Landscape Painting

Stand Tall with The Trees

On International Day of Forests 2019, I conducted an event, Stand Tall with The Trees in the nearby forest of L'Observatoire, where I currently am an artist in residence.

Congratulations to the participants, who managed to stand still in a tropical secondary rainforest full of lively creatures, who also wanted to join the party 😅

Afterwards we enjoyed a l'dejeuner sur l'herbe.

Survival Gear

Easy to spot - but how to distinguish between magic sticks, walking sticks, talking sticks, pointing sticks, tickling sticks, poking sticks, and selfie sticks? 
Well, as part of my residency at L'Observatoire in Singapore, I collected sticks in the nearby forest and made my own collection of survival gear for forest fantasies and other forestic affairs 🌳 
The false arm has followed me from a previous project years ago, always good to have an extra arm.

MacRitchie Me

My journeys into MacRitchie, Singapore's wild forest, became a journey into my own perception of nature - and the deeper into the wild I went, the stranger everything became.
In an attempt to adapt to the forest and the strange strangers I encountered on my way, I designed new clothes, and soon I became a stranger to myself.

In Pursuit of Wildness

Finding wilderness is a challenge these days, but finding wildness is possible anywhere. 
On International Day of Forests 2016 I found wildness in the central part of Singapore at LaSalle College of the Arts setting up my self-made tent called House of Wild Wood Woman. For the day I was immersed in the big, lush tropical forest.
Never stop dreaming :-)

Magic Mirror on the (Green) Wall, what is Greenery at all?

I live HERE:

which is here:

which is here:

 

which is here:

which is in Singapore (the walls are at Ocean Financial Centre, Singapore).

These green walls are covering a total area of 2,125.56 sqm. and is the largest vertical garden in the world. Ocean Financial Centre recently won an Excellence Award in Skyrise Greenery Awards 2013.

Singapore is indeed a very green city. There is plenty of urban greenery, like the hotel Park Royal on Pickering:

see how it looks from the top.

Or take a look at some of the newly built suburban highrises - btw called The Tree House.

Here are some pics from the central shopping area of Singapore (YES, I said shopping areas believe it or not):

   

 

 

I love when urbanity is combined with everything green. The more the merrier. 

And Singapore is definitely much greener than most cities, which is due to a  vision put forward by former Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew way back in 1968, just after Singapore's independence. He envisioned and carried through the idea of Singapore as a Garden City in order to integrate the environment with urban development and soften the effects of a concrete jungle. 

Today the vision has gone further and is called Singapore - a city in a garden.

But man made greenery is somehow always predictable, always in patterns, in shapes and even lines. No man made greenery in Singapore (or anywhere else) can replace the country's true jewels: the last remaining primary forests in MacRitchie and Bukit Timah Nature Reserves. It is here that we have a chance to indulge in the luxury of a lushness that includes decay and "disorder" - the last remains of something that has been let alone by man - something OTHER - and yet something US.

This kind of greenery asks for one action only: NO action, i.e. hands off the chain saws and instead, relax and enjoy: