Monday, August 30, 2010

Jantung Pisang



I conducted a workshop on 13 October, 2006 at the Singapore Biennale. The theme of the workshop was “Play and Myth”. This was displayed by Jantung Pisang (heart of the banana), the banana plant is used in many aspects of our life in various cultures. In some places the newborns are kept warm in the banana leaf, in other places the deaths are buried with parts of the banana plants. Many myths and ghost stories are related to the banana plants.
We were given parts of the banana plant and a banana leaf each to create a table from which we could enjoy a meal later on. We first explored the various parts of the banana and looked at the textures of the stems, made cross sections, etc. We also explored the banana flowers. In a group of four (Luo Yong, Ruth, Charlene and myself) we started making up the table. It was a group work whereby our earlier explorations were put into practice. While we were building up the table we got creative in coming up with new ideas on how to make it more complete and we ended up even having bowls made of the banana flower petals.
To select our food, we went down to the canteen and chose food that was very contrasting in colour to make a nice make up of the table. The end result of our effort was a real communal rice table and the rest of the workshop participants (excepts the Muslims who were fasting) all joined us to eat the food. It was also interesting to see how the other groups had come up with quite different designs whereas we all had access to the same materials and given the same concept.

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