Artists

Animal Pop is inspired by the local tradition and urban culture of Indonesia. The elements that are projected in the dance group are animal movements, pop and ancient human imagination.

Animal dances are inspired by the tradition in Indonesia which is highly influenced by many animals, expressed in movements of birds, kangaroos, reptiles, fish, monkeys, chicken and more. Pop is a word inspired by the changing culture of the city which is constantly developing trends like hip-hop styles, modern dances, ballet, cartoon films, animation and MTV. These elements mix well into the ancient human imagination of the ape walking upright in the past. All these elements merge into a powerful movement called the Animal Pop Dance.

Gusti Ayu Laksmiyani is the leading Balinese diva in Indonesian World music. She is not only a singer, but also a gifted song-writer, dancer, actress and theatre performer. Ayu Laksmi travelled through and explored many musical genres before arriving at where she is now. Her music employs many musical expressions from across the Indonesian culture and its religions.

She is self taught and consistent in sharpening her talent in the art of sound. Her new solo album entitled Svara Semesta 2010 & Svara Semesta 2 2015 features religious and spiritual undertones, presented in an innovative and contemporary format. Her songs are performed in 7 different languages, including Sanskrit, Kawi, Balinese, Indonesian, English, Malay and Latin.

Ayu’s contemporary version of an ancient Kawi poem is an integral part of her spectacular show, with a haunting performance that showcases Ayu’s vocal abilities and spectacular stage presence.

Along with the launch of her new solo album Svara Semesta, Ayu Laksmi formed a new musical collective, also named Svara Semesta, comprised of talented and young musicians mostly from Bali but also from different corners of Indonesia. For the live theatrical performances, Ayu Laksmi collaborates with the Indonesia’s leading art directors, choreographers and dancers. She has performed all over Indonesia at the highest levels and has been invited to Festivals around the World.

David Gunn works across the borderlines of art, education and participatory practice. His projects include an interactive sound installation in a condemned community housing block in Phnom Penh (The Room); a museum exhibition showcasing actual museum objects alongside fictive histories written by local school children (Museum of Lies); live audio-visual performances created entirely from the vocal contributions of audience members (pyka_vox); an improvisation quartet working with traditional Cambodian musicians, combining khmer folk music with modern electronics (Krom Monster).

His work includes commissions and projects for institutions including Cambodian Living Arts, Asian Development Bank, National Museums Wales, Tate, the Roundhouse, Opera North and more.

Currently, he is focusing on the development of pyka, using digital creativity to unlock better learning in schools and White Noise, a multi-disciplinary combination of artistic commissions, exploratory journalism and site-specific interventions that seek to research and positively influence the processes of urban development and change in London’s White City.

Born in 1984 in Los Palos, Timor-Leste, Etson is one of the best known and most accomplished musicians of his generation. He plays bass guitar for the well-known band Galaxy, one of the only Timorese acts to have been invited to perform at international festivals; the Darwin Festival in 2006 & 2008 and the Sines festival in Portugal, 2010. He is also one of the country’s most creative and in-demand percussionists.

He is a veteran of the Arte Moris free art school, where he established and taught in the music department there. Currently, he is involved as one of the central organisers of the annual Festa Múzika, which is supported by the EU, now in its third year in Dili.  Etson distinguishes himself as a multi-genre artist who incorporates traditional instruments into creative performances, and as a highly-regarded organiser that brings people together from different realms.  He is regularly involved in voluntary work for smaller public arts events. After years of hard work and dedication, he is now formally recognised as an important part of the cultural life of East Timor; he was a featured speaker at the prestigious TEDx Dili earlier this year. He is married and has 3 children.

Fauzi Yusoff is a visual artist based in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. He explores audio visual aesthetics, crossing into new media technology. His works advocate the need for a strong relationship between audio and moving images. Tradition and culture is central to most of Fauzi’s imagery as he searches for visual inspirations. They may relate in ways of contradiction to harmonisation, inevitably converging into an experience that is both exciting and melancholic.

