AIR 2013

Verena Freyschmidt

Residency Duration: March to May 2013

Verena Freyschmidt (b. 1975, Frankfurt am Main, Germany) is a German visual artist who lives and works in Düsseldorf. Verena studied history and art education in Gissen from 1996 to 2000. She continued her study at the Academy of Fine Arts Mainz until 2002 and at the Kuenstakademie Duesseldorf (2002-2006). Since at the end of 2015, she has been teaching at the Alanus University for Art and Society in Alfter, located near the city of Bonn.

In Verena’s work, the organic structures in nature are very important where lines and spaces are inner landscapes in the fractal geometry of nature, of microcosm and macrocosm. Verena mainly uses the paper, the pen and the scissors as her materials and tools. She takes lines, structures and formations from her observation and exploration, and puts them into new contexts. This results in large-format papercuts, as well as free artistic creations and the impression of nature. 

During her residency with Lostgens, she had the opportunity to visit Batu Caves where she visited many temples at the base and was fascinated by the Murugan Temple at the top, decorated with many colorful and detailed statues and shrines. She also explored the Dark Cave where she learned that Bats play a pivotal ecology role in the unique guano-based ecosystem which supports bacteria, fungi, invertebrates and vertebrates in the cave complex. 

Inspired by the journey, at the end of the residency program, she showcased her works in an Installation, Drawing and Painting Exhibition entitled Bat Walk which was held at Lostgens‘ from 31 May – 06 June 2013. Both her residency and exhibition were supported by the Goethe-Institut Malaysia.

A German Artist Residency Project Collaboration of Lostgens’ and Goethe-Institute Malaysia

Eddie Choo Wen Yi

Residency Duration: July- August 2013

Eddie Choo (b. 1988, Petaling Jaya, Malaysia) is a Malaysian visual artist based in Taipei. She graduated her diploma study on a full scholarship at the Dasein Academy of Art in Kuala Lumpur in 2007 with a Merit Top Ten Student Award. In 2010, she was involved with the Pudu and Petaling Street Community Art projects, two community-based art outreach projects on the history and cultural identity of the old Pudu neighborhood and the legacy of “Chinatown” of Petaling Street, both located in the old district of Kuala Lumpur. In 2013, she participated in the Artist-In-Residence project with the Lostgens Contemporary Art Space.

As a young resident artist, Eddie had many opportunities to network with other international artists who inspired her to pursue art as a professional practice. In 2014, Eddie was awarded a scholarship to further her BA studies in the prestigious Taipei National University of the Arts (TNUA) in Taiwan. 

As a student, she was already invited to participate in various exhibitions in Taiwan and in 2015 she was awarded the “Outstanding Art Prize of School of Fine Arts by her university where she exhibited her artworks at the Kuandu Museum of Fine Arts in a group exhibition themed “This Is Not A Poisoned Apple”. Subsequently in 2017, she went on to win the prestigeous Liao Shiou Ping Printmaking Award.

She returned to Malaysia and did two solo exhibitions back in Lostgens’ Art Space; Diary of Madline in 2013 and Madline 2.0 in 2015.

Eddie is currently lives in Helsinki and studies Fine Arts in The Academy of Fine Arts, Helsinki.

Lostgens’ Artist Residency Project 2013

photo credits to Eddie Choo

Melissa Lin

Residency Duration: July – September 2013

Melissa works as artist, astrologer and also a editor / writer for Territory Design Magazine.She studies in Fine Art, Academie Minerva, Groningen, The Netherlands and Nightlight Astrology School Certification, Silverspring, Maryland USA .

Art for her is a process of becoming and of encouraging the intrepid traveler on the way to wholeness and experience, not only for the individual self, but also for the health of the community and collective. Art can be the voice that returns us to our best selves and to the world.

Her drawings and paintings often reflect her interest in natural yet otherworldly environments that are like an interface or in between dimension where personal internal world and the external world, the realm of imagination and of reality can come together and are a meditation on her physical travels , as well as travelling through one’s own internal landscape and life.

Melissa was also selected to participate in AIR Exchange Program in Frankfurt (October – December 2018) in collaboration between Lostgens and Basis e.V. with the support of the Goethe-Institut Malaysia. During her residency, Melissa explored the European roots of the Esoteric and Shamanic practice as well as the subcultures that support it. At the end of the residency, she did a three-day Astrology reading for her residents of Frankfurt am Main as a performance and personal dialogue. She also took the opportunity to raise questions about the misconceptions of Astrology, that instead of intellectual, can also be experiential.

