[Manaus, Brazil] LABVERDE, with whom I did an artscience residency in the Amazon Rainforest last July 2017, has a catalog of all its resident artists for the year.
I’m on pages 128-131, featuring my works, An Olfactory Portrait of the Amazon Rainforest from The Apocalypse Project, and Experiments in Nature from Wild Science.
Thank you to the amazing LABVERDE team for all of it!
View the entire thing on LABVERDE’s website.
This weekend, I hiked Mt. Pulag, the highest peak of Luzon and the third highest peak in the Philippines. I missed hiking; it was my first mountain in two years. It’s my second mountain in the Philippines and the first one I hiked in the dark on purpose. We started at 1 am and got to Peak #3 at around 5 am.
Some things I want to remember:
This sunrise! Korea, you know I love you and your mountain to bits, but I think Philippine mountains have you beat in this department.
The legendary Mt. Pulag sunrise
I couldn’t help but reminisce about all the other mountains I hiked in Korea, especially since I was wearing the same outfit and shoes.
With the same hiking shoes I’ve used while hiking all of the mountains of Seoul
After seeing the sunrise, we hiked for another half hour to the summit, which was 2,922 meters above sea level. It was even higher than Hallasan, the highest peak in South Korea.
Me at the peak! I want to redesign this sign.
Here it was easier to see the famous sea of clouds that makes Mt. Pulag such a popular hiking destination.
The clouds over and around the Cordilleras
The sea of clouds
I couldn’t resist doing a kick to send my taekwondo teachers back in Seoul. But alas, my arms were not ok and my back could be straighter. But hey, I hiked for 10 hours that day, so let’s all cut me some slack for today, ok? Ok.
My form is wrong. But hey, I tried.
It’s nice to be back on the mountains. I missed it so.
May no shopping mall ever befall you. God almighty.
My first glimpse of Mt. Fuji
I’m in Japan this week to decompress (I’ve been very stressed with exhibitions and grant writing lately), first in Tokyo then now en route to Shizuoka to visit some friends. On the bus, I woke up from a map to see Mt. Fuji from the window. Oh my. Nothing quite prepares you to see this. All those ukiyo-e prints were real, you guys!
I’m writing this again in transit, now bound for Kyoto. I love the East Asian countryside.
I was dressed for sailing. At least, that’s what I thought I was going to do when I jumped in the car with some friends early this Sunday morning on the way to the Manila Boat Club in Sta. Ana, Manila. “Boat” has a lot of variations, similar to “house” or “garden”. But it turns out we were going to be rowing. With oars. As a team. Oh dear.
It was a fascinating history lesson as I walked up to the second floor of the old building that served as the club’s headquarters. The organization started in 1895 and is the oldest club in Manila.
Manila Boat Club
Though I was not dressed for the occasion, we only live once and so I got in. With my feet strapped to the boat, I held oars for the first time. In front of me was the president of the club, James, who regularly came to row. I had to follow his rhythm, which was a challenge since I barely knew what I was doing. It was quite mortifying to be clumsy at my first strokes, and I kept bumping my oars with his and my friend’s behind me.
The dock
With the coxswain (This is the first time I’ve ever had to use this word!) expertly and patiently guiding us, we rowed along the newly rehabilitated Pasig River, which is now a far cry from the toxic dump it used to be. As I learned how to row, I couldn’t help but remember my cybernetics studies in grad school, whose root word means “to steer”. One wrong move from anyone and the boat changed its intended course or we slowed down. The coxswain gave us corrections to set us back on the path. This is such a great metaphor for every project and exhibition I have ever been on.
It was a beautiful Sunday morning.
The boat didn’t capsize. All in all, it was a win of a Sunday morning.
Thanks, Manila Boat Club! Check out their site here.
Lately, I’ve been doing research on Philippine art, so it was wonderful to spend a Tuesday afternoon with my dear friend Tiffany at Pinto Art Museum in Antipolo, about an hour outside Manila.
Right away, the details of the museum gave it a quaint Mediterranean and Philippine charm.
Such a cute bell!
Beautiful colors
I love this spot
I really appreciated the art inside the cavernous halls, as well as the fact that it was wheelchair-accessible.
Beautiful gallery
Lovely and wheelchair-accessible
Oh if only I can live here, and write and make art all day.
Such a lovely windowsill
I’ve been really interested in Philippine textiles lately, so this gallery of indigenous art was one of my favorites.
I love this gallery of Philippine indigenous art
A rocking horse before sunset
I love this spot: a meditation garden dedicated to the love of Philippine national hero Jose Rizal and Leonor Rivera.
Squeal! A meditation garden dedicated to the love between Jose Rizal and Leonor Rivera
Inside was an old-fashioned writing cabinet with the instructions to write a letter to The One Who Got Away. The letter should be placed in the cabinet undelivered. Then the person is instructed to move on with his life. I was so tempted to read the letters but I swear I didn’t touch them.
The instructions: Write a letter to the one who got away. Place it in the cabinet undelivered. Move on.
The museum was bigger than I thought. I didn’t have a clue where we were on the museum map.
I feel like I’m back in Barcelona.
Thanks for a lovely time!
