#SundalandSundance

A Sundaland Sundance Collection
by The Kind Grower
at MUJI COMMUNITY MARKET,
MUJI Plaza Singapura,
Global Flagship Store Grand Opening
November 22, 2023
#thekindgrower #mujisg
#thekindgrowerxmujicommunitymarket

“Be brave like the sower.”
– Khoo Peng Keat, Co-Founder & Director, The Kind Grower

Creativity cannot be explained. You can’t create, and you can’t create, and you can’t create, and then suddenly, something moves inside you, you can feel it, and you know something has connected, though you can’t name it, and that’s why you go in search of it, and then something materialises, and it’s art. That for me is the seed of creativity underlying the Sundaland Sundance collection. I don’t know why the words come out this way, but I had desired to connect Japan to the Sundaland through the MUJI community market collection.

I had desired it to be authentic, a real desire to communicate, as in a community who seeks to understand each other better. Love one another better.

Suddenly tonight, I recall all that I have loved about the Japanese culture. The heart of my poetry is the haiku form. And The Book of Tea by Okakura Kakuzo has been one of the core precepts of my installation art reflections and iterations. I read DT Sukuzi and adore his final book on Sengai. I read about Wabi Sabi nearly two decades ago and fell in love with the way of authenticity, and in 2019 while visiting Japan, I stood awestruck at Itchiku Kubota’s kimonos, colours and precision as an artist. I stood like that for hours, completely immersed and mesmerised.

What had appealed to me in all these works of igniting inspiration is the intense burning passion and love regarding humanity by the philosophers, poets and artists, and the deep, delicate and sensitive embrace of the co-existence of human nature with green nature. And how we find the dance between ourselves as a community and Mother Nature.

How delicate the ties yet deeply intertwined we are. How secure yet how free.

I will be drawing and painting a series of artwork, of the vegetables, and together with the poetry that emerges, I hope to humbly connect Japan with the Sundaland biodiversity hotspot of the rainforest highlands of Titiwangsa Mountains, Malaysia.

This is what The Kind Grower desires to do. We desire to bring our whole heart to all endeavours, and deliver the goodness and beauty of our harvest in the most delightful manner to the community as we humbly can.