Ricky Yeo uses botanical materials to make installations and arrangements. “Nature meets art” is central to his practice. His works are wabi-sabi, free-form, exuberant, with the intention to offer viewers surprise, beauty, joy. His creations, by nature of the medium, are ephemeral, impermanent – encountered in a singular experience, then long after the work is no more, exist in visceral memory.
Rooted in Southeast Asian impetus, Ricky uses ingredients grown in tropical gardens, fruit and green grocery from local farmers’ markets, equatorial floral from suppliers; and assembles them into a clay vessel or onto a tampah (split-bamboo tray), made by Asian craftspeople.
Ricky has been a journalist-editor for 25 years. He pivoted to the botanical practice, thus fulfilling his ikigai, in 2017. He was resident artist at Dastaangoi farm, Islamabad, Pakistan, in 2023. Ubah Rumah is his second residency.
@ricky_yeo, @kebun.ijo.flowers
[I]
South China Sea lures
to archipelago, Sons
of Nusantara.
[II]
Past, present, future
Then, now, for eternity
Moored to mother’s land.
[III]
Upon calm-wave cove
Boats, barges, sampans plying
Goods, cargoes, peoples.
[IV]
Bitter *belinjo
Fiery chillies, tart **salak
Taste buds tantalized.
*gnetum gnemon, **salacca zalacca
I wrote the quartet of haikus in 2023, following a sojourn in Tanjung Pinang, municipal city of the Riau archipelago, Bintan. The town has deep memories for me having visited the place since age six, when my late mother returned to visit her father, my maternal grandfather.
The ancestral residence on Jalan Merdeka, in the heart of town, still stands – but is in disrepair. Back then, uncles, aunts and cousins would gather at the house, welcoming us with warmth, laughter and food. Today, the house is silent.
I go to Tanjung Pinang periodically to observe the stevedores at the docks; explore the labyrinth of houses on stilts; survey the bazaar, marketplace and pasar tani (farmers’ market); enjoy the local food and seafood; stock up on sun-dried provisions; and in recent times, visit the hipster cafés and restaurants.
The stay at Ubah Rumah will add a new chapter to my repository of Riau Islands stories. The experience, whilst informed by the distant past, will be current in attitude, fresh in point of view, contemporary in outlook.
During my residency with Ubah Rumah, I plan to collaborate closely with Nikoi Island’s staff to explore the rich diversity of botanicals across the island, including crops from the main island's Kebun Reja, riverine, estuaries, wetlands and intertidal zones. This involves collecting botanical samples, foraged materials, and natural detritus to study their character. I aim to prototype receptacles using coconut husks and bamboo stems, and identify suitable locally-crafted vessels and wares. I will make botanical arrangements and installations, incorporating traditional crafts of coconut-palm leaves created by staff, for guestrooms, dining areas, and central spaces. With the support of Nikoi’s staff, I plan to document the work-in-progress.
I hope to conduct botanical workshops for guests of all ages, using responsibly foraged materials to spark creative engagement with nature. I aim to create installations on Nikoi Island that offer both staff and guests an immersive botanical experience, highlighting indigenous flora. By sharing creative approaches to familiar botanicals, I seek to inspire joy and new perspectives among the staff while supporting local craftspeople in using locally made receptacles and wares.
In responding to the residency’s “art of hosting” theme, I hope to lead a shared experience with staff in preparing nasi ulam, the Peranakan herb rice. I aspire to build meaningful connections in fostering friendship with the staff, and forging a longer term relationship with the island.
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Ubah Rumah is an art residency and archive inspired by stories of our region.
