the rite.
direct comment here
a badly broken ceiling turned into a full-on renovation at my aunts’ store, Akrea of Sanur. somehow got myself doing a pro-bono construction job.
do visit our other store at Monkey Forest Road, Ubud (about two-minute walk or ten-second drive after Alpha Mart on your right) (if you decide to drive according to the lane direction).
christmas display at my aunt’s store in sanur, a-krea, which i did shortly before christmas-year end break.
welcome 2011!
brass workshop at bangli. supplier-browsing day.
afterwards we went to see the brass workshop owner’s uncle, who makes all sorts of stuff from old oil drums. he and his large family live in a big ranch inside a bamboo forest. it was the most amazing place.
how to actually get to the drums guy’s place:
wayan parsa is a simple balinese man but he showed no signs of confusion when three oddly-dressed women came to his workshop to buy old, beaten up drum tops and told him we were going to make a tray out of them, and asked if he could make it look more beaten up. he just grinned and said, “i get it, it’s style.”
his adorably simple place:
before we went home, he picked generous samplers of all the plants in his ranch and gave them to us as souvenirs. his japanese pumpkins (jipang) are exceptionally yummy.
bought the gong set (made of bent drum tops) and put them on the walls of the house. dudu loves it and poses on the sofa bed under one of the walls all the time.
stayed at ubud from monday to attend the cremation ceremony (ngaben) of ida dwagung of puri peliatan ubud. it was interesting—ubud, these days, while not as i remembered it was like few years ago when i used to visit as a child (and waaaay before the whole eat, pray, love explosion) still manages to give me a certain shiver. the ngaben event was on tuesday (yesterday), but the procession started nearly a month ago, from the king’s death on late august.
the night before (monday) we went over to puri peliatan ubud to see the last-hour preparation and final prayers and rituals. it was less strict than the procession of the death of the much celebrated tjokorda suyasa of puri agung ubud on 2008, and i sorta sneaked in with a borrowed sarong to document the preparation.
the final event consists of moving the mummified body to the top of the house tower (in his case, consisting of 11 levels to represent his own level), a parade of his family and the whole set of offerings and structures (a pair of statues representing the mystical spirits who helped them through the entire process, a long and golden dragon representing his earthly life, the white buffalo sarcophagus, and of course the house tower, all these in magnificently gigantic scale) and the final chapter, the insertion of the body to the buffalo and the cremation of the body alongside the entire structure and offerings.
i was there with my aunt and our two friends, and we were joined with a whole bunch of other friends (because at the end of the day, everyone just sorta knows everyone in this small island) and we waited by the street (actually sitting on one of those balinese brick gates) under the sun from 10 am to 3 pm when the parade finally passed. the entire length passed us for less than 10 minutes, and we followed them to their final place inside the royal cemetery where the cremation was held.
i tried taking pictures of yesterday’s event with my phone camera, purely for documentation (nothing artsy about these pics i took except for the objects), but the results were pretty shameful, and i wasn’t being humble:
you can check some more at my twitter but i will warn you, and this will be true for anyone posing as photographer yesterday—nothing, and i underline, nothing will do the actual show any justice.
i temporarily moved out and relocated to bali. the whole air of working creatively is a lot better here. proof: i woke up every morning and 6 am and don’t stop working until i sleep at 11 pm. (wait. that sounds… not so different from living in the capital city, save for the traffic. hmm. crap.)
will (try to) be blogging work, art, and unimportant daily stuff a bit more often… in the mean time, this is owned by my friends and have been a favorite place for years (and i just found out they have website last night): GAYA FUSION in sayan, ubud. they have fantastic art space and michaela, one of the owners, is an amazing ceramic artist. of course my new favorite part is their gelato bar. far from my original plan, i do not take in less than 1200 kcalories per day here. oh well.
old forgotten photos from my trip to milan last summer. these were found when i was cleaning up my room for a new desk, and i realized i had forgotten to scan this part of film.
this was taken in piazza del duomo, the third afternoon i was there. (so it was probably june 13th or 14th).
i added a section called secret files in my gallery. it’s a compilation of travel photos i took with a digital camera (which, surprise, surprise, i have. i’m not completely against digital photography.)
seminyak beach / venice canale
sam / borough market
camberwell school of art / a curious guy in front of tate modern
liberty building / architectural association school
london alley / around borough market
ilford sfx 200, 35 mm, using holga 120 cfn.
more at light leaks and things section at my gallery (bottom of the line)