Pinto Art Museum
This weekend, I tried to up my diving skills in Anilao, Batangas. It’s my second time seeing Sombrero Island:
It reminds me of this island in Jindo, which I nicknamed Little Prince Island since it looks like Exupery’s drawing of the hat with the snake inside. (I wrote about it before here.)
This looked so familiar.
I’m less buoyant. Hurray!
Thanks to a bit of downtime after my exhibition opening, I was finally able to check off another thing on my to-do list this year: getting my scuba diving license. As I expect to do more expedition-based projects, I foresee myself having to go underwater at some point. For what project, I still do not know. But! It’s definitely important to be trained for this, especially when there’s some math and physics involved, not to mention encountering endangered species.
The checkout dives were in Anilao, Batangas. The rainbow-tipped cloud wave that we saw on our way to our first dive spot boded well for our weekend.
I’m happy to have seen a Philippine turtle, nudibranches (hurray!), beautiful yet poisonous fish, multicolored worms, an abundance of starfish, and amazing coral. This opened up a new world for me, and I can’t wait to see what projects will come out of it.
On a side note: it was great to be exposed to the anti-apocalypse. After months of being involved in climate change, I’m just happy to see something that I want to see this time. I hope this place keeps being so.
On a trip to Corregidor Island, the largest of the island defenses west of Manila and a memorial to the Filipino and American forces that fought the Japanese during World War II, I came across this acacia tree that survived one of the bombings. You can tell—there’s a concrete block still stuck to it.
An acacia tree that survived a bomb explosion. Go, tree, go!
Let’s take a closer look.
Close up of the concrete block
It’s quite a poetic thing to see in an island that has seen both grisly and heroic things.
(Pulau Ubin, Singapore)—My final natural excursion in Singapore was a trip to Chek Jewa wetlands in Pulau Ubin, an island northeast of the country and according to people, the second most famous island off of Singapore next to Sentosa, the latter of which I confess I have never been to because of the excess of crowds and commercialization.
Pulau Ubin is as wild as it can get here in the police state. There are insects here I have never seen before:
I decided to walk all the way to Chek Jawa, an eastern spot on the island that is preserved due to the large amount of biodiversity. I slightly regret that choice—an 8-km bike ride would have been easier than going about it on foot. But I think about my Seoul43 project, and I suppose this far from the hardest thing I’ll ever do. And so I began to walk, and along the way, I came across quirky homes, such as this one with a battered statue of Cookie Monster:
There were some abandoned houses as well, looking peaceful and gloomy amidst the dense forests:
Signs warned me of wild animals, such as monkeys and, oh dear, wild boars. There was a little army of monkeys who were following me and some other hikers, having learned to associate people with food. I warily walked past them on the trees. After I passed, they appeared on the trail. I was only able to get this quick blurred shot before I fled.
Upon reaching Chek Jewa, I saw this lovely coastal forest.
I also saw these beautiful mangroves, as well as organisms that live near it, such as crabs, sea grass, etc. I groaned at the sight of a discarded plastic bottle, and gave the stink eye to two men smoking nearby.
Walking back, I passed by a cluster of nipa trees. There was an observation dock you can climb the top of, allowing you to see the tops of the trees and beyond. I felt like a flea finally seeing what lay beyond the realm of a dog:
And so was my final expedition in the Lion City. Thanks, Singapore! The past four and a half months were oh so very lovely. You kicked my ass, just as I hoped you would. Salut!
The Holiday Hackathon is an exploration/discovery project of me spending my last couple of weeks in Singapore. I just finished an art/science residency, and I’m hoping that asking questions and going to new places will help me figure out that next step/project.
One great thing about having to extend my stay in Singapore is being able to visit the Singapore River Safari, which just had their grand opening this December. I was really excited—it’s an uncommon theme for a nature park, and it was the final one I had to go to here in the Lion City. Let me get down to my favorites:
Ok, hands down, my favorite part was the Amazon Flooded Forest, which simulates the water wonderland that the Amazon turns into during rainy season. I loved seeing the manatees (which are freshwater animals, as opposed to the dugongs, which you can find in saltwater).
I spent a lot of time there, and it was calming to see them swim, sometimes upside down.
I think I’ve seen way too much of the Upper Seletar Reservoir. But gasp, I don’t care; it’s so clear.
In one of the tunnels, I was thrilled to see a couple of river otters swimming.
Like many people, I queued for a long time to get tickets to the Amazon River Quest boat ride. And later, another queue to get in during my timeslot. I was a bit underwhelmed, but it was nice to see some of the rare animals, such as this capybara. I hadn’t seen one since the New Orleans zoo.
The squirrel monkey forest was also fun to walk in, although I’m a bit scared of monkeys in general.
Next to the flooded forest, my favorite part was seeing the pandas. It was another (!) queue, but one that’s necessary, as the pandas were sensitive to noise and only a group of people can get in at a time. I loved seeing the red pandas:
It was also nice to see Singapore’s first two pandas. Here’s Kai-Kai:
And here’s Jia-jia:
I think it’s my favorite part of Singapore. Don’t miss it!
The Holiday Hackathon is an exploration/discovery project of me spending my last couple of weeks in Singapore. I just finished an art/science residency, and I’m hoping that asking questions and going to new places will help me figure out that next step/project.
Catherine Sarah Young 