Sunday, 1 March 2015 For the grand finale of FIK in George Town, myself and The-Most-Wonderful-Hafiz hopped into my small car and we went all out. Donation money was spent on fruit shopping in the Pasar Lorong Kulit, a pasar at Gelugor AND the fruit farm and fruit stalls in Teluk Bahang! Why 3 markets? Because you can find pisang sold by the tanduk(!) in Gelugor! Because Teluk Bahang sells Buah Pinang, Cocoa Pods and Buah Melaka! Because the fruits from the last day of FIK would go this time to the children of S.K. Tun P. Ramlee! Because I wanted those children to eat passion fruit, see real cocoa pods and pink bananas and learn about the fruits growing on their Penang Island! Yeah! I am so thankful to everyone who came by Hin Bus to help me pack up everything and uninstall Fruit in Kind. Particularly when Hin Bus curator, Gabija helped me organize the fruit storage. I am very lucky to have the friendship of Lay Heong, and happy that Annabelle Ng is so supportive. And again, I thank everyone at Hin Bus Depot Art Center, WABA, and Penang Stop Human Trafficking Campaign as profusely as humanly possible for supporting the project so completely. What makes me so happy about Fruit in Kind is that it really does seem to inspire strangers to come together and contribute/help. Whether it's giving fruit, giving money to buy fruit, going with me to buy and lug around fruit at the market, the public response towards Fruit in Kind is really so touching. My running joke is that the key to Malaysians hearts is through their stomachs, hence the effectivity of fruit as a subject matter. However, to be more serious, I think it might be more to do with the role/status of fruit in the context of Malaysian culture. I think Malaysians do want to help each other; we do want to make a positive difference, but there is a lot of rasa segan and sense of boundaries (that must be respected, by giving a respectful distance) that stops us. When I first came up with Fruit in Kind, I deliberately chose fruit, because it is one of the rare things you can find in Malaysia that manages to transcend ALL cultural, religious and dietary taboos. There is no complication, pantang, political slur when it comes to fruit (Well, oklah, there's fruit allergies, but you get my pointlah.). To my Malaysian mind, fruit are a gift, a common snack, a bunch of ubiquitous something that you bring to share with your friends, and that in casually eating together, bonds you closer. Fruit is a cherished childhood memory, and an inseparable element in the average Malaysian lifestyle. It's also recognized as a luxury. It's also harmless, faultless and so mind-numbingly wholesome and nourishing, you cannot possibly get into political trouble when you donate fruit. You cannot get segan when it comes to fruit. So maybe that's why Fruit in Kind seems to work so well. There is nothing to fear about involvement/support to a project like Fruit in Kind, because it's so uncomplicated. And through this blog and the website, I also do my best to keep it as transparent as I know how to. I'm not the most highly educated person, but it seems that Art is sometimes about creating a vision of possibility; that a dream could be real. Maybe not in the real world as a whole, but that for now at least in the space that an artwork occupies, the dream could be posited as real. As a Malaysian, I see a lot of defeatism, negativity and cynicism in my fellow countrymen, which is justified, yes, but I believe is not the attitude that empowers the Rakyat to achieve solutions for our country. As an artist, I designed the Fruit in Kind installation so that it could inspire and generate an atmosphere of positivity, constructive contribution, hope, trust and belief that the fruit you give really will go to the right people who need/deserve it. That in this country, even if it's only in a small community art project, there can be a transparent process. That people could be inspired to MOVE and ACT to make fruit getting to underprivileged children happen. To make positive change happen. I don't know how much of this viewers see when they look at this art project, but what does make me so happy is that everyone so far Does get the most important part: Positivity and active contribution. |
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Fruit in Kindis a community art installation project where through art, the public can make in-kind fruit donations to charity homes.
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