Fauzi Yusoff, head visual artist and director of Efozy, is critically acclaimed for his futuristic, live optical creations. Each piece by Fauzi Yusoff radiates the unseen and the evolutionary, bringing the latest in live and interactive visual installations to audience’s world wide.

The mutli-disciplinary nature of Efozy is based on the idea that aesthetic design is best appreciated through innovative communication. It is this concept of the ‘here and now’ that makes the work of Efozy one of the most revolutionary to grace the globe. Captivating audiences since the studio’s conception, the team at Efozy have built a portfolio of work with various clients in the field.

Gardu House is an Art Space established in 2012 and founded by Graffiti artists named Artcoholic. They have a goal to fulfill what is actually needed by the community such as workplace, exhibition space and stores to nurture collaboration and growth amongst artists. Gardu House has become a place for communication and exchange between both local and international artists.

Gardu house consist of 3 divisions: exhibition space, street art shop and visual studio.

The idea of painting Batik on electric guitars came to Haryo Sasongko (Kongko), 15 years ago. He started customising some of his branded guitars collection, and soon the beautiful art pieces gained recognition from his family and colleagues. Inspired by the feedback and the will to create an originally made guitar, Kongko started creating his own guitar designs and specification, and from that process, the first line of guitars was born which he then branded as G&B Guitars.

G&B Guitars did not stop developing there. Not only did they paint beautiful batik designs on guitars, but they sought to meet the standards from the demands of professional guitarists. This inspired them to work harder to develop designs that brought comfort and great playability. In 2011, after 10 years in researching and developing the programme, the originally made guitars of G&B Canting Guitar received positive feedback from players and art collectors. This was then followed by other models, like G&B Canting Bass. The legal trademark of G&B began in 2011, and today G&B is a registered brand and company under the name of

Jamal Raslan, a versatile writer with experience in advertising, is an established spoken word poet in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. As a copywriter, he has worked with BBDO as the Malay copywriter in their Creative Department and also worked with other advertising agencies such as Saatchi & Saatchi Malaysia and TBWA. As a poet, he has performed in various local and international creative and corporate events, and won his debut slam in 2010. He has performed at Impact Forum, Singapore; the World Islamic Economic Forum, London; and has appeared on TEDxKL twice. His exploits as a poet earned him an invitation from Saatchi & Saatchi to guest-write their winning pitch for a Bank Simpanan Nasional (National Savings Bank, Malaysia) campaign before going on to perform at the campaign launch.

Jamal has also expanded his portfolio to teach English and poetry to high school students. Jamal juggles this passion with his day job as a banker. He recently concluded his gig as a consultant for the upcoming “25” campaign with ASTRO Oasis, one of the channels under the satellite pay-per-view TV network ASTRO.

Having released an EP titled “The Word” at the Georgetown Literary Festival 2012, Jamal is currently finishing his first poetry anthology and is collecting materials for his debut album targeted for a release in 2016. He is also collecting materials for a book to be published in the same year.

Krom Monster is a unique collaboration between British and Cambodian musicians.
On their eponymous debut and the subsequent Versions Metal Postcard 2014, Krom Monster sketched out a unique take on Cambodian musical traditions, where ancient melodies combined with ragged beats, digital noise and lush soundscapes.

The band emerged from a series of residencies bringing together Cambodian and British musicians. This residency was conceived and supported by the Cambodian Living Arts, a major force in promoting the recovery and rejuvenation of contemporary Khmer music, and Incidental, a contemporary arts organisation in the UK.

The result is an energetic live performance that resamples traditional instruments, reworking traditional themes and blending Khmer themes with contemporary electronics, urban music and free improvisation.

Live shows are accompanied by responsive video projections developed by David Gunn and Tith Kanitha, that deconstruct a collage of footage from contemporary and historical Cambodia.

