Gilles is a multidisciplinary artist and academic whose work based on the idea of “the space between things” aims to establish links and decipher the narratives existing between disciplines, people, occurrences and parts of the world. His visual art practice more specifically deals with the theory of photography and its relation to time and space.
After studying architecture and photography in Marseille, he came to live in Singapore in 1981. His early participation tothe local art scene saw him involved in a string of seminal art events, including the first editions of the Festival of Arts Fringe and the 1987 Yin Yang Festival. In the 1990s he travelled extensively across Asia and Europe, a way of living that resulted in over fifty exhibitions, and an extensive body of editorial work published in diverse magazines in Asia and Europe.
With the new century his focus shifted onto academia and research. His book Bintan, Phoenix of the Malay Archipelago (2003) had a profound influence on his artistic process, since then often dealing with history and ethnology in the form of mix-media works. This was followed in 2006 by an MA-FA dealing with the apparition of the photographic idea in the 18th century in relation to the notion of “image” as found in the English garden. Another major topic of his scientific work is Jules Itier who did the first daguerreotypes of China, Philippines, Sri Lanka, Singapore and Viet Nam in 1844-45. Under the name of his alter ego Professor Ma, he is also pursuing a research on the parallels and crossovers between the respective histories of Photography and Quantum Mechanics.
His work is part of the LTA Integrated Art Program (Buona Vista Station), the Singapore Art Museum and the Maison Européenne de la Photographie in Paris among other collections. He is a recipient of the French cultural award Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres.
The book Bintan Phoenix of the Malay Archipelago was an important step in my work as an artist/historian. During the field research conducted in the early 2000s with Marc Thalmann, the initiator, publisher and co-researcher of the book, we contacted Pak Atan, head of the Bukit Batu kampong at the foot of Gunung Bintan and keeper of the historical cemetery located there.
This cemetery is allegedly the resting place of characters found in the Sejarah Melayu as part of the narrative relating the founding of Singapore by Sang Nila Utama in the 13th century. They are Wan Seri Beni, the queen of Bintan who crowned Sang Nila Utama king of the Malay World, along with Wan Pok and Wan Menini, two sisters who witnessed his apparition on Bukit Siguntang in Palembang. However, another three characters in the cemetery are not found in the Sejarah narrative: Megat Sri Rame, Wan Serene and Tok Telani.
According to Pak Atan, these three characters played an equally important role in a storyline that offers a local version of the established narrative. This version, rooted in the place where these events are said to have taken place, was kept secret for the longest time. The narrative was transmitted orally by a lineage of keepers looking after the cemetery.
But with the new millennium, Pak Atan had been instructed by his spiritual guides that it was time for this local version to be recorded in writing and made available to people outside Bintan. This was the mission Marc and I somehow found ourselves entrusted with. It was completed as a scientific paper published by the journal Archipel of the EFEO. But I felt that I had yet to produce an artwork on this rich topic.
The Ubah Rumah residency on Nikoi sent me back to Bintan twenty years later to complete the work with the missing artistic component.
The work will aim, as Pak Atan wished, to make these Bukit Batu characters exist in the 21st century, not just as narratives but in a physical form. These characters are mostly (purely?) legendary and there are no reliable historical references on what they might have looked like (no existing portraits even in Malay tradition). As such I cannot imagine them myself as an individual. Since the purpose is to give them form in the 21st century, I will first use AI imaging to produce a wide range of possible images. The aim is not to create an AI type of work but rather let the collective 21st century technology available imagine them without my intervention.
This will be done with a very simple prompt giving the name of the character, his or her position (i.e. Megat Sri Rame, queen mother of Bintan), location and time (Bintan, Riau Archipelago, Malay world of the 13 century). This prompt will be used as a standard, without any alteration meant to generate intended digital effects.
Out of the wide range of images, one is bound to “feel” right for each character and say “this is I” to my perception. I will interpret that AI image as a black and white ink line drawing with minimal pictorial effect. This drawing will then be scanned and engraved on wood with the laser wood burning technique used on the island for signages. The resulting six portraits will then be placed in the natural environment of the island along the pathway linking the two jetties. From AI imaging to wooden panels, the process will be one of bouncing back and forth between digital and analogue worlds.
My engagement will be in the form of interaction with the guests in the studio, during which I will share the legends behind the characters and their historical context in the Malay world. This will be completed by an excursion to the Bintan Bukit Batu cemetery located east of Gunung Bintan, the hill standing at the centre of the island to which it gave its name.
Beside the legends pertaining to the cemetery, I will also share during this day trip my knowledge of Bintan’s rich history that can be read as a too often overlooked role of regional importance.
Prior to arriving on Nikoi, I had already created 21st-century portraits of these 13th-century characters using AI visualisation, an average of 80 images for each of them. Some of these were printed in Singapore as posters and A4 to create the studio space upon my arrival. This original digital material showed the wide range of possible visuals from which 6 images had to be selected to become the final works. Through a progressive immersion in the topic, this selection took place over the first four weeks of the residency. Although technically and pictorially simple, the process of transcription turned out to be spiritually more demanding than I had anticipated as it took a good three to four days for each portrait to be completed.
The scanned drawings were then etched onto wooden panels and turned into the self-standing panels by the staff of the carpentry workshop. When I came back on 17 November from a brief stay on Cempedak, the other resort island, the six panels were standing amidst the lush tropical greenery. They are now placed as a permanent installation along the main path of the island, bringing the legendary characters to life in the landscape of contemporary Bintan. All the while, the staff was most helpful and directly involved at every stage of the work.
Special mention should be made for Yudi, Kenti, Excel, and Mandaruddin from housekeeping, who helped me especially on my first day of installation in the studio. Thumbs up too to the team from the carpentry workshop. Their professionalism was indeed remarkable. Throughout the residency, guests dropped by to visit and discuss the work with me, turning the project into an ongoing 6 weeks exhibition. On November 17, 2024, I hosted a special visit of the studio for the members of Nikoi’s board, who had their annual meeting on the island.
The main activity took place on the last week with the visit of the cemetery on 18 Nov 2024. Initially intended for guests, I suggested that the event would be more meaningful and beneficial in the long term if it was held for the staff from both islands, Nikoi and Cempedak. Besides those who had actively contributed to the work, many others had expressed their interest in its historical content and the way it resonates with their cultural identity. The visit eventually gathered close to 15 of us. But that was not all.
To our surprise, we arrived in the kampong to see a wedding held at the foot of the hill. Without planning it, we found the whole local community gathered there, including the family of the late Pak Atan and his collaborators. We were also joined by Marc Thalmann and Asti Lalasati, a historian active in the local cultural scene who translated my presentation done in English.
The gathering in the cemetery turned out to be a beautiful moment of human exchange. It even became very emotional when, upon evoking the role and aura of Pak Atan at the start of my presentation, his son Adura and myself fell in tears into each other arms. Ikbal, Pak Atan’s grandson who looks strangely like him, was listening very intently too with his teenager friends around him. Asti, Marc and myself highlighted to them that in a way they are already in charge of this historical site and its significance in the future. Later on, when back in the wedding party, Pak Atan’s wife, Habibah, came to hug me with tears in her eyes. It felt like this impromptu exchange across generations and cultures was Pak Atan’s way to send us his stamp of approval for the work we had done as a conclusion to the residency.
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Ubah Rumah is an art residency and archive inspired by stories of our region.