Lostgens’ Artist Residency Project 2013

Moelyono Loam

Residency Duration: 29 September to 26 October 2013

Moelyono is an artist and writer in Tulungagung, East Java. Moelyono was born in the city of Tulungagung, East Java, on 5 August 1957. He spent his childhood in this place but he went to Jogjakarta, Central Java, in the 1980s to study painting at the Institute of Indonesian Arts (Institut Seri Rupa Indonesia). Soon after completing his study in Jogjakarta he went to Jakarta to work in a number of jobs in the advertisement industry. However, he decided to return to his hometown to become ‘a community-based artist’ working with the fishermen children in Brunbun village, near Tulunggagung and other places in Indonesia. Influenced by Brazilian educator Paulo Freire, he has become well known for his successful efforts to encourage workers to engage with local political issues through community theatre.

During the residency, Moelyono did a 3-day visual art installation workshop with the community at the Kampung Banda Dalam where he worked with the local artists to formulate installation ideas, understand the visual space, utilize whatever existing materials available at the village and execute the final work. The installation was exhibited at Lostgens’ on 23 Oct 2013.

At the end of his residency at Lostgens’, he held an installation exhibition entitled Have A Nice Dream Lok Ann in collaboration with photographer Tan Chee Hon and fine arts artist Race Phua Wan Hui from 24 Oct – 03 November 2013. This exhibition was inspired and a tribute to the Lok Ann Hotel, a local coffee house which had run its business for 74 years, before it was forced to shut down due to massive land acquisition in the area for the MRT project. 

A big turn-up from the city residents at Lok Ann cafe on its last day to bid farewell to this historical site which had encapsulated the collective memories of many generations. Coincidently the last day of Lok Ann was Moelyono’s first full day at Lostgens’. This incident had a profound and disheartening impact on Moelyono. In the exhibition, also reflecting his home country Indonesia as a developing country, Moelyono highlighted the unbalanced paradoxical relationship between industrialization and cultural preservation.     

Moelyono’s last solo exhibition Amok Tanah Jawa was held at Flinders Museum in Adelaide and last year 2019, he participated in the Biennale Jogja XV with his work Marsinah, depicting the struggle of a labor activist as a resistance icon to the cruel New Order regime.

Lostgens’ Artist Residency Project 2013

Liew Chee Heai

Residency Duration: November 2013 – January 2014

Liew Chee Heai (b. 1975, Kepong, Kuala Lumpur) is a Malaysian visual artist based in Japan. He completed his diploma study at the Kuala Lumpur College of Art in 1997 with a major in Fine Arts. In 1998 he made a fateful decision to leave his hometown and set up his wandering adventure to explore the world that he had very little clue of. 

He has since travelled to many countries i.e. Bangladesh, India, Turkey, Lebanon, Thailand etc where he is deeply enticed with the notion of observing, participating and documenting in slum and red light districts. Through his camera lens, he is able to capture the performative “humanity” of the migrants, refugees and marginalized communities which created a new visual memory of their identities, narratives, realities and dreams that served as a profound healing and empowering storytelling tool.      

When not travelling, Chee Heai spends his time with his Japanese wife and daughter on the small quiet island of Tashiroshima (famously known as the Cat Island). With a population of less than 100 people, Chee Heai finds peace and refuge working as a vegetable farmer. At a young age, already inspired by Henry David Thoreau’s Walden: Life In The Woods, Chee Heai is intrigued by the idea of having a sustainable life in the forest. Farming and living off the land is also a connection bridging to his art expression.        

Chee Heai was offered a residency program with Lostgens at the end of 2013 where he engaged with the local art community. At the end of the residency, he presented his first solo exhibition Love Letters For Chee Heai – Chapter 2 accompanied with an artist talk. In the exhibition, he explored the question of his social identity and decoding of his surreal dream of photography. 

Chee Heai returns to Malaysia regularly embarking on various installation and performative projects. Most recently during the Covid-19 lockdown, he did a residency at KongsiKL where he worked on his directorial debut in Seni Tiga #03: Void in Void, a collaborative performance with other local artists.

Lostgens’ Artist Residency Project 2013