Dharma songs is a haptic sound installation, consisting of flowers, documents, textiles and fruits. This installation represents my curiosity on how to capture well-intention, wishes and advice into objects. I see them as temporary placeholders, for when the vital members of the community have gone missing, as is often the case in diasporic communities from postcolonial countries.

I invited my peers Parham, Khaeta and Ali to respond to the question: would you tell your kids you love them, and why? I wired their voice note responses up to an invisible midi controller and speakers in this installation. If the viewer notices the sign “please dip the flowers in the pot of water” and does so, it will start playing one of their responses.

Other objects in this installation are mostly found and come from a range of sources: Dutch auction websites, internet and second hand shops. I subconsciously tried to remodel after the Hindu-Buddhist offering practices: the yogya bowl offers some dried lungan; photographs depict family life in various ‘Global South’ countries; a Khmer buddhist scroll from the 60s lays bare.

There is also an Dutch ad from a Javanese newspaper which reads: please pay your tax on your slaves.

For the opening of ‘there, there’ a groupshow at Greylight projects Heerlen, I was commissioned to do a 15-minute sonic lecture performance. In this sonic performance, I share how I became an artist and what drives me. Please read the full transcript here.

The whole earth is my witness, Piet Zwart Institute Dharma songs first iteration was called “The whole earth is my witness” and was installed for a group critique at my college. Both iterations include the haptic sound installation, several paintings and a box of squared photographs. View the video above for a brief glimpse into the photographs.