, opened last year after an extensive renovation. With a spectacular result, I will post a separate blog later about it. We had a look at the Night Watch by Rembrandt, one of the most famous paintings in the world. Also here we were not the only ones…:-)
Night Watch

Here are a few more pictures of these last few days in Amsterdam

Europe trip 2013 part 1

Posted on by
1

I will split this post in a few parts, because it covers a two-week trip through Europe, visiting Germany, Austria, Liechtenstein (!), Switzerland and France. I took more than 1000 pictures. Don’t worry, I will publish here only a few..:-)

We started with a long (750 km) drive from Amsterdam to Regensburg in Bavaria. This is a very old town and a Unesco World Heritage site.

DSC_4967

It is located on the Danube river, has many beautiful buildings and is famous food-wise for its sausages. Less touristic than its neigbours Nürnberg and Salzburg, it was a nice surprise for us.

The next day we crossed the border with Austria on our way to a tiny hamlet with a funny name: Fucking. There is nothing to see, there is not even a shop, but every year thousands of tourists come here to have their picture taken with the signboard for the village. And so did we …:-)

DSC_5092-001

IMG_5624

Salzburg was our next destination, the town where Mozart was born. We stayed in Hotel Mozart, had dinner in Cafe Mozart, visited the house where he lived and went to a concert where his music was played. The Salzburger Festspiele had just finished, but there were still many tourists. A beautiful town with the castle Hohensalzburg high above the town.

DSC_5172

We stayed two nights in Salzburg, the weather was splendid. We really enjoyed the Hohensalzburg castle, spent almost a full day there. The Hellbrun Palace, just outside the town, was fun, with its trick fountains. Unbelievable that an archbishop was responsible for it. Here is a collection of Salzburg pictures.

From Salzburg we continued our trip to Hallstatt, that will be part two of this report. Here already two galleries about the whole trip. First some pictures of the places where we stayed overnight. We like Guesthouses, Pensions, Bed en Breakfast places better than the big hotels.

And of course we had lots of food…:-) The German and Austrian cuisine are not very refined, but they serve in general huge portions. With lots of beer.In France we had a few times really fine dining.

Rock Balancing

Posted on by
2

A few years ago I have started a habit of building a stone marker when I visited a waterfall. A sign that I had been there. Here is an example

Stone marker

And here is a collage of many more. It is a nice pastime and doesn’t require much effort. Just collect a few suitable rocks and see how tall you can make the tower. A downpour, or strong wind, and it will be gone. So I leave only a temporary marker, which I find quite symbolic for human existence in general..:-)

collage

It can also be done in a very different, spectacular way! Recently a friend sent me an email with pictures of amazing balancing rock formations. Like this one

Gravityglue1

The “maker” is a young Canadian artist/designer, Michael Grab. He has a website Gravity Glue where you can find many more of his creations.Here are a few

Balance-Art-By-Michael-Grab_09Balance-Art-By-Michael-Grab_05Gravityglue3Gravityglue2

I find them extremely, almost unearthly, beautiful. They seem to defy gravity, although as a physicist  I understand of course that it is gravity which keeps the pieces of rocks in place, at least temporarily.

Not surprisingly some of the comments on his website suggest that it is all fake, that he is using superglue, or metal pins to keep the parts together. Watch this short YouTube video (until the end!) for a convincing proof that it is NOT fake…:-)

You can find more YouTube videos on the Internet, for example this one. Although I do not share his philosophy, I admire his patience and perseverance.