District 14: 7KaliBah | Khabar

01. KHABAR

DIANA RAHIM X SONIA KWEK

KHABAR is a love letter for the abandoned. As the wind carries new revelations across two spaces, of longing, the departed asks,

"How are you doing, Sayang?"

To ask khabar is to remember what the

departed body misremembered and once forgot.

What distinguishes Geylang in the minds of so many are things that emanate from the earth—be it food, fruit, the very soil, or an array of aromas smells and sights. In Grounding, the kain has been steeped in turmeric, and like an incantation, I had written my own response to the writings of participants about their memories in Geylang. While I had began with a set text, in writing it onto the kain I was often moved to write beyond the sentences I had prepared.

Diana Rahim

Grounding, 2020

Cloth artwork steeped and dyed with turmeric and onion skins

+ Read Diana's Bio

Re-experiencing Geylang Serai & letter writing workshop with MKAC participants

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I enjoyed the last part of the session when we went back to do some writing and had songs of their choice playing in the background. It was also good for me to realise that I didn't have to control the flow so much according to what I had planned and could let go at times to see where their acts of remembering would take them. This made the session more enjoyable for them, and for me I think I was happiest with the fact that it could be a time when they could enjoy the fact that writing is a form that seems so simple but invites such a deep tunnelling within ourselves.

I was often moved to write beyond the sentences

I had prepared.

- Diana Rahim

For my D14 film, I drew inspiration directly from the content of the letters written by the MKAC elders and the conversations during our workshop. The film unfolds over three parts, elaborating upon three key themes that stood out in their sharing with my own experience of the space and wonderments:

i. melirik mata

the place to see and to be seen; if you know, you know...

ii. longing

beyond nostalgia for the things of the past, a yearning to connect with something rooted deeper.

iii. _semangat _

what is the spirit of geylang? what endures? just as the seedling rises and falls, continually, we seek to bridge and hope to find.