Krom Monster features Sour Vanna on Gong Tum, Chamroeun Phan on Tro Sao, Lun Panith on Ksae Diew and David Gunn on laptop.

Nouha Saleh always enjoyed drawing and painting since her early childhood years. After she learnt to read the Holy Qur’an and write in the Arabic language, her love for calligraphy began to grow.

After high school, she continued her studies at Swinburne University of Technology in Melbourne, Australia, where she received her Bachelor of Design degree. She continued her life journey to Montreal, Canada where she co-designed the book “Pipe Fiend: A Visual Overdose of Canada’s Most Infamous Skate Spot”, and designed Montreal’s famous Hip Hop group Nomadic Massive’s first album “Nomad’s Land” and a few other projects. Her work mostly incorporates illustration, design and calligraphy.

Growing up surrounded by Javanese culture and tradition, Putri is passionate about spreading awareness on the importance of conserving cultural heritage. She pursued her education in Master of Science in Historic Building Conservation in London, after graduating from architecture school.

She later began her modelling career in Jakarta, and graced covers and editorials in well-known magazines. She moved to London, walked for London Fashion Week for 3 seasons and was a regular for in-house presentations such as FCUK and UNIQLO.

Currently, she is back in Jakarta contributing to heritage conservation and the modeling industry.

Rasmee began singing at the age of 5 with her father, founder of Jariang, a Khmer folk singing band. She joined the local band in the Isaan region at the age of 13. Her music is a unique mix of traditional Mor lam-Jariang cultures with Soul. She calls her singing style “Isaan Soul”.

Currently living in Chiang Mai, she has collaborated with various foreign musicians, such as Poni Hoax and Limousine from France and Bamako Express from Israel-Thailand, amongst others. She is frequently invited to Europe to play and record music.

In March 2016, Rasmee received 3 national “Kom Chad Luek” awards as Best Female Singer of the year, Best Album “Isaan Soul” and Best Song “Maya”.

Growing up in Dili under the Indonesian occupation had profound impact on Tony’s arts practices. He was a founding member of the Arte Moris Free Art School artist collective and was involved in many peace-building activities throughout Timor-Leste.

In 2010, he graduated from the National Art School in Sydney, Australia. He has exhibited in Australia, Switzerland, Indonesia and Timor-Leste. He has also exhibited work in the 15th and 16th Asian Art Bienniale in Bangladesh. In 2014, he participated in the Darwin Festival, Melbourne’s Gertrude Street Projection Festival and Timor-Leste’s first public arts festival, Arte Publiku.

He is a talented painter, sculptor and multi-media artist. More recently his focus has been on urban arts – graffiti, street art, stencilling – bringing his artistic expression onto the streetscape.

Wani Ardy & The Guitar Polygamy has had an eventful year so far; an expanding lineup, a sound that is getting increasingly diverse and difficult to pigeonhole, and a barely feasible DIY touring schedule across the Peninsula. The band is going all heart on all four cylinders, proving that they are rapidly becoming the little group that can.

Marrying the tender, melodic toughness of her early singer/songwriter influences (KT Tunstall, Missy Higgins, Nick & Liesl to name a few) with a trippier, slanted fare (Sia, Filastine, and Portishead), the upcoming record Raskat is already shaping up to be as eclectic and
potentially peerless in its own right; Gelombang Dasar Laut is trip hop with heavy Javanese overtones slathered with feedback and noise, Gula Melaka is poetry underscored with sensual, dreamy synth pop and Lampu Jalan already treads on semi-post rock territory.

The bands discography includes Senikatawati (EP) 2007, Meanwhile (EP) 2009, Langit Vanilla/Sekarang Aku Tahu (single) 2012, and Raskat (full length) TBA. Among their published works are Perempuan Simpanan (anthology) Sindiket Soljah, 2009, Langit Vanilla (prose/poems) Sang Freud Press, 2011, and Mesin Cahaya Masa (prose/poems) Sang Freud Press, 2014.