Off Stone 1: Eric Peris, KC Boey, SC Shekar and William de Cruz

‘OFF STONE: Works of journos & ex-journos made after hours or post-career’, Oct 5-17, 2024 at my gallery was, by far, my most ambitious project. I gathered 18 journalists and ex-journalists to exhibit their works and/or make presentations on matters close to their heart. In this four-part series, I gather all the artwork and stories that were displayed or presented at the exhibition.

Off Stone was sponsored by the SCP Group and was in aid of the Penang Hospice Society.

ERIC PERIS

WHEN OFF STONE started on Oct 5, Eric was having a highly successful solo exhibition called ‘Chromatic Memories: Discover how colours breathe life into past moments’, Sept 15-Oct 7, 2024, at Sutra Gallery (click here to download the catalogue and here to read SC Shekar’s “An Homage to Eric Peris”). For Off Stone, he contributed two pieces that were very meaningful to him. This is the story...

Akka
In February-March 2016, Malaysia’s master photographer O Don Eric Peris dedicated a solo exhibition to a late elder sister he revered, O Donna Lily Peris. Aptly called ‘Akka’ or sister. It was his 37th solo and the 10th anniversary of his sister’s passing.

‘White roses were Lily’s favourite’ so Eric Peris, now 85, studied the flowers for over a year. From buds to blossoms, from dawn to dusk to catch the various elements amidst the cycle of light. He tended to pots of ‘pure white’ roses in his small garden. They were bought from nurseries in Sungai Buloh, Selangor. Here are two prints: ‘Rose at Break of Dawn’ and ‘Full Bloom’.

According to Sutra Foundation that hosted the exhibition: ‘Themed on the Rose, his sister’s favourite flower, Eric renders his subject matter with his inimitable touch of refinement, depth and love. Eric’s black and white images manifest the depth and meditative quality that reflect his innate aesthetic predilection of natural design combined with his buddhistic philosophy of life. Like all great artists, Eric expresses his outlook of Life in his art.’

Known as the ‘sifu in the art of seeing’ by the Malaysian photography community and collectors of his works, Eric Peris is the first photographer to have been honoured by the National Art Gallery with a year-long solo exhibition (May 2023 — June 2024).

KC BOEY

SOMETHING special happened on Sunday, October 20, 2024, at KC Boey’s session ‘Tell-tale times: Newspaper storytelling in the heyday of print’. Before the crowd arrived, he hung a mystery item from the ceiling of the gallery. Called ‘Institution of its Time’ by KC Boey, it was priced at RM1,000 and ‘worth 1,000 words’. If someone buys it, he said, the entire sum would go to the Penang Hospice Society.

After an engaging session with the group that lasted a couple of hours, we had a pause. He used that time to unveil the mystery. It turned out to be Puma sportswear (singlet and shorts) which date back to the 1980s. On the front is The Malay Mail logo. At the back are the words ‘We care’. They are items he had worn for an event.

Soon after I made an offer to the group to purchase the items, Boey’s elder sister stepped up with an ang pow containing RM1,000 for the pieces. It was very touching to hear her declare as she hugged her brother with tears in her eyes, that she would gladly contribute to her brother’s meaningful gift for charity. More than anything else, that made our day.

The Malay Mail: The paper that cares

Ed note: Boey, who was Chief Sub-Editor at The Malay Mail when I worked there (1978-82), flew back from Melbourne to be guest of honour at Off Stone. Thank you, Boey.

SC SHEKAR

SHEKAR contributed a piece, ‘Mangrove Forests, Langkawi, Kedah,’ from his exhibition, ‘Sacred Currents: An Homage to Malaysia’s Living, Life-giving Rivers’, May 18 – June 2, 2024. View his video here. This is his story on mangroves...

Where the sea begins
In the tangled embrace of the mangroves, where land leans into sea, and salt slips into soil, there is a nursery – a hidden room beneath the surface, where the young grow in secret. Tiny fish dart through the roots like children in playgrounds, crabs shuffle sideways under shadows, and the water, thick with life, hums with their quiet conversations, preparing them for the vast, unpredictable ocean.

These forests, with their gnarled fingers stretching skyward, hold more than just water – they hold time. Time enough for the fish to grow bold, for the waves to grow tired, as they press against these ancient walls, and time enough for the earth to stay put, tucked safely under the mangrove’s steady hand.

But men come with their sharp tools and sharper ideas, cutting into the roots that hold us together, forgetting that without these silent guardians, the sea will not just knock – it will enter. And so we plant again, kneeling in the soft earth, fingers tracing the same paths the crabs will walk, hoping the roots will take hold before the waves do.

For Shekar’s biography, “Master photographer for whom Malaysia is the ‘heart of it all’ ” click here to download. Click here to download his essay, “A Vanishing World”.

WILLIAM DE CRUZ

WILLIAM and I wanted to do a music session at my first solo in 2022 but we could not get the timing right. For Off Stone, we made sure we would. The October 13 session called ‘Listen: Songwriting with William de Cruz’ was planned months ahead to coincide with William’s return from Sydney. This is what he wrote about it...

Listen

‘I UNWRAPPED the musician in me.’ That’s the best way to describe what I came to do in preparation for my gig at Lim Siang Jin’s Off Stone exhibition series. I did not set out with that idea in mind, but hindsight is a wonderful and revealing thing.

No one had ever before called on me to speak about my music, and the time leading up to my appearance at the Off Stone launch was laden with trepidation, anxiety and doubt — not least because, My goodness, who could be interested in that? But Jin was insistent, persistent. Talk about yourself, he told me, your music. It will be interesting, he said.

I already know my old friend as an artist with a motherlode to offer the world. But, as our Off Stone discussions evolved (Jin in KL, and I in Sydney), I began to also see Jin as curator and mentor.

Jin had invited me to speak about and perform my music months before my scheduled appearance. As is my wont, it was only in the five days or so leading to the event that I really began taking notes for my presentation. I have been a journalist, and in our jargon, the deadline was approaching. Soon, it would be off stone. The clock wouldn’t stop for me. Desperation became a good companion to the composer.

THE first thing I did was pick the compositions that best reflected the person I had come to be. My songs are committed to memory, but it also occurred to me that writing down the lyrics would help me better see my own work. And that set me on the path to reworking the lyrics, intonation and musical structure on those four songs.

Off Stone became the first time I performed the new versions of four songs from way back when (Bluebird being the earliest, from 1982).

THE SLOT I was given in Off Stone on 13 October 2024 marked 40 years, to the day, since I migrated to Sydney with my family. I don’t see it as a coincidence.

Off Stone will always stand as a special milestone in my life. Forty years after leaving Malaysia, Off Stone gave me a chance to come back home, introduce to Malaysians the musician I have always been, and the musician I had become. Thank you, Lim Siang Jin.

AND FINALLY … We all have in ourselves what I would like to call a life song, a music entirely ours that tells our very own story.

William de Cruz, Sydney
10 December 2024

The songs: The four original pieces performed by me at Off Stone are:
Anyway
Bluebird
Nothing at All
God's Little Graces

They will be published shortly.

Ed note: William, who was an Entertainment Writer at The Malay Mail when I worked there (1978-82), flew back from Sydney to be guest of honour at Off Stone. Thank you, William.