PENJAGA
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AN EXPERIENCE
Khalilah
Amirol
Working on Penjaga for the past one month has to be the most valuable experiences so far. We got to learn a few different ways of weaving, from a lady selling weaved baskets at Tamu and a Bangladeshi worker. When we were learning to weave I felt a connection to my late grandmother – my mom mentioned to me my grandmother used to weave too. Gaining experience on the basics of weaving makes me want to learn different ways of weaving. I do want to make use of the experience to make something modern and useful to me. Penjaga has to be one of the highlight during my internship at Kaleidoscope Studio.
Working on PENJAGA was a pleasant working experience for me. It gave me a sense of satisfaction as I saw how simple materials can be used to create an art piece that gives out an idea of the beauty of Brunei's traditions. Personally, I enjoy and love to learn about our traditional culture and through the installation of PENJAGA I learned the traditional skill of preparing the palm leaves and also "menganyam". This experience also taught me how versatile palm leaves are and about its contribution to Brunei's traditional culture and our everyday lives. It is amazing to think that our ancestors came up with the ways of making use of their natural surroundings and I think this knowledge should be preserved as it can help us to define our Bruneian identity.
Soo
“Up, down, up, down, up, down!” goes the chant continuously in my head as I move the nipah leaf in my hands across other nipah leaves lying flat on the ground. It is a slow process which takes up a lot of concentration and patience but the end product of weaving is very satisfying. I never thought I would weave but thanks to Penjaga, I had the chance to learn weaving from a nice lady at Tamu Kianggeh one fine afternoon. At first, it was hard to cut the nipah leaves nicely and weave them smoothly but as the weeks go on, we do better and better! Penjaga has brought us interns closer as we spent days and weeks working on it. This project is definitely one of a kind as it incorporates different kinds of things from nature and also the Bruneian culture. Being involved with Penjaga will be one of the memories with Kaleidoscope Studio that I will remember for a long time.