AIR 2007

George Paul Wielgus

Residency Duration: Dec 2007 – Sep 2009

Between December 2007 and September 2009 George Paul Wielgus (b. 1983, Frome, Somerset, England) was a resident artist at the Lost Generation Art Space in Taman Seputeh, Kuala Lumpur. George is a performance poet, community arts worker and a writer.

During his residency, he participated in a broad variety of events and activities, focusing on his specialty area in community theatre and spoken word. He formed a theatre company called Fallen Leaves (based in Batu Arang, Rawang) where he was the Artistic Director who designed and coordinated a training programme which involved a group of recovering drug users and people living with HIV taking on a national tour from various cities in Peninsular Malaysia and Sabah in East Malaysia. The participants performed devised stories about their real lives’ experiences to over 5000 people in over 50 seperate performances and workshops. He championed the development of forum theatre as a medium for generating discussion on social taboo subjects such as drug use and sex service. 

In addition to the Fallen Leaves, George also performed numerous times at the KLPac’s open mike theatre event called “The Platform” staging original devised pieces with theatre performer Nurul Hamizah Mohamed (also known as Mooza) and The Civilly Disobedient. These pieces received rave responses from audience members as a good example of boundary-stretching experimental theatre. In addition, George also worked in local schools developing syllabuses of speech and drama for younger learners.

George’s onstage presence was especially successful in the field of performance poetry and spoken word, and during his time in Malaysia he won three poetry slams and one in Singapore. The national press New Straits Times called him ‘the undisputed champion’ and a ‘gripping performer’. In addition to numerous street corners and punk gigs, his onstage poetry persona Mighty Jah-J! also appeared at Indiependent Arts Festival in Penang in 2008, the Singapore Young Writer’s Festival in June 2009 with young Malaysian poetry group The Lost Poets, of which he was a founder and organiser along with Elaine Foster, a poet educator and community engaged arts facilitator.. He published a zine in 2008 in association with the RiceCooker (Ignore the War), was included in Poetry Underground’s Voices From The Underground. His writing also appeared on Malaysian Poetry Chronicles.

The culmination of George’s residency came with his involvement in Bangun Art Project 2009on the Clan Jetties in Penang. A follow-up to Bangun Project 2008, which George also performed and presented an installation, the week-long festival featured workshops and performances on the world heritage site in Georgetown. During this week, George performed, assisted the Fallen Leaves Theatre Company, video-documented, screened footage and operated as Project Manager.

Lost Generation Artist Residency Project 